well hello, second floor

We're posting a lot of pics on the photo stream we have going with family, but I realized the last picture I posted was barely a first floor. The builders finished the first floor framing, and then the house basically stood still for a few weeks - boo. 

The reason was that all manpower was getting pooled to our neighbor's house, which is now officially  closed! While they installed the carpeting upstairs, we were able to walk through it, which is the first time we've actually walked through a house by our builder. The floor plan is very different than ours, but our neighbor picked similar fixtures and house basics were wonderful to see in person since our house will have the same feel. We still love it, YAY! 

Here is our neighbor's house. We were impressed with the finishing touches, and have our fingers crossed ours will have much of the same - especially the magnolia tree. 

And here is our house after a few more weeks of work. It's massive and we are so So SO excited to see where is goes the next few weeks. The builder said he'll have a better timeline once the drywall is in, but as of now, things are still on track for completing the build at the end of October. Happy Halloween to us!

new hobby?

Well, maybe more correctly labeled resurrected hobby - attempt #2.

I've never really had hobbies. Was never a journal writer, [something interesting] collector, member of [interesting group], practiced [sport] player, etc. Does that sound dull? I don't mean it to come across like I do nothing, as there are plenty of things I enjoy that take up my time, but not much that really fell in the 'hobby' category. I don't know where the distinction lies, but recently I've gone a little hobby-mad.

I have many ideas up my sleeve, but the one I've dived into first was making cards. I love sending cards. Not the best letter writer, and it's a good day when I actually get cards out on time, but nevertheless, I love it. Getting stuff in the mail makes me smile, and I hope to make people's day better when they get something in the mail too. I like to keep a variety of cards on hand for multiple occasions and sentiments, but cards add up quick! So I pulled out some paper, glue, and scissors and got to work.

Here is attempt #1. And a blurry Dickens checking it out in the background.

I like the idea of this card, but in hindsight I think I should have stuck to solid colors instead of prints. The mix of patterns is fun, but it masks the message, and you have to hunt for it to read it. 

But hey, not bad for a first try, right?

the right stuff

We went through our selections! ... A few weeks ago... still struggling to keep up :)

One of the things we really like about our builder is that while our choices our limited, our choices are all high quality, so while we certainly not interior designers, everything is good looking to begin with.

I returned back a couple weeks early to snap pictures/learn of all the options we had, so we had plenty of time to Pinterest the hell out of things and discuss what we wanted. We thought we had a great plan coming in, but I was surprised at how much much we changed in the office, it makes such a difference laying everything out together!

Starting with the outside, the outside of our House will be Sherwin Williams's "Eider White" with black shutters. We opted to go white with the door rather than black in case we want to paint it a fun color down the road.

We hope it looks like something like this (thank you Pinterest and Google image search):

For our interior paint colors, we were given the choice of 2, in whatever rooms we wanted, in varying shades of grey and tan. Here were the options, along with floor and some cabinetry options (the blank one is Benjamin Moore's Moonshine).

We ended up going for Light French Gray and Sea Salt paint, Kona stained white oak floors, and a  neutral carpet.  I loved the "Sea Salt" for some interior rooms, and we were torn on the middle row for common rooms, but liked the way the French gray looked the best. Carpet was pretty much between brown tan, middle brown-tan, and variety brown-tan, so we went with what we thought would be neutral and hide dog hair the best - strategy!

All the bathrooms have the dark cabinetry and white top. The common ones have this neutral tile, and our master bathroom is a grey tile. The tile on the sides are the linings for the showers. The brown-ish tile was one that we had initially vetoed, but it ended up looking great with everything else we wanted (and we thought for a common bath it would hide dirt), so it ended up being the winner!

The color scheme of our kitchen: white cabinets, uba tuba granite (I may have been sold on name alone), white subway backsplash, and the paint and floors of the first floor.

Most hopeful it looks along these lines:

All the light fixtures and other selections were pretty standard and not super exciting, but we love them none the less! Now just patiently (ha!) waiting for the house to be built...

the right choice (we hope), part 2

It came down to two houses, and we saw the new build first. 

The builder was super nice. Its small, local builder who has begun a series of houses on our street, of which ours would be 6 of a proposed 7. We actually looked at another new build on the same street by a different builder, but it was small and cost more, so we were curious to hear what the differences were. He walked us through his plans, showed us some of the options, and lastly, the floor-plan.

It's HUGE! 3 finished bedrooms, with a 4th unfinished one we could use as storage, and convert later if we need to. The option of 2.5 bathrooms or 3 bathrooms (downstairs linen closet vs. shower), 2400 square feet. Hardwood first floor, carpeted second, tile bathrooms. Granite, stainless steel appliances, backsplash, and tiled showers all came standard. Pretty nice, right? In our budget, but still straddling the limit of what we wanted. Knowing we liked it, we asked a few immediate questions: Garage? $20k - nope! Can we lengthen the  driveway? Yes. Hardwood second floor? Yes, but it would cost a pretty penny. When would it be ready? Mid to late October. The builder also covers closing costs if we go with a preferred lender, which was big bonus for us given some past sticker-shock on closing costs. We were very interested, and told him to send the initial paperwork to look over. 

