::Decorating Dilemmas of Building a House::

Ah, the dilemmas....

On Sunday I got to go to the builder's design center to begin picking out finishes for the new house.
(We had our first of 2 closings today, and the trucks are scheduled to show up by weeks' end! *clap*clap*clap*)

You'd think after 6 months of waiting I'd have everything picked out, no problem.

Annnnd you'd be wrong.

'Cause I change my mind and second guess and get distracted and eat too much ice cream. all.the.time.

Cost is always a factor, so some choices were fairly easy.

Some were pretty hard....I mean, they handed me 2 entire fan decks of paint chips and told me to pick a front door color.

Hello.

Speaking of which, my biggest dilemmas were the front door and the fireplace.

The door I chose first was something like this: 1/2 glass with 3-over-6 panes, 2 flanking full length sidelights with 5 panes:

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But after getting home and mulling it over, I decided I wasn't sure I wanted panes in the sidelights, and I  was afraid I wouldn't be able to paint over the muntins in the door....Thought it might look too busy with the style of the other windows (see sketch above).

So I changed it to something more like this, and the flanking sidelights would also be plain glass and stop at the same level as the glass on the door.  Love the etching! 

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BTW, our builder rep is awesome...she smiles her beautiful toothy grin everything I hit her with another "So I was thinking maybe we'd go with *this* instead of...."

Here's a door with a similar sidelight to what we'd do. 

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But then I really love the long sidelights so I can do treatments like this:

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The home has a craftsman feel, but I'm trying to soften the hard lines with a more cottage feel....starting with the front door :)

My other big issue was what to do with the fireplace.  Here's a pic of the model to give you an idea of the room.

The mantel is a pretty prominant feature....I would love to do floor to ceiling stacked stone like this:

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But it's wicked expensive, and I haven't picked out kitchen stuff yet, ha!

I also like this more traditional look:

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Or this planked look:

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 Or even *this* planked look:

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So we told the builder to just drywall everything and leave off any brick or stone or mantel.

Yes, they looked at us like we had six heads.  Something I've gotten used to.

I want to leave my options open....I mean, I *could* find some totally awesome old fireplace surround, yeah? And then plank all around it.  Or use Airstone and add a big ole beam or a chippy old salvaged mantelpiece like the stacked stone pic up thar.  Or only stack the airstones to mantel height and plank above....

So...what do you think?

OH, and most important....outside we're doing plain white siding, sand-colored stacked stone accents on the porch posts and on either side of the garage door, a neutral dimensional roof, added a wee window with a window box over the garage, and a washed turquoise front door, regardless of nuntins, windows, etc. :)