Decisons, Decisons

Do you know what occupied my thoughts for the entire day Friday . . . what totally hijacked my thinking to the point that I couldn’t function until it was decided?

Paint.

The color of paint for our playroom and bedroom in the basement.

This basement project has exhausted me with decision making. I don’t mean that I’m ungrateful for the opportunity to make these decisions . . . I enjoy having so much input. Jim and I wanted an unfinished basement so that we could do just this: make it exactly how WE want it. And we chose our contractor because he let us do so much of the decision making ourselves.

But, sheesh. I didn’t realize that we’d have to make SO many decisions.

It began with selecting a contractor. Then our input on the framing (you saw the blog about that one). Next came electricity . . . deciding exactly where we wanted every last outlet, light switch, and can light. I think that’s where I started to get a little tired . . . do you want the closet light switches inside or outside the closet? Where do you want your phone outlet – so that the phone sits on the bar counter or so that it hangs on the wall next to the bar? Do you want your sconces to be on the same switch as the rest of the room, or on their own?

Now we are on to bigger decisions – and it’s draining me. The details we are deciding now are the ones that really do make a difference in the final appearance of the basement. The cabinet designs are in their final stages. The trim is going to be white, like the rest of the house. The doorknobs are going to be brushed nickel. Tile in the bathroom is brown, ceramic, and already installed. Stain color for the media cabinet is dark brown, but no ‘red’ in it.

It’s the paint color is the part that held me up the longest. Honestly, the decision practically paralyzed me. I think it’s because I’m not 100% in LOVE with the color I chose for our bedroom back in February . . . it’s fine, I’ll live with it and I do like it . . . but it’s not exactly what I wanted. I don’t want to make that mistake again. The media room color wasn’t too hard because Jim really decided on that (although there was some difficultly selecting the final shade). The hallway and bathroom are both going to be the same color as most of the main level of the house. But the playroom and bedroom – which will be the same color – are totally giving me fits.

So, one phone call to a friend, numerous stops on many websites, three catalog viewings, four trips to buy sample paint (and $35 in samples), and 48 hours later, we have finally, FINALLY chosen a color for the playroom and bedroom. I swear to you, choosing the paint color was harder than choosing the name for our unborn child. Atmosphere Blue is our final choice.

“WHY am I making this so hard?” I asked the woman working at the Duron store on my third visit this weekend.
“It’s because you’re pregnant,” she said.

She was right. Why did we decide to do this when I was pregnant?

This morning, our contractor called and said he’ll need a decision on the flooring by the end of the week. Oh – and light fixtures will be needed soon, as well as more tile, bar-area granite and backsplash decisions should be coming up in the next 2 weeks.

At least we aren’t building an entire house. That would put me away for sure.

playroom as seen from the hallway leading in

playroom as seen from the corner of the room

media room as seen from the doorway leading in from the playroom

It's hard to take pictures now because their are WALLS everywhere :) I'm going to video it soon and then post that -- that will give you a much better idea of what we have going on down under.