Temporary shades

I decided to write about something that most of you are familiar with, however I have lived in Canada for almost 3 years without knowing they existed. Yes, I am talking about Temporary Shades.

Before moving into our home we rented a small apartment and I was hesitant to install any type of shade because I didn't want to make holes in the walls. Honestly, I didn't want to give property management excuses to charge us for "fixing" them later.

I didn't know temporary shades existed.

They are a great solution if you want/need to have some type of covering on your windows for privacy until you feel you are ready to buy the "final" ones.

The shades we bought are called Redi Shades and we got them at Home Depot. You don't need any type of hardware to install them. We used a utility knife to cut accordingly to fit in our windows. The top of the shades come with an adhesive stripe, you just peel off the protective backing and stick the adhesive in place.

In the beginning all our shades kept falling every two days and I didn't understand what was going on. I talked to a friend who told me she has had hers for a long time and never had any issues. She sent me a pic of her shades and it made me realize that I stick them in the wrong place.

Since then, every time one of them fell, we re-stuck it in the correct place.

You can find the shades in different styles, I got the white shades for our home, but they also have a blackout style.

This type of shades are a great temporary solution and they are not expensive. So you can get some privacy until you decide which window coverings you want permanently.

Interior Choices - part II - Second Appointment

After going the Decor Centre so many times and visiting model homes we had most of our finishing sorted out.

It was time for the Second Appointment with the builder. We submitted the list with upgrades to get the prices (yes, you have no clue about prices until you get the list back!!!). The builder sent us the list with prices 2 days before our appointment (what doesn't give you time to compare or shop around).

Some prices were okay, however most of them were absurd really high. As I mentioned before, we have a budget. I was able to search for something online and we made our choices.

Here are the things we wanted to upgrade in our list:

Foyer:
Tiles

Powder Room:
Tiles

1st Floor:
Hardwood floor (from 2-1/4 to 3-1/4)
Stained floor and stairs

Living Room:
Mantel

Kitchen:
Cabinets
Cabinets over the fridge bigger
Crown molding
Gable and deeper upper cabinets over fridge
Undermount double sink
Granite ending (thicker)
Backsplash

Master Bathroom:
Dark granite countertop
Cabinets
Tiles
Special tile for the tub area

2nd floor:
Hardwood
Smooth ceiling

Crown molding

We ended up going with the following choices:

2nd Bathroom (3rd floor):This part of the house was all my husband's choice. We didn't choose any upgrade here. The cabinets are in style/design #3, but colour #2. I believe the second picture represent the colours better. The light at the Decor Centre is not the best!
1= countertop;
2= cabinet colour;
3= cabinet style;
4= tile (Marfil Grey);
5= tiles for shower wall (Tuscany Bone).
Hardware - CS1-14 (check the picture of hardware)

2nd and 3rd floor: we decided not to ask the builder for hardwood floor, it was too expensive. We will probably do it later ourselves or with a contractor. So we chose this carpet (also standard).

Interior colour: we chose to go with a greyish white.  In this picture (because of light, again) the colour doesn't feel right. Colours are standard.

Ensuite (master bathroom): here we have our choices. I am going to confess that I was a little apprehensive with these choices. Since we have a window over the tub, we decided to have a darker floor with white cabinets and a dark countertop. I wanted the countertop to be a black granite, but this is not a priority and the builder was charging too much for the granite.

1= countertop (later we will change for a granite one).
2= cabinets in this colour and style. This type of cabinet is an upgrade.
3= tile for the floor (upgrade).
4= tile for shower wall and tub backsplash.
5= marble that will divide the shower and the floor.
Hardware - CS1-13 (check picture of hardware)

In this picture you can have a closer look at the tile for the shower wall and tub backsplash - with some grey pattern.

Foyer, 1st floor and Powder room: We will have hardwood on the 1st floor. We asked for a cote of a stained flooring,... but it was too expensive. So we just upgraded to a wider hardwood floor keeping it in this yellowish color. We decided to upgrade the tiles for the foyer and powder room.

1= hardwood floor 3-1/4 (upgrade)
2= carpet (2nd and 3rd floor)
3= tile for powder (upgrade)
4= tile for foyer (upgrade)

This is the tile for the foyer.

Hardware. We decided to go with the standard hardware. We can definitely change them later. So, our choices are:

Kitchen: CS1-16
Laundry: CS1-10
Ensuite: CS1-13
2nd Bathroom:CS1-14

Kitchen and laundry area: we decided to pick a white kitchen. The cabinets will be a combination of the colour of the cabinet #1 with the style of cabinet #2. We also asked to add a deep upper cabinet above fridge with gable.

1= colour of cabinet (white crystal)/ cabinet for laundry area
2= style of cabinet
3= tile for laundry area
4= tile for kitchen
5= granite for kitchen (with upgraded ending)
6= hardwood floor of dinning room (to make sure everything matched - haha)

This is a closer look of the tiles for the laundry area (1) and kitchen (2).

Another upgrade we decided to go with the builder is the undermount double sink. We chose the one in the picture. I liked the rounded corners.

So, what do you think??? Will it look ok? I do hope so,... it was difficult to make all these choices.

Please, let us know what you think!!!

Interior choices - part I

A big part of our free time goes into choosing all the finishes for the house. We read a lot about the subject in forums in order to get some tips on what  to do with the builder or not.

Also, I like driving to tour model homes to have ideas on styles and designs. Sometimes we go to different builders (in the end, they all have the same suppliers).

Pinterest... I love Pinterest. To be honest, I think I am addicted to it. Maybe I should create an account for my blog.

When we first visited the decor centre, we received a list with all the items that were "standard" (which means that we don't need to pay extra money to have them).

In summary, we need to pick the tiles, carpet, cabinets (colour and style), granite, flooring for the whole house. In addition, we need to list the upgrades we would like and submit for pricing (that is sent to us 2 days before the appointment).

The process of picking/choosing all the finishes is exciting and overwhelming at the same time. I really like the idea of customizing my home, but I am afraid of picking something that I will regret later.

In an attempt to make life easier, I created an excel file with our choices - standard and upgrades  - for each room of the house and took pictures of them all. (I like to have options)

So let's start the process of picking the finishes. As you can see below, we got the standard flooring and placed the tiles around to check if they matched:

Hardware:

Regarding cabinets, we (Ron and I) have different opinions. He prefers dark cabinets. I think they are really beautiful and fancy, however, our kitchen is not big and it doesn't have any window to brighten the environment, so I think we should go with white cabinets.

In my view, a white kitchen is stunning. It can be classic and contemporary at the same time. I believe that white cabinets will make the space look bigger. With the correct pendants (over the breakfast bar) and some potlights, the kitchen will look pretty.

But the question is, which shade of white, crystal or antique white? By the way, I do love the first door style.

We tried the white crystal going with a brownish granite:

Carpets (2nd and 3rd floor):

Stairs (the lighter one is standard):

Nickel doorknob (standard):

Ensuite cabinets (upgrade) and countertop:

So, for the 2nd bathroom each one of us chose a set. Ron picked the brown cabinet and I chose the white one.

Which one do you prefer? Let's vote????

We appreciate your help :)