We did start the day at a small farmers market in Raleigh and we got some yummy salsa and a ball of sun-dried tomato feta cheese. The samples for both were delicious! Also sampled some super yummy Italian ice. We would have bought some except we had no way to store it while we were out and about.
After the farmers market, the day became a blur. The Carolinas are the heart of furniture making country and our friends took us to some furniture stores so we could start thinking about what to put in our house. I can't believe it, but I've almost completely furnished the kitchen and the house isn't even built yet.
This chrome and black table light caught my eye first.
Then this nifty desk that masquerades as a set of drawers.
One of the salesmen saw me struggling to open the top drawer on this short chest of drawers and came over to help. Turns out, the top slides to the right to reveal a desk! You can't really see it in the picture, but it has an alligator-like textured finish. It's chipped on one side, so it was discounted heavily.
I really liked the lines of this chair.
When I saw this chair it made me think of Alice in Wonderland, and I really liked to gentle lines and the slight flare to the back. I sat in it and it was comfortable, but I wasn't sure about the bold graphic pattern so I walked away. But I kept coming back to it. When I spotted another sitting way, way in the back, I realized there was a pair of them and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.
I also found the triangle-shaped nesting tables pictured here. These will sit in front of the keepingroom fireplace. The chairs were discontinued items, and were also heavily discounted. Our friends have an enormous basement and agreed to store everything for us in return for some of the pottery we found last weekend. Turns out, pottery is super expensive out here, so we'll be moving some out with us.
After furniture shopping, we went to a tile store that was actually open on the weekend and found a lot of great options. They have builders discounts, so I called the builder and asked her to talk to the store. They'll also add another discount for the Parade. I'm going back in the morning with the house plans so they can start working up a bid.
While we were there I found a granite I absolutely adore. So I bought a 12" x 12" sample to take to the granite showroom for them to price and source. The tile shop only had granite tiles and no slabs. We have to stay within catagory 1 granite pricing to stay within our allowance. Watch, this will be category 2 or 3. I love it, so it must be. The granite has a small pattern that doesn't have much movement, so it is possible it'll be a category 1. However, I haven't seen this anywhere else so it may be hard to find, which would then make it a category 2 or 3.
I will remain hopeful though until I know for sure. I've found other granite that would be okay, but not something like this that I can't stop looking at it because I like it so much. I've even toyed with the idea of placing it at the side of the bed tonight so it will be the first thing I see when I wake up. I know. I've got it bad.
We also found the rock we think we want to use on the kitchen wall; it's much lighter than the inspiration picture. And we started looking at floor tile, which also went lighter.
I now can't seem to upload photos, so I'll have to post them later. But the kitchen is really coming together and I'm very happy with how it's shaping up.
We also looked at tile for bathrooms. It's a very simple tile (gotta save money somewhere) and we'll dress it up with some accent tiles. I found these awesome 1" x 1" glass tile sheets in earth tones that had a crackle effect that makes light sparkle and I fell in love. I bought the very last sheet the had to take as a sample. I may place that by the bed too.
You didn't know about the humidity before you went? Look forward to THAT for most of summer! ick. I lived in Houston, TX for a couple of years, and did NOT get along well with hot & sticky. Gross!
ReplyDelete