Today was my first time visiting the WestBay Homes Design Center. They have an “open house” a few times per month for new customers to attend so that they can get a feel for what they want in their new home. Jeff has already been there with Annie a few times and so they were both ready. I was not. This place can get overwhelming, pretty quickly. I just want to build a house. Why are there so many freaking choices! Do you really need a 700-page book?
I ask that question rhetorically but the answer, for the record, is yes. We have a 700-page book of options for our home. It’s specific to our home, but every home in the WestBay lineup has a very similar book. It contains every option you could think of. Every. Single. Option. In some sections, even the options have options. Oy vey!
The WestBay design center is actually pretty cool. It’s well laid out and gives you a ton of ideas about what you can do with your home. Aside from the display areas, they, of course, have every flooring, countertop and cabinet you could ever think of. We spent a good 4 hours just going through the basics, not even scratching the surface of what needed to be accomplished.
Just when you think you’re done, you stumble across something else.
Front Door? Sigh. Do we really need a front door, I say, as Jeff rolls his eyes at me.
The design center staff are very friendly and helpful. While today was an open house (picture a kind of free-for-all), they were always there to answer questions and when they find you staring at something for an excessive amount of time, they happily come over to hit your reset button and get you back on track.
What have we learned? You need to plan on doing serious pre-game visits to the design center. If you plan on just showing up for your formal design appointment and winging it, you’re going to be in a world of hurt. This takes planning. This takes research. This takes a 700-page book!
Thanks to Jeff’s vision and Annie’s direction, we did make some pretty decent progress today. They will be back for a few more pre-game visits. I will not. I’ve learned that this is not my strong suit. I will leave this to the experts and then Monday-morning-quarterback their decisions after we close on the house and move in.
Love this blog!!!
LOL! We had the same thing at the AW design center. We’d never built before, so we had absolutely no idea what we were getting into, and didn’t have open house options to visit ahead of decision day so it was kind of a mess. I don’t think either of us really wants to do that again, though maybe since Jeff is getting so good we could enlist his assistance if we ever lost our minds & decided to do it again 😉