Building Our Nest {House Update}

It looks like we are in the final stretch(or at least the bank says so since our construction loan matures 9/25).  We tested paint this weekend, spent an hour and a half at Home Depot picking all the lighting, Kevin spent last Sunday picking up our laminate flooring and moving it, we picked our granite, finally settled the kitchen design, and we signed our loan submission papers for the end loan.  We still have to pick tile for the bathrooms, settle on a master bedroom paint color, pick carpet for the bedrooms, and I really need to get to sewing the window coverings I have planned!! Enjoy the rough video!! My narration got lost...

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Building Our Nest {House Progress}

Some friends pointed out to me that I hadn't really updated with the house in a long time. Which is true, it was a foundation and walls for a long time but here is some of the pictures... This is looking from our backyard, there will be french type doors from the master and the eat in kitchen onto the patio.  One of the things that took so long in framing out our house was the amount of windows we had.  The blocks had to be fitted around and then framed out before they could fill in with cement. 

Our house is being built with a product called Fox Blocks, this is what they look like in a cross section--they are then filled with cement, making the house very energy efficient!
  one of our major splurges was putting in in floor heat throughout the whole house.  But after a winter of below 0 temps for a month or so, it is worth it.  This is the view from the front door of the tubing being laid in--then cement over the whole thing and then they can start the roof and interior!
  This is a view looking at our master, a french door, a large window, and then windows flanking and above the bed. And Elle proudly carrying a fox block around.
  This shows most of the back patio(and Kevin's shadow), the retaining wall we plan to make into some sort of seating bench type thing for when we entertain.  We put it close to the house instead of further back to define that space, then we have a ton of area for grass and possibly a gazebo type set up.

We have also chosen and ordered windows--again emphasis on the energy efficiency! They have a Sun Smart coating and in some we got a prairie style grid installed.  The bathrooms will have frosted obscure windows. 14 windows in all. And we want to get some solar tubes in the laundry room and guest 1/2 bath where there is no windows.

 I am still pinning like crazy and collecting paint chip after paint chip...

Building our Nest {Update 2}

My hubby has been taking pictures as the walls have gone up and the floor has been put down and the garage laid out. And as we start to make decisions--the windows are ordered

and our door has been chosen.

Feathering Our Nest {Kitchen Inspiration}

The house is coming along and we are almost to the fun part of designing the inside of our home. Our kitchen is an open airy space connecting to our Great Room and our patio and the room we know we will be in a lot. We have 2 pretty different ideas of designing it...

Kevin's Ideas--warm wood tones, pendant lighting, and a warm beige tone on the walls--inspired by a picture in Consumer Reports

Amy's Idea's--white cabinets, dark wood floors, gray paint, and bright fabric(orange or turquoise at this point) Inspired by this Pin

Building Our Nest {update 1}

So we are building a house!! We have been "starting" this process for awehile.  We bought our lot after many trips to look at land and measuring land and looking at loans and closed in February.  Since then we have been finalizing plans and finalizing loans and signing our names a BAJILLION times.  Here is our floor plan. Very open and hopefully very bright. I know it is not the best rendering but its what I have got.  And here are some pictures of the developments so far. 

And now onto the BILLIONS of decisions to be made...

Pinterest to Reality {Spice Rack Bookshelves}

ohhdeedoh via pinterest

Reality:

we love them! I had my sister buy me 6 and we only hung 2 due to our space and we also found that in order to pull books out you have to have a significant amount of space between them and she isn't that tall yet. And they are like 4 bucks a piece!
because this is a frequent sight at our house--now she can find books easily and her favorites are in easy access. And yes my 18 month old still fits in her Bumpo chair and loves to sit in it.

And when we build our dream house and have a family room like this

source

part of the walls will be our book display using these shelves!

House Hunting Disapointment

So I blogged about the beginning of our house hunting adventure here. Well we found a house, exactly what we wanted and for a great price. It seemed too good to be true. We knew there were multiple offers but we still thought ours would win.(You should know I get emotionally invested easily). Well it didn't. There was an all cash offer, which we can't compete with. After our realtor called and told me and then said I know there is a better one out there for you, I still cried. And cried. And was bummed the whole evening(and truthfully still bummed). It may have been compounded by Grandmaster Bass neighbors blasting their music which meant Elle did not get a good nap and neither did mommy. (I am scared of them now so I didn't go down and ask them to turn it down--apartment life is getting old).

I know that things don't work out the first time and I know there may be a better house out there. But it is kind of like when I was waiting for Kevin to propose. I "knew" it was going to happen, but every birthday or holiday or anniversary that went by with no ring was hard. It is kind of like when we were trying to have Elle and seeing the negative tests, we knew it would happen eventually but it is still disappointing each time you see no. And of course in both these cases, things worked out. I wish I could be as confident as our realtor and friends, who say your house is still out there; but I am not there yet. I need a little more time to mope. On the plus side, I didn't turn to ice cream or chocolate to mope!

House Hunting

I am sure I am not the first to make this comparison, but house hunting is a lot like dating.

You do your research, you look at tons of "profiles" and pictures or you have someone do that for you like a matchmaker. We have been lucky to find a great one, I emailed her all our little things we look for and look to avoid and she would point them out when we look at houses.

You figure out your dealbreakers and your "can live withs". For us, the dealbreaker is space and openness(much like height was for me in dating--hey I am a tall girl and I don't live in flats!). It is really important that our house feel open and have space--we want to always be a part of the action even when we are in the kitchen. We also want space for all our stuff--our living room has become toy central and there is nowhere else to put it--in fact we have a storage unit and use Elle's room as a storage stash(because she is too young to care). We are learning things we can live with as we start to look at houses.

We are finding in our area, alot of short sales. Which we are learning are anything but "short" timeline wise. It must be due to the oil and gas boom and bust cycles in our area.

I guess we continue to date around awhile before we really find "the one." We are definitely ready to settle down and spread out, so wish us luck!

A new obsession

Do you have a Pinterest account?
I do. For years I have kept binders of inspiration pictures, bookmarked sites, and starred blog posts that had ideas for someday, but this is so much better! You "pin" pictures you love and it creates a virtual inspiration board with the links!

I have boards for style, for our someday home, for the elle belle,and a couple more.

You can follow people and repin thinsg you like, I admit I get on several times a day and pin around.
You can follow me if you want...if you need an invite, let me know.

Blog Challenge: Day 16

DREAM HOUSE