First World Problems

In a conundrum that can only be classified as a first world problem, I'm struggling to pick stone, siding and an exterior door for the new house. We need to pick these out in the next three weeks. I'm stuck. And my biggest problem is that I don't visualize things well, I can't just imagine what something will look like. I actually need to see it first.

Our home's exterior is craftsman in style. As part of our build for our neighborhood we need to incorporate stone on the exterior. And we also added other craftsman-like details, such as 6-lite windows over blank panes and shake mixed with traditional siding.

One of the things that is weighing heavily on me is that the stone we select for the exterior will also be inside our home on our fireplace. I've been using this image as inspiration for what that wall in the great room will become. Although their colors are much warmer than we're leaning toward.

This is sort of the color palette that we have in mind, just really cool grays and lots of natural elements.

I really like monochromatic exteriors, where the siding and the stone seem to blend together and the door just sort of melts into the exterior.

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I especially like this look when dark wood elements are incorporated. I've seen dark front doors, garage doors, beadboard ceilings and shakes.

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I saw this door when we were out door and window shopping last week and instantly fell in love. Of course, the door costs $13,500. OMFG. So...I'm hoping to find something sort of like it for 1/10 of the price, if that's even possible.

And while I was looking for examples of monochromatic stone and siding, I found examples in the completely opposite direction. Mixed palettes and still stunning.

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And by mixing warm and cool colors we would *possibly* have more stone to choose from. We went to our stone vendor over the weekend and there wasn't a lot to look at in the showroom, so we left with a catalog and a style that we liked better than the others - Cobblefield - it's not quite as natural in shape or appearance as some of the these inspiration houses are, and that's disappointing. But it's not compact, round or stacked which are all looks that we're trying to avoid.

These are two of the stones we have available to us -- Gray and San Francisco -- that we are strongly considering. The other stones available to us through our builder (all are Owens Corning cultured stone) just don't seem to fit our taste. But I feel somewhat limited by these colors and styles, and that's where my biggest issue comes in. How do I bring these pictures to life with these two stones? And what will they look like INSIDE my house.

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I honestly think this is the hardest decision I've had to make with this house so far. It seems so (obviously) permanent and it's the first thing people will see about our home. I also feel kind of bound by the seeming lack of choices for stone. I wish I could see what this will look like; or at least imagine it.