Sharing the 7 Principles of Interior Design
Read More#36 Window Box Planters
This warmer weather has us thinking that spring might be here to stay. Or is it too soon to put away the snow shovel? It really is hard to know what Mother Nature will send your way when you live in Wisconsin. Nonetheless, we are crossing our fingers and hoping for spring, mostly so we can start designing our flower boxes!
We created a Pinterest board with our favorite flower box ideas and color palettes. You can take a look at it to get some inspiration for your own home, and to see what we are loving this year.
A wonderful mix repeating the purple from the sage
A more formal approach with pops of red
An informal mix of purple and magenta
A brighter choice with magenta
We are torn between a whimsical and natural looking “wild flower” assortment, and a more-tailored arrangement of blooms. We think we have a favorite, but we are hoping to hear from our followers on which look they like the best. You can head over to our Instagram page to help us decide!
It is really reassuring that we can change the look of our landscaping up each year so we don’t need to stress out about permanence. Whatever we end up with, we will make sure to repeat the floral groupings at the front porch in a planter, to balance the home and to carry over the colors and texture of the botanicals from our window boxes. This is a fun project that we looking forward to taking on in the next few weeks. Here’s hoping for spring!
#31 Kitchen After Photos
The location is great. It’s proximity to the garage makes carrying in the grocery bags a short trip. It’s right off of the foyer and serves as a welcoming place for guests to gather. Last but not least, it’s close to the patio for grilling out.
We really are enjoying the semi-openess to the dining area. It is nice not being able to see the mess involved in food prep while we’re sitting down to a meal.
The arch top window is a nice balance to all of the straight lines. This area with the dishwasher on the right and the garbage on the left is highly used and we’re happy to report it is very efficient. The spacing between the perimeter and the island is perfect. We love the farmhouse style sink too! The maintenance is less than we expected based on reading reviews. Whew!
We really like having all of the appliances and the sink on the perimeter. It leaves a nice open countertop at the island for eating, working, and gathering. We really like having the microwave in the pantry too. Now if we could just install an automadically closing pantry door…that would be perfection!
The countertop was a difficult decision. One of the last, in fact. We both love it. We love the minimal pattern and the brightness of it. It doesn’t need constant wiping to look nice either. Crumbs don’t stick out like a sore thumb.
We went with brass finishes and we really like the warmth of it with all of the white. A mix of traditional and modern lines keeps things balanced.
Below is a look back at the process and how it all started with some sketches, renderings, and product selection. Many choices changed through the process but take a look at the SHOP OUR HOUSE page to see the final selections.
Sketch
Renderings
Products
Progress
#28 Building a House: Frequently Asked Questions 2.0
Thank you SO much for your interest in our project. Whether you're interested in having a custom home built, considering a remodel, or have a decorating project, we REALLY hope you find the blog helpful. We've been asked some excellent questions over the past year. We thought we'd share a few of those with everyone.
1. How long does it take?
For us, it took 7 months.
2. There are so many decisions to make, how did you decide to do what you did?
Our education and experience helps - no doubt! But, there's more to the building process than interior design and flooring. Over the past 15 years, we have been careful listeners and observers and we've used that to cultivate our own list of wants and needs. That includes listening to our clients as well as the professionals we work with. We also utilize resources online (houzz, Pinterest, blogs, etc) and use images to inspire our own ideas. We also love a good home and garden TV show. We've actually learned a lot from This Old House and it's good family entertainment. We love walking into the house during construction and saying, "Wow, that is so cool!" when we we get to see some of our ideas finally put in place.
3. With all of the work that you have done in preparation, has everything been seamless?
No. We make regular (daily) trips to the house to check on progress and make sure that all of the details are being done to our specifications. There have definitely been some “slap the forehead” moments and definitely some “tear up and re-do’s” but we are very happy with the outcome in those situations and the way that they have been handled by the people we are working with. If you want seamless, a custom house is not for you!
4. Did you enjoy going over to check on progress?
Yes!!! Most definitely. However, building a home is like having another job that you aren’t getting paid for. With all the planning, site visits, decisions, electrical walk through, HVAC walk through, cabinets, countertops, flooring (Ha Ha), lumber, doors, windows, on and on and on…….. You have to commit yourself to some late nights and full weekends. Even 2 professionals like us can suffer some burnout (not to mention the poor kiddo, thank goodness for some well-placed tech-time #Ithinkweregoingtobeoverondatathismonthagain).
5. How did you deal with ...(insert whatever you want)?
Knowing that not every decision you make in prep is going to work the way you want it to and being able to move past that is paramount to making the home building experience a good one.
Every contractor that works in our home has an opinion on how things should be done. We always listen because his/her experience can definitely lead us in the right direction; however, we also need to trust our instincts. We spent a lot of time thinking through the decisions we're making so we recognize the value in that too.
