So Many Choices (but not really)

One of the main differences between Ryan and M/I has been choices. M/I's mantra is, if we have it, you can pick it. If we don't you can pay for it. Ryan's way is, here's what you get, that's it, except in this room.

Going into our flooring appointment I knew a few things: Gray. Dark Wood. White Tile. What we ended up with was mostly that. Wood floors were easy. I knew we wanted dark, wide plank, solid hardwood. There was only one choice that mostly matched the description.

Cabinets were easy too. Knew we wanted the dark modern ones. Countertops, not so much. Nine granite choices. That's it. None of which were what I was looking for, but was willing to settle with one of them. We ended up dropping the granite for the standard laminate (we'll get into that later).

Granite Choices (We were going to go with the one in the upper left...I think)

Let's see, what was next. Railing, easy. Dark stain.

Carpet, not as easy as I expected. Gray is harder than it looks. There are many tones and I didn't want the house to look cold. I also wanted a shaggier carpet since it just looks plush and comfy to me. All of the speckled shaggy carpets were brown or tan. I also heard this might be going out of style as well. We found a moderately shaggy carpet in a grey that felt warm and coordinated well with the wall color and wood floors. We also upgraded the carpet pad one level to an 8 lb. pad. Fairy inexpensive and makes a difference.

Now, dum dum dum... Tile. White tile and a gray color scheme. Sounds easy-peasy right? Let's just say the brown/tans again made themselves known amongst 80% of the choices. We found about three tile "packages" (floor, wall and accent) that could fit. We also found a strip of accent tile that we really liked and asked if we could switch it out. Big 'ole NO there. We somewhat settled on a gray tile floor, white tiles on the wall with a tanish-gray accent strip. We chose the same gray tile for the floor in the laundry room and the upstairs bath. We're just going to do the standard white tiles in the upstairs bath since I dislike those fiberglass inserts. Final question, what about our grout colors? This is when we were told there was only one color that everyone gets, Haystack. Just by the name I'm sure you can imaging what color it is. Tan. And not a nice tan, like dark tanny tan. Bleck. Well there was no way in heck that was going to fly. Let operation grout change begin!

Another flooring meeting, a week and apparently quite a hoopla on Ryan's end later we came to conclusion that the Haystack rule was wrong. Grout choices pre-selected for each tile and will match accordingly. Now, I have to say, that's a relief, but now I have to trust someone else picked the right color? I understand why Ryan has so many restrictions. They try to make it easier, and for those out there who struggle to make these decisions, I understand, its harder than it looks, I'm sure it helps. But I think they've surpassed the point where its become less helpful and more complicated.

Speaking of complicated, while finalizing our selections, we found out that the gray tile we selected for the master bath, laundry and upstairs bath could not be put in the upstairs bath. Wait, what? Like I said, beyond helpful... We ended up picking just a white tile, keep it neutral I suppose. We also found out that the grout chosen for the gray tile in the laundry room is different from the grout chosen to for the SAME gray tile in the master bathroom. Again, WHAT?? At this point, I surrendered.

We also switched our accent tile to a black, white and gray glass tile. Felt it was more modern and less tan. Almost put some pretty gray wide planked LVT in the "exercise room" but decided against it when we found out the price (which had to be custom quoted since the only option in that room was carpet).

Here is what we ended up with. Details below.

Our selections minus the accent tiles and LVT

Accent tile we actually picked

Hardwood

Kitchen, Powder Room, Dining Room, Living Room
Bruce Red Oak - Espresso - Dundee Plank 3 1/4"

Tile

Laundry Room
Floor: Parkway 13x13 with Oyster Gray grout

Master Bathroom
Floor: Parkway 13x13 with Winter Gray grout (double checking this one)
Walls: White (details to come) with White grout
Accent: Colorwave Evening Mixer Brick Joint Mosaic with White grout

Bathroom 2 (Upstairs)
Floor: White (details to come) with White grout
Walls: White (details to come) with White grout

Carpet
Master Bedroom, Stairs and Hall, Bedroom 2, Bedroom 3, Recreation Room, Exercise Room
Shaw Simple Times City Line
8 lb. carpet pad

Cabinets
Timberlake Portfolio Sonoma Maple Espresso Square

Countertop
Laminate (details to come)