Condo News: Choosing the Finishes

I haven't updated you about the construction progress because it's going incredibly slow....painfully slow if you ask me! We're not really much further along than we were when I last posted in March.
In June, we had our last appointment with the designer. We (um, I) had a list of demands requests for things we wanted. Some of these items were in the list of upgrades we could choose from, some weren't. We've already paid our deposit for the finishes, but haven't paid the balance yet - this is 100% due to the fact that we don't even know yet if the builder will sign off on our extra upgrades. Choosing the finishes and upgrades is tough... fun, but tough. I made this decision tree** to help anyone else who is or will be selecting finishes on a new build. This is basically how Kevin and I decided on our finishes.


While our finishes aren’t quite finalized, we followed this decision tree and ended up deciding on the following:

BATHROOM
Tub: When we first bought, I asked if the bathtub was a soaker because it looks like it is on the plan. I was told it was. Score! Unfortunately, at some point this year I found out I was misinformed and it’s just a regular tub. Womp womp…I was not impressed. So we upgraded the bathtub and I’m so pumped! When I first asked how much it would be, I was quoted $1600. I was like, “I’m sorry… what??” Turns out the designer thought I wanted a jetted tub. I just wanted a soaker tub and I’m not gonna lie… I wanted it bad. I’m not one of those people who just say they’re going to take baths and then never take them. I take them… all the time. Anyhow, when I saw photos of the soaker tub models, I found a modern one I love at $250.
Tub surround: Our standard tub surround is 4x16 white or ivory subway tile. We chose white. It’s nice!

KITCHEN
Cabinet type: We chose our cabinets, which look very very similar to the Adel cabinets by Ikea. Unfortunately they only had it in dark brown, so I asked if we could get it in white. I was told yes, and it’s been signed off on, but I worry they’re gonna mess that up and we’re gonna see dark cabinets when we move in.
More about cabinets: We also paid $300 to extend our cabinets up to the ceiling, well technically to the bulkhead. They’re going to be 130cm tall now. We have 9 ft ceilings with a 1ft bulkhead above the cabinets so the top of the cabinets will be 8 ft high. That’s how my parents’ kitchen cabinets are and it’s really nice to have the extra space. Kevin can hide all his candy on those tops shelves because I can barely reach them even with a stool!
Counters: We went with the standard. I like the colour, but it’ll definitely have to get upgraded when we move in. I’ll be referring to Lindsay’s blog when that time comes!
Backsplash: Meh. That’s how I felt about the backsplash options. I wasn’t impressed. We were given the option of using the 4x16 tile (that we’re getting for the tub surround) for the backsplash too, but I’d rather choose something after we move in. Kevin’s friend, conveniently named Tyler, has kindly offered to do our tiling for us. I hope he wasn’t kidding when he offered…
Appliances: We upgraded to a stainless steel microwave hood range and to a better (quieter and larger) stainless steel dishwasher. Remember this debate I had a few months ago? Well, the stainless steel won. It made the most sense for resale and it’s what Kevin wanted. Just to be clear, I didn’t not want it.. I was just undecided.

FLOORS
Main areas: We went with the standard flooring, which is carpet. I like the colour we chose, but I’m not a big fan of carpet, except for in bedrooms – I have a ridiculously fuzzy cat and allergies. We recognize that carpet is no-good for resale and wanted to upgrade to laminate or engineered hardwood, but we’re going to change the flooring on our own instead of through the builder. That way we’ll have more selection (so we can get the stain and wood we want) and it will save us at least $1000.
Bathrooms/Kitchen: We decided to get tile put down in the kitchen. If we had upgraded our floors through the builder, we could have had the same flooring put down throughout (except the bathrooms). Kevin really wants tile in the kitchen, but I’m not sure… Any advice!??  I’d love to hear your opinion. We went with a darker tile because we’ll ultimately put down engineered hardwood/laminate and it will most likely be walnut or close to that shade and I don’t want too much contrast in the flooring.

