Kitchen Plans

This weekend, Matt and I finalized our kitchen. Here are some actual drawings of the kitchen layout...I took them with my iphone from the pdf she sent me so they are not the best quality...but at least you will get an idea of what we are working with.

We ended up making the center island larger than the original floor plan, so instead of a 48" island we increased it to 72". The idea is to utilize this for breakfast time, etc and not have a table taking up space. We also added in a pantry against the right wall and put in a built in wine rack where the smaller pantry would have been (to the left of the fridge). I cut off the wine rack when I took the above pictures by accident.

We also picked our cabinets and granite. Here is a picture of the samples. I went with maple cabinets that are very dark, and the island will be very blonde with a cocoa glaze over it. The glaze actually has hints of the dark maple color we chose within the edging, so it should compliment everything nicely. Here is the picture.

Granite = Giallo Ornamental
Lighter maple with glaze = Buff Cocoa
Dark maple = Sorrel

We also picked some of the granite for our bathrooms. I was nice enough to let Matt pick out the upstairs bathroom granite lol! I'm such a control freak, thank god he puts up with me. :) We chose a jet black granite for the downstairs bathroom that I want to accent with deep purple and silver decor. Matt chose a dark gray granite for the upstairs guest bathroom called Silver Pearl. It is very pretty. I am still debating on the granite for our bathroom and the granite that goes around the fireplace, so more to come. Thanks for reading!

It's official...we house stalk.

Matt and I are officially stalking our new house. I think we drove by it 3 times this weekend! Good thing we are only a 2 minute drive down the street or else our gas bill would be huge! Here are some pictures we took of the house progress. They started the frame work last Monday and had this much complete by Saturday. How crazy is that?!

Me by the fireplace

Standing in the kitchen looking into the dining and living room. There are some walls still missing.

Matt standing in front of the slider door  off the kitchen.  We are pretty high up!

Front window.

I love the house already, even though it is just wood. It's funny how just seeing a frame go up, makes us so excited! Hopefully the next 3 months go by quickly. I have so many ideas in my head on how I want to decorate, etc..I feel like my head is going to explode. I think I need to start writing things down so it is not so overwhelming. We will see what this week brings. They put in the actual windows quickly to get everything sealed and protected. I will post more as it progresses!

Nightmares of Empire Drive!

This post title is so accurate right now. We need to decide on kitchen colors and selections, so I have been trying to brainstorm and gather pictures/ideas. It is driving me nuts! I even dream about it! This reminds me of when I was planning my wedding and I would have all of these crazy nightmares that would torture me. Clearly I am very excited for this room of the house! I love a pretty kitchen! The decision needs to be made on cabinets, granite, and floors. I had dark black granite with small splashes of red (think burnt red) in my Texas house; so now I am thinking I want to go light. I really love my mother-in-laws kitchen granite so I am keeping hers in mind when picking out the color scheme. She has a light, almost creamy granite and I just love it! I am really leaning towards this granite sample below (courtesy of Napolitano Marble and Granite).

 I love the small clusters of dark brown in it. OK, so I am thinking a cherry cabinet, with the granite in the picture, offset with a white cabinet for the island (same granite on island). I was a little afraid of doing the different island color at first, but now I'm really into it. It is all over HGTV, and I trust HGTV ha! I also see a lot of white cabinets with the center island having the dark cabinet accent...I'm just not sure if I am gutsy enough to go white throughout my entire kitchen. Apparently white cabinets are all the rage right now, but they are part of my nightmares so I am at a loss! We have the choice to choose tile or hardwood for the kitchen, and I am 99% sure I am going to go with hardwood on the entire first floor (not in our bedroom though). I think it will cut into the flow of the house if I make the kitchen tile. I also think the hardwood will tie together the light granite and cherry cabinets by adding in a warm wood color. The only dowfall is going to be my little….ok ok big…dogs. Morgie and Feni love to play and I can just see their claws scratching up my nice floors. 

Anyways, Here are some pictures I really like. Some even have the different color island. Oh, and Matt is onboard with this! He is not into the kitchen designing. He "trusts" me on this one…so he says! Let me know what you think of my ideas. Once we make the decision I will post pictures!

Coming Along!

This is probably not too exciting of a post, but we were pretty thrilled to see the cement was poured this week. Here are a few pictures of the foundation. It was really rainy this weekend, and muddy, so we were not able to see around the back of the house. Here are a few pictures of the progress!

We are supposed to sit down with the builder soon, to discuss any structural changes before they put up the frame. The only change we are going to incorporate is a wall/ledge when you come in through the front door into the foyer. It will help separate the room off a bit.

