The cabinets will be all white no gray like in the photo but they will be the same style. Our backsplash is a very light gray glass subway tile and our counter tops are a white quartz with very subtle sparkle and then dark brown hard wood floors with a lighter carpet for living room and bedrooms. Like I said before, I hope it will all come together!

I like the look of the exterior of your house. I love the shape. I am a little hesitant about all the brick and stone. Personally, I would do only one of those if you have the option. It is a bit busy with stone, brick and siding as well as the roof texture too.

Are you saying you choose the siding at the bottom? The gray? I like that. I like your hardwood floor choice a lot. I am a fan of white cabinets. I think your counters and cabinets will look nice. I wouldn't do any glaze on the cabinets, just plain white. Do you absolutely have to choose backsplash now? I think what you chose is nice, but it seems like you could wait on that until later...

I think your carpet choice is good. Neutral. I like more of a flat carpet, but that is a personal preference. Good luck. I built a house a while back. It is exciting, but can be stressful. I wish you the best.

First I do like your kitchen choices. However I would be careful about a dark floor as it shows every single speck of dirt. Ask me how I know. Also be careful about that brownish carpet with your gray choices.

I'm sorry but if it were me, I would simplify the exterior. I count 6 different exterior materials on the front of the house! It looks like you're trying showcase every possible material your builder can use instead of creating a cohesive whole

You have stucco, brick, stone, board and batten, shingle and brick. Cut it down to 2-3 materials so the entry becomes the focus, not the mish-mash of materials. I would personally do a base of either brick or stone (not both) that comes up ONLY to the first floor so it looks like the brick or stone is the foundation of the house. I'd do that all around the house and not just on the front facade.

Then I'd do lap siding up to the gables. On the gables, I'd do shakes without any other details in the gables. It's not needed.

Additionally on the upstairs bedroom 3, I'd cut it back so it's even with the rest of the front facade of the house. This will eliminate the unneeded extra gable and give you one larger gable for the front left of the house.

I would also eliminate the bump out in the front of the garage so you again remove that unneeded gable. Then it will have 2 gables that give it some importance instead of 4.

The front columns are skimpy and need to be beefed up. I'd also get rid of the stone there as the house is not a craftsman.

I'd ditch the shutters. Shutters should look like they could cover the windows and not look like they're just "pasted" onto the sides of the windows.

The kitchen layout could be better. Do yourself a favor and post your kitchen layout in the kitchen forum.

One more thing. How will you insulate noise between bedroom 2 and the master bedroom?

Upstairs is there any chance you can ditch one of the linen closets and shorten the hall bath vanity (trust me, they will never use both sinks), and make the landing a bit wider? And, maybe add some solatubes so you don't have the hall light on all the time. (Our upstairs was designed as yours, and I give thanks to the original owner who changed the upstairs landing to make it a bit more spacious. Now I just need to add some solatubes.)

Downstairs, the pantry is right inthe way of the fridge-to-prep area. Why not move the fridge to the other side of the fridge, and borrow from the den if you need to? The den will not be a dining room, right? (It's way too far from the kitchen)

And dittos what cpartist said. Flatten the bumpouts for bedroom 3 and the garage. And forget about the stone on the garage, it doesn't make sense.

+1 to everything cp said.

How about adding a couple of small windows to the master?

The siding for the majority of the house is the gray the bottom portion will be board and batten and the top portion will be a traditional siding look. The peaks of the roof (I don’t know the official term) will be the dark gray shaker and the very tip tops of the roof will be the dark navy, shutters are burgundy. The brick goes all the way around the house as well. Our front door is painted to match our shutters. We never thought about noise control in between the master and bed room two but I don’t plan on utilizing it as a Bed room but for a makeup room for myself. The builder told us the bump-out on the garage needs to stay since the house across the street from us is the same style/floor plan so ours needs to be a bit different. How could our kitchen layout be better utilized? I don’t really see a way you could change it but open to suggestions. We are thinking of painting our living room SW Gray Screen do you think it will clash with the carpet?

We spoke with our builder about adding a third window to the master but because of the layout it’s not really possible.

I see what you mean about moving the pantry to the other side of the fridge but I don’t see how that could work because of the counter space (that’s how we chose to wall of the den area, it could have been left open and used as a dining room) and then next to that you have the basement steps.

I don't think that color goes well with the carpet. I'd also recommend skipping the shutters on the upper left window. They are not the correct size for the window.

