Category / House

This post could also be called, “I’m learning how to use my new camera flash…so bear with me”….it could also be called, “Damn, I wish I had moved the trash can out of sight earlier!” But here it is, “My favorite spot”.

I suppose it changes from time to time, but the kitchen ranks very high on my list of favorite spots in the house. There were so many decisions to be made in this room, and it’s fun to see them all come together (hooray for granite and subway tile!). I like the clean white and the crisp grey in here, but wanted to use some hits of my favorite color for some interest, both in decor items and cooking tools like my buttercup beauty.

Aside from the aesthetic, I like that I have room to cook and entertain in now, and there is a place for ALL of our dishes, drinkware, serveware, and all the other hostess things I seem to “need” (thanks in part to Starsky, our new hutch!) I like the window and the view, I like the gas stove (my ONE demand), I like the speakers Page installed in the ceiling, I like the island for prep space and for setting out food, and I love that there’s space to actually have a “workflow” in here when cooking and baking. It’s not what I would call a “large” kitchen, but it works perfectly for us – and a huge step up from the dark (windowless) corner kitchen we’ve been using the past three years.

There is little on my “to do” list for this room – I love everything about it. As we figure out which cabinets get used the most and how to get everything organized for the long haul, I would consider finding a new spot for the microwave and adding a range hood over the stove…but really, that’s about it.

Here are a couple glances back at how this room came to be…I so love that we were able to see this house appear out of nothing. Makes for some cool memories.

Framing (early October)

Drywalled and cabinets in (November)

Final walk-through (December)

My husband, Page, is a web designer “by day” but also runs a freelance design business out of our home that has (knock on wood) been busier than ever in 2011. Workflow doesn’t slow and deadlines don’t disappear just because you’re moving to a new home, so getting him set up and productive again was at the top of the to-do list after we closed.

He is really excited about this space (which is quickly becoming an office/man cave) and I’m really excited FOR him. Finally, he has a place to shut the door and do whatever he needs to do to make the web magic happen – be it blaring some music, taking a brain break with the Xbox, making phone calls to clients, or hunching over pages of coding.

So here are the quick iPhone “before shots” from the night we closed…you’ll notice he already has the ladder in there to get to painting and the door off the hinges in anticipation of fitting a new couch through the frame.

He wanted to go darker with the color in here and chose a color, “Storm”, that is several shades darker than our color throughout the rest of the house. I like the drama it adds to the room. He ordered some blinds for the window and added a rod and curtains.

The first couch he ordered to put in here just BARELY wouldn’t fit through the door frame, so back it went and option 2 turned out to be just as awesome.

Some green Crate & Barrel pillows and some organization from IKEA brought in his favorite color, and a new Expedit shelf now houses his books, files, and vinyl collection. The dude is ALL about lighting, so a few cool lamps rounded out the vibe.

Black Friday brought a “couldn’t pass up” deal on the TV that can double as an extra-large monitor when needed.

And what’s a good work space without some tunes? After inheriting these Polk speakers from my dad, my only contribution to this room was to paint the previously oak finish the same color as his walls…he did everything else!

Page is constantly scribbling out bits of code and navigation ideas for his clients’ sites, so these three “notice boards” from IKEA were a great addition for him – and a little more modern than a traditional whiteboard.

My favorite part of this room though might be the closet that keeps all of his ski/golf/sports gear all out of sight. 🙂 Can’t wait to see the next web creations that come out of this room!

The best gift I got this Christmas? It has been the gift of calm and contentment. When my parents offered to drive our way for Christmas this year, we jumped at the chance – not only did it mean less driving on a particularly busy holiday week, but it was the extra push we needed to knock out the remaining “to do” items around the house. It was so great to have the bustle of people around the house, and to have more space for them than in years past. I found myself so many times just sitting on our couch, relishing the merriment and that there were more than five consecutive minutes I could sit on the couch and relax! There is still some decorating left to be done, but the basics were all accomplished. There was nothing left to hang, nothing left to unpack, and no more projects on the “to do” list (well, until January, anyway). After weeks of living in craziness, it was so lovely to be able to clean, put away, and then indulge in our new space with loved ones. And RELAX. And aside from glitter getting everywhere (Page’s pet peeve for years lol) – we did just that.

