Pick your favorite

Mia and I sanded down all this trim for re-staining.  It probably needs another go-over.

I took one of the pieces that we hope is extra and tried our the same Kona color that we had on our cabinets in Mapleton.  People noted that they hadn't been able to tell whether or not those cabinets were black or dark brown in pictures, but that it was easy to tell they were brown in person.

Which one is your favorite?

Ahhh, lighting.  It's everything.  Our next kitchen will look nothing like the Mapleton one.  We're kind of being led by the house this time, instead of pulling our favorite theories out of thin air.  We're still guessing just as much how it'll all turn out, though.  Slightly nerve-wracking.

 So I have to tell the story about this picture of Cambria Quartz sample.  When you're choosing colors and materials with Ivory, (and you are being paid about half your profession's income because you're on trial period,) your choices are very limited, ha.  I was really happy with what we were able to choose in Mapleton, but when I saw this sample in Costco, I thought "that's exactly what I would have picked if we could have chosen anything."  And I thought "maybe when we finish the basement someday..." and snapped a pic as I walked by.













The same thing happened when I saw this bathroom in a model home.  This Turkish tile was exactly what I would have chosen if we could choose anything.  I snapped a pic and thought of finishing the basement again.

















Less than a year later, we're remodeling a completely different home.  80 miles north of where we thought we'd spend the rest of our lives, inspired by archiecture 2,000 miles away in the American south, (which was inspired by France and Greece, so why not use tile originating from Turkey, lol.)  I went to the same tile store where we'd chosen our granite slab for Mapleton, remembering how many design ideas I'd loved there.  Lo and behold... there was the tile I'd admired so much.

Weeks before that I'd shown the Cambria sample pic to the Costco salesman, who recognized it immediately.  We're actually using both my dream materials in this remodel! I'm pretty excited!