Choices, choices

We're at the point now where we (I) have to start making decisions on fixtures and appliances. I have a love/hate relationship with this part of the building process. I love picking out things, but then I get very frustrated and depressed once I tally up the numbers and realize I'm 200% over budget. Seriously, I don't TRY to pick out the most ridiculously overpriced items!

So far, the following are definites for appliances:

• Thermador 48" Stainless Steel Side By Side Refrigerator w/Professional Handles


• Viking 36" wide Professional Premiere rangetop w/six burners


• Viking 30" Professional Premiere Built-in Electric Double Oven


• Undecided: dishwasher, icemaker, rangetop vent hood, coffee bar mini-fridge

For plumbing fixtures:

• Children's bathrooms - Kohler Pinstripe suite


• Master bathroom - Kohler Purist suite


• Guest bathroom - Danze Parma suite


• Undecided: kitchen , powder room

I fell in love with the Pinstripe cross-handled faucet for the children's bathrooms. They were more than I wanted to spend for bathrooms no one will ever see, but the minute I saw them I knew I wouldn't be happy with anything else. I tried looking for alternatives, but at the end of the day the extra money wasn't worth my happiness, LOL. J refers to this as the "Vy Ho" compromise --I get my way.....or I get my way... I can't help it, though! Finish out details such as fixtures and hardware are like shoes to me - they complete a look and the wrong fixture can ruin the whole outfit. It's funny, I can "get over" bigger compromises such as layout, but I'll seriously fixate and lose sleep over the "right" door pull. Speaking of which, I better start looking at those since I only have four more months to decide....

Another day in the life of Vy & Jim building a house

The builders are working on the foundation and should be starting the framing soon. We're still on schedule for moving in by Thanksgiving. Steven thinks we'll be in sooner, but I would be surprised if that happens. We've had our typical luck in building in that we were delayed over a month because of rain (the ground was too wet to drill the piers). I suppose that's better than our house on 24th. On that house, we initially broke ground in September and did not finish the foundation until the following January! It pretty much rained continuously from September until January, and we probably used 20 tons of lime trying to dry out the ground. Then as a final blow from the water gods, as we were halfway done drilling the piers, the City of Houston crew that was redoing the street broke a water main that flooded our lot.

So all in all, a month delay due to rain I can deal with. Oh! We did also lose a day to our building site being a CRIME SCENE. As the builders were clearing the lot for the garage, they unearthed a child's blanket filled with small bones. Steven called HPD, and the homicide unit showed up. They taped off the site and no work was allowed to be done. They couldn't determine what kind of bones had been found, so they called the county medical examiner out. He couldn't identify the bones, either, but a closer inspection of the site revealed…. a dog collar. Steven was cleared to proceed.

So moral of the story is that if you commit a murder in Houston, just throw a dog collar in with the remains ;) Of course if I thought for a second they could actually be human remains I would refuse to build there.

Kitchen Plans

*click image to view larger

I've been working with my kitchen designer, Rachele, and things are starting to come together. Above is the first draft of the plans - we plan to make some changes but it captures the overall feel of the kitchen. I LOVE the island. I wanted a large "eat-in" island, and we went a few rounds with nothing having the right feel. In the last revision, though, Rachele totally hit it out of the park. I can already picture many casual family meals as well as doing arts and crafts projects with Reese. I think Rachele did a great job on designing something that doesn't completely overwhelm the kitchen while still having the substantial size I wanted.

We're looking at Thermador for the refrigerator and Viking for the cooking appliances. Unfortunately the dealer we're working with isn't able to offer as competitive prices on Subzero and Wolf, but I'm definitely not complaining about "having" to go with Thermador and Viking :-)

I've also decided to go with Merit Cabinets. We're going with the Carriage Black finish on Cherry wood, but we're still trying to decide between the Prairie and Whistler styles. Here's an image of the Carriage Black on Cherry in the Whistler style. It reads black in the picture, but in real life it's more of an espresso/brown tone.

We started!

Long time no update, but we sold the first 22nd street project! It closed in December, and we've been waiting for permits and the ground to dry to start construction on Columbia (the house we plan to move into). The lot has been cleared, and Steven should be starting the foundation next week. Our goal is to be moved in the first week of November. We are very, very excited!




We should also be starting the second 22nd street project this month. The interior layout is the same as its sister house next door, but the elevation is different:

Some interior pics

We weren't going to put the appliances in until the house sold, but we decided to put them in to help sell the house. It is a nice stainless steel Jenn-Air package, so I think it will help the house look really finished.

Front Room/Dining

Stairwell

Family Room

Kitchen (Appliances to be installed)

Kitchen

Butler's Pantry (Ovens/Wine Chiller to be installed)

Upper Hallway

Study adjacent to Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bath (Glass shower door to be installed)

Master Bath

New House Plans

*This drawing and the works depicted therein are the sole property of SCDesign L.L.C. No portion of this drawing may be copied without the express consent of SCDesign L.L.C.

Woohoo, we've finalized the house plans as far as layout and elevations, and my friend the kitchen designer is working on the plans for our kitchen. Those should be done in a few weeks, and I'm totally stoked. She's already made some great suggestions, and I'm really looking forward to see what she comes up with. When I was in Denver a few weeks ago, I visited her company's office and selected the cabinet style and color, and I think they're going to look wonderful. Hopefully the estimate for them won't completely blow our budget out of the water, but I think cabinets are one of those things you really do pay for what you get. Hopefully we can make it work. We'll see!

We're going to use stone instead of the brick at the base of the house (and probably bring the stone up a little higher than the image depicts). The top part of the house will be stucco, and the beams for the columns and rafter tails will be stained cedar. The front porch roof will be done in standing-seam metal to add a contemporary touch to the house. I can't wait to start construction, so I'm just dying to sell the other house. It's just about finished and we're doing an open house in a week, so fingers crossed it will be off the market soon. We're hoping it sells in 60 days so we can start in September (when our builder has availability to start his next project).

Yowza

I just got an email with a preliminary bid for the new house. That bid did not include the ridiculous amount of money we spent on just the land (it was a "steal" for the area, but still absurd considering we could have bought a 3-br home in the burbs for the cost of a little 50x132 patch of dirt).

I feel faint. J is probably comatose on the grounds somewhere.