did they offer any energy efficient upgrades? Or I should ask, where is the home located and what is the exterior shell construction like? Energy efficient upgrades and air sealing enhancements should be your FIRST place to spend money. It is the only place in your home to have any sort of a pay back for you. What windows are they including? As for the rest of your list, its really impossible to have any idea on costs associated with the house with seeing a plan or knowing sizes of spaces. For example, the wood flooring. If your home is 4k sqft, thats a great price. If its 1k, thats a really bad price. However just looking at the prices, nothing is really jumping out at me as way higher then it should be. I would probably not have the builder responsible for appliances. I would think that is an area you would like to have complete control on what you select. No one here can really tell you which one of those cosmetic items you should or shouldnt do since it is your home. Do it how you like it! Typically the more you can compile into the build process, the better. It MAY be possible to do it afterwards, but also consider the mess and additional time it will take to fully complete the house. Discuss with him owner-provided items and ask for install only pricing too. Sometimes they are flexible with this and give you a good install price. Just know things like this are up to you to have things ordered, on site and correct to meet the timelines. If things are delayed, they come at a cost, which is out of your pocket not his.

If you just need a "working" kitchen to get the CO, then why not just get a sink and cabinet from H4H and have it set in place and working? I think that is not uncommon in kitchen renos anyway where there are going to be delays. Plug in a refrigerator. Set up a surface, cabinet or whatever, and put an induction hot plate in place. And a Breville oven maybe. That's a functional kitchen. CO's don't differentiate between beautiful and ugly, just safe and functional. Have all outlets, etc up to code and finished. Vent hood in place if you can be pretty certain of location. If you aren't sure of the location, you will need to get a permit (later, when you real cabinets are installed) because you'll be going through walls/roof and wiring (although maybe the wiring can be done now if you know the general location, so you wouldn't need a later permit). I'm thinking you actually have an almost ideal situation now. A big empty room with all wiring, plumbing and finish work done, just waiting for the cabinets you love to be installed.

Hello Everyone, So we had our first appointment at the design center. Sharing some combinations we selected and obviously re-thinking and losing sleep over it! Some advices were really helpful like overlay cabinets, drawers for pot and pans, deciding the floor colours, choosing warm or cool colour scheme, choosing a standard faucet and changing them later... So thank you again! They don't allow 2 tone cabinets as in upper and lower in 2 colours.. only the island cabinets could be a different colour so for have chosen now Admiral blue and Gray we both liked Silestone Pietra Quartz over calcutta quartz ... with our Indian cooking and spices I think the former would work better. Also, felt that Pietra had colours from both the cabinets in it. There were very limited backsplash options but we liked beveled subway tiles. Direction wise, the windows are facing east. For Primary bathroom, instead of gray, we went with warm brown (Burlap I think) but the floor seems a little boring now. I might need to change the colour in our next meeting. Bathroom has 2 windows over the tub facing west and 1 more near the shower. Sharing pics for suggestions incase we are overlooking anything. Thanks a ton again.

I agree with take a deep breath if you’ve just moved in! And have a little one to care for. Can’t do everything at once. Especially take time to put things away and figure out your storage options in each room. “ Character “ in kitchens means different things to different people and can be achieved in different ways. But most kitchens don’t do well with lots of “ decor”, but look best when they look tidy, clean, ( and easy to clean) and functional. ( Not right after fixing dinner though!) I think you have way too much stuff “ out” in the kitchen for long- term ease of care and easy on the eyes. I would start editing out things that might be better in family rooms- photos and vases and such. On surfaces, that is. This can make the difference between a kitchen what looks like a nice kitchen that you enjoy using, vs an area of dissatisfaction. Also give deep thought to what you absolutely have to have on counter. What is actually HOW you want to live and where you can store things, vs habits you fell in to but could change. Evaluate all your storage and whether you can re- invent how you do some things , to reduce clutter. This does not at all mean going completely against good time & motion , but think of changes that work AND look better. I reduced kitchen utensils by a lot, to just my very faves ( I am picky about how handles function and feel, how spatulas work, etc!) and also kept a lookout for items that worked better. I also understand arrangements have to accommodate/ protect small children— we used a magnetic knife strip on wall ; my DD couldn’t have the sharp knives in drawers for 6 years while children young. And couldn’t make best storage use of bottom cabinets for awhile! But, do think what you absolutely need on countertop & what can be in less prime storage. Anything you use only once a week or less might go elsewhere. Can you re- invent the dish drainer approach and use dishwasher plus wash, dry and put away pots & pans? This is a hard one and may be a hard “ no” , but just sayin’ , by the time you have drainer, knife block, utensils crock, etc etc you are using up all your counter space. Remember a lot of these ideas are not permanent changes; you can experiment. If you have items you don’t want to toss out but not sure how needed, you can box up & try doing without for a bit, or see if it’s not that hard to get to if used infrequently. The point of that is, after big editing, THEN you can look at more inspo pics and add your personality in either colors of items, or adding wood items, , in the actual functional pieces and some very limited “ decor”. Then you add more warmth & personality in your living spaces.