A house on paper

If you follow me on facebook you had a sneak peak of our house plans last week. I can say that receiving that email was the best thing to ever find it's way into my inbox. I poured over them for hours and have emailed them out to family and friends for feedback. I have copies on the nightstand and on the fridge so that when I have my mid-night and mid-dinner epiphanies I can quickly make changes. 

While I'm not able to share the whole plan with you just yet I will share with you our thoughts on the plan, our wish list and our changes thus far. 

So as I mentioned before we bought land on the most amazing road. It's not really a neighborhood. We won't have HOA fees or a fancy neighborhood pool. It's only one way in and one way out. It's an eclectic mix our houses. One side of the road is lake front while the other is lake view. Our house falls into the "lake view on a winter morning if you jump up and down and tilt your head just right" category. 

After we searched the internet for house plans and came up short we met with a builder who guided us into the direction of completely custom. He hooked us up with two potential architects and looking over their work and fees we went with the one that we felt was a good fit. 

Our consultation with him was simple. We discussed our wish-list including must-haves and must-nots and our budget for the project. 

Our wish list:

Open floor plan (with views of the one-day pool)

Efficient spaces 

Porch on front

Veranda on back

Storage!

Resource/Mud-room

3 Car garage

Exercise room 

Partial walk-out basement (since our land slopes)

Playroom (upstairs)

4 Bedrooms 

Master downstairs

Space for potential pool

Foyer (We don't have one now, and I grew up with one and miss the transition it gives you between the outside and inside)

Walk-in pantry

Downstairs guest suite (For aging guests)

Sink in the garage (For dog washing, car washing, dirt scrubbing in the winter)

Second small fridge in the pantry 

Our must nots (and why nots)

Formal living room (we wouldn't use it)

Formal dining room (ditto)

His/her closets (we don't own too many clothes... we're actually nudist. kidding)

Tray ceilings (not our thing)

2 story spaces (don't want to heat it) 

decorative columns (not us)

Excessively large bedrooms (don't want to vacuum them nor do we do much else there than sleep so we thought we'd keep them small cozy)

front-load garage (didn't want a house that was "all garage")

Excessive hallways (wasted space)

Frivolous moldings and trim (not us)

Niches or Plant shelves (not our thing)

While many people are perfectly comfortable and desire the items on our must-not list it's just not our style. We both wanted a space that seemed practical for our family. Aesthetically we wanted spaces that were understated, simple and somewhat primitive. 

When looking "designing" our dream home we kept a few things in mind. 

1. How will I clean it? And where will I store our cleaning supplies? Vacuum? Large supply of couponed stock pile items.
2. Where will we do laundry and place dirty clothes? Hello!? This pretty much runs our house now. 
3. Where will I store our computers, cell phones, printer, router, etc.? Where will our kids do homework? Where can we drop off our mail?
4. How will we enter the house? Where will shoes and coats end up? How can we organize these spaces? Where will guests enter? 
5. How can we easily take out the trash through the garage?
6. How can we keep the kid's toys at bay? 
7. If we're inside, how can I have a good view of the kids outside? 
8. How do I want to bring in the groceries on a weekly basis? 
9. How can we maximize our lot to block views of the neighbors but maximize the view of the lake and the woods behind the house? How do we utilize the slope of the property? 
10. How can we cut down on heating and cooling costs? 
11. What materials can we use that will wear nicely and stand the test of time? 
12. How can we guarantee that we aren't building anything trendy or that will be outdated (remember those uber modern houses of the 80s? Yeah, not so cool now...) in 20, 50, 60 years? 

Changes thus far: 

1. We've gotten rid of a few doors to open spaces up. 
2. We switched the layout of the pantry with the laundry room. This gave us a larger pantry to add a second fridge and moved it closer to the kitchen. Moving the laundry room also allowed for the plumbing to back up to the guest suite bathroom and in-turn cut down on plumbing costs. 
3. Added a window/skylight/sky-funnel-tube to Lilli's bathroom to add some much needed light. 
4. Removed the window from the basement bathroom. 
5. We've also moved a door or two so that spaces flow better. 

Our family and friends have been wonderful tools in this process. Their eyes have helped us see things that we hadn't noticed before and their homeowner experiences have helped us make sound decisions in the process. 

Stay tuned for our next meeting with the architect and a reveal of the plans!