Someday House Update

So many of you are interested in our house planning and building process.  It has been forever since we started the process and we are still months away from digging a hole.  Not to despair, however, because we are (finally) moving right along.

After our initial meeting with our architect, we had some financial surprises that forced us to wait to begin planning in earnest until September.  We got our first drawings in October and started working out kinks throughout November.  We paused movement during the month of December because I felt like I needed to "live" with the plans for a while before making final decisions.

We didn't change a ton of things from the original drawings John rendered.  There were a few major moves, like the stairs, but mostly it was tiny tweaking to satisfy my tastes.  (Okay, most of it was pet peeves I've had to live with over the years and refuse to build into a new house--things such as being about to see the sink full of dishes from the front door, too narrow spaces making me constantly have bruised hips, or dark and dreary laundry rooms.  If we get to plan things, I'm going to nudge a wall this way a bit, put a window in here, or stretch that hallway a smidge.)

January was spent exchanging emails.  I am notorious for taking forever to make a decision, then second guessing forever.  I have REALLY tried to be decisive and to then put that decision behind me.  Oh, man, that is hard for me!  Justin and I have been married long enough that we pretty much know each other's tastes and have a good system of making united decisions.  (I mean, any two people who can agree on the names of seven children definitely have practice in that arena!)

We now have floor plans and elevations of our Someday House.  I have been carrying them around everywhere.  Justin even warned that the paper was going to disintegrate in my hand if I didn't put them down sometimes.  :)  I'm so pleased with them.  The house does not look like The Seven Dwarfs Cottage.  John sketched me a house that looked that way, but in the end it was too dang expensive.  The final plans represent several compromises (no fireplace in my bedroom--so sad), but we would rather have made some compromises and have the funds to leave it sometimes!  I'd hate to spend so much on the house that we could never go on vacation!

So, no, it doesn't look like it would fit in in Fantasy Land, but they are still beautiful and efficient.

I'd love to post the plans here, but that somehow feels illegal . . . or unprofessional . . . or something.

You can imagine how excited I was when John mentioned in a recent email that it was time to choose siding and begin choosing other materials (roofing, doors and windows) over the next couple of weeks.  Over the next couple of months we get to begin picking flooring, banisters, finish colors, and so on.  Guess what I've been filling my insomniac hours with!

PINNING!

Mud room floor?  Good for snow and mud.

Master bathroom floor.

Stair railing.

Possible exterior finishes.

  Hooray!  It is coming along!