Santa Cecilia: Hall Bath

Welcome to installment #2 of granite talk. Last Friday, I posted about our kitchen granite and today its time for our hall bath, Santa Cecilia.

Our hall bath will be used mainly for guest but it will also function as the bathroom for baby. When we were selecting granite, my husband, fell in love with the granite but I was a little concerned about the possible yellow tone to it. I worried it would be just too yellow for my taste. I originally posted about the Santa Cecilia granite here, and mentioned in that post that through my research I had learned that this granite comes in varied tones. It can be almost white to very yellow.

Picture time! 

Hall bath mid-construction right after installation.As you can see in this photo, the granite appears to have a whiter look.

Hall bath a few days after move in. Here the granite shows its true color and you can clearly see the more yellow tone.

One more . .

Now it's close up granite time. I took a several photos of this granite because I wanted to really showcase the different elements.

One element of this granite that surprised me where the almost purple spots that we have throughout. They add a really interesting element but if I hadn't seen them previously I might have been a little put off by them. If you are thinking of selecting Santa Cecilia granite for your home, I would be sure to see the exact slab that will be installed. Some of the slabs we saw had these purple specs and others did not or didn't have as many.

As shown here, the granite also has some very dark black variations.

 A little larger look at the "purple" specs.

My overall thoughts on this granite are mixed. I like it in our hall bath but I don't personally know how I would feel about it on a larger scale. My only concern about a larger slab would be that the yellow-ish tones would really play out and I would say it is one of my least favorite things about the stone. However, if that's the look you are going for and its not a terrible look by any means then Santa Cecilia might be the granite for you. Compared to the darker granite we have in our kitchen this granite doesn't show water markers or dust nearly as much which is a big plus for it!

Next up . . Vicenza Brown and our master bath.

Sapphire Blue: Kitchen granite

While writing my granite post I realized I had way too much to say about each room to make one post. So I'm going to break down the granite into 3 separate blog post. Now on to the post . .

We were very lucky that granite countertops came standard with our builder. We had large amount of choice when it came to the color and style of our granite even though we were limited to those granites that were on the "cheaper" end. If you do any research on granite prices, you'll quickly realize how widely the price vary based of the type, color, and veins.

We selected three seperate colors of granite. 

Kitchen - Sapphire Blue

Master Bath - Vicenza Brown

Hall Bath - Santa Cecilia

I wrote about our voyage to the granite yard here.

I'll start with the heart of our home, the kitchen. We originally had selected Tan Brown granite at the recommendation of the sales person, our relator and my husbands parents. However, once we got home and started to think about it, I just didn't love the color. I quickly, like the next day, returned to the showroom and ask for granite options in the same "family" as Tan Brown and the sales person recommend Sapphire blue. I loved it immediately.

Picture time! 

First, a few overall shots of the kitchen. 

Now, its granite time.

My favorite thing about the photo above is that you can really see the blue specs in the granite. It's a wonderful light blue color and when far away isn't visible but makes for a stunning color scheme when close.  We were originally a little concerned that the blue would be too predominant and would overtake the kitchen but its a very small but beautiful aspect of the Sapphire Blue granite.

Complaints about this granite are minimum other than to say it does have the tendency to show water marks left from cups and bowls. However, it's a kitchen! I ensure every night after cleaning up from dinner I wipe down the countertops with warm soupy water then clean again with just water and then towel dry. It actually doesn't take near as long as you might think it would. We also purchased some granite cleaner and will probably use it once every week or two to help maintain shine. I don't believe this a problem of just this granite, its a problem with darker granites in general. My husbands parents have Tan Brown granite in their kitchen and they fight the same battle.

Overall rating for style and look has to be an A+. Additionally, if you are living in a home you plan to sell in the years to come I believe this color granite will appeal to many buyers.

Stay tuned for more granite related post! 

It's been too long!

It's been months since I posted and our house has been completed and we have moved in. It's been a crazy few months and I feel bad that I haven't updated. Big thanks to Sue for sending me a comment and getting me back into this blog! Thanks Sue!!

A quick update and more to come tomorrow . . our house is done, we closed, we found out we are expecting = life is crazy! 

I believe this is the most updated photo of the front I have. It was taken right before closing so a few minor details changes. For example, we do have a mailbox and not just a pole and the post was painted to match the other trim. However, we had gotten so used to the white door that we kept it. I think its a nice splash of light to an otherwise dark exterior.

Blog updates to come: 

Granite - My thoughts on our selections and additional information

Kitchen backsplash - can I say I love a backsplash? 

