Thursday, March 21, 2013

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:


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

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!