After meeting with the builder, we get a text from a friend living in the the OTP neighborhood we like, saying her other neighbor is putting her house up for sale (we put an offer on the first neighbor she told us about, House #1!). We were waiting on paperwork, so we decided to not put our eggs in one basket for once and keep looking just in case. 

The next morning, we had an appointment to see the place, and or friend in-the-know told us we were the first people to look. Again, could you ask for better potential neighbors?

It. Was. Beautiful. 

3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 1550 square feet. Gorgeous hardwood throughout the house, including the stairs which has a bull-nose trim on the steps. Granite countertops, gas fireplace, upgraded appliances, great paint, screened in back porch. The whole shabang. Detached garage they had finished on the inside, that was chock-full of stuff. The family had obviously outgrown the place, but we would have moved in with all their furniture and decorating choices as-is, it was just beautiful. The selling family was actually building a home, so the house would be available around the same time as the new build would.  Neither home solved our need-somewhere-to-live-immediately problem,  but, that's not a factor we wanted to include in the biggest purchase of our lives anyway. Icing on the cake? Significantly less than the new build, and pretty much spot-on with what we wanted to spend. Did I mention it was a very hard choice?

B, myself, and our realtor are standing in the middle of this beautiful house discussing what to do. We love them both! On one hand, we had the neighborhood we wanted from the park circle get-go: a beautiful house, in great condition, priced right. On the other hand, we had a great floor-plan for a brand new build that had the potential to be great.

I asked B what he was leaning towards, and he said he would be happy either way. At the end of the day we went with our gut... new build!

In the moment my logic was not nearly as laid out, but here are some of the things that went though my head.

	New Build	OTP House
First Impressions	Liked the abundant space, but also very intimidating - we don't have that much stuff! With the previous house falling through, loved that everything would be brand new, under warranty, and pretty much we were paying for what we would be getting. Open floor-plan, and living areas and master bedroom to drool over. No closing costs was nice, but price would empty our savings.	I would move in today if I could. Curb appeal, beautiful hardwoods and finishes, and what we were looking at buying when we first set our eyes upon Park Circle. Great price, and would be a lot more comfortable for us financially. The small bedrooms worried me, and while we're not outdoorsy by any means, I liked the idea of a yard for the dogs.
Floor Plan	I loved the idea of a bedroom on the first floor, and always have. The main floor floor was very open, and we were drooling over the storage.	Similarly, open first floor plan. The natural light was great, and the rooms could be repurposed easily if we wanted to do a study instead of formal dining, etc.
Living Space	Massive.	Cozy. Had a couch and armchair in there, but there wasn't room for much else. That being said, a fireplace was a big bonus.
Bedrooms	3, could be 4. Bedroom on the main floor was a big bonus.	3. 2nd bedroom was an adorable nursery, but tiny, and 3rd bedroom was also on the small side.
Bathrooms	3. We opted to have a full bathroom and bath on the first floor.	2.5 - half bath downstairs, and 2 full upstairs.
Master	HUGE. We could pretty much have a sitting room inside the bedroom. His and hers walk-in closets.	A good size (not too big, not too small - just right, says Goldilocks), but had a closet that couldn't accommodate 2. Bathrooms in both houses were pretty roomy and comparable.
Outside	The builder would sod the front and sides, and seed the back. It had a huge backyard that we could eventually fence, but didn't come fenced in. Big 12x12 front porch, but in the back we would just have stairs to the backyard. Since a garage was out of our budget, we discussed lengthening the driveway so we could pull to the back for the groceries, dogs, etc.	In a neighborhood, so the HOA would take care of the beautiful landscaping, which was awesome. We could potential fence in the backyard down the road, but it was small. and didn't leave much room for running around for the dogs (even though they don't really run much). Screened in back porch was heaven. Garage was a nice option for parking and storage.
In the long run	Our realtor gave us pretty good advice here. She referred to this home as a "10-year home". However, the area of Park Circle is very much in transition, so we would be taking a bigger risk.	This was a "5-year home". She pointed out that the current family had quickly outgrown the place. That being said, she said we would easily grow our investment with this home, given the neighborhood and relatively easy things we could do to grow the house worth.

So we made our choice - new build! An because I love a good to-scale floor-plan, here's a better look at what we got ourselves into. 

Progress!

The house getting built next to ours has been making moves over the last two weeks, while our house has become rather stagnant. Today, however, I did by daily drive-by after work to find... walls!!!