Week 10 is complete…and the house is nearly complete as well. I was flipping through previous weeks’ posts and it was fun to see the progress in pictures. It’s hard to believe we will take one more “finished” photo next weekend before we close! Here’s a peek back at the past nine weeks…

During this weeks’ progress, our pillar has been built on the front patio and the stone to be added to it and the front of the house is in that pile you see on the driveway. Most of the sod has been planted, and if you squint (ha!) you can see one of two tiny sticks (aka trees) in our front yard. Because so many contractors have to come and go, the front door paint is the very last thing they’ll do…can’t wait to see it finally turn green! 🙂

Inside the house, the carpet has gone in, tile has been finished up, appliances have been delivered and the lights work and the water runs. A cleaning crew has been through (thankfully!!), and we’ll do final walk-throughs with both an inspector and the builder to cite any touch-ups this coming week. Assuming all goes as scheduled (fingers crossed, saying prayers!) we’ll turn our very own key in the lock a week from Thursday.

Just like that. Surreal!

It has been quite a journey and while the last three months have flown by, it also seems we’ve been immersed in this project forever! It’s crazy to think that less than ninety days ago, we were standing on what would become our lot, feeling almost out-of-body as our realtor negotiated away on his cell phone as we tried to close the deal. We sat at our kitchen table into the early morning hours that night writing up our offer and purchase agreement and within 24 hours the experience had begun.

We’ve learned a lot, and there are a couple things we might approach differently, but overall we have no major regrets and would do this all over again without hesitation. I overuse the word experience lately when referring to this build, but that’s exactly what it has been. It was an endeavor neither of us had taken on before and we have been in a head-on crash course and loving ALMOST every minute of it. 🙂

I look forward to posting some pics of moving weekend, an excursion to Ikea for the long-and-still-growing list of needs, and eventually some “before” pics of each room (because you KNOW there are projects to come once we get our foot in the door…did someone say “built in bookcases”?) Thanks for all the facebook replies and comments – we’re awfully excited and can’t wait to share more as our life in this house unfolds.

Yes, I’ve been absent from Blog World lately…and now I can reveal why! As of last Thursday (laaaate at night) Page and I wrote an offer on a house! It was accepted Friday morning and as of tonight, we signed all the details to break ground on Casa de Smith and plan to be in just before Christmas.

It’s all still sort of setting in – and the whole process has been quite a journey. When we began to just talk about “maybe” starting to look, we wanted something we could be in and out of in 3, MAYBE 5 years, and we were very frugal (bordering on ridiculously so) with our price range.

We looked at a lot of houses but ultimately, we felt that we’ve already been living in our “starter home” for three years (we just rented it rather than owned it) and ultimately, for us, it made sense to take the next step and plan on something we could be in for up to ten years, comfortably. Looking at the seller’s market now and in the near future, coupled with our desire to really build a home and put down roots for a while, made us open up our range of possibilities quite a bit.

With a new, longer-term, plan in mind, there are so many unknowns that you have to plan for – if kids should enter the picture, if we should need more work from home space, etc – and finding a house that could accommodate these “growing pains” and stay in our price comfort zone certainly narrowed down the search. We looked at several houses, eager to take on remodeling projects and make them “ours” but there was always some big thing we just couldn’t do – or could, but it would price us right out of the market. We were definitely in love with more than one house along the way – but either the location made it a no-go, or the neighborhood surrounding it, or in the final case, the city wouldn’t allow us to do what we would need to do, structurally, to make the house work for us. I’m a big believer in the fact that roadblocks aren’t roadblocks at all – they’re just guiding you another way to your final destination. I’m 110% confident that the house we are getting ready to build has been THE house for us from the start – we just didn’t know it yet. I know there’s a connotation with building “whoa..you’re going to BUILD your first house?” – let’s be clear, there is DEFINITELY a budget! Ha! Our jobs keep us on the west side of town, one that is booming with construction, so there is a great variety in building options for different price ranges. Our builder is fantastic, and just as with any traditional home seller, there are perks in a buyer’s market and we are reaping some benefits that we may not get should we ever build again in the future. In short, the stars aligned, the house fit the needs, and the value for our dollar was just too good to pass up.

