Just so everyone knows, this is *NOT* what our kitchen will look like. :) This is just what the cabinets will look like. For our kitchen, we selected Merillat cabinets in Maple with a Portrait style and natural finish. Raised-panel cabinets were standard, but we wanted something a little more contemporary.

Here's the architectural sketch of our kitchen and cabinet layout. The sink and dishwasher are on the left, with the cabinets whose face is not visible. You can see the glass cabinet in the left corner next to the sink. On the right, you can see two more glass cabinets and the plate rack we added - our built-in version of a china cabinet.

Our hardware is also by Merillat - knobs and pulls in satin nickel.

Our builder is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, so they've been offering a special upgrade package at no cost that includes Maytag stainless steel appliances. The range on the left is the standard; the Gemini double-oven range on the right is the range we might upgrade to.

Our stainless steel fridge, also included in the anniversary package - a Maytag wide-by-side with in-door water and ice dispenser. We played with one of these at the showroom and had fun moving the elevator shelf up and down. :)

And last but not least, our Maytag microwave and dishwasher.

Our countertops will be DuPont Zodiaq, an engineered quartz surface with many of the qualities of granite, in Galaxy Black. It looks really great next to the natural Maple cabinets and makes the light wood "pop."

The kitchen faucet, which I believe is by Delta.

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We found these tables at Oak Express. They had everything we were looking for - a light stain, a shelf for magazines and books and some drawers for remotes and such. The picture on the right is of the inlaid wood pattern on a darker version of the same table.

Square microfiber- or canvas-covered ottomans will be used in the family room for extra seating. They'll rest under the window and can be brought out in front of the fireplace as needed. And they'll probably be in neutral colors similar to these; we're using window coverings, pillows and other accessories to bring color into the room.

On the left is the armless chair (with matching ottoman, not shown) we'll have in the corner of the family room in front of the kitchen breakfast bar/half wall. To the left of the chair (if you're sitting in it), we'll have a small side table with a lamp for reading.

All of our bedrooms as well as the loft and family room have prewiring for ceiling fans with the lights, so the photo on the right is the ceiling fan look we're going for. It's contemporary and casual at the same time.

At last, we purchased a sectional. The color shown is the color we ordered it in - a nice, creamy khaki-yellow called "Saddle." We got the reverse of what's shown -- ours has an arm on the end to the right and no arm on the end to the left. We did *not*, however, get the ottoman - Jason wants an actual table. So the hunt is on for a square cocktail table we both like!

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After searching high and low, we found a dining room set we both loved that would fit in our smallish dining room. It's from the Kathy Ireland Home collection by Standard Furniture, and it has the same inlaid wood patterns as the coffee table above. Another plus is the blue microfiber the chairs are finished with; all our table linens are blue and our china has a simple blue stripe on it, so it ties everything together perfectly.

And speaking of our china, here it is - Epoch Blue Line by Crate & Barrel.

The chandelier below will be in our dining room. A similar one (with only three lights) will hang in our stairwell.

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The formal living room will be used as a music room. We're having Jason's grand piano shipped from California, where it's been living with his parents, to us here in Colorado; it will be placed on the wall opposite the front window. In front of the windows, we'll have a seating area with a loveseat, a couple chairs, and a large leather ottoman as a table.

The two rugs below show the color scheme we're going for in the room - a bright red or burgundy with white and taupe as the secondary colors.

To give the room a more formal look as well as some architectural interest, we want to create a coffered ceiling. The coloring will be almost exactly like the one below - white beams with taupe panels and red walls. There will also be a white chair rail with taupe below it on the wall.

These lamps are contemporary yet classic and reflect the fun formality we want to convey with this room. Once we pick which design we like best, one will sit on a small table on each end of the loveseat.

Possible artwork for the room. We also have a collection of musical instruments we've acquire over the years, and we're going to blind mount them to the wall so they look like they're floating in the room.

The large leather ottoman. We'd like to find one in black.

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This is our bedroom set, from Bedroom Expressions (one of the Furniture Row companies). We currently have the bed, two nightstands and the chest of drawers (the tall dresser). Once we move into the house, we're going back to buy the dresser and mirror. And disregard that really awful bedding.

Here's our bedding, Blocks Cotton Percale from Garnet Hill.

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Our basment is under the entire footprint of the house minus the garage. We were planning to just use it for storage, but we decided we'd rather have a larger kitchen and so we had the builder move the laundry room from the corner of the kitchen to the basement. Now I have room to install a counter for folding, hanging rods and shelves, etc. There's even a plumbing rough-in we added for when we finish the basement and add a bathroom, so we can also put a laundry sink in.

Our washer and dryer, the IntuitiveEco washer and SmartDrive electric dryer from Fisher & Paykel. LOVING them so far!

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The faucets in all our bathrooms are from the Delta Botanicals line. You can change out the screw caps on the faucet handles to make them different colors, but we're going to leave them plain chrome. The sinks in the upstairs bathrooms are drop-in sinks from the Kohler Devonshire line in white.

In the powder room, there's a Devonshire pedestal sink and toilet. The other bathrooms have upgraded "super flushing" toilets; a Devonshire whirlpool tub was included in the master bath, but we didn't want the jets so we used the extra funds left over after the downgrade to upgrade the toilets upstairs.

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Finally, after two four-hour meetings with our "design consultant" at our builder's design center, we settled on all our color selections.

Below are the two colors of Formica in our house. The sample on the left is Basalt Slate and will be used in our master bath. The guest bath sample on the left is Flint Crystal. You can see how they coordinate with our natural maple cabinets (the same cabinets that are in the kitchen are throughout the house).

In our master bath, we're using a mottled light brown tile (I can't remember what it's called) and a linen grout for the bathtub surround and the shower walls. The tumbled marble tiles are accents; there will be two stripes on the wall in the shower and one around the bathtub (lining up with the shower's lower stripe) that will tie in the walls and carpet with the dark countertop. We're also using a stripe of the accent tile as a backsplash instead of the postformed laminate that's standard.

The tile in the guest bath is plain ol' white.

Our fireplace surround will be in this great slate (with New Taupe grout) that brings the lighter colors from the cabinetry and carpet and the darker colors in the kitchen countertop together.

And this photo shows how our dark Zodiaq countertop will look against our natural maple cabinets. We'll have about four inches of Zodiaq backsplash; we were going to do a fully tiled backsplash above that, but we scrapped it to save money and avoid being locked into a color scheme or design style.

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