Also see previous blog “My Decision to Move Downtown”

Now that I have a chosen a condo, I needed to get myself a realtor. I could have used any of three realtors that I’ve had good luck with before, Georgia Caldwell with Coldwell Bankers; Anne Bickell with Iowa Realty or Kelly Schall with Burnett Realty, but instead I chose Tina Johnson with ReMax Realty due to a couple of reasons. First reason I choose Tina is that she lived in the building I was purchasing and new the ins and outs of the property and what I could do to get a quick acceptance. Secondly, Tina has been selling in the downtown market for the last 10 years and really knows the market which will help in the negotiating process.

So I met with Tina, asked her to represent me and we set down and wrote up an offer. Within 24 hours I had a slight counter offer, I accepted and a closing date for March 3^rd was set. Now the real work started. The unit was just a shell with some walls and plumbing stubbed in. I would have to choose everything from hardwood flooring, to bedroom carpeting, to kitchen and bathroom cabinets, granite countertops, lighting fixtures, paint colors, and lots of small details. I would be working with Charise Flynn and Jake Christensen on the details. This is where I may start sounding as a promotion for Nelson Development, but I can honestly say that I’ve never worked with a builder that was so easy to work with and really cared about every small detail. Working with Charise on a daily basis and with Jake on a few occasions, I knew that even with my tight 6 week timeline that my place would be exactly as I had designed it and the workmanship would be the highest quality. Even four and half months later of living in my unit, I can say without doubt if I was ever in the market to buy again, a Nelson Property would be a no-brainer.

So first things first, choosing the flooring, cabinets and granite counter-top. With the help of two of my great friends, Todd Johansen and Sharon Moore, we went to look at some models and finished units with various combinations of materials. After careful consideration, I choose light maple floors, dark espresso cabinets and black granite countertops. A few days later, I was told that my cabinet choice of dark espresso would take an extra 6 weeks. With me needing to get out of my jointly owned home with my ex, I couldn’t wait six additional weeks, so it was back to the drawing board. So with Todd and Sharon, we went back and re-choose dark cherry floors, cherry cabinets and dark brown marbled granite countertop. For my bedroom I picked out some lighter colored plush shag carpeting. Next came paint colors.

For the trim, doors and ceiling, it’s a no brainer, I always use “The Right White” from Restoration Hardware. For my bedroom I wanted to go almost white so that with the light colored shag carpeting, my furniture and art work would pop! For the main rooms, I found a neutral color that is pale grayish tan, with two feature walls in a limey green color. I also then picked out black colored shades for all five windows.

Lighting – I got myself a lighting allowance built into my sales contract and went about looking for some very cool and unusual contemporary lighting. I started with a ceiling fan in the bedroom. In my previous house, I had a George Kovacs’ Artemis ceiling fan made out of dark espresso wood that I loved, so when looking at other products from lighting designer George Kovacs, I found the same ceiling fan but made entirely of nickel called Liquid Nickel. It was gorgeous and would eat up 2/3^rd of my budget, but it was a statement, so I went ahead and ordered it online. Along with that, I saw a cool contemporary track system that would be perfect for the living room area, so I ordered it also. Lastly, I needed to find a kick ass dinning room light. I found a 6-cylinder cone shape light from Modern Lighting, it was a little over my remaining budget, but I wanted it to make a statement, so off that order went also. The lighting contractor needed me to deliver my lights to him within 2 weeks, so I requested expressed delivery on all of them. Within a few days, I had my ceiling fan. It was the beginning of the next week and still no track light or dinning room light, I called to check on them and found out both were now out of stock and it would be another three to four weeks, I couldn’t wait I needed these within the next 3 days. So I cancelled my order and tried to figure out what to do next.

That night after work, I drove to Lowes, Home Depot and Menards. I stood and stared at their lighting choices and couldn’t find anything that I would have deemed suitable for my needs. I might have to drive out of town and find something, but I remembered a store on Alice Road in Waukee that sold lighting, so I called there to ask them if they carried any contemporary track lighting in stock, they said they only carried on brand in stock, George Kovacs. I jumped with glee. So on my lunch break the next day, I drove to Lighting Expressions by Shaw and sure enough there was the exact track system I had ordered online and it was only $20 more, so I snapped it up. One light down, one to go. While writing up the ticket on the track light low and behold my head hung the dining room light that I had also ordered and what I saw in person looked much different than the view online. I didn’t think it was really what I wanted. So I looked around the corner and there hung a light made out of mini-connected ladders that could be shaped and bent to form multiple looks and it was $250 cheaper than the previous light I wanted. Again, a no brainer, I snapped it up. I now had all of my lighting! Yeah! Now, I just had to get it dropped off downtown so that it could be installed the next day. Should be no problem, but guess what, a blizzard rolled into town. Ah!, I hate driving in snow. It took me about 45 minutes driving maybe 10 mph but I made it downtown and got my lights dropped off. After all that I had been dealing with the breakup and getting this new condo going, a blizzard wasn’t going to stop me now.

Another week to finish the unit and it would be ready for inspection a week before my closing. Charise contacted me and said all was complete on the unit except for the bathroom mirrors and their attached lights and my window shades wouldn’t be in for another three weeks. I would have to be comfortable with no window coverings, but at nine floors up, who’s really going to see that much anyways unless I am standing right in front of the windows. I kept the nakedness down anyways, didn’t want anyone getting a free show. So inspection day came and I was so impressed, Nelson Construction leaves nothing to chance in making sure their clients get what they paid for. There were a total of six people with me to do the inspection: myself, my agent, the selling agent – Brett Fine, the seller – Jake Christensen with Nelson, Charise Flynn – Project Manager with Nelson, a construction manager from Nelson and one other Nelson rep. Wow! They kept track of any concern I had and sure enough at final walkthrough right before close, every little detail had been addressed. I couldn’t have been happier.

By MulderDSMcloseAuthor: MulderDSM Name: Larry Bradshaw
Email: admin@livingdowntowndesmoines.com
Site: http://www.larrybradshaw.net
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Posted under Moving Downtown | Last modified on December 14th, 2008.
Tags: Condos | Liberty Condos | Lofts