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!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
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:
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!
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