Glorious, wonderful, day - our framing has begun! It's amazing how much wood boards can excite me, but it's just great seeing the rooms start to take shape, where our windows will be, etc. It feels real, and it feels wonderful. We're hoping to meet with the builder at the end of the week to pick out all our stuff, but no set appointment, so I have a feeling it will get pushed back til next week.

We live close by, so we've been aiming to take a picture of the house almost everyday. At the end, the idea is to make a giant collage. I know everyday might seem like overkill, but we think it will be neat at the end to see periods where not much changed, and periods where huge changes happened day by day.

In the meantime, here's a few photos from the say we signed the papers, up until today. The first few are from the last 3 weeks. You'll notice not much change to our pile of cinder blocks and wood, but take a look at the house next to us and their garage.

And then came today. Look at those WALLS!

the right choice (we hope), part 1

Ok, so we put offers on the first two houses we ever looked at - maybe not the best idea. House #2 falling through put us in a bad place where we were scrambling to find a place to live. We looked at countless houses online, and visited 6 in person, before deciding to build. After seeing other houses, we felt great about our decision, and even in hindsight, felt better about the offers we put out, and even relieved that things worked out the way they did. 

Well, maybe not happy with how everything played out, but nevertheless, happy with the end result. Here is a brief history of what we saw, starting with the two I already mentioned.

House #1: The Quick Offer

3 bedrooms + bonus loft, 2.5 bathrooms, 1800 sq. ft. This house was the very first house we looked at, and we loved it. Built in Oak Terrace Preserve, a neighborhood we love, and next door to good friends, and with a lot of the upgrades we wanted. The third floor loft was additional space we weren't looking for, but liked immediately. Bedrooms all on the second floor, hardwood first floor and carpet everywhere else. We put in an offer, and got outbid.

What we liked: 

• The neighborhood, and even better, the neighbors!
• The first floor plan: nice and open with multiple spaces
• A loft that could become 4th bedroom
• Huge front porch, second porch off master bedroom, AND screened in back deck 
• Beautiful! Grey house, black shutters, gobs and gobs of curb appeal.
• Hardwood floors, granite countertops, and an overall 'green' home

Not-so-much:

• Master was big, but other bedrooms were rather small
• Top of our budget
• Little to no yard
• We would need to paint over everything

House #2: The one that went very far

3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1200 sq. ft. This was the serious house that we got pretty far with before it fell through. It's drastically different than the first one we put in offer on, but man, did it have CHARM. It was warm, welcoming, cozy, and under budget - win! We knew it was small, but it was equivalent to the rental houses we had lived in comfortably, and we though it would be a great first house. We put in an offer, beat out other offers, and went as far as we could go before the appraisal came back low and things crumbled. 

What we liked:

• Same quadrant as the previous house, and definitely a nicer area of Park circle
• Loved the open layout, and the fenced in backyard
• Hardwood great room and master bedroom
• For a small house, it had 7 closets and a garage, so tons of storage
•  We loved the idea of making it ours and slowly fixing it up over time

Not so much:

• Size. Was definitely a concern that we would outgrow the house faster than we could say "sold"
• While we loved the idea of fixing it up, we had a LOT we wanted to upgrade, and it was intimidating (not to mention, pricey)
• Backyard was fenced in, but would need a lot of work. 

After House #2 fell through, we looked... A LOT. We looked at countless houses online, made a lot of calls to houses we saw signs for (most already under contract), and kept our realtor busy. Here are a few houses we saw in person. 

2300 sq. ft. 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. This house was... strange. The sitting room was great, as was the master bedroom, but the house basically made no sense. The 5th bedroom was a converted garage and the 6th bedroom was a mother-in-law suite you could only access from the backyard. There was awkward half stairs and sharp turns, awkwardly shaped rooms, and in general and awkward layout. Is 3 awkwards too much? Also, no garage or driveway. A HUGE backyard, but this was definitely a "no" for us.

2100 sq. ft. 3 bedrooms + loft, 2.5 baths. This house had the exact same layout as the first house we saw and put an offer on. On a cul-de-sac, and across the street from an open park square in the Oak Terrace Preserve neighborhood. A decent sized yard, already fenced in. But, and a big but, was that is was WAY overpriced. Unlike the first house, this one was in bad shape, and if the first one was doable-out-of-budget, this one was a "no way".

1400 sq. ft. 4 bedrooms, 2 baths. For sale by owner, a couple who had bought the hose and remodeled to resell. The kitchen was pretty, but still not great, and similar to the other hose, it had a lot of awkward areas to it. Big fenced in yard, where there used to be a pool, but now stood a big tree, and circular filling 'path' (and a diving board, oddly enough). We passed. 

Then the two we loved. This was a hard Hard HARD choice, and even looking back, we are still surprised we made the choice we did in the end. That being said, I still think it was the right one for us.