Thanks again for your interest. If you have any other questions you'd like answered, be sure to send them our way and we'll be sure to answer them in another post!
Moving Day!
Whew... moving is hard work! We're getting more settled as the days go by and LOVING our new digs!
Construction is behind schedule so the contractors worked hard to get us a temporary occupancy permit. We sold our previous home and we needed to move! There is still some interior work to be done and lots of exterior work to be done. We appreciate not having to move to a temporary home though.
Here's a gallery of pictures taken by Liz Schaefer just as we're starting to move our things in.
A special thank you to all of our heavy lifters and packers - you guys rocked!
We can't wait to share more pictures of our home after each room is completed. Our daughter settled right into the art room. It has one of the best views in the home!
#18 Building a House: Frequently Asked Questions
Thank you SO much for your interest in our project. Whether you're interested in having a custom home built, considering a remodel, or have a decorating project, we REALLY hope you find the blog helpful. We've been asked some excellent questions over the past five months. We thought we'd share a few of those with everyone.
1. When are you moving in?
This is a question that makes us both laugh because you'd think we could answer at this point, but the truth is we're not sure yet. Our builder has given us a completion date for the house (early May) but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re moving in then. We need to coordinate the sale of our current home. We do know it's getting closer and we're getting excited! Construction began in October so the actual building of our home will take approximately 6 1/2 months.
2. There are so many decisions to make, how did you decide to do what you did?
Our education and experience helps - no doubt! But, there's more to the building process than interior design and flooring. Over the past 15 years, we have been careful listeners and observers and we've used that to cultivate our own list of wants and needs. That includes listening to our clients as well as the professionals we work with. We also utilize resources online (houzz, Pinterest, blogs, etc) and use images to inspire our own ideas. We also love a good home and garden TV show. We've actually learned a lot from This Old House and it's good family entertainment. We love walking into the house during construction and saying, "Wow, that is so cool!" when we we get to see some of our ideas finally put in place.
3. With all of the work that you have done in preparation, has everything been seamless?
No. We make regular (daily) trips to the house to check on progress and make sure that all of the details are being done to our specifications. There have definitely been some “slap the forehead” moments and definitely some “tear up and re-do’s” but we are very happy with the outcome in those situations and the way that they have been handled by the people we are working with. If you want seamless, a custom house is not for you!
4. Do you enjoy going over to check on progress?
Yes!!! Most definitely. However, building a home is like having another job that you aren’t getting paid for. With all the planning, site visits, decisions, electrical walk through, HVAC walk through, cabinets, countertops, flooring (Ha Ha), lumber, doors, windows, on and on and on…….. You have to commit yourself to some late nights and full weekends. Even 2 professionals like us can suffer some burnout (not to mention the poor kiddo, thank goodness for some well-placed tech-time #Ithinkweregoingtobeoverondatathismonthagain).
5. How do you deal with ...(insert whatever you want)?
Knowing that not every decision you make in prep is going to work the way you want it to and being able to move past that is paramount to making the home building experience a good one.
Every contractor that works in our home has an opinion on how things should be done. We always listen because his/her experience can definitely lead us in the right direction; however, we also need to trust our instincts. We spent a lot of time thinking through the decisions we're making so we recognize the value in that too.
Thanks again for your interest. If you have any other questions you'd like answered, be sure to send them our way and we'll be sure to answer them in another post!
#8 Architectural Elevations
Back in post #4 we shared our daughter's house plan. If you squint really hard at this elevation drawing, you can see the porthole for the submarine she drew. Or, maybe it's just a really cool round window pouring light into our mudroom.
It was extremely important to us that we had clean roof lines on our new home, we love good curb appeal. We used the dormers (windows projecting from the roof) over the garage and house to break up each roof and we used a barrel arch over our front door to create a unique entry area. We absolutely love how it looks.
Angie worked tirelessly with the architect to make sure that the top roof line of the house and the garage were at exactly the same height and, from the front of the house, the roof over the entry hides the roof over the screen porch. If you run a vertical line through the center of the garage or house, you have two equal halves. Symmetry is really important to our vision, as it adds a sense of order and feeling of ease. The outer design gives us some major curb appeal and we couldn't be happier with the view from the road!
Front Elevation
Rear Elevation
On the back side, we have an incredible view that stretches out over miles and miles. We needed to make sure that when an opportunity to sit back and relax presented itself, we could truly enjoy the view. The large windows and screen porch offer many spaces and opportunities to relish the endless view.
Though it may seem obvious - We can't wait to get into this place! Talking about it gets us excited, each and every time!
Happy new year to you and yours and here's to a fabulous 2018 for all of us!