Tile!

Wow, there is a lot of tile in a single tile store.   Today was house day.  This is reminiscent of the last house we built (the one I'm in as I write this).   But more complex.   With our current house there was a timeline that was managed by our builder.   We made the selections, but it was done in an order that made things easier. 

This time we are making every single decision.   There is a lot to be decided and there is an ordering that is unknown.  Do we need to pick countertops before cabinet colors?  Or what about flooring, when do we need to decide on tile and what about hinges and knobs and...gah, it's overwhelming. 

With this house we were told very, very early on that we had to pick hinge colors.   This would set the tone for the entire house.  What hinges?  The door hinges.   The doors and the windows would come with hardware to match our selection, and windows needed to be ordered very early because they come in right after framing is done and doors are made with the hinges on at the factory.   So decide now and for the rest of the house, you're stuck with brushed nickel, for instance.  

We picked the doors and then the door frames and then the cabinets, which set colors for things.  After that we picked out countertops.   When we went to pick out tiles, we had made a lot of the decisions beforehand so all we had to do was pick tiles that worked well with our other selections.   

That happened until we moved in.   This time, we're looking at everything out of order so we can start to hone in on "what our style is."  Which is going to be interesting to find out, because we don't even know the answer to that ourselves. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter, upon hearing we were going to look at tile today was very upset because she had been with us for the last tour of appliances as she was out of school.   Cheryl and Lindsay had some tiles they thought she would like because they were tactile.   And she loved them.  They told her she could come to a real tile store and look at all the tiles and so she thought she was missing out today.   I was told to tell her they absolutely were not talking about her tile today and that she would have her own chance to pick out tiles herself.   I hadn't thought about including the children, but they're old enough, they should be able to pick out something they like.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son may have zero interest in picking out anything for his room.  He has given The Grandparent Free Zone, as he's calling it, his blessing.  It's a little loft space up a little set of steep stairs and he thinks the grandparents aren't going to find him up there.  I know grandparents though, if they need to track him down, they'll know exactly where he's hiding.