The Insider - An update on the final look of the interior 

And of course I'm sure I'll think of others too! If you are reading and would like additional information on any post, picture or any aspect of the house. Please comment and I'm happy to share! 

Even better installed

Seeing boxes of cabinets in the garage was pretty exciting but seeing installed cabinets was even better! We couldn't be happier with the color and quality. Can't wait to fill up each and every drawer and cabinet.

Kitchen

Kitchen and dinning area

Cabinets in laundry room

Master bath

Our master bath and hall bath have the same color cabinets. We can't wait to see the finished product of cabinets and countertops.

Closing Countdown = 42 days to go!!

Delivery!

Brad and I visited the house on Saturday and were shocked to see our garage filled with goodies. The doors, trim and cabinets have been delivered and are ready to be installed.

Last week, we also made a final decision on our paint colors. Since we are using a builder, we were only allowed to select two wall colors and one trim color. So we chose the following:

All rooms but master bed

Master bed

Trim

Saturday, we are selecting lights, mirrors and maybe landscaping.

Oh the changes!

It's been a busy few weeks for Brad and I. I was out of town to help my mom with a yard sale and then work of course has really been getting in the way of updating our house blog.

The builder have been making some amazing progress so prepare for this super, photo crazy blog post! 
 
On May 7, we visited the house and they had hung 90% of the dry wall.

I was out of town May 9 to 12, so I missed a lot of great photo-ops of the progress but when Brad and I went by on May 13, we saw they had completed the drywall, started to mud and had done our bull-nozed corners.

Then as of yesterday, May 15, they hung the garage door, continued to prep the walls and started to tile.

Yippie, a garage door!

Tile by the patio door off the living room.

Hall bath tile

Living room view. I think the walls are really looking great!

 

Master bath tile

And the biggest news of all . . we locked our interest rate yesterday. We are locked in for 30 years at 3.875%. Couldn't be happier with that rate!

We are meeting with the builder to select lights on the May 26 and then will select mirrors for the bathrooms and landscaping. 

It's been over a week since my last post and things have really been moving along with the house!

On Friday, April 27, they started electrical and had it mostly finished yesterday when we went by the see the house.

Safety first!

It was fun to see all the little blue boxes appear throughout the house.

Friday was a busy day for our house because our brick arrived as well. The color we selected is called Charleston Used. The "used" part of the name refers to the process the brick goes through before being delivered. Basically, they put the brick into a big dryer style bin and tumble it around to give the edges a more "used" or smooth look. It's going to be great on the house!

On Monday, May 1 we had some nasty weather here in mid-MO so they were unable to start the laying the brick but they did continue to work inside on the wiring and started to insulate as well.

Then on Tuesday the sky parted and the sun came out so they made progress on preparing to start the brick work.

This week we assume we'll see the brick front completed, completed wiring and insulation inside, and hopefully they will get a garage door put on!

Next project: selecting paint colors and lights. Stay tuned for updates!

Granite Yard Voyage

Brad and I are heading to the granite yard on Thursday morning to select our granite slabs. We have already selected the colors we want but as we all know no two slabs are alike. We will be shopping for each of the following slabs:

Sapphire blue for the kitchen

Vicenza Brown for the master bath 

Santa Cecilia for the hall bath

When it comes to the granites we selected, only Santa Cecilia varies greatly from slab to slab. Santa Cecilia will often have many different tones and will go from an almost white to very yellow finish. We are hoping to find a whiter/lighter option in the yard. Click here for a little more information about Santa Cecilia granite.

Between now and Thursday morning I'll be reading all I can find about selecting granite slabs. Watch for a recap post of our voyage!

Major details = done

Brad and I spent yesterday morning selecting our carpet, tile and tile backsplash. Before arriving to select our flooring, we had to make the final decision on the granite for the kitchen. I was a little torn between using either the tan brown, that we originally selected, or a new option called "sapphire blue" In the end, we selected the sapphire blue. It has a lot of the same tones that the tan brown did but the brown-ish spots a little lighter and the blue specks are really my style.

Here as few photos for comparison:

Tan brown granite. Tan brown is a wonderful choice for kitchen granite but I worried for us that it was a little dark. The lighter areas also tend to have a pink undertone which just wasn't us.

Sapphire blue granite. Our builders wife said she has never used this granite, which worried us at first, but I think its really going to be wonderful for us.

< - - So pretty!!

