It's house update Monday and today is a sneak peak into the finishes for the house! I am so excited to write this post because I made these selections back in February and haven't really went back and looked at them! I want to take you through the process of picking the finishes and then I will answer some questions y'all asked on Instagram!
If you haven't already noticed, I am building my house with KB Homes and their process for picking your finishes is amazing! When I built my first house, all of the samples were in the model home and you picked from a small selection. I was shocked and excited when my salesperson with KB Homes told me I would be going to a design center to make my choices! I want to be completely open and honest with you about the process, so I want to share my pros and cons of my process with the design studio:
Cons:
They gave us a really short timeframe to get to Jax and make our selections. A typically design appointment is 4 hours long, but they only offer these appointments certain days of the week (no weekend availability of these appointments). We had a 1 hour appointment where we had to pick the majority of our finishes and fixtures in the home. Anything that wasn't selected during that meeting had to be handled via email or phone.
I did not know there is a certain percentage you are allowed to spend on the upgrades to your home. I think this is something that may be discussed if you have a normal design appointment, but it wasn't until two weeks after, when all of the selections had been made, that we received and email stating we had gone over the allowance and needed to mail them a check for a few thousand dollars. At that time I quickly went through all of the items that were picked and started taking some of the selections off!
Pros:
The design studio literally has anything and everything you are looking for! Want a tile floor? No problem, we have a ton of tile and colors to choose from. Thinking about wood floors? Perfect, we have about 100 options for you to choose from. Literally, if you had a ton of money to spend, you could perfect the interior of your home with the design studio! I had to be reeled in because I was in home design heaven!
They have samples of everything, so you can imagine what these items would look like in your home. If you have been lusting over a particular light fixture, you can see it in the design studio. If you are thinking about a specific faucet, they have it in stock and you can see how it would look in your kitchen.
Our design consultant was amazing! She was super helpful and answered any questions I had about the design process. Since part of our process was via email, she would send photos of items or direct links when it came to picking out appliances. Her assistance through the process was amazing and I probably would've pulled my hair out if it wasn't for her!
The pros far out weigh the cons and I couldn't be happier with the finished product you saw at the top of the post! At the end of your time with your consultant, she put everything on the display board so you can see all of your picks come together! When I saw it all together all I could do was laugh! Our consultant asked why I was laughing and I told her because we had just designed the most matchy-matchy home ever! I mean look at those picks, everything is seamless and everything matches! When the consultant stepped back to look at the board, she told us we needed to send her pictures when the house was completed because it was the most put together, cohesive house she's ever seen! Y'all, I am so excited to see this all come together!
There were some great questions y'all asked about this process, so I wanted to make sure there was a one stop shop for those questions! Let's get to it!
Is you home a custom home? It is not a custom home. They have 5 different models to check out, so the floorpan is one they use frequently throughout their neighborhoods! Now that I say that, there were aspects of the home that were customizable. The ceiling in the family room/dining room/kitchen are is typically not vaulted, but we chose to vault it to have a more open feel. All of the lighting in the home was upgraded and we were able to pick the exact location where each item went. The same thing went for the cable outlets in the home. The majority of the customization in the home is the interior, as everything else came from a prefabricated plan!
What color will the exterior of your home be? I love this question because there is a story behind it! There was one specific color scheme I wanted and you cannot have the same color scheme as the homes next to you or directly across the street. When we went to the design studio, she handed me a few options and the one I wanted was not one of the options. I was going through the ones she gave me and as I started to chose one she pulled out the one I wanted as she forgot she had it! I was so excited! The exterior will be a grayish blue and the front door will be navy blue! Go figure, me with a navy blue door! Lol!
Why did you choose the waterfront lot? My house is GA backed up to trees, and it was really peaceful! I love it! When it was time to pick out the lot, the sales guy showed two options, one backed up to trees and the other backed up to the lake. Standing on that lot, looking at the lake, was so peaceful and reminded me of why I was coming back to FL! In that moment, it was the easiest decision!
What difference have you noticed in building your two homes? So, my house in GA was the first house I ever built and I was 100% not prepared for the process. I loved the area and I loved the house, but I should've paid way more attention and questioned the builder on why they were doing things. Having been through that the first time, it makes the second time way easier. But the difference in builder has been HUGE! Anytime we have a question for KB Homes, they check on it and give an answer. The salesperson goes out to the home weekly and sends status photos, even though he knows there is a Sunday visit to the home! I feel like I am way more prepared and have actually been set up for success on this house!
What made you decide to build, rather than just buying an already built home? When the decision was made to move back to Jax, I had an area of town in mind and immediately started looking at homes. My cousin lives in the same area of town and he would also send me houses to look at, but they would go off the market so fast. I was actually looking at apartments one day and happened to stumble upon this housing community. After walking into the model home, of the one being built, I had that feeling that I needed to live in this home! There were a lot of discussions before making the final decision, but money was put down prior to going bak to Atlanta!
I was only going to address 5 questions, but this one is too good. You say we, when you are talking about the house, are you married or moving in with your significant other? lol...no! When I moved to Atlanta I didn't know the area, so my Mom and I decided to get an apartment together. So, when I built my first house, we decided to put our money together and buy the house. We enjoyed it so much, we are doing it again! My mom is like my best friend and I love living with her. We split all of the bills, so in the end, my Mom is like my roommate!
I didn't make a visit to the house this week, but rumor has it, all of the insulation is in! That makes me really excited! After we had the pre-drywall meeting last week we decided to bless the home and put up some of our favorite quotes and verses on the boards. I wanted to share them with you as I think this idea is so cool!
I hope y'all enjoyed the sneak peak into the home and into the design process! I will be sharing more and more on here as we get closer to the house being completed and will also be sharing decorating of the house once everything is completed! If you have any additional questions, let me know in the comments!