EXTRAS
Crown moulding: I love the way crown moulding finishes off a room, but I wasn’t a fan of the selection and I kinda feel like it’s hard to choose what you want before living in the space for a bit first, ya know?..
Ceilings: The price was ridiculous to get non-stippled (popcorn) ceilings! Ca-razy!! Straight up highway robbery. I’m not a fan of popcorn ceilings at all, so it’ll definitely be something worth looking into after we move in.
Bedroom closet: I talked about this before and even drafted and sent to the designer what we want the builders to do. The original layout was okay, but then we gained 16 sq ft extra in the bedroom when they realized the HVAC unit wasn’t built into our room and they had to move the wall back. We’re hoping the designer and builder will give us the go-ahead on this rendering:


The new draft bedroom layout makes me very happy. And the extra closet space will be a treat! When Kevin and I lived at our last apartment, we shared a SINGLE closet. Men’s clothes are bulky, yo! I only had about a third of a single closet to hang stuff up.

---

What do you think of the finishes we chose?? I’m really hoping to hear back from the designer soon about final costs and I’ll let you know if we end up with everything we wanted!

^{**Pixlr has improved lately! That’s what I used to make my decision tree for this post. I don’t wanna brag, but I think it looks pretty awesome!}

Bryan Baeumler and the National Home Show

My mom scored us some half price tickets to the National Home Show, so we headed down that way on Saturday. She and I went together last year too, and the condo felt SO far away at that point. I thought then by March this year that the condo would be just around the corner.... Well it's still kind of far away, but hey, what can you do? At least this gives us more time to save.

I focused mostly on checking out vendors for flooring, counters, and closet organization systems. 

These are the prices we were quoted for upgrades from the builder:

FLOORING (for everywhere except bathrooms and kitchen)

$3062: laminate

$4478: oak engineered hardwood

COUNTER (kitchen)

$2100: granite

$2500: Caesarstone

I'm not sure how much lower we could get the prices, but if we source outside the builder we'll definitely have more choices. Even just with very casual shopping around we found a price for engineered hardwood that was $1000 cheaper - that included removing the existing flooring, installation, thresholds and quarter rounds for the baseboards... not too shabby if you ask me.  

I haven't looked too closely into pricing for granite or quartz yet.

Does anyone have any recommendations for flooring or granite suppliers/installers??

On to the National Home Show... as soon as we walked in, we heard someone was presenting so we went to check it out. Turns out it was Bryan Baeumler! He had just started presenting so we stuck around to watch the whole thing. He's a great speaker and gave the crowd some good tips for renovating and finding reputable contractors...some tips went right into my back pocket - saving those for later! I've always thought he was cute on Disaster DIY (his HGTV show) and Saturday confirmed it hehe

Here are some pictures (from my iPhone) of Bryan and other stuff from the Home Show:

What did you get up to this weekend?

And if you have any recommendations for flooring/counter suppliers, please let me know!

Appliances: Debating White versus Stainless Steel

Once again, Kevin and I are divided on what colour we want for our appliances. Through our builder we can choose between standard white, standard black, or upgraded stainless steel;  or upgraded white, upgraded black, or further upgraded stainless steel for all the kitchen appliances. When I say “standard” I mean there’s no added cost and when I say “upgraded” I mean there’s an added cost.

Here’s our kitchen. Don’t mind the markings on it. The kitchen is just off to the right of the front door. The window is south facing.

We haven’t officially chosen our finishes yet, but we’re toying with the idea of white cabinets and dark (probably polished black granite) counters. If we go with that counter, the sink will be stainless steel and under mounted. The tiles (the gridded area in the floor plan) will be greyish-brown and the floors (non gridded areas) will be walnut.

Given that information, what is your opinion on the colour of the appliances?

Kevin (obviously) wants black. That guy prefers everything in black. Unfortunately for him, black is out.