When we started this whole process, I don’t think building was even on our radar…but now that it’s come to be the path for us, we’re so excited for the experience that awaits us. I’m still getting my head around the fact that we will literally watch our house appear out of the ground and come to be right before our eyes. Pretty cool. 🙂

The hardest part of building is that you can’t stand in your house and have that fun moment of “oh my god, this is our house!” – the end product exists only in our imaginations at this point, but I kind of love that. I like the anticipation. We did multiple walk-throughs of an almost identical floor plan, but even then, the colors/finishes are completely different, the neighborhood is all wrong, and it’s just not quite the same. It’s also not helpful when you’re trying to share your fun news!! So…in an effort to give you a sneak peek (as much as I can)…I’ll combine some pics from our builder’s other homes, and some Pinterest inspiration photos we took to our specs meeting, and give you a glimpse of what’s to come….and I plan on copying my former coworker Deb’s idea of taking a photo every week to show the progress. So clever!

So put on your visualization goggles. Without further ado, more or less, here’s a kinda-sorta look, but you’ll still have to imagine quite a bit, glimpse at our house. 🙂

This next picture very much resembles the entryway – if that sliding barn door room off to the left weren’t there. Pretend that’s just hallway…and on the right side (out of the frame) are two doors – one to a half bath (we chose grey tile floors and a pedestal sink which I’m silly excited about) and the other door leads to the basement.

This was our kitchen inspiration photo for the specs meeting. Everything key is here…the granite is very similar, the cabinets (although the elevations will be staggered), the stainless appliances (my one and only must-have request was running a gas line for a spider burner stove!) and the dark wood floors.

Across from the kitchen will be a living room…a VERY hastily-photoshopped picture (originally from another listing by our builder) is below – picture the wood floors running into this room, a green accent wall, and eventually a built-in bookcase on either side of the fireplace/tv.

Where these two rooms meet, at the back of the house directly from the front door will be a door to the walkout deck. We chose to expand the size of the deck a bit since the floor plan doesn’t have a formal, separate dining room. We figured for at least three seasons of the year, we can seat enough people on our deck if we want to host a big dining get-together. Because our lot is a daylight lot (elevated), there will be stairs leading from the deck down to the yard where we opted to add a concrete pad. Keep in mind, this is all for a ten year plan…for now, it’s a patio – someday we hope it’s hot tub central. 🙂 Here’s a neighboring house by the same builder — our deck will be sort of like this in style/size, but this is an example of a daylight lot and how the stairs come down.

Our default colors throughout are a grey wall color slightly lighter than the one shown here and white trim. The floor color here is just a hair lighter than ours.

As for the rest of the house, there will be four bedrooms and two baths upstairs, as well as upstairs laundry. We opted to leave the basement unfinished for now, but are already dreaming up how we want to finish the space with a den area, half bath, and wet bar. While it’s fun to just pick options and let someone else do the heavy lifting, we are itching a bit to put some of our own sweat equity in and own some of the final product (plus it’s certainly a money saver to do some work yourself!). Finishing the basement and landscaping the outside will be our two big “make it our own” projects in the coming year or so.

I haven’t even really gotten to the second floor in my mind. The layout is wonderful and there will be plenty of space for our home offices and a room to spare for guests (That’s your cue! Come visit!!)…another post another time on decorating ideas for those rooms…

I leave you with some pics of our lot – since that’s all we really have at this point! These were taken the night we wrote our offer. The photo taken from a construction site is from a house two doors up the street that is clearly further along than ours, but gives an idea of our view out the back of the house. We found out tonight that the house across from us just sold to “a really fun couple” and that the lot on the other side of us (one of the few left on the whole street) will most likely sell this week to a couple who are expecting. Woo hoo for good neighbors!

So there you have it – for now! While I’m looking forward to all that is to come, I’m also relieved to have the search behind us, a plan going forward, and a finish line in sight. Now that things are underway, I’m hoping to get back to some “regularly scheduled programming” and catch up on my blogging about everything else that has been going on!