The House that Built Me

Country music fans know who sings this song. One of my favorites...Miranda Lambert! I feel like it is fitting since I grew up in the same house all of my life, and in a way it shapes who you are. With this house, I hope to do the same for my kids. Also, I refuse to move ever again, so my kids have no choice but to grow up in this house. No joke!

Today, we picked out the beginnings of our new home. We also had a really nice surprise...they started laying the ground work!

We were so excited to see they actually started building! We literally gave the builder our financing commitment letter on Tuesday, so he was not kidding when he said he would start right away. They will be laying the cement next week, which then leads to the framework. I'm sure Matt and I will be at the site every weekend from now until October. Bob (the builder) is just going to love us...ha..ha.

Once we got over the excitement of wood laid out on the ground, we met with Karen. Karen, the builders realtor and design helper, is so good to us! She helped us from day one and sat with us for two hours today while we pondered over three different shades of gray. My mom also came with us to help, and thank god she was there because Matt and I were overwhelmed. Here is a picture of some of the siding samples.

Karen suggested we pick the stone first, then the siding, shingles and roof. I knew I wanted a dark gray/black roof so I actually picked that first. Matt was onboard with me thank God!

So, the stone. They only floor plan that gets to chose stone for part of the house is ours and another model that is similar to ours. It was hard to visualize what all the stone samples would look like on our finished home. There are three houses up in the neighborhood that have the stone front, but they all picked the same color. We really liked it since it was gray tones, but I really wanted to have a different look. We narrowed it down to these two samples.

We knew we liked the top sample, since the three homes already built had chosen the same one. The bottom one was similar, but had different shape stones. After viewing them in the sun and shade, we finally chose the bottom one. It has a different look, but is still within the gray color family to match the gray siding we knew we wanted. I think we stood there for 45 minutes comparing them. It was a tough decision! Karen showed us a larger picture of the stone in a booklet, and it will look pretty dark once they are covering a larger surface. Once we picked the stone it was on to the siding and shingles. I think I mentioned in my previous post how I was thinking I wanted a dark gray siding with light stone...well we basically flip flopped that idea once we chose a dark stone.

Here are some samples of the siding we narrowed down. All in the gray color family.

Matt and I at first were leaning towards a blended shingle and siding. Just to clarify, the shingles are the ribbed looking samples that are vertical. The siding is horizontal. Anyways, we thought we wanted them to match as close as possible. My mom, the genius designer that she is, talked us into going with more of a contrast in the grays. In other words, a light gray shingle with a darker gray siding. Genius! We ended up going with slate for the shingles (darker) and stone gray (lighter). The combo pieced together is the one on the bottom right. Here was the finished product with the roof, stone, and shingles/siding.

We were so proud of ourselves for finally making a decision, and for also taking the time to really think about our choices. I was afraid we would get overwhelmed with the selections and end up pointing at a house and saying "just copy their color scheme". But wait...you did not think it would be that easy did you? As we are saying good-bye to Karen and about to get in the car to leave, my anal retentive husband has a disturbed look on his face. Come on...for those who really know Matt Collar are you at all surprised he couldn't help but tweak our choices at the very last second!? We unloaded our final selection to take another look, and Matt actually made a valid point. Since the shingles make up most of the house, and we wanted a contrast between the grays, we should chose the stone gray for the shingle and the slate for the siding. Basically, swap the two colors, which would then lay the lighter "stone gray" next to the dark cobblestone we chose once the house is finished. Then the darker "slate" siding would be above the garage (small portion in comparison to the shingles) and on the sides of the house. Since he made a valid point, I agreed. I did not get a picture of the final FINAL product, but just use the above picture and imagine the top shingles being the color of the bottom siding and vice versa. Karen nicely changed up our paperwork and we were on our way. Poor Karen has a long four months ahead of her! We left satisfied and happy with our decision, and I should give credit to my husband where credit is due! Good job Matty.

The next decision making will be focused on the kitchen...and a door for the outside. There are only three standard doors to choose from THANK GOD. That should be an easy one.

Big thanks to my mom for helping us...thanks mom!

The Details

I am going to be honest here and let you know that Matt and I were extremely spoiled in Texas. The cost of living in Texas is drastically lower compared to the east coast. When we built our townhouse in Texas we did not sweat it....actually let me rephrase that...we did not have to worry as much about our wallets as we do here. We have big dreams for the house we are building now, and dreams are never cheap! We know we will need to make sacrifices along the way, but all in all the specs on the house we chose are right up our alley. The floorplan actually reminds us of Texas where most homes have the master bedroom on the first floor…we knew it was the one from the second we stepped in the model!

