Monday, October 24, 2011

Cabinet Dilemma

We are having a difficult time deciding on kitchen cabinets.  Our current choice is the maple cognac with the upgraded laminate in antique mascarello:

Another blogger posted a picture of a model kitchen with this combination but without the upgraded ogee edge we will have:

We will have vinyl flooring because we don't care for all that wood.  I think we were drawn to this because it's similar to our current kitchen:

 

However, the model of our floor plan's kitchen looks like this (with granite that we are not getting):



These are the espresso cabinets, which we both love.  We went to Lowe's and put the cabinet doors and countertop next to black appliances (which we are getting because DH does not like stainless) and it looked sleek, almost like built-ins.  

The dilemma is the railing and flooring.  In the model, they have a dark railing to match the cabinets:


We just don't know if we like the dark railings, especially upstairs where all of our current furniture is oak.  Then, what do we do with the flooring in the foyer?  We currently have selected a cherry laminate, so that would have to change along with the kitchen flooring.  We have already been to Rite Rug twice.  DH has said that if we have to go back, I might be going back alone or we are finding a babysitter as the kids have had quite enough of that place!  

The only wood furniture that will be downstairs is our kitchen table which is oak and pretty much matches the cognac cabinets.  All other wood furniture will be new (end tables, entertainment center, etc.).  

So, do we stick with what we've picked which looks similar to what we've had for the last eight years (and do love, btw) or do we go with something new and have to re-pick everything else?  WWYD?  Which combination do you like best and why?

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Just for Fun!

I added a closing widget just for fun.  It is based on our estimated delivery date.  It means absolutely nothing since we are contingent, but it's something to shoot for.  We plan to drop our sales price if nothing happens in the next week or two, so we hope that will mean a quick sale so that we can follow our projected timeline.  Besides, I'm bored :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Current House

Not only did I call NVR yesterday, I also called our realtor.  We have been listed for a month and a half and have had only two showings.  I expected it to take awhile (and our realtor estimate it would be around four months before we had a contract on the house), but now that we have everything set to begin our new house, we are very anxious to start.

We talked about reducing the price.  However, she recommended that we hold out for a couple more weeks.  Apparently, FHA and other government programs just ended their fiscal year September 30.  Preapprovals and other lending related issues are in limbo because the new programs don't roll out until October 15.  So, we're going to wait on the price reduction and hope we get someone in who's already preapproved.

It's very hard to be patient when everything is ready to go for the new house.  It was a little easier to wait when we had selections to make, meetings with Guardian and NVR and change orders to do.  Until then, it's supposed to be a beautiful weekend, so we are going to take advantage of the fact that we have nothing to do on either house today and just have some fun!

NVR Approval

I called our loan officer yesterday with some questions we had about the upgrades we had made to the house.  We haven't heard from her since we did the loan application.  We weren't too concerned about that since we are contingent and assumed we wouldn't get an approval until we were ready to flip to a sale on our new home.  When asked about the additions we made, she said, "You could have added the West Wing to your house and you still would have been approved."  I said, "We're approved?"  She said, "Yes. You didn't know?"  Turns out, she had a new underwriter in her office that wasn't letting customers know when they were approved.  Our loan officer immediately sent out our approval letter via email.  So relieved to have one more thing checked off the list.  Now, we just have to sell our current house.