White could be a contender because the cabinets are white so the appliances will have a seamless look. When spending the same amount of money, you can get nicer white appliances because there is a premium cost for stainless steel ones. The downside to white is that people think it looks “cheap”

Stainless steel could be a contender because it’s better for resale value and looks “more expensive”. The downside is that it will visually break up the space with the white cabinets, and stainless steel is infamous for fingerprints and smudges.

I found two pictures of kitchens with white cabinets and dark counters that are laid out very similarly to what we have. The pictures are from different angles, and I realize with everything being equal, the stainless steel appliances are nicer than the white appliances in the pictures I have, but try not to let that bias you!

Which one would you go with? I need help choosing.

I kid you not, I’ve literally dreamt every single night about condo finishes for the last 2 weeks. I’m dreaming about laminate versus engineered hardwood, cabinets, counters, appliances…. I need to get a life!

Photo sources: SS Appliances, White Appliances

Condo News: A Change in the Plan

Kevin and I went in for our first finishes selection appointment. We were the first appointment of the day, but she had car trouble and was 30 minutes late so we didn’t really do much choosing. That being said, we learned some important changes had been made to our floor plan. When the designer pulled out our floor plan, the first thing I noticed was that there was an added area in the bedroom and the wall between the living room and kitchen was shorter. Initially I thought, “yay! More space in the bedroom” then about 0.1 seconds later thought, “Wait a minute, did we lose space any where else??” I told her that wasn’t our plan and she said we were supposed to have gotten an email stating they had to make some structural changes to our unit. I pulled out the copy of the floor plan as we knew it to be and made some comparisons.

This is the floor plan I blogged about a few weeks ago:

Unfortunately she didn’t have a copy for us to take – she thought we’d already been notified – so Kevin and I both took pictures. Here are the changes:

IN SUMMARY:
Kitchen floor:
Before – no tile.
Now – it’s tiled. We always assumed it would be tiled and this just got missed on the floor plan, so it’s not really an issue


Kitchen dimensions:
Before – 12’10” x 10’5
Now – 12’6” x 10’5”. We’re losing 4 inches of space in the kitchen due to the…


Wall between living room and kitchen:
Before – Thinner and longer
Now – Thicker and shorter. We’ve definitely lost some of our precious wall space in the living room. The reason they stated is to give us a wider doorway and to increase the light into the kitchen.


Bedroom Layout:
Before – The southern wall was straight and our HVAC was originally drafted into the stairwell.
Now – We gained 16 freaking square feet of extra space when they redrafted the HVAC back into our unit!!!

Let me just state, the beds in the floor plan drafts for every unit are double/full-sized beds (dimensions: 54x75 in / 137x190 cm), which is the same bed we currently have. When we bought it we considered getting a queen sized because Kevin is TALL and his feet hang off the end when he lies straight, but we didn’t have enough space in our apartment for a queen sized mattress and weren’t sure a queen would fit well in the condo… so his feet hang off the double or he sleeps diagonally lol

The 16 extra square feet are conveniently configured into a closet shape... I can’t be the only one to notice that. Well that got me thinking: While 2 double closets are great, I think we would benefit more from turning that new 2x8 ft nook into a closet and removing the original closet altogether, giving us about 2 extra feet in the bedroom, which would allow us to fit a queen sized bed in there.  The side of the bed that is beside the closet doors in the original plans would be beside a wall in my hypothetical plan, so we wouldn’t have to worry as much about having space there for getting into the closet because it would just be a wall.

After our meeting we took a trip to Ikea to scope out closet systems. We found some fantastic Pax wardrobe configurations with sliding doors.. but they’d set us back about $1000… yikes. Unfortunately I didn’t take pics, but here’s some other Pax eye candy for you


We also checked out some dark versus light kitchen finishes in Ikea. I’m team “white cabinets” and Kevin is team “dark cabinets”. Whose team are you on?

To be honest, after looking at multiple cabinets options, I’m kind of leaning towards dark lowers and light uppers…

I’d love to hear what you think based on the layout we have!

