I got nosy this week and walked through one of the homes under construction in my neighborhood. With the prices being so much lower than they were a year ago, people are spending a little bit more attention to detail on the inside of their homes. We’ve seen more people optioning to get upgraded cabinets, and Corian, and we’ve seen a few homes with upgraded bathroom lighting, just like we did. The builder standard was a bar of 5 of those big rounded bulb lights - like a dressing room backstage in a theater. The direct light bothers my eyes, so we chose to get something with a shade over the bulbs, and we upgraded the lighting in all 3 of our bathrooms. The master bath and the kids bath match, and the powder room downstairs matches the dining room and foyer lighting.

Of course, had we not done it in the construction process, it’s something that’s easy enough to change out on your own. You also get a much larger selection than we had in our builder’s design center, and you save money by doing it on your own. Sweat equity, and all that!