First Official Delay?

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we are in the midst of our very first delay! 

One of the items that I felt very strongly about that we addressed recently with our architect was regarding a step out of our back door on to the patio. As drawn, there would be one step out of the back door down to the patio. I am really hoping that we use the patio and outdoor space as an extension of the living area of our home, so that step was majorly worrying me. It was so easy for me to picture people tripping going in and out of the house. So, I asked our architect to raise the patio to get rid of the step. We were ok with that making the ceiling a little lower- to us, it was worth it to remove the fall risk.

What we didn't realize was that changing the height on that patio meant contacting the structural engineer again. We are currently waiting to hear back from him, and our original hope of sending out the plans for bidding April 1st has obviously been put on hold. 

So, we wait!

And so it begins....

Last night we met with our architect, and today we got about 6 different emails from him asking us what direction we want to go regarding certain topics. Thankfully they were pretty easy design decisions. Today we decided:

- The crown molding style
- Door/window trim style
- Ceiling fan removal on front porch
- Retain exhaust fan in master bath
- Counter type in kid's bathroom
- Window type
- Base board style

All of that on our first real day! So far we are so thrilled with the vision- we can't wait until it is a reality!


Crown molding:

Window trim/base boards:

Here we go!

We are a little more than three months away from our tenant moving out, which means it is time to start getting serious about our remodel! Tonight we met with our architect for the first time in almost 5 months and discussed with him all of the things we have been mulling over during the break. The bad news is that we added at least $20K in things we want, but the good news is that we were able to increase our budget by putting off the remodel for a bit. Now it's looking like in addition to the kitchen remodel, master addition, second floor addition (2 beds/1 bath/ game room/ laundry) we are going to try to do a first floor bathroom remodel, refresh the second bedroom on the first floor, and screen in the porch. Yay! Now the whole house will be fresh and new, with tons of great spaces for our family.

It was a great meeting, and while it got our heads spinning with all of the decisions we are going to have to make in the near future (door knob styles? 1 vs. 2 lights over our large dining room table? etc.) it got us very excited to get this process started and it also alleviated a few worries we'd been having about the plans (like adding a skylight in the stairway so it won't be a dark, interior space).

We've been hearing rumors lately about the permitting process in Austin taking up to 6 months, so we better get cracking! As soon as our tenant moves out we will be paying two mortgages until the construction is done- eek!

No Rush

The great thing about having a tenant in the house is that we don't feel a huge rush to get going with construction. In fact, we recently decided to extend our tenant's lease another 6 months since things are working out so well with him. Technically speaking, the house doesn't need to be finished until it is time for the kids to go to kindergarten (so they can go to the good school there) so we have a little bit of time before we really need to start construction.

Things are still chugging along, though! Right now we are waiting on plans from the structural engineer and then I think the architectural phase will be pretty much complete! I guess we'll just sit on the plans for a little bit until it is time to pick a builder. This blog might be a little dead until that time, but check back in a few months when we start going down the road to choose a builder and start picking out everything for our dream house!

Last Minute Changes

What do you do when your architect tells you he is 98% done with the plans? Well, ask to change something, of course!

It recently occurred to me that the way the plans were drawn, our staircase would basically be just a hole in the wall between the dining room and kitchen. No fancy railing, no cool architectural details. The more I thought about it, the more it bugged me. The staircase already won't be very "cool"- since it is located in the middle of the house there won't be a whole lot of light because there won't be any windows in it. Thankfully there will be a window at the top of the stairs and a hanging light fixture on the landing, but I really wanted some pretty detail.

Luckily our architect is awesome! Despite being 98% done with the plans, and despite having to move the refrigerator over a foot and reduce the counter space by a foot, he was able to make it a little more open and add in a couple exposed stairs at the bottom. We'll also have some exposed railing "after the turn" and with the newly exposed steps, it should look fabulous! It will look similar to this photo of a house he did in the past:

*Incidentally we also really love the cabinets in this kitchen and the counters, lighting and drawer pulls! 

The next step is getting a structural engineer involved (they are meeting on Thursday!) and then we will send the plans out for bids! This feels a little bit more real each time we see a new plan or talk about specifics. Crazy to think we will most likely be all settled in by this time next year!

Moving Along

Things are moving along with the plans for the house. It's starting to feel so real! We got a bunch of drawings today. Wanna see our gorgeous island??

I seriously can't wait to bake with the kids at this thing, or gather with loved ones around it during the holidays... :) The design was definitely a collaborative effort.  I really wanted the island to feel like a beautiful piece of furniture in our kitchen! It is going to be such a functional space for our family. We're excited to have a large area underneath for our appliances. Right now they are all shoved into a random cabinet, but it will be so convenient to have them all so easily accessible. Now the question is- keep it white to match the cabinets, go with a contrasting darker color, or paint it a subtle grey?? So many options!

Speaking of options, we've been discussing revamping the columns on the front of the house. Here's how it looks now:

Cute, but a little bit weak. We couldn't decide if we wanted to just make them thicker, or make them a little fancier and go with something tapered to match the more "craftsman" style of the home. Here's what our architect came up with:

We like the look of the tapered! We think it gives it a little more pizzaz and character. You may notice we also changed the look of the siding a bit. All around the house will be Hardieplank siding, with hardieshingles in the gables (the triangle parts of the roof :) )  We haven't decided the color scheme yet, but that's just one of a hundred decision we will have to make!

Things Are Coming Together!

We've had a couple weeks of being on standby while our architect worked on the plans, and last night we got together with him to go over everything. Holy moly- we really are building a house! There were cabinet layouts, updated floor plans, lighting placement floor plans, foundation plans, exterior views etc. My eyes ended up glazing over after about 1.5 hours! The house is going to look awesome! Some of my favorite features include a built-in "Drop Zone" near the door for our jackets, keys, purses, backpacks etc. and our kitchen island! I can't wait to make Christmas cookies with the kids, and gather with family around this awesome island.

We have so many decisions to make in the next few months. Lighting fixtures, door styles, trim, carpet, handles, cabinets. Can't wait to see the finished product!