Windows, Doors & Floors

I met with the Marvin window rep yesterday morning.  I needed to review the window sizes and styles with him and see what options they have.  It ended up not taking as long as I expected – only about 45 minutes.  I looked at their Integrity line and that is what he is going to give us an estimate for.  They are fiberglass on the outside, wood on the inside.  Most of the windows will be double hung.  I chose the bronze exterior color.

The interior will be painted white to match the trim.  They have 4 different grille options.

Our current and past windows were vinyl with the grilles between the glass.  The Wood Interior Grilles are a little nicer, but still look the same from the outside.  The Simulated Divided Lites are more expensive, but look the nicest so we are probably going to go with those.  Only the front and right side windows will have them, so that should help offset the cost.  We are only having 2 lites on the top pane, 1 on the bottom and the fewer lites you have, the cheaper they are.

We had to adjust the sizes of a couple windows because they were too tall and/or not available in the size drawn on the floor plans.  There is a small 16″ square window in the upstairs bathroom and he suggested making it an awning window so it will open despite being so small.  We are also going to make the master shower window a casement window which will have grilles on it to make it look like a double hung window from the outside (it faces the street).  The bottom of it is about 5′ off the floor so it would be a bit too high to open as a double hung window.  I also asked him to change the middle 2 windows in the Family Room and Master Bedroom to a single large picture window.  This morning, I went into my program and changed all the windows to the sizes and styles we talked about so I can see how they look.

Here is the family room and dining area.  I think this will look ok.

This is the Master Bedroom window which is similar.  The ceiling in both these rooms will be vaulted.

> I don’t have a roof on this version, but there is a rendering of the back of the house.  They also do not make a 4 panel sliding French door, so we changed it to a double sliding with 2 fixed panels on either side (visible towards the middle of the picture below).  He should have the estimate to use early next week along with a list of the windows so the draftsman can update the plans.  I have one more company I need to check with for an estimate, but I believe all the options are similar so I’ll probably just have them price everything the same.

> Afterward the windows,, I ran to Lumber Liquidators to check out their bamboo selection.  They didn’t have anything different from the samples I already have, so I wasn’t there long.  I then ran to another tile store that I think opened recently.  It wasn’t very large, but they had quite a selection of tile I hadn’t seen before.  I thought this tile might be a possibility for the mud room (Tesoro).

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They had a lot of tile by Soho Studio and I saw several that I really liked.  I love this tile below for a possible kitchen backsplash (Soho Studio Gem Pearl Mystic Wave Mini Brick).  It’s made up of 2 types of white marble, polished and matte clear glass and pewter glass pieces.  It almost looks 3D.  It has the right colors, I’m just worried if it would be “too much”.  The price was doable though and I found it online for even less.

>Unfortunately, the lighting in the store wasn’t the best, but I tried to fix it in Lightroom as much as I could.  This marble weave was also pretty neat (Soho Studio Fancy Weave Moonstone, Thassos W/ Carrera Dot and Fancy Weave Asian Statuary).  The all white would be also work for the backsplash.  I wish they made it in all white with glass for the circles.

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 The next one is made of arched clear glass pieces with stainless steel squares (Soho Studio Arched Super White w/Metal).  It was also neat, but I’m afraid it would be too busy.  Might work in the laundry room or mud room though.

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Another neat one – this has polished and matte glass, white marble and stainless steel (Soho Studio Metal Weave Super White).

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They also had it with Crema Marfil marble and a pale copper metal (Soho Studio Metal Weave Linen).  Not sure where I could use these colors, but it was very pretty.

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I’m going to have to stop going to tile stores or I’ll never be able to decide!