Well I want to post an update on the house and I think you will get the idea if I caption the photos properly. Hubby and I have done several remodels over the years and I have always enjoyed that process. When it came time to “design” our forever home it was really hard for me because there were no boundaries. For a girl who really likes to color outside the box I was surprised to learn that sometimes I like being in a box. When you are doing a remodel (on a budget) you have to keep in mind load bearing walls, where the plumbing is, incorporating the new with the old and having them blend nicely.
With the new home design I had a blank piece of paper – and I kept drawing perfectly square boxes and rectangles so I wasn’t getting any character. I realized I had to find a roofline I liked for a single story house and then I could tweak the floor plan (thanks to my friend Patty – for unknowingly pointing me in the right direction).
Hubby purchased a software program that he could use to show me what things would look like, including floor plan, fly overs and walk throughs – very cool stuff! And not terribly expensive.
For the next several months we worked on “our” floor plan. At one point I told hubby my quilt studio wasn’t big enough – he asked how much bigger I wanted it – I said “I don’t know – just bigger” So he worked with it and coincidentally when the quilt studio grew so did the garage for the house – maybe that is why I did not hear too much complaining from the peanut gallery when I asked for more space!
Then we started “interviewing” builders and I fell for Shay at Jimmy Jacobs Custom Homes. Shay was our sales person and from the get go she set our expectations that “No, you cannot build that house for the price you think you can!” She LISTENED to us and returned phone calls and emails – she is fabulous! Although she has left Jimmy Jacobs we are still friends!
We have another kink in our build process – we are 3 hours away from our build site – another reason we chose Jimmy Jacobs Custom Homes to build our home, we walked through numerous homes they were building in various states of construction and liked what we saw. As you know we poured concrete on April 17th (wow, in my mind I thought it was March 17th and was amazed by how quickly everything is going – it is actually going twice as fast as I thought!) and here is our project 5 weeks later on May 25th.
So enough gabbing from me – here are some photos……
To the left of the fireplace is my “wall” of windows, 3 windows that are each 3’x6′ and a set of french doors that are 6’x8′ that lead to the covered back porch.
Lots of duct work for this house and hubby, Mr. Engineer is VERY impressed with how much bracing and framing is holding that roof up! Regarding the HVAC – it will be nice when they have the correct furnace units up there, we determined this past weekend they ordered and installed electric units, our exhibits called for propane! Hopefully those are in stock and not special order!
The arch to the left leads to the master bedroom. The arch to the right is from the entry hallway.
The pantry is located just past the garage – very convenient for unloading groceries!
The pocket door is currently installed with the opening on the wrong side but that is a quick fix. I love love love this closet space! And next to the closet is the studio powder bath. As a quilter I love design walls, but I also love natural light and lots of it. When you get a tour of the studio you will see the doors are full glass, big windows in the corner of the room and then a high window, but tons and tons of design wall space. And the ceilings are over 11′ WOW!
What is the 1 thing your dream home must have?
Go out and make the most of this day! I will be teaching members of the Bay Area Quilt Guild how to make the Cactus Flower Table Runner!
Denise