Surface Issues

WHEN IT COMES TO INTERIORS, NEW HOME BUYERS HAVE TO DECIDE WHETHER TO PERSONALIZE OR PLAY IT SAFE

Picking colors and surfaces for inside your new house is a bigger job than you might expect, and you’ll live with your choices a long time.

You have to do this shortly after you sign the sales contract. But then you will wait months before you see how your choices turned out.

When we arrived to pick colors for the House Chronicles, the Free Press’ summer project of documenting the construction of a new home, we planned to select a palette from off white to light beige — nothing that would offend a future buyer. Our motto was: Resale value rules.

But when we left, we had a few light ivorys, along with a dark brown tile for the fireplace, one bathroom countertop the color of a brown paper bag and another bathroom counter like light tanned leather.

That’s not all: For kitchen counters we picked matte black. Then with black countertops, you can guess the next change of plan: black appliances.

We like these stronger colors a lot, and note that they’re sort of a family — from ivory floors to the golden maple cabinets to light browns and black of the countertops. This is not a slap-dash of red, green and purple.

But we are humbled at how hard it was to to make 20 or so choices in a couple of hours.

The lesson learned is to come very well prepared when you pick your house’s colors and materials. And avoid doing it at the last minute. You may need time to go away for a day and rethink. Under pressure it would be so easy to make a bad call.

Greg Kime, sales manager for RDK Homes, the company that’s building the House Chronicles home, says sometimes he tries to dissuade buyers from choosing too many unusual colors and possibly making resale value a problem.

“I say, ‘Will you be selling your home? Or will you be leaving it to your children to sell?’ ”

At the House Chronicles home, the interior is coming together fast. Four big choices made months ago have determined the personality of the first floor. They are the ceramic tile floors, the gourmet kitchen, the maple cabinets and the black counters and appliances.

Ceramic tile floors
Most new houses under $300,000 come with a hardwood floor in the foyer and powder room, and carpet and vinyl through the rest of the downstairs.

But, because so many of today’s floor plans have an open view from the foyer into the kitchen the line where hardwood switches to vinyl is visible from the front door. Buyers who can afford the upgrade often switch to all hardwood floors.

We switched instead to all ceramic tile — big, 1-foot-square tiles that look something like off-white stone. They sweep from the front door through the kitchen and nook. It’s a handsome look, and the ceramic tiles will hold up much better to the spills common in a kitchen and foyer.

The ceramic tile cost $3,000, versus $1,900 for all hardwood. To afford it we nixed the planned carpet upgrade. Now, opening the front door on the expanse of stone-like tile, it seems a very good trade-off.

What’s more, our tile floor is mud-set directly on the subflooring, the traditional installation, rather than installed over cement board. The tile man likes it that way.

“I do it the old fashioned way, so I have total control on how flat the floor is,” says Tom Riley of Riles Tiles in Westland. “If there are bumps left in the floor by the builders, I can actually take the bumps out by making the cement thicker and thinner. But if you’re using cement board, it’s a half inch set all the way.”

Riley says he sees a lot of house buyers choosing today’s new stone-like and marble-like tiles.

Gourmet kitchen
The standard kitchen for this house was quite good — large, with an island and ample cabinets, plus a range standing between cabinets. It is typical for a house under $300,000 and probably nicer than the kitchen with which most of us grew up.

But last spring we quickly chose the gourmet kitchen for an extra $2,000. This gives you a kitchen you might see in a magazine — a double-oven built into the cabinets and a separate cook top. It’s not a change that’s easy to make later, because you’d have to rework your cabinets.

This gourmet kitchen is spruced up with crown molding around the top of the cabinets, a handsome touch, but one a handy owner could do.

We also took the built-in microwave at $425 rather than have one sitting on the counter. And we spent an extra $100 to switch from an electric cook top to gas. That got us a very handsome four burner black cook top with a downdraft exhaust.

For less than an extra $3,000, the kitchen looks just great. With a house price in the high $200,000s, it seemed a smart move for resale value alone, not to mention the owner’s enjoyment.

