After living in our basement suite for just over a year...and saving like crazy we contacted the builder we were both working for at the time (aka my dad) and inquired about buying one of his houses. The perks of buying a home from the builder you work for is that you can have a hand in everything...the negative is that you have a hand in everything, there's no one else to blame.
We had got approved for our mortgage in July, but due to schedules (and us saving our down payment) we didn't officially begin until October...which in Northern Alberta means about 2 weeks before the snow.
Thankfully we knew pretty much everything we wanted/were looking for which meant no unnecessary delays. In fact, by some miracle, the whole process ended up only taking 3 months. After the foundation and framing were complete we got windows and doors. My dream was to have black windows but I wasn't willing to pay thousands more for them so we settled for white. While the plumbing, electrical, insulation, and drywall were happening inside, our siding was going on outside. I just love the dark exterior. In a street full of greys and beiges are house makes a statement.
Inside my biggest stress came from the paint. I had several (5+) colours I wanted to try out. After seeing them on the wall I disliked every single one of them. I wanted a grey paint, no pink or blue undertones, just grey. If you have ever embarked on a similar mission you know this is near impossible. I went into Sherwin Williams to pick up yet another paint colour I had read positive reviews about. I LOVED it and told our painter that was the one. Much to my surprise I came to our house 2 days later and our house was peach, yes PEACH! I asked the painter what she was using and she informed me it was the colour I had picked...Turns out when I went in for my sample I had somehow gotten a custom tint and they had labelled it as "agreeable gray" but it was not. Our painter then took my custom tint to the paint store and had them colour match it, which is how I ended up with the perfect grey paint.
After paint the finish work happened (baseboards and trim) then on to cabinets.
With such a small footprint I chose white cabinets to help make the space feel bigger and add some brightness. Although our kitchen is teeny-tiny with the worlds smallest island it's actually incredibly functional. I thought it would feel small but there's enough storage and countertop space for us.
Next on the docket came flooring which was an adventure all on its own (blog post on this coming soon). I chose a grey vinyl plank. I LOVE vinyl plank for it's practicality and wood-like look. Over the years the quality of the product has only increased which has made me an even bigger fan.
As the last few pieces of flooring were laid our countertops went in. The viscount grey granite that Daniel had picked tied our "black, white, and grey" theme together perfectly. It FINALLY looked like a house.
The last couple days involved all of the trades doing their finishing touches. Then on December 23rd we officially "moved in" although with Christmas festivities and being out of town we didn't have our first night and start unpacking until about a week later. Nonetheless we enjoyed finally being in our #littlehouseofbigdreams and first home together.
