2024: The Year of the House
2023 is now in the books, and my budget for that year has been put to bed! In the spirit of financial reflection, here’s a complete list of our house-related spending in 2023 that was external to both the construction loan and previously budgeted soft costs:
Professional design services: $13,928. Originally, we thought we’d eschew any interior design services. We have strong opinions and love making decisions. Our contractor, however was insistent. Having now seen the specialized drawings and precise measurements that come out of the process, we totally get it. And while we have been thinking of landscaping as a Phase II project, there’s a bunch of hardscaping that needs to happen in Phase I. We’ve also sought color assistance for the exterior of the house (more on that below). Really, the only spending I regret here was the $1,320 we paid for the Brick & Batten rendering; I definitely don’t feel like we got our money’s worth there.
Tile: $14,421. Our loan has a $24k allowance for tile and stone countertops, which we have yet to touch. This is the sum of my many, many trips to the Heath Tile Shed. The allowance will go to the remaining tile we need to buy at (gasp) retail price and all of the quartz countertops.
Appliances: $7,901. Includes a 50% deposit on the range, fridge, hood, dishwasher, and microwave. Additionally, we purchased a garbage disposal and a towel warmer out of pocket.
Electrical services: $5,245. This was for the PG&E hookup nonsense. Just glad that the bulk of this went to the care of our two giant trees and not PG&E.
Lighting fixtures: $4,845. The loan has a $5k allowance for lighting fixtures, which we knew wasn’t going to be enough. More on that later as well.
Plumbing fixtures: $2,105. My eBay purchases. Considering we went way over budget on fixtures, this was money well spent. It could have been worse.
Samples: $816. Mostly tile and Samplize peel & stick paint samples.
Picking exterior paint colors
Kylie M. Interiors, a web-based color consultant located in Canada, helped me chose every color for our previous home. She saved me hours of indecision and many trips to the paint store, and I trust her judgement completely. I gave her an overview of what I was looking for, and she came back with three options for the main color: Edgecomb Gray (Benjamin Moore), Egret White (Sherwin Williams), and Modern Gray (Sherwin Williams).
Here’s how they all look on the house:
We haven’t made a final call yet, but we’re leaning toward the Egret White. Once we settle on that, we’ll move on to the garage and the front door. Kylie suggested Iron Ore (Sherwin Williams) for both, but the Husband is having trouble getting on board with a black front door.
Another color-related item we need to factor in is the window headers and sills. The headers are referred to as “stone lintels” on our architectural renderings, but as far as I can tell, a true lintel is a structural element and ours will be entirely decorative. Here’s a pic of the look we’re trying to achieve:
The stone subcontractor dropped off a few samples for us, but they were all very light. And I can’t find any examples of dark stone lintels on Pinterest of Houzz; they all seem to be made of painted wood. Not quite sure how to proceed here.
Let there be light fixtures
And finally, we have now chosen all of our light fixtures for the house. Many are currently taking up space in our garage, along with a ton of tile and Daughter #2’s hidden bookcase door.