Maple cabinets
This was a small upgrade, $650 to change cabinets through the whole house from a basic oak to maple. These cabinets are installed now, and the maple looks good. It has a subtle golden glow that energizes the rooms.

“Maple is really popular now,” says Sandy Radtke of ASA Cabinet Corp., a Walled Lake company that supplies RDK Homes. Other choices are the ever-popular oak or white cabinets. As an upgrade, cherry cabinets, or more likely cherry-stained cabinets, are popular in upscale houses.

Buyers should know that the wood on their cabinets comes from different trees. So you can’t expect the grain on one door to be just like the next.

For a house in the $200,000s, especially the higher $200,000s, you should expect some of the extras that are popular in cabinets today. These cabinets have a lazy Susan to make the bottom corner cupboard accessible and pull-out shelves in the lower cabinets to help you reach low-down dishes.

Other items your builder might throw in, or you might add, are a compact, plastic-lined, tilt-out drawer at the front of the sink to hold wet scouring pads or your jewelry, a pull-out cutting board right next to the cook top or glass front doors to show off some dishes.

Black counters and appliances
It was a whim when we changed to black kitchen counters, but not a blind whim. One of RDK’s model homes in Walden Woods had black counters with light maple cabinets. It was a dramatic look.

In that model home, the black counters were granite, beyond our budget at $5,500. But we could choose black laminate without adding cost.

A lot of house buyers are doing that, says Kime, or choosing a dark hunter green. On his advice we took matte finish, not glossy. Glossy shows the scratches, he says. Plus, “being black is enough of a statement; it doesn’t need more glitz.”

The kitchen counters are made from a laminate by Wilsonart, called Graphite Nebula. Once we had them, we felt black appliances were necessary. They were available at the basic price, except for the black dishwasher; it added $275. These appliances have been set into the maple cabinets now. The black counter has been installed and the look is very sharp.

Finishing details
For all this talk of dramatic black, the new house is light and bright. Windows are ample and all the floors are either off-white large tiles or off-white carpet.

Here are more details of the interior finishing:

  • Railings: This house has handsome railings consistent with the high $200,000s price range — painted wood spindles topped by a wood-stained rail. 

    Because it has a lot of railings, they become a focal point. They run up both sides of the stairs and enclose the 91/2-by-11-foot loft on the second floor landing, visible from both floors.

    A low-cost house might have half walls instead. Some builders might combine railings with some half walls. It’s usually an upgrade if you want spindles stained as well as the top rail.

  • Carpet: The carpet looks and feels good, ending a big worry. We had dropped plans to upgrade the carpet in order to pay for the ceramic floor. Would it feel thin? It doesn’t. Apparently that’s because the basic pad is a fairly heavy weight, called 5-pound. 

    While you are comparison shopping, ask about the basic pad and the basic carpet. They might not be what’s in the model.

  • Master bath and second bath: The floor tiles are the same 12-inch tiles used downstairs. The cabinets are the same maple as the kitchen cabinets. The countertops are two different versions of light, textured browns. Both bathrooms have a soft easy look that doesn’t lock the room into a single color scheme.

  • Walls: Throughout the house, the walls are an ivory color similar to the carpets. The effect is a wide-open, bright feel. As with most new houses, there was no chance to take darker colors, but on seeing these very light colors, we don’t think we would change.

  • Light fixtures: We stayed with the basic, neutral light fixtures. The two-story foyer has a tall, striking light hanging on a long brass chain. All the fixtures are in keeping with mid-range new houses. Builders at $500,00-plus might give a fixture allowance that the buyer uses to shop for unusual pieces. 

When you pick all these details, most often you’ll work with the salesperson who showed you the house. Some larger builders like Biltmore Properties of Troy have a design coordinator who’ll work with you. A very few, for example Tadian Homes of Troy and the Michigan division of Centex Homes in Farmington Hills, have separate design centers where customers go to plan their homes.

NEXT MONTH: Finally — see what the whole house looks like. Come back to the House Chronicles Aug. 11 when Free Press Garden Writer Marty Hair takes you through the landscaping. Then come back again Aug. 18 for the full tour — inside and out — the wrap-up, the warranties and the evaluation.

NEXT >