Other condo news:
Finishes Appointment
Construction Update and Security System
Our Floorplan
Condo Finishes Waiting Game


Images: Pax Wardrobe 1 (Ikea Hackers), 2 (Roncevalles Victorian Reno Diary)

Condo News: Finishes Appointment

We finally got the call! The designer has called us to book our appointment to select the finishes for the condo. I literally was jumping up and down for about five minutes. I've never been so excited to give away thousands of dollars!

After posting on the issues and talking with some people who have bought pre-build houses/condos, we've quasi made some decisions on how we'd like to proceed with selecting finishes... but it all depends on how the meeting goes and what the prices are. It might be more practical to get some finishes installed before we move in and it might be more practical to do some ourselves. We'll know more after our appointment  - soon!

Kevin and I have been discussing the return on investment (ROI) when it comes to selecting finishes. This condo obviously isn't going to be our forever home. When/if we start a family we're going to run out of space in this place pretty fast and when that day comes, we'd ideally like to be able to rent out the condo (income property!) and use it as collateral to buy a bigger home. If our situation won't allow us to do that, then we'd sell the condo to buy our next place. I'm really hoping we'll be able to rent it out in the future and that's what I'm planning for, so we're going to rein in a bit on upgrades. So, hardwood floors are most likely out as they would eat up the large portion of the upgrading budget. I'm not too bummed about it though - after researching what renters look for in a space, I found that they just want a non-carpeted space, not necessarily hardwood, so it's all good. And there are some really good quality (durable and good looking) laminates out there these days. 

Do you have any thoughts on the ROI for upgrades? What do you think about laminate over hardwood in condos and in rental properties? Personally, I have a hard time dealing with carpet due to dust allergies so I always prefer non-carpet spaces - although I really really really love the look of berber carpet... 

To see other condo news posts...

Construction Update and Security System
Our Condo Floorplan!
Condo Finishes Waiting Game
Keeping It In The Family

photo source is here. 

Condo Finishes Waiting Game

In the beginning of December, Kevin and I (and Michelle) attended the most recent condo meeting. They informed us that they were up to the seventh floor with contacting people for selecting finishes. Michelle, being on the third floor, had long-ago been contacted, but didn't call back straight away so I think they've put her on the back burner for now. Our unit is on the tenth floor so I knew it would be a few weeks before we got contacted to select finishes. I'm so impatient though! I race home every day to check my email. Nothing! Zip! Nada!

As it happens, earlier last year I spotted a young woman named Kim (a purchaser), at one of the meetings and knew she looked familiar. Turns out she lived on the same street I grew up on and we went to elementary and middle school together (grades 1-8, although she was a year older so we never hung out). At the last meeting in December, she told me she'd already picked her finishes and had pictures! eeeek! Obviously I had to see them and bombard her with tons of questions. She bought alone and said she had a very easy time selecting her finishes. She kept some of the standard finishes (ie: the bathroom and kitchen floor tile) and upgraded others (ie: the living room and bedroom flooring and kitchen/bathroom backsplash). In total, she said she spent $7500. She went with a warmer tone for her finishes, which isn't really up my alley; I love cooler tones. And I was surprised at the cost of her upgrades! Very surprised! I know it can cost a lot and we've set aside quite a bit to cover the cost (more than what Kim paid), but I honestly thought I had more than enough wiggle room. Her unit is a little bit smaller, at about 670 sq ft if I remember correctly, and ours is 716 sq ft. 

I'm not even too sure at this point what finishes we're selecting. I'm thinking it'll be

Kitchen/Bathroom

• Floor tile
• Counter tops
• Cabinets (and hardware maybe?)
• Backsplash tiles
• Faucets maybe?

Common spaces

• Flooring
• Ceiling (stippled is standard...yuck)

These designer people had better contact me soon! Patience is not my strong suit and the suspense is killing me! 

photo source is here.