Color Appointment Upgrades

[summerwood]

Hello everyone,

We have our color appointment this coming Monday, and we have a list of items in our upgrades wish list, and of course we have limited budget. Our house has 10 foot ceiling on main floor and 9-foot ceiling on second floor, so some of the standard features might not look good in a high ceiling house. Below is the list, with the price:

1. Upgrade Trim and Baseboard package ( 3600$ for 5' 1/4 and 4800$ for 7' 1/4 ). The standard given by builder is 4'

2. Taller kitchen uppers ( the standard kitchen comes with a staggered style, some of uppers being 39" tall and some being 33" tall. We are thinking to get them all with same height of 39" ). The cost for this is around 800$

3. Upgraded Granite. We get granite as standard but the standard one is this and very limited in choices. We are thinking to get Upgrade level 3, with thick edge. The cost is around 3900$

4. Upgraded Undermount sink. The standard sink is undermount, but we are thinking to get a upgraded one, with a cost of 1200$.

5. Upgraded kitchen faucet?? I think the cost is around 900$ for the faucet we like. Can this be replaced later???

6. Additional drawers in kitchen. The cost is around 700$

7. Additional glass cabinet. A cost of 600$

8. Dummy doors in the kitchen island and kitchen end cabinets? The cost is 180$ per door.

9. Hardwood on second floor. The quote from builder is around 9$ per sqft, a total of 9500 for the whole second floor ( including hallway ) and the quote I got from contractors was only 1000$ cheaper. So this is not an easy decision

10. Upgraded kitchen handles. The cost is around 600$

So we have a limited budget and we cannot afford all of these upgrades, and I would really appreciate your opinion, which of the items in the list will be a better choice.

Thanks

[patrob]

Originally Posted by summerwood

Hello everyone,

We have our color appointment this coming Monday, and we have a list of items in our upgrades wish list, and of course we have limited budget. Our house has 10 foot ceiling on main floor and 9-foot ceiling on second floor, so some of the standard features might not look good in a high ceiling house. Below is the list, with the price:

1. Upgrade Trim and Baseboard package ( 3600$ for 5' 1/4 and 4800$ for 7' 1/4 ). The standard given by builder is 4' - Go for the 7" on main floor with 10 ft. ceilings, you could do 5" upstairs if you want to save some $. But def. 4" is too small for baseboards!

2. Taller kitchen uppers ( the standard kitchen comes with a staggered style, some of uppers being 39" tall and some being 33" tall. We are thinking to get them all with same height of 39" ). The cost for this is around 800$ - IMO the 39" is still too short for such tall ceilings. I highly recommend to add extra row of cabinets on top of the 39" or you can always do 33" plus 12-15" cabinets (or whatever size they use) with a large crown or header. If you go with just 39" you will have over 2 ft. of empty gap which IMO does not look nice with such grand ceilings & cheapens the "look" of the entire kitchen (of course my opinion).

3. Upgraded Granite. We get granite as standard but the standard one is this and very limited in choices. We are thinking to get Upgrade level 3, with thick edge. The cost is around 3900$ - If the colours are limited then I guess you don't have much choice.

4. Upgraded Undermount sink. The standard sink is undermount, but we are thinking to get a upgraded one, with a cost of 1200$. - Not sure it's worth it if standard is already undermount. Use that $ for the taller cabinets, much better investment

5. Upgraded kitchen faucet?? I think the cost is around 900$ for the faucet we like. Can this be replaced later??? - Yes, do it after closing.

6. Additional drawers in kitchen. The cost is around 700$ - Def. get more drawers, more convenient.

7. Additional glass cabinet. A cost of 600$ - Not worth it IMO. Spend the $ on taller cabinets

8. Dummy doors in the kitchen island and kitchen end cabinets? The cost is 180$ per door. - This gives the kitchen that "custom" look so yes go for it since you probably only need a few.

9. Hardwood on second floor. The quote from builder is around 9$ per sqft, a total of 9500 for the whole second floor ( including hallway ) and the quote I got from contractors was only 1000$ cheaper. So this is not an easy decision - I still think they made a mistake there lol So take advantage & go with builder, I very rarely say that Unless they are being super nice & giving you a good credit for the standard carpet.

10. Upgraded kitchen handles. The cost is around 600$ - Do it after closing.

So we have a limited budget and we cannot afford all of these upgrades, and I would really appreciate your opinion, which of the items in the list will be a better choice.

Thanks

Answers in bold. Upgrade things that are hard or impossible to do after closing. Door handles or faucet you can do later. Not sure if you upgraded the door height, with 10 ft. ceilings standard doors look tiny IMO. If possible upgrade height of archways extra foot or more.