The siding for the majority of the house is the gray the bottom portion will be board and batten and the top portion will be a traditional siding look. The peaks of the roof (I don’t know the official term) will be the dark gray shaker and the very tip tops of the roof will be the dark navy, shutters are burgundy. The brick goes all the way around the house as well.

That's not what you have drawn and it's still too much. You still have brick, stone, board and batten, lap siding, shake and whatever is at the peak. Additionally the shutters don't work. They look pasted on.

And then to add to it, you have gray, navy and burgundy?

The brick going around the house is fine, but it shouldn't go higher anywhere on the house than the top of the bottom of the front door.

The builder told us the bump-out on the garage needs to stay since the house across the street from us is the same style/floor plan so ours needs to be a bit different.

If you make the changes with making only two gables, that will change it enough from the house across the street. Plus if you simplify the materials, that too will change it from the one across the street. And unless your neighbor is using the same colors in the same places, it will look different.

Hi Morgan, congrats on the new home! I think the paint you chose is beautiful, a perfect gray to me. I do think you need to rethink the carpet choice, the tone seems too brown and warm for the cool paint. Maybe a darker gray or even cream of you can stand the pressure of keeping it clean.

Also, take some time and reread all the comments that cpartist offered. There's much to be learned from her, take a look at her own new build thread and you will see why.

I love that you will have a whole make-up room all to yourself , lucky you! Enjoy the new home, it will all come together!

Consider adding windows to the sides of the house to add natural light to the inside of the house and break up the large expanse of exterior wall. I think you will find the depth (20'-5") very tight. The Nook is overly spacious. The Den/Dining Room will make a lousy dining room. Your kitchen can be better laid out.

Depending on what your goals are with this house, you may be able to do much better.

"We spoke with our builder about adding a third window to the master but because of the layout it’s not really possible."

Did his nose grow by chance??

Is this a developer or a custom build? Windows? Doors? Sorry but you have only selected the periphrals, what about the bones of the house?

Yes we do we love what we chose. There’s multiple houses in the sub that have the same varying textures we do so I’m confident it will turn out the way we want it. The only thing I’m hesitant about is my kitchen layout because I know at this point it’s not practical or cost worthy to change and the original layout isn’t a bad one. It’s just one of those things where you see better and obviously want better than you have, just like anything else. It’s a contentment thing.

Love your house by the way!

So exciting! This isn't to do with finishes (sorry) but something for you to think about: in your upstairs laundry, instead of a closet it might be more handy to have a lower cabinet (for storing detergent etc.) with an empty space next to it (to stick laundry baskets), both covered a counter top for folding and then a hanging rack above. I see the plumbing will be there for a laundry tub, and I would recommend you have one. It will be handy for dumping out mop water, soaking clothing, and all kinds of things.

Well said Ryan Snow. Beautiful home. I know we did stuff in our house no one else would ever do. But it's ours and that's what makes it.

Morgan, the advice here is invaluable any way you take it. There are people here with so much experience!!

If you have the chance to change your kitchen, do it now. You'll be glad you did. If you can get rid of that corner pantry, do it. I thought I wanted a "walk in", I wound up with a reach in. BEST decision ever.

I would go more a gray tone on the carpet. Otherwise, if your selections make you happy, be happy!! ~Coming from the girl who put red cabinets in her kitchen, when everyone told her she was crazy. Guess what??!!! They make me smile every damn day. :)

I think the layout is pretty good! But add me to the crew who really would like to see some additional master windows and simplified exterior material choices. Three really is kind of the max for a reason :)

I love the cabinets and dark floors, but be prepared to run a roomba every day. If you’re aware of the higher maintenance of darker floors and good with that, those will be lovely.

Hey Morgan,

Congrats on the new house! There’s nothing like picking everything yourself right? So fun! I think I’m in a similar boat, we’re getting a new build in the summer from a larger builder. I suspect you were just posting to share your excitement and ended up with a lot of critiques for better or for worse. If you’ve chosen what you like, what is possible and what will work for your family, you’re well on your way. Enjoy the process and fingers crossed everything runs smoothly :)



Sam

Maybe you’re not finished with your lighting yet, but you have virtually no lighting in your kitchen (2 pendants) as well as many of your other rooms. You have 4 cans in the great room which is extremely minimal and hardly anything in the rest of the house. Are you still working that out (your lighting)?

