New Home: Nursery Plan

05/16/2012

At our last house, I designed a combined nursery and kids room as we were becoming foster parents. It had to be suited for 1 or 2 kids, either gender, newborn up to age 5…all within a 10×11 bedroom. In our new house, we’ll have TWO bedrooms for set up for kids. Hooray! (And another bedroom that we’ll set up as a den/playroom for now.) Here’s my plan for the nursery, which will be for our daughter. She will be about 1.5 when we move in. The room is approximately 10×11 (not including the doorway). The only new purchase for us in this room will be the curtains.

Sources

1. Sherwin WIlliams Rosebay – accent wall color

2. Sherwin Williams Greek Villa – other three walls

3. Petit Collage Animal ABC – Basic $40

4. IKEA BARBRO curtains $15

5. Lamp – vintage, thrifted

6. Dresser – vintage (changing table height)

7. Mr. French Poster Pop-Tone Monkey $30

8. Mobile – handmade by me

9. IKEA SOMNAT crib – no longer available

10. IKEA RIBBA picture ledges (to use as book ledges), x2, $10 each

11. IKEA GOSSIG SPANIEL – no longer available

12. Braxton Studio Letterio White Cradle Chair $80-120

13. IKEA TOFTBO bathmat (x4, taped together, MACHINE WASHABLE!) – no longer available in this color $13

14. Nightstand – vintage, refinished by me

Floor Plan (to scale)


Cedar Siding

04/26/2012

Our new home exterior will have cedar siding, as well as concrete block on most of the front, and hardie plank accents around the side and back. I was having trouble visualizing the cedar so I did some homework and looked for images on Pinterest.

 

Source: houzz.com via Virginia on Pinterest

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Source: contemporist.com via Matthew on Pinterest

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Source: banjarinfo.com via Amy on Pinterest

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Source: 3ghomeimprovements.com via Yunkyung on Pinterest

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Source: Uploaded by user via Lindstrom on Pinterest

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Source: realcedar.org via Meghan on Pinterest

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Source: cococozy.com via Alli on Pinterest

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Source: houzz.com via Jutta on Pinterest

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Source: flickr.com via Amy on Pinterest

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Here is what I DON’T want it to look like!

Source: dwell.com via Colby on Pinterest

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Or like this. Too rustic for my taste.

Source: tinyhouselistings.com via Melissa Barr on Pinterest

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I stumbled upon this image, also. This house has several elements similar to ours. Concrete facade, cedar siding, courtyard entrance, glass store front style door. I also really love the unexpected pop of blue.

Source: plusmood.com via Martina on Pinterest


Light Ideas

04/11/2012

This whole home building process is taking a loooooong time. We’re still waiting on bids from the general contractors (hopefully we’ll get numbers this week) and the banker just told us the approval process (checking references of the GC we chose, approving our construction loan, appraising the house based on plans, etc.) could take another month. Ugh! We just wanted to get started with the building already.

I’m trying to make good use of this waiting time by researching interior fixings for the house and making some decisions about things like paint colors, materials, appliances, etc. So I’ve been looking at lights lately. Here are some that I’m dreaming about…

Source: younghouselove.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: makingitlovely.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: makingitlovely.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: westelm.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: westelm.com via Martina on Pinterest

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New Home Update

04/04/2012

Yesterday Jason, Precious, Lucy and I took a morning walk around the block and stopped by our property to say check on it. Jason wanted to inspect our fruit trees—the cherries and pear we transplanted from our last yard—while I just wanted to admire our giant white dogwood tree.

We met with a team of contractors at Starbucks later in the day. They seem like really nice guys and we had a lot in common personally, too. They’re a family business and all three of them are married and have kids. One of the guys has six, two of which they’re adopting through foster care. We also know some people in common. One of the three original general contractors who were putting together bids has dropped out. We haven’t gotten numbers back yet from the other two yet and it’s been 2.5 weeks. We’re getting antsy. We want to get started!


Pinterest and Kitchen Inspiration

03/29/2012

Good news: Pinterest has some practical real life applications! Last week I was pinning pictures of kitchens for inspiration for our new home. Our architect emailed us and said, “I noticed you’ve been looking at soapstone countertops. Do you want us to get some prices together for soapstone counters in the kitchen?” Jason said, “How did he know that?!” Because he follows my boards on Pinterest, of course!

It’s true. We’ve been thinking about putting black soapstone countertops with high gloss white cabinets and stainless appliances in our new kitchen. We like the solid dark color, the soft feel, the heat resistance and the matte finish of soapstone. And supposedly it’s quite a bit cheaper than granite. Here are some inspiration pictures I pinned on Pinterest. Some are pinned because of the cabinets, some the counter tops, some the configuration.

Source: homedesigninterior.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: fortheloveofahouse.blogspot.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: google.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: younghouselove.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: designsponge.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Source: theredbungalow.blogspot.com via Martina on Pinterest


New Home Update

03/22/2012

Our architect finished our construction documents last week and we have three general contractors putting together bids. Friday night we looked through the plans with our friends Leila and Jeremy who just built a house last year. We are getting so excited now, looking at all the drawings, elevations and schematics in PDF form. Hurry up, GCs! We’re ready to break ground!