[Selvi]

Yes, like Pat said I'd ask for 8ft doors & openings, cuz of your tall ceilings.

1) For those ceilings 4" is def small, I'd go with 7" or you could just get the standard and install something like a door stop higher over the baseboard and paint it to match the baseboard, like in the link provided: http://www.homedepot.ca/know-how/pro...ert_house-home

2) Staggered cabinets are cool and looks custom I wouldn't get them all in the same height, but the cabinets are def short for such tall ceilings, I'd ask for taller uppers or like Pat said another stack of cabinets with lighting inside and crown molding.

3) No comment.

4) No comment.

5) Def after closing loll.

6) If you need them, why not.

7) Not really a fan of them, unless the kitchen is super super fancy.

8) Not a fan of them, I like a clean look on the island.

9) No comment

10) Check out stores and see how much they cost & ask someone how much it costs to get them installed, handles may seem cheap but once you add the handles together it adds up pretty fast.

Answers above, but all are my opinion.

[summerwood]

Thank you guys, this really helps us a lot. We have the appointment tomorrow and we basically dont want to miss the opportunity for some upgrades that is harder to do later.

Regarding stacked kitchen cabinets, the builder has not given us this option. I am thinking to add them after closing, but i was told kitchen makers do not remove the crown moulding since they dont want want to damage the cabinets, so since im getting crown mouldings from builder, i dont know if we can add the top layer after closing. For now, we will go with 39 inch uppers with valence lighting under and crown mouldings on the top. So we will have 20 inch gap between crown and ceiling

[TheGrudge]

I put my thoughts below. A lot of these are personal preferences so it's really up to you. I just thought I'd chime in on a few in case you hadn't thought of something

Originally Posted by summerwood

Hello everyone,

We have our color appointment this coming Monday, and we have a list of items in our upgrades wish list, and of course we have limited budget. Our house has 10 foot ceiling on main floor and 9-foot ceiling on second floor, so some of the standard features might not look good in a high ceiling house. Below is the list, with the price:

1. Upgrade Trim and Baseboard package ( 3600$ for 5' 1/4 and 4800$ for 7' 1/4 ). The standard given by builder is 4' --Not worth the price. Who's going to notice you spent $4k for bigger baseboard? Especially when 4" looks good as is

2. Taller kitchen uppers ( the standard kitchen comes with a staggered style, some of uppers being 39" tall and some being 33" tall. We are thinking to get them all with same height of 39" ). The cost for this is around 800$ Uniformity is good, why not

3. Upgraded Granite. We get granite as standard but the standard one is this and very limited in choices. We are thinking to get Upgrade level 3, with thick edge. The cost is around 3900$ - No comment

4. Upgraded Undermount sink. The standard sink is undermount, but we are thinking to get a upgraded one, with a cost of 1200$. What makes the $1,200 one better than the standard one? For $1,200 it had want to be something HUGE!

5. Upgraded kitchen faucet?? I think the cost is around 900$ for the faucet we like. Can this be replaced later??? Yes, easily, and for much less

6. Additional drawers in kitchen. The cost is around 700$ -no comment

7. Additional glass cabinet. A cost of 600$ Personally don't like glass. It gets dirty and unless you have something worth displaying...

8. Dummy doors in the kitchen island and kitchen end cabinets? The cost is 180$ per door. No comment

9. Hardwood on second floor. The quote from builder is around 9$ per sqft, a total of 9500 for the whole second floor ( including hallway ) and the quote I got from contractors was only 1000$ cheaper. So this is not an easy decision I know I'm in the minority here but I like carpet on the upper levels. It helps to deaden sound and for playing with the kids and such it's more "day to day". This is obviously a personal thing though

10. Upgraded kitchen handles. The cost is around 600$

So we have a limited budget and we cannot afford all of these upgrades, and I would really appreciate your opinion, which of the items in the list will be a better choice.

Thanks

[WellThatsLovely]

I totally notice baseboards. My parents didn't upgrade theirs because their builder was a greedy dirtbag and they ended up with tiny little 4' straight baseboards which barely peek over the 1/4 round... I still can't even believe a builder would be THAT cheap every time I see it... We just replaced ours (old house) because some got damaged in our reno and it's understandable that it would cost so much.
That's a good tip though to just do the main floor, I never thought of that... I think we'll do that also.

[kei78]

We upgraded the trim and baseboards in our house, you do notice how chunky they are. I would upgrade that for sure.

[patrob]

I totally agree about upgrading to larger trim especially with 10 ft. ceilings which IMO needs 7" baseboards. 5" would be bare minimum, forget about 4"! Size matters