While building a house can be very fun and exciting, it can also be mentally and physically draining. It can make dreams come true, but it can sometimes lead to marital problems. Henry and I are often asked, “How have you maintained a happy marriage through the building of several homes?” This is a great question that I’m going to try and answer within this post.
Painted brick is always a controversial topic. Some people love it, and others think it is a sin to paint over brick no matter how ugly or dated the brick looks. Thoughts on the matter may vary in different parts of the country, but in our area it is a touchy subject. However, Henry and I both love the look of painted brick and are planning on using it on the exterior, and also in a few places on the interior of the new house.
We’ve officially found an architect to design our new house, which we’ll be talking about more in an upcoming article. In our initial chat with them, we discussed what we have in mind for the exterior and interior. One thing that is a must for me is vaulted ceilings in the main living area. I want it to run all the way through from the great room into the kitchen. Henry is on board for it in the great room, but not not so much in the kitchen. To help us come to a decision, we thought it would be a good idea to lay out some pros and cons.
As some of you already know, we are in the process of planning our new adventure, a new build. The planning process of a new home can be both very overwhelming and exciting. Along this journey, we hope to share with you different stages we are in. Sometimes its good to see what is behind the build and what actually goes into it. This will include the good, the bad, and even the ugly.
As you know, keeping things simple is my style. Christmas decorations do not have to be over the top. In fact, you can give holiday cheer with just a few simple touches. This year I decided to go with more of a traditional theme. I used greenery, red, black, and touches of gold to complete a more traditional look with a few modern touches here and there. Mixing in a few old and new pieces, I was able to create the look and feel I wanted within a reasonable budget.
If you’ve ever built a house, you know there are always things you wish you would have done differently. In our current house, one is putting a regular door going into our toilet room in the master bath. It was always in the way when open. The solution: take it down, and replace it with a sliding barn door. Not only did it solve the problem, but it added another element of visual interest to the room.
Our story all started with $10,000 dollars nearly 18 years ago. Henry and I had gotten married and was expecting our first child. He had just gotten laid off from a position as a web designer and I was teaching at a local high school. We didn’t have a penny to our name and as most young people after college, we were in debt. Henry’s uncle loaned us $10,000 dollars for a down payment on our first home. This was a “fixer upper”, but you would have thought we were buying a million dollar home!
In another article, I shared some tips on taking better interior photos. One of them was to use a DSLR camera instead of an iPhone, because it gives you the ability to adjust shutter speed and allow more exposure for your shots. However, increasing exposure can cause a problem if there are windows in your shot. Since the window is where all of the light is coming from, they end up being overexposed.
It’s our tradition to have both sides of the family over on Thanksgiving Day for dinner. Hosting over 30 people for Thanksgiving can be a little crazy and stressful. Considering we have done this for years, I have learned a few lessons along the way. It should be a time of enjoyment not only for the guests, but for you and your family also. After the first year of trying to do everything myself, I knew I had to be more organized if this was going to happen again. Well, we have continued to host Thanksgiving every year! Hopefully these few tips will help you to enjoy hosting Thanksgiving as much as I do.
When you build a house, there are always things that you wish you would have done differently. In our previous houses, there have been major things that drove us a little crazy, but in this house, there are only a few minor things. So for this post, instead of focusing on the negative, I want to point out a few things that I’m so glad we did, and would most definitely do again in a new home. These aren’t the only things, but these three are at the top of the list.
