Building Our Dream Home

Intro While waiting on approval to begin building, Ron and I decided to begin working on all our projects. First project is the mantel from my Daddy's old house.  The mantel will go in the master bedroom with a fake wood-burning stove in front of it. Some people probably wonder why this mantel is so important to me. Some of the reasons are Like having a piece of my parents with me Love the structure of the mantel Success - didn't win the battle but won the war Having a piece of my parents with me My mother passed away in 1984 and my Dad in 1998. I am orphan. It doesn't matter how old you are after both parents are deceased - you still have a void there. This mantel brings back so many memories from where my Daddy always kept the "bills" to pay to the nails still there that I hung garland at Christmas time. There are times I will just lean over on the mantel and hug the mantel and that action gives me such heartwarming comfort that nothing else could do.  After my ...

  I know where did the days between 245 and 233 go. Not a lot to report until now. Today we went to pick out doors. Who knew there were so many decisions in choosing a front door, doors interior, doors exterior and the list continues.  So many choices. Do you want wood doors, fiberglass doors, full glass in front door, half glass, 8 panels, 4 panels, painting the door, staining the door, what color will the door be....can I have a drink now?  Have you ever thought about doors before. When you walk in a house, do you notice what type it is or what color it is? Personally I don't even care for doors. They are in the way. They cover up wall space where a picture could be hung or you could put a chair. My preference would be pocket doors throughout the house.  After we left, I was riding my bike and I started looking at the doors on each house. I wanted to walk up to some of the houses and say, "Excuse me but could I look at your interior doors."  We made decisions ...

This is the View that our guests will have from the upper balcony. As you can see, we may want to trim the tree to the right back some for a better view of the lake. We change the house some of the back to avoid cutting down the tree to the left. Too big and pretty to have to cut it down.  This is the view from the lower balcony. Ron will have this view while he is cooking a wonderful dinner for us in the outdoor kitchen while enjoying a cool evening breeze. Our bedroom is just to the left of this. We will have a wonderful view of the trees behind our house. 

An overview of where our dream home will be built. Wanted you to see the layout of the area. 

Yesterday I walked through the living area of the house. Each piece of furniture was explained. I told you that Meg would look at my living area board and my questions in the blog and respond to them.  As a reminder, these were the questions in my summary:  How do I place furniture to best accommodate guests and allow for flow throughout?  What do you think of the material colors for the chairs?  Any other suggestions   to make this a beautiful home? Let's address each question.  Question 1: How do I place furniture to best accommodate guests and allow for flow throughout?  Meg commented: "Our living rooms are very similar. See photos for a layout." These are the photos. The images were helpful. Her layout is similar with the fireplace in the corner and the TV as the focal point. Helped me to know that the way I discussed arranging my furniture yesterday was on the right track.  Another way the images helped me was to see how her chairs are n...

Today I decided to look at the living area. There are so many questions to ask. Sometimes I feel like I am obsessed and driving my friends crazy with questions and stories and we haven't even begun construction.  If you look at the above layout, you will see the layout of the living area which flows into the kitchen area. For a image of the entire first floor you can visit my Pinterest  House Exterior Look board .  However, I want to focus on the living area only at this point. If you look at my Pinterest  Living Area board  you can see furniture, etc. that I have already collected. I also wrote about each item in the description area to give a person a bit of background about the item. For example, the fireplace is from the Memphis Art Museum and I wrote that in the fireplace description.  As indicated on the diagram above the TV will sit on a cabinet on the right wall. The problem with this is that it will take up so much wall space and limit places for p...

Day 249 I finished organizing the boards on Pinterest. Now to begin deciding on colors, flooring, and accessories. As I organized these boards, ideas begin to come together in my mind for each room. The question constantly in the back of my mind - will it look good? How do I place the furniture? Will people think it looks good?  Of course other plans are happening at the same time. Choosing a builder, figuring out how to handle the finances and the plans. Just to let you know - our plans went through about 8 rewrites and we are still finding changes we want to make.  After the plans began to come together, we realized we had planned a 1.3M dollar house and needed to rethink a few things. One of those cutting the walkout basement and garage underneath. Most people go through this when building a house unless they have unlimited resources.  I say dream and plan it - then see what you can afford. You will find you still have your dream home.  Be sure to check out my boa...

Day 250 Today I begin organizing my Pinterest boards. I pinned my ideas for each room on Pinterest to get input from the experts. After I finish organizing the boards, I will discuss each one and my ideas. When construction begins, I will discuss the process from that perspective.  The main focus today was on the downstairs rooms. This included the following:  Master Suite Kitchen Living Area Powder Room Laundry Room Each of these boards were updated with all my ideas except paint colors and floor colors. A few of the boards such as the Master Suite has separate sections. Be sure to look at each section and my comments.  Working on these boards today pointed out how much has been done. A lot more work is in the next 250 days but progress is being made.  Take a look at my boards and offer some suggestions or just admire all the beautiful items.  Pinterest Boards Plans for tomorrow: Complete all the upstairs room boards. Input is always appreciated.  Talk to ...

My husband and I are building our dream home in Oxford, Mississippi. A former client and forever friend, Meg Habasevich, will be advising us along the way. Periodically, I will have guest posts by various experts.  When my husband said we could build a home, I began to dream of what it could be. I thought about my Daddy's old house and how I would love to have some of the items from it - especially the mantel, farmer's sink, and claw-foot tub. A close friend, Becky contacted the current owner and she agreed to let me get those items. I was able to get a couple of light fixtures, the mantel, and the farmer's sink. The bathtub was gone.  These old furnishings have very strong sentimental value to me. That mantel is where all important papers were put. It was a big part of our family life. The one little light fixture has a little thing that hangs down in the center. This is where my mother would hang an outfit that needed quick drying by the heater. (we didn't have a drye...