KDS Designs- Bad Experience

We were very excited about our flooring appointment last week. We walked into KDS Designs and were greeted by Linda. Linda was not very welcoming or friendly. We expected her to be enthusiastic and helpful like our Guardian guy... WRONG. She asked us to sit down. We sat. Then she asked us to get up. She asked our cabinet and granite selections. We told her but she was confused about our cabinet choice so we pulled them ourselves. She then took us to the hardwood selection room. She pointed to the "B" selections (about 15). She offered no help. We told her we wanted something dark but not too dark. We saw the 5" hand-scraped floors and fell in love. I figured since they were already scraped up, new scrapes wouldn't show so badly (maybe? hopefully?). We decided on the Armstrong Frontier 5" Handscraped Tahoe Canyon Creek. It was a nice, rich brown tone and not too dark.

Next, we picked our resilient floors for the bathrooms and laundry room. Again, Linda pointed then stared. We pulled out a bunch of samples and decided on Canyon Creek.  It's a tan laminate that looks pretty close to tile.. hopefully. It was very budget friendly.

Then, carpets. Linda went and sat at the table while we looked at the selections. There were so many! We liked the look of the shag carpet (it was Level C). We decided to upgrade the carpet in the great room and master to Simple Touch Capri. If we can't get hardwoods in the great room, at least we can get a slightly better carpet :). We kept base carpeting on the stairs and second floor and didn't upgrade the pad. I was unaware how inexpensive it would be to upgrade the pad upstairs ($190). I think I'm going to go back and upgrade the pad. Now, my major concern... the carpet from the great room will go to the stairs (two different carpets). I'm not sure what to do. We are definitely going to get hardwood in the dining room if we can afford to avoid the mismatch carpets. But if we can't, what do you think? Will it look terrible?

Anyway, we sat down with Linda and she wrote down all of our selections. She then reviewed them with us. We signed some papers and that was it. She barely smiled and made us feel like we came in at 5:00 on a Friday. Another thing! When we finished our selections, WE put them together to take a photo. She said, "No need! I'll put them together for you!" Oh. Okay. We thought she was putting together some digital rendering or something cool. NOPE! She just wrote down the names. How are we supposed to remember the options we chose by the name? I snapped some photos before we left.

We were just very disappointed with the level of service. As first time homebuyers, we were looking for some suggestions and guidance. She offered none. We did tell our SR about Linda and she said she has heard similar complaints. Maybe they should go with another design company!

Cabinets and Granite

We knew we wanted white cabinets. I feel these light and bright cabinets will help make the kitchen appear larger and brighter since we are an interior unit. Unfortunately, these were only available as a Level 2 Upgrade. We chose the Rushmore Painted Maple Linen. These cabinets had more detail then the Sonoma.

We are currently debating under cabinet lighting... any thoughts? Also, we plan to add our own backsplash after we move in. Should we ask Ryan not to add the granite piece above the counter? I am thinking white to keep with the white and bright look or possibly bring in some color. Don't have to worry about that now...



Cabinet Selections

For granite, we wanted a lighter tone with either greys or tans. Santa Cecilia has been the granite I have mostly seen in other blogs. We considered this one (it was the one in the model) but it appeared two yellow. We don't get to pick our slab, so the last thing I would want would it to be appear yellow. We decided on Carmel Fantasy. It had some greys and tans and was one the lighter side. We also loved the name.



Our selections with flooring:

Now the biggest dilemma... brushed nickel or oil rubbed bronze? We already upgraded all of the hardware, cabinet pulls, and lighting to brushed nickel. The oil rubbed bronze is only an additional $190 so there's no cost factor. I just can't decide what will look better! I love the oil rubbed bronze look but I am not sure if it is just a fad. I know we could always change the lighting and pulls later but this could e expensive and tasking. Decisions, decisions! Any suggestion would be extremely welcome!

WHICH ONE?????