With the granite selection finally made, we went about selecting tile flooring to go in the kitchen and bathrooms, carpet for the bedrooms and living room and then our backsplash. The hardest thing to select was the backsplash. We were given 6 choices of tile and only 3 choices of carpet so it was pretty easy to narrow those down. H and I try to do a process of eliminate to work from the ones we know we don't like down, seems to work pretty well.

Selecting the backsplash was difficult due to the large number of options we were given! We basically started with the entire showroom and worked from there. We negotiated the backsplash into our purchase price so a backsplash is not something the builder normally does. Due to this, the builders wife was also a little overwhelmed with the choices. We had spent a fair amount of time looking at different options online and discovered that we really liked the glass tile and stone mix look.

Inspiration 

Our final selections: 

Can't wait to see our kitchen installed! We selected the same tile and same carpet for the entire house. For the bathrooms, we will have the same tile as pictured above and the same cabinets and granite that we highlighted here.

Our next step is paint colors and lights. Our house is quickly becoming a home!

Speed racer!

It's been over a week since my last post and a lot has changed at the house! Brad and I made some decisions about the kitchens and bathrooms but still have a few to make. We are picking out tile, carpet and our backsplash tomorrow.

We have been getting out to the house every few days to see the progress and boy has there been a lot of it! In the past 9-days we have seen some major changes occur. They started and completed the framing, started on the roof and have it ready for shingles, started and mostly completed the siding, prepped for brick on the front of the house and got all the doors and windows in. They also started plumbing and installed the hall bath tub on the inside. I think the biggest difference was between the 18 and 19th because it basically went from a shell to really looking like a home. It's been amazing and fun to watch!

Decisions still to make: 

Flooring - scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday)

Lights - soon, maybe weekend after this one

Selecting our granite slabs - next week, still to be scheduled

Landscaping - probably not till June

Things we are watching for: 

Roof to be completed

Garage door to be added

Cabinet maker to chalk out cabinet layout

Brick work to begin

Siding to be finished

Have ride this has been so far! Can't wait for more!

Samples and decisions

Tuesday night was spent in a world wind of colors, textures and styles. In one hour twenty minutes, Brad and I selected cabinet styles and colors along with granite colors for our kitchen and two bathrooms. We left feeling accomplished and happy but then the DOUBT hit! We got home and I immediately started to doubt our selections. My biggest concern were the dark colored cabinets that we selected for the hall bath only. My concern centered around the fact that we only selected that color for the hall bath and had done the kitchen and master in the same lighter tone. I tend to be a symmetrical person when it comes to design so the idea of one cabinet being different, well I just couldn't wrap my mind around it.

A text to our relator but the breaks on ordering and a call to the cabinet man the next day had samples in my hand. Thankfully, cabinet man was understanding and said he didn't need to order our cabinets for at least another week and he could bring me samples so I could visual see our selections again. As soon as I had the samples, I felt so much better about our choices. However, the idea of only the one bath having dark cabinets was still causing me mental brain farts.

So here's what my crazy female mind, as Brad likes to say, is thinking now. Dark cabinet color in the hall bath and master and lighter cabinet in kitchen. All granites would stay the same, however, here I go again with my female mind, we might try to find a lighter granite for the master. We are happy with a darker granite in the kitchen and not concerned because it gets lots of natural light. Decisions, decisions. 

We did make one decisions that I'm not concerned about and that's the style of the cabinets. With a builder we had only five different options and felt this design was the best.

We liked the detail on the door and the raised panel.

Kitchen Conundrum

Brad and I will be picking out our kitchen with the builder's wife tomorrow night! Now that tomorrow is tomorrow, it seems so close. We've discussed what we like and what we don't but trying to nail it down has been difficult.

We know we don't like white or light wood colored cabinets, so we are mostly focusing on a dark cherry or maple finishes but the countertops are our biggest confusion. Granite comes standard in our new place so light or dark is the question. The kitchen in our new home is a decent size and receives good natural light but I'm concerned that going too dark will make the room appear smaller than it really is.

Below is a photo of the finished house we viewed. I actually really love the colors they selected. I think the cabinets are a wonderful color and the granite they selected was soothing in the room.  

Kitchen in finished sample home.

We negotiated in a back-splash and cabinet hardware so we have a few other pieces to consider and I think it might be the extras that are throwing me off. I'm not sure how to pair a back-splash with granite or what kind of back-splash to do. I tend to be drawn to the glass tile back-splashes.

Inspiration photos:

I know they look pretty similar but I really like both of these looks.

These cabinets with the brown toned granite is really great!

I really like the darker granite in this photo.

Really love glass tile back-splashes!

Oh so many choices!!