Decisions, Decisions

Now that we're out of the house and settling in to our apartment, it's time to get back to seemingly unending process of making decisions. If you have ever been involved in a home renovation project, you were probably just as overwhelmed with the astounding number of details you had to sweat as we have been -- everything from windows to appliances to insulation to doorknobs. Once we grasped the enormous scope of decisions we'd have to make, our first decision was to start working on them ASAP. We were hoping that focusing on green products would narrow down our choices, but now there are so many options available that we still have our work cut out for us.

One thing that has worked in our favor is that Josh and I have relatively similar tastes and priorities, so at least we generally agree with one another. And when we don't, one of us can usually get the other to go along with what she wants... ;)

To make the process more manageable, we've been trying to focus on one thing at a time. We spent a good part of last summer looking at kitchen appliances, and we've already found countertop material and tile that we like. We spent many a Sunday afternoon going to open houses last year so we could get ideas for what we liked and didn't like. We mostly saw stuff we didn't like -- spec houses tend to be pretty bland and mostly the same, with beige travertine bathrooms and stainless steel and granite kitchens. Not quite our cup of tea... Most of the realtors we encountered were surprisingly helpful when we admitted we weren't actually interested in buying the house -- just looking for ideas for our own renovation project. They referred us to builders, interior decorators, and financing specialists, and even suggested other open houses we might want to check out.

One realtor suggested we visit a tile store in Old Town Alexandria (about 15 minutes from our house) called Architectural Ceramics, so we made a trip down there in October and were blown away by all the beautiful tile they had in their teeny showroom. Better yet, one of the designers there was in the process of becoming a specialist in green products, so we worked with her over several Saturday morning meetings to come up with tile strategies for our 3 bathrooms, kitchen, stairs, and laundry room. It was a huge undertaking in itself, but she did wonders helping us find tile we liked within our budget -- including several green products. We filled in the remaining blanks when we were in California for Christmas by visiting Fireclay Tile in San Jose. If we had an unlimited budget, we would have happily tiled our entire house with what we saw there. But, since we aren't bajillionaires, we selected a few decorative accent tiles for our first-floor bathroom and the stairs. It's going to be gorgeous!

After changing our minds several times, we eventually settled on soapstone for the kitchen countertops. That satisfied our requirements of maintaining the period look of the house, choosing an acid- and heat-resistant material, and using a natural stone that is locally mined here in Virginia.

So, now that we have appliances, countertop, and tile taken care of, what's left? Windows, cabinets, kitchen & bathroom fixtures (sinks, toilets, tubs, faucets), hardware (towel bars, doorknobs, drawer pulls), light fixtures, roofing material, paint colors, outlet & light switch placement, and more! No rest for the weary...