Exterior Ideas

We are still stuck in the county! Those darn permits. Every day someone asks me if we have started digging yet and I have to reply, "No. Maybe next week." Ugh!

So let's talk exterior....

We live in the Mountains, so the exterior style needs to be Mountain Style,

but we love Modern, so we will have touches of Modern style on the Exterior as well.

It will also give a taste of what will be on the inside.

This is a hand drawing from our architect.

So much better then the computer drawings.

This is the rock we love.

This is the same home as above. We are trying to copy this home's exterior.

We like the dark windows and the browns, almost everything about this home...

minus the antlers.

Here is our window color.,. Chocolate! The interior will be white.

Found these lights at Lowes. I love them.

They will go by the front door and garage side door and on the back of the house too.

Still working on the front door. I am thinking about this door.

It is a midcentury style, but I like how it mimics the windows above the garage.

Love this entry door hardware.

Our garage doors, but we will paint them a dark brown.

Not sure about whether to do windows or not,

since we already have windows above the garage doors.

Same doors as above, just in real life.

Don't you love these numbers? Not sure where to put them, but I love them.

Living Room/Stairs Ideas

This pic below is to show what our living room Ceiling will be similar too.

It will be a little recessed and we haven't quite decided what detail to do with it.

It is just supposed to add a little formality to the living area.

This is the fan that will be in the middle of the above recessed area.

The modern globe pendant light below will be in the stairwell.

Kind of funky, but a good statement piece.

These are my dream stairs. We haven't looked into them yet,

so they might be out of our price range, but here's to hoping. I also love the grid wall.

We might do the grid wall on the living room ceiling.

The pic below is to give you an idea of what the north side of our living room will look like.

It will have a centered fireplace with flanking windows

and I would like to have bookcases on either side as well.

Have you ever looked through the pictures on www.houzz.com It is a lot like pinterest.

I can peruse it for hours. You can save idea pictures to your ideabook.

You can search through the pics by keywords to narrow your search.

Lots of very talented people out there with awesome ideas I can copy.

Kitchen Ideas

So, I wanted to share some of my ideas for the kitchen. Let me know what you think.

Kitchen Island Lights

The Quartz Countertop called Specchio by Hanstone. Supposed to be kid friendly, and it has flecks of glass and some green in it, which I like, but mostly white.

These are the floors. They are tile that look like wood.

This is my inspiration kitchen pic. I love the warmth of the wood with the pops of color.

It looks a little retro too.

This is my pic for the dining room light.

I love these bowls from WestElm. They are called modernist.

Backsplash color I like.

Trying to get it all to come together. Have any advice?

Larger Pics of Floor Plans

Building a Home

We are taking the plunge and building a home. Everything is taking twice as long as what we thought it would, so newbie builders beware. It is amazing how you feel like you need to be an expert on every aspect of the home building process, materials that will be used, picking out finishes, etc. It can be completely consuming. Still working on finding a balance.

Words of advice that we were told was to pick out everything beforehand, that way the bid you get from the contractors will be as close to the end price as you can get. Still plan for going over, but it won't be as much.

We have our contractor picked out and we have our plans into the county to get our permits. We hope to start digging in a week or so. Our goal is to have it done by the time school starts in August. We hope the home building doesn't take twice as long as everything else has, or we will be in trouble!

Site Plan. It is a downhill sloped lot.

Main Floor- 2000 sq feet, 3 car garage

Single Floor living so we can grow old in this house.

Basement Floor- 3 bedrooms/2 baths for our 5 children.

We chose to have radiant heat in the basement so it won't be the typical cold basement,

and our kids will want to hang out down there.

Front Elevation

Rear Elevation-

Lots of South facing windows that will let in the winter sun to keep us warm

and it is also the direction of the view of the mountains.

East Elevation

West Elevation