Our Build: Starting Selections
ICYMI
ICYMI, I announced about a month ago that we had decided to build a new home. As a quick recap, we're building with River City Custom Homes. I currently work with River City Custom Homes as part of their sales team and just fell in love with their designs and the idea of customizing our home. Since the girls arrived we knew we were out of space and needed to move but we couldn't find what we felt like we needed and/or wanted, so we decided to build. You can read more on why we're building here and soon we'll have some longer videos to share with you that gives you a BTS look at the first few months of our building journey.
Selections
What are "Selections"
At the end of October, we started our selections process. If you aren't familiar with building, you are probably wondering "what the heck are selections?" Selections are the design elements of our home - floors, tile, plumbing fixtures, etc.
What We're Selecting
Since we are doing a fully custom build that means we get to pick out everything from the flooring to the hinges on the doors. Our selections are broken up into 6 appointments: Appliances, Cabinets, Plumbing, Counters, Tile, Lighting, and Interiors. Every element of our home has to be chosen. Is it overwhelming? Yes. Am I excited? Yes. Are we wondering what in the world we were thinking jumping into this when our twins were 4 months old? Yes. I always wanted to design my home and I think pre-babies I would have been all about making 5+ design boards for every room and planning out every square inch of the house. My time is more limited in the day now (who would've thought) and laying around dreaming up the perfect layout for the living room just isn't possible unless I'd like to skip sleeping. That said, Ricky and I split up the things we needed to research, and I have prioritized the items I care most about. Ricky is in charge of appliances, HVAC, the rough ins for the attic and basement, and the garage. I'm responsible for design aka making sure the elements (stone, wood, tile, lighting) all look good together. Since Ricky is more visual, I'm still putting design boards together for us (which I'll share in an update soon) but not quite as many as I would have done a year ago.
How Long Do Selections Take?
So far we've completed three appointments: Appliances, Cabinets, and Plumbing. Each of those appointments has taken about two hours a piece. We have the other five appointments scheduled and should be wrapped up by mid-December, fingers crossed. From start to finish that means it will take us about 8 weeks to make all of our selection choices, or to have at least visited each vendor. Whether we've made final selections by then is another story.In an ideal world, the builder would like us to make all selections within 60 days so they can start moving on our build. However, with the influx of people building it has been harder to get our appointments and the appointments are more spaced out than they used to be. That paired with the supply shortage on materials and the shipping delays build timelines have increased from an average of seven months to almost 12 months.
What's Next
Next week we're selecting our tile for the floors, showers, and backsplash. This and the cabinets are probably the two appointments I've been the most excited about. I feel like those two design elements are what will showcase our taste and bring our home to life the most. Keep an eye out in my Insta stories to get a peep at these show rooms.
Your Friend,
Jess