Last Friday afternoon Jeff and I had a date with the Richmond Decorating Center on Hull Street. It was finally time to pick our carpet & linoleum! The guy we met with (we had to make an appointment) estimated it would take about 2 hours, and he was right. They had a special room set up for Ryan Homes flooring selections, which made it a little less overwhelming.

We talked pricing, types of carpet and padding for a while, then started looking at swatches. Are they swatches or samples?

We wanted to stay in the same color palate we have now and ultimately ended up choosing the same gray carpeting we currently have for the stairs and the entire second floor. Boring, I know, but they didn't have many shades of gray in that lower end category. Definitely didn't want a dark brown, green or blue. And beige just wasn't doing anything for us. This carpet is called a saxony, a cut-pile with fibers of the same length. (If nothing else, I now know a lot more about carpet!)

For the 2 rooms downstairs, we decided not to go with a berber again, but chose the trendy, frieze. Also a cut pile, the tightly twisted fibers are slightly longer, with more of a shag-carpet feel. Like with our berber, we went with a lightly flecked carpet in a beige tone. Since the 2 carpets aren't going to be next to each other, it's ok to have 2 different styles and colors.

The linoleum didn't take quite as much thought. We only had to choose for the laundry room and the extra upstairs bathroom. We stayed with a standard linoleum for both, that didn't cost extra. I think one day we'll end up tiling the bathroom, so we didn't feel that paying more for a fancier linoleum was worth it.

Next will come our pre-construction meeting, which we expect to happen in the next few weeks (if they're actually going to start on the house in February). Once we do that it's all about the wait. At some point during construction, (after the framing maybe?) we'll get to go pick out our lighting. We have a lighting budget, and can only shop in one place (I forget where), but it'll be a lot of fun! It's a good thing Jeff & I have similar tastes!