OK, so the details. The neighborhood is a new development in North Andover, MA and will consist of 32 (or so) single family homes). Cool fact: The neighborhood sits on what was once an apple orchard! Kind of sad they tore into it, and apparently the town was less than thrilled with the construction, but nonetheless still cool! Our street is called "Empire Drive" after empire apples, and the actual neighborhood is called Orchard Village. I think that is so cute! Anyways, if you know the area, it is right off of 114, past Merrimack and the Stop and Shop, on the right. It is a three bedroom, 2 ½ bath home with a two car garage that was a must since I refuse to park my car outside in the winter. Matt gladly agreed since he would be the one shoveling my car out of the snow. The lots are not huge, which Matt loves since he will not have to spend a lot of time cutting the grass. And we all know I do not cut grass. However, I will try to grow a garden and not kill it…keeping things alive is extremely challenging for me. Anyways, the lot we chose is probably around 0.4 acres and has a mini pond in the back. We are going to fence in the yard for the dogs and keep the pond on the outskirts because Morgie and Feni would be swimming in it every chance they got…and that would be just annoying. We are going to have a side door on the fence that leads out to the back of our lot, which is where I think I am going to try and plant a small garden. This garden sounds so great in theory, but we will see if I pull through on that one. All I can think of growing are tomatoes and cucumbers haha! My mind cannot expand any further. I know if Matt is reading this he is laughing his a$$ off! The outside of the house is made up of siding, stone and shingles, which we will be picking out soon. I am thinking I want a dark gray siding with a lighter gray stone and black roof shingles and white trim. Apparently there are a ton of colors to choose from so that will really help with the decision…NOT. Why can’t they just have like six or seven colors? That would make this so much easier. Instead there are seven shades of gray. I will let you know what we decide on. The inside comes standard with hardwood floors (except for the bedrooms), granite counter tops in the kitchen and baths, several different woods to chose from for the cabinets (oak, cherry, etc.), stone around the fireplace and a ton of other details that I have no clue what they mean. I think we even have to pick out a grout color, which just seems ridiculous. Oh, and we get to pick two paint colors for the entire house which is kind of nice. Any additional colors we have to pay extra for, so we will probably do that ourselves…see…sacrifices people! Matt and I painted a room in our old house and let's just say it was not pleasant for either of us. There is a full, walk out basement, but we will not be finishing that right away. In preparation for  finishing the basement at a later date, we decided now to add a sliding glass door and two windows. That way there is lots of light, and will help make it part of the house when we do finish it. In the meantime I will use it to corral Morgie and Feni on rainy days instead of tracking them through the house. Since the basement is a walk out, that means the backyard slopes down a bit to allow for you to literally "walk out" of the basement. So the sliding door off of the kitchen on our first floor leads to a deck that is elevated. I will have to post pictures when the walls are up so you can understand my horrible explanation. Hopefully the rest of my rambling painted a clearer picture for those that are reading this!

Old Memories...New Beginnings

Rewind back to five years ago. As most of you know, Matt and I made the decision to move to Dallas when Matt was offered a job at Maxim (not the magazine – the semiconductor corp.). For me it was like going to camp…you know, you pack up for a month or so and then return home to what is familiar. I'm not sure why I thought of it that way, but after a few months in Texas, reality set in for me and I realized how hard it was going to be to make trips home. Let's just put it this way, Matt dealt with numerous tantrums and freak out sessions over the past years, and thank god he put up with me! Even my family and friends can attest to the re occurring theme of "Lea crying EVERY time she is dropped off at the airport to fly back to Dallas". That being said, part of me will forever be thankful for the life Matt and I built in Dallas, and the friendships I made (shout out to my CompuCom and AFFM friends!). Texas shaped most of my twenties, and I would not be the person I am today without that experience.

Now, here we are! Back living on the east coast in North Andover, MA about 10 minutes from my family and friends! (Poor Matt ha!).  We are building our first Massachusetts home, and this blog is mostly going to document the process. This whole "move" has been bitter sweet. I thought it was going to be so easy for me to leave Dallas behind, but it was anything but. I cried when we found out Matt was offered a job in MA, I cried when I resigned from my job at AFFM, and I cried just as hard when I said good-bye to Matt's parents as I did when I left my own five years ago. I am still emotional about it, so that is all I am going to write before – yes, I know I'm a baby – I cry again! Anyways, the new house will take about 16 weeks to build and I will post pictures as we go along! This Saturday we will pick out the siding, shingles, and doors. Below are a few pictures of our "dirt" lot.