Yeah I mean I posted for the excitement of it all but totally knew what I could be in for it is after all an Internet forum :) we do have more lights all through the house but it wasn’t shown as we talked about more features after this layout was printed so no worries there. When it comes to the house as a whole we think it will work very well for us and our future family and if we want to change anything down the road after the build then we can do that. At the end of the day even will a new custom build you’re never going to come out with a picture perfect house there’s always going to be something you wish you could change (unless you have an unlimited budget) which that’s totally awesome if you do but we don’t so we got the best with what we could afford and made sure all our major needs were met. For us this is a huge accomplishment and the house will be gorgeous no matter what! I guess when it comes to a white kitchen and dark floors all I have to say is good thing I’m a stay at home wife and take care of our home for a living right? Lol I think I’m most excited for our neighborhood it will be on the smaller side compared to other subdivisions around us and the school district was very important to us as well so we think we really scored big and we’re very excited to watch our house being built!

I'm so excited for you. I also just recently chose the colors and interior choices for our home. What a stressful, exhausting, and exciting process.

I love your kitchen and flooring. We can't do carpet as my son has a dust allergy. But I do think perhaps a cream or light gray carpet would work better with your other choices.

Good luck. And have fun! Congratulations

Thank you! Congratulations to you as well! Honestly, I don’t think the first photo of my carpet is an accurate color because it throws a very light cream/brownish gray color in real life. Maybe this photo helps? We are also thinking of going with an even lighter gray from SW rather than Gray Screen so I think that may help as well.

Really pretty color choices. Enjoy!

I’m a (very) infrequent poster here, but I wanted to chime in because I hadn’t seen anyone mention a potential issue I see. Will your cabinet doors be made of wood? I ask because that style of door, if wood, performs poorly when painted. The affects of the normal expansion and contraction of wood are exaggerated on a mitered door and will leave you with diagonal cracks in the corners that you will not like. Any cracking will most likely be within the normal range and will not be replaced. Google “painted mitered cabinet door” and read up. Disregard if they are mdf, which is a more stable substrate for paint.

”what do you guys think?” Should we leave everything as is or think about making changes?” You seem to have been asking for opinions, but you haven’t taken any suggestions seriously so far. This is a very knowledgeable group of people; you would do well to listen to suggestions. It’s not about budget, being content etc., though of course those are important factors. I come from much more humble circumstances than many here, so I can sympathize with the mindset of ‘we’re lucky just to be building a house’. But don’t let that keep you from making this house the best it can be. A simple, well built house will stand the test of time and be the most attractive house on your street.

Appears to be posts that have deleted. I believe the window brand had been listed and I had commented about it?

I’m not sure I haven’t deleted anything. I do take everyone’s comments seriously but some of the things people were pointing out cannot be changed right now or we don’t want it to be changed. Thank you for pointing out the cabinets I will look into it for sure. I’m very confident that our house will be built to our standards we have walked through many of our builders homes and have even talked with past customers who say they love their homes and the craftsmanship that was put into it. When it comes to contentment it is partly that for sure at least for my husband and I. When you see houses or interiors you wish you could have but at the end of the day know you cannot afford it you do have to be content. There was a home plan from our builder that we absolutely loved but no way we could have afforded it so we looked at every other plan they had until we found this one that was in our budget and loved equally. It won’t be the biggest fanciest house in our subdivision but it works perfectly for us the way it is. When I asked about changes I meant interior color choices or our carpet, tile, quartz etc...not layout changes or anything like that because we don’t have the budget for that nor do we want it changed so I guess I should have been more clear. I get that everyone’s advice here is invaluable and I’m glad I was given it and I do appreciate it. But we are keeping our home the way it is.

Houses of any size can be designed for function and aesthetics. Unfortunately many people that build a home focus on the aesthetics and let the functionality fall to the wayside.

First and foremost a house needs to function as a home. Many developers do not comprehend this. They hire a drafter to come up with house designs that look good to them on the front elevation and let the other three elevation just happen. As long as the interior has the typical rooms, they think it is a good design. They know it is the front elevation that sells to some people, even though it may look like a material sampler display.

It is the spaces and their spatial relationships which make a home function. Having a Dining area directly connected to the Kitchen or a garage at least 22 feet deep are not luxuries. Some may be able to live with poor design, but when it comes to sell the house, they may be living with it longer than they wish.