The Great Brick Debate

Ohhhh the great brick debate.  I remember when my friend Shauna went through the same exact thing when they were building their home.  Picking brick is a hard decision, mainly because it's not easily changeable.  It's not like changing the paint color or swapping your sink out.  You're pretty married to the brick so it better be right.  

And you know what's hard?!  Brick samples look different on a 12"x12" sample versus on a real home.  So we decided we'd find a house we like and just use that brick.  Oh, something else - mortar makes a huge difference.  Like HUGE.  

Yes, we do want a painted brick home but it's not allowed in our new hood and we're trying to get over that.  You can do partially painted and add other materials but we aren't really interested in that.  Our hope is to find a brick that makes the home look light from the road.  We'll see....

Here are two houses that we like the brick.  Trying to find out which bricks they are at the moment...

This is our top choice for brick right now.  General Shale Bradford Hall Tudor.  This house has it with ivory mortar.

Same brick but white mortar.  

Here's a comparison picture.  What would you choose?  White (on top) or ivory (bottom) mortar?  We are thinking a dark gray roof, probably black shutters and we aren't sure on window color yet.  Probably the puddy color which neither of these homes have.

I'm OVERRRRRRRR the elevation of our house and picking brick.  I'm ready to move on to paint, granite etc!!!!  Plus, we really need to break ground considering we have been paying on the loan and nothing has been happening!