Snow Coming; Deck Started!

- November 27, 2024

The house is all set for the snow that’s coming Thanksgiving Day! The doors have been covered up and our contractor moved everything out of the way for plowing the driveway. We have plowing all arranged in order to keep the area open! The deck was also started today! Can’t wait to be able to walk up there to enjoy our view from the best spot on our property! So exciting!

On Monday we went up to Concord, New Hampshire to pick out our two full bathrooms on the first and second floors. We’re going with what is called Utile Max for the shower units. There’s a backing that goes on the walls on all 3 sides that looks like tile. It will be easy to install, and much easier than real tiling to keep clean and maintain. We already received our quotes and were very pleased!

This is what we picked for our downstairs bathroom. We decided to go with a 60” x 32” tub with shower unit. The tub will be white and the walls will be the color shown below. This will be our shower door, which is as shown in matte black, clear glass and towel bar. The tub fixtures are not the same as the photo below. We are getting the same shower fixtures for both the upstairs and downstairs shower units. I’ll show those at the end of this blog.

The vanity and sink/counter top we selected for the downstairs bathroom. We chose granite for the countertop. Colors are as shown.

Zoomed in photos:

The upstairs bathroom will be just a 60” x 32” shower unit. We opted to go with a shower base instead of a tub, which will be white, and everything except the fixtures are accurate in this photo. This photo doesn’t capture the walls very well. It looks much better in person. We just loved the display in the store! The doors are clear glass with matte black framing, door handle and towel bar.

Here’s a better photo to see the walls more clearly.

We will also include glass corner shelves for each shower unit:

The vanity and sink/counter top we selected for the upstairs bathroom. We chose granite for the countertop. Colors are as shown.

Zoomed in photos:

The toilets will be the same in both bathrooms. We bought the same toilet to replace our old toilet here in our current home and it works great! Excellent quality! The brand is Toto.

We will also have a half bath down in the basement. We will have the same toilet there but haven’t picked anything else out yet for the vanity and fixtures. Aside from the exceptionally good quality toilet, we likely will go lower end for vanity, countertop/sink and fixtures. In fact, we might just go with a laundry sink instead, since the washing machine and dryer will also be in there. This bathroom will be primarily used when we’re outdoors as it will be the easiest bathroom to access from outside! It will also help to keep the house cleaner, especially when we and the grandkids are dirty from playing outside! LOL!

Here are all of the fixtures, which will be the same in both of the full bathrooms on the first and second floors. All will be matte black. Our son and daughter-in-law also have matte black in their bathrooms and it looks so nice! I never was really fond of matte black fixtures prior to seeing it in their bathrooms!

For the shower units. This valve has one knob for temperature control and another for turning the water on and off, as well as to adjust the water pressure desired. As a result, once you find a favorite temperature you can leave it there so there’s no need adjust it each time you shower!

The fixtures above includes this shower head. We opted for the two in one as we both love the hand-held option!

This is the fixture chosen for both vanities!

And some other fixtures, which will all be in matte black too.

We also went to another place in Concord, NH to pick out kitchen cabinets and countertops. We are still waiting for the quote for what we selected. I should have taken photos! But, I was able to find what we selected on the store’s website!

An example of the cabinetry; not exact of course!

The color we chose:

The countertop we chose:

We haven’t selected appliances yet. We will have a gas stove, range top microwave, dishwasher and refrigerator.

On Tuesday we went to look at flooring. We are considering a vinyl, waterproof flooring called Lifeproof. It is super easy to install, looks like real wood, is commercial grade and scratch proof, and since it can be applied directly to plywood (or concrete flooring), no subfloor is needed, provided the plywood (or concrete) is level. With a new construction, this will not be an issue. There ixx so also no adhesive. It is considered a “floating” floor. It is also easy to remove and replace in the future if needed. It comes in various wood tones as well as tile tones. We likely would go with a wood tone throughout the house as Hubby doesn’t care too much for the tile look.

Here’s one of numerous options!