Taupe, taupe everywhere...

Today we had our meetings with the electrician and design center to pick out any and everything for our new home. I let Brad meet with the electrician without me mainly because they were meeting at 11 a.m. and I had a photoshoot scheduled at work. But also because I could care less about wires and light switches. (Or so I thought...)

Of course, without me Brad got convinced to upgrade to the top home theater package. Pretty sure it's the most expensive electrical upgrade. But it is something we intended to do on our own. So, we'll have 5 surround sound speakers in our ceiling, a receiver, subwoofer, Blu-Ray DVD player, iPod dock and who knows what else...

Then this afternoon we went to the design center to pick out everything else! It is nerve racking to try to pick out all of the most minor details and envision how they will look once inside a home and all together. I think picking the kitchen granite was the hardest part for me. Picking all of the various shades of taupe for the carpet, wall paint, bathroom floors, etc. was just hilarious to me because there are so many choices and they ALL look the same!

For the exterior of the home we ended up choosing a lighter grey color called Monorail Silver for the siding, a darker grey called Wall Street for the shakes and accents and white trim. Our shingles will be black and the back and sides of the home will be sided in a dark grey color called Granite. It will look somewhat like this only this photo is a different elevation and I have no clue what's up with the random blue door...

Other items that we added today were a maple wine rack, cultured granite in the half bath and main bath (I had already added that to the master bath), garage door openers with keypad, and an upgraded kitchen faucet. We built in a lot of our other upgrades during negotiation and some things were already upgraded since the home was ready to be built as a spec home.

Those upgrades include maple floors, cabinets and trim throughout the house, granite countertops and island in kitchen, stainless steel appliances, pendant lights over island, front load washer and dryer, upgraded carpet on the main level, fireplace with granite surround and recessed lights, 6 recessed lights throughout the home, upgraded paint throughout the entire house, cultured granite in master bath, upgraded mission stair railing, ceiling fans, tray vault ceiling in master bedroom, garage door windows, irrigation system and I think that's about it.

Other things we plan to do ourselves are landscaping, install a wine fridge, build a deck, finish the basement, install dimmer switches, and possibly install a tile backsplash and ceramic tile in the bathrooms.

Whew. That's my update for now! We have the weekend to change any of the upgrades and then everything will be finalized on Monday and we'll find out next steps. Stay tuned!

The house hunt is over!

Well, that was fast. We went out to look at houses for the first time on Tuesday and made our first and only offer on Thursday. We'll be living in a development called Stonemill Farms in Woodbury. We could not be happier or more excited! I never thought in a million years that we'd end up in a new construction home. After we fell in love with the model, we knew we had to make it ours!

Below is a rendering of the home. The main level has an open floor plan (which is what made us fall in love!) with a huge kitchen that flows into a dinette area and living room. There are 4 rooms on the upper level, a loft area a full bath and a laundry room. There's also a full bath and huge walk in closet in the master bedroom. 2,380 square feet on our 2 finished levels. We plan to add our own deck and finish the basement, bathroom and 2 downstairs bedrooms.

Right now the projected closing date is Nov. 20 and we'll be praying for a late winter so that it can be completed on time! On Friday we are going to the design center to pick out all of our countertops, colors, etc. Right now we are freaking out about choosing the exterior colors! Wish us luck!

House Hunters

We've officially become house hunters! We were pre-approved last Thursday and have become pretty stressed out since then. I won't go into any details now. I don't want to jinx anything but we've already made a couple of mistakes and we are hoping for a fresh start with our home search. We're also moving very fast and hope to make an offer on something this weekend.

We also are going to possibly appear on the HGTV show House Hunters! I just happened to check the HGTV site last weekend to see if they were taking applications for the show in the Twin Cities. I filled out an application and got an e-mail from the producer the next day. We won't know if they've chosen us until after we have a closing date on a house. Wish us luck and stay tuned!

Morgan and Brandan's wedding

My other best friend Morgan got married at Cragun's resort in northern Minnesota on May 30. The weather was beautiful (a bit windy at times!) and it was such an amazing wedding! Her professional photos turned out so beautiful, too. Here are a few:

New hairstyle?

I get very ansy with my hair but I rarely get up the courage to make a big change. I have my next appointment in a couple of weeks and might get a cut similar to Kellie Pickler's. I just think it's so cute and it would be much easier to deal with than my long hair during summer. And my hair grows so incredibly fast that it will be long again in no time!!