On Sunday afternoon, Jason and I spent a little time on our land tree-chopping. We cut down three trees a few months ago… a huge one that had been burned by a house fire in the past, a dead cherry tree and a sickly dogwood tree. We neatly stacked all the wood at the back of the property, along the fence in anticipation of a wood burning fireplace in our new home. We were really bummed when the whole pile of firewood was stolen. Who does that?! So last weekend when we cut down huge maple tree that we decided would be too close to our back patio and house, we left the wood in large (10′ or so) pieces at the back of the yard to make it less appealing for thieves. We’ll cut it up later, maybe after the house is up.


Retro Appliances

03/13/2012

I saw this article about red refrigerators on Retro Renovation and it got me thinking… would I ever put a colored fridge in my kitchen? Red is my least favorite color but I started looking at Pam’s links and imagining the possibilities. Maybe a minty green refrigerator?

Or a sky blue?

What about a white vintage style? White would be kind of sexy alongside glossy white cabinets, dark countertops and other stainless appliances.

I have a feeling we’ll end up with stainless but it’s fun to dream. (The above models are around $3500. Yikes!) Here are some inspiring photos:

Source: bigchill.com via Martina on Pinterest

Source: bigchill.com via Martina on Pinterest

Source: bigchill.com via Martina on Pinterest


Front Elevation Photoshop Mock Up

02/23/2012

We’re waiting for our architect to finish up the construction documents so we can find the perfect contractor and get started on our new house. In the meantime, I decided I’d take Ryan’s front elevation drawing into Photoshop and have some fun with it. I used a photo of the property from October (when the trees had leaves) and then added colors, textures and landscaping.

I don’t know how accurate this mock up will end up being but it sure does get Jason and me excited!


Ketchup

02/08/2012

er… catch up. It’s amazing how a couple of days without blogging gets me out of the groove and I don’t know where to start again. So how about a little bit or this and that.

Last week was miserably busy at work for me—the worst deadline week I’ve had in as long as I can remember. Long, tiring days in my cubicle, away from my husband and sweet baby girl. Jason was home for the week but we hardly crossed paths. It feels silly to even articulate those complaints because all I have to do is shift my perspective a little bit and I realize how much I have to be thankful for. I have a job. I have an awesome husband. We have a sweet baby girl.

The week was topped off with a weekend full of packing and moving. Mostly packing. We even skipped Super Bowl parties to work. Looking at the calendar with Jason’s tour schedule between now and the closing on March 1st and we realized we better get going on this moving out of our house business. Five years is long enough to forget how much work it is to move. And goodness, how did we end up with so much stuff?! It’s amazing how it multiplies when it starts getting put into boxes.

We have officially moved into my parents’ house and are getting settled in comfortably there. Our belongings will rest in storage until the new house is completed. As I mentioned before, leaving our mid-century ranch has been extremely bittersweet. We really love that place and planned to never move. Funny how dreams and goals can change so drastically in a short period of time. If we hadn’t felt called to become foster parents last spring, and to continue fostering after we complete our adoption of Precious, I really don’t think we’d be moving right now.

But again, a simple shift of perspective and I realize how much we have to be thankful for. We’re building a house—a dream we’ve always had but figured was a long way off. We have a great relationship with my parents and a place to stay right down the street from our new house. And the new house is going to be great—and most importantly have room for our family to grow.

As we were packing on Saturday Jason’s mom, Grandma K, spotted Precious’ first tooth finally poking through. She’s been working on that for a long time. Three days later my mom, Grandma L, spotted her second tooth coming through. I finally got a picture of them yesterday. Speaking of pictures, here are a bunch of random ones from the past few days:

I’m doing the February Photo A Day challenge on Instragram (#febphotoaday … I’m @mahlbrandt if you want to follow me). The one above was “your view today,” my cubicle…ugh! And below was day 2, “words.”

On Thursday night Jason played an industry showcase with Michael Dean Church at The Rutledge. It ended up being a fun double date night out with our friends Jeremy (who played drums) and Leila—without our babies for a change! We had dinner afterwards at a new burger place in East Nashville called The Pharmacy.

My first (unsuccessful) attempt at baby tooth photography.

Kitchen configuration… whatever spare creative juice I have has been going here lately…

Teeth! Caught them on camera with the help of Grandma L who got her smiling.


Bathroom Vanity Inspiration

01/25/2012

I was over on House*Tweaking the other day and I got some inspiration for bathroom vanities in our new house. Floating is nice but I’m a sucker for storage. I like these options, as long as their is enough counter space built around the sink. I think they’re both from IKEA.

Source: housetweaking.com via Martina on Pinterest

I’m generally not a fan of double sinks in master bathrooms but this might be good in a kids/guest bathroom where people aren’t as good at sharing.

Source: housetweaking.com via Martina on Pinterest