my happy place

I'm just going to go ahead and put it out there... Target is my happy place. Find me a red bulls-eye and I am home. Target has a new line out right now, Threshold, that I'm kind of obsessed with. Its described by Target as "the right mix of classic and modern. An effortless elegance. Beautiful, yet affordable. Designed for a lifetime of housewarmings. It's everything you'll love about your home." I think their description is spot on. I tell you it is taking every bit of my restraint to wait until we move into the house before I start buying up the entire store. Since I am abstaining from purchasing home decor at the moment I thought we could take a moment to window shop.

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Grover did great through surgery. Although, for a dog that never barks he howled like a hound treeing a 'coon for hours coming out of anesthesia. The pathology came back that is was benign! He has a bandage on his leg to keep his stitches covered but you couldn't tell the way he runs and jumps and acts crazy. Stitches come out next week and I imagine he'll probably be crazier than he already is.

A few hours after surgery, still coming out of the anesthesia....

The next day, wide eyed and bushy tailed.

grover

Our "youngest child", Grover, is having surgery tomorrow morning to remove a suspected mast cell tumor from his leg. It is likely malignant but we are hoping that we caught it early. Please keep our boy, and this anxious mom and dad, in your thoughts and prayers.

the gathering place

I love clean and order. Office supplies. Label makers. Clorox wipes. Closets organized by color and season.  Towels all  folded the same way. When my surroundings are in disarray I feel like my mind is also in disarray. Some people call this anal retentive, neurotic, crazy.... I say tom-A-to, tom-ah-to.

White cabinets have been on my wishlist since day one for their ability to create an open, light, and airy feeling to a home as well as highlight any dirt and grime. Most people dislike anything that highlights dirt in their home but I say if you can't see it how can you know you got in clean?!?!

Needless to say all of our kitchen choices were based primarily around the white cabinets. We chose to stain the oak hardwood floors saddle. The home came standard with a yellow-ish granite and we were looking for a more gray toned counter which brown eyes (I swear its a good mixture of mostly gray and a little brown). The GE stainless steel appliances are the only option DR Horton offered.

kitchen finishes

Like all married couples Ryan and I have some differences, including our decorating tastes. I like more casual farmhouse/cottage chic while he likes more formal colonial. We try to compromise. We are basing our kitchen mood board around one of those compromises, our current kitchen table. Ryan picked it out based on two criteria set by me-- round and dark finished. (*Note- Ryan wants to make sure you know that he hates the two chair options I've included in the mood board). 

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Do you and your significant other or roommate have different styles of decorating? How do you make it work?

let me upgrade ya', you may not be a model but I can front page ya'

from here

Upgrades. We love them and we hate them. S@#$ can get cray cray real fast unless you have someone there to reel you in. It is very easy to go over budget in minutes seconds. We managed to use some restraint and contained our upgrade costs to just under $80,000. My stomach just dropped typing that. Fortunately for us, DR Horton was running an AH-MAZING deal when we signed our contract and we were able to get all the upgrades for 50% off-  so technically we only paid $40,000. I pride myself in being a bargain shopper so although 40K still gives me butterflies it mostly just makes me proud.

So what did we upgrade...

Basement Level:

• Finished bathroom
• Finished rec room
• Espresso cabinets in bathroom
• Thicker carpet padding in rec room and on stairs
• 12x12 tiled foyer
• Walkout to exterior (already zoned for this... so not much of a choice but we were happy with it)
• Garage door opener, additional remote, and keypad
• Electrical outlet in unfinished den

Main Level:

• Gourmet kitchen layout
• Gourmet kitchen appliances (Gas cook top, double wall ovens, microwave, dishwasher, and french door refrigerator) 
• 42"white kitchen stepped height cabinets with brushed nickel knobs and crown molding
• A different color granite kitchen counter (granite comes standard but it was yellowish/tan)
• Undermount double bowl kitchen sink
• Fireplace with slate surround and mantle
• Extra electrical outlet and HDMI wiring for above fireplace to mount the TV
• Wooden stairs in entry and to second floor stained to match hardwoods with carpet runner
• Hardwood floors throughout (kitchen, breakfast area, dining room, living room, library, family room, hall, foyer, and powder room)
• Trim package (crown molding in formal living and dining room and chair rail molding in dining room)
• CAT5/telephone and cable outlet in library
• Overhead light rough in for family room

Second Level:

• Espresso cabinets in master bathroom and hall bathroom
• Thicker carpet padding throughout
• 12x12 tiled floors in master bathroom
• Level 2 tile for tube and shower surrounds
• Overhead light rough in for master bedroom
• Double vanity hall bath with linen closet access from the hall (not really an upgrade... they have made it a standard feature since printing the floorplans)

What we opted out of...

• Wet bar in basement
• Second fireplace in basement
• Tray ceiling in master bedroom
• Columns between hallway and family room
• Finishing the den

Although I am pleased with the value and volume of upgrades we got for the price I still think my ultimate bargain deal is a pair of vintage leather miss capezio boots that I bought for $5 in college. What is your best bargain deal find?

come and knock on our door

We chose to build the Wilmington model of home by DR Horton because....well frankly, because they had already submitted permits for that model to be built on the lot that we liked. Also it was affordable and allowed us to add a ton of customizations that we otherwise might not have been able to.

wilmington model by dr horton

Our final product will look a little different. The front will be completely brick. We won't have the round tops on the main floor windows or the triangle shaped awning over the door. We will have a two foot bump out where the right top floor windows are and an additional peak in the roof centered above those windows. Our outdoor color scheme:

The homeowners association only allows wood finished, board on board, privacy fences. We hope to build something like this for the yard:

here

Sometimes I wish you could have customized door bell rings or knocks to let you know who is at the door... aka whether its actually worth getting up to answer. What would your custom door bell ring/knock be?

i'll start walking your way, you start walking mine...

Before we started looking for a house we created a checklist of items we would ideally like in our home. Although we understood we would probably end up compromising on some things it gave us a good jumping off point and allowed us to really visualize what was important to each of us. So, how does our new house stack up against the checklist of our ideal home....

The  new house is so much more space than we could have even imagined and although it doesn't meet every single thing on our check list we got far more than we expected. We were able to get hardwood floors on the entire main level and hope to upgrade some of the other floors along the line. Our first big purchase after moving will be to fence in the yard for our pups, Libby and Grover. What smaller concessions have you had to make in order to achieve your bigger goals?

google it

We were becoming increasingly frustrated with our house search and over the past month began to feel pretty defeated. We started brainstorming what else we could compromise on from our list to get into a home. On a whim I googled some new construction town homes in Chantilly I had seen an ad for but we ultimately decided it was too far of a drive for both us. One website led to another though and we discovered some builders that were building in Fort Washington, MD. It turns out that the homes were surprisingly more affordable and substantially bigger than everything we had seen to that point. We were officially intrigued.

After lots of googling using many of the tools we told you about here we also discovered the area is in the middle of a big transition with many upper middle class neighborhoods being built around the growing National Harbor area. The school system leaves a lot to be desired... although the elementary school is OK.  We figure by the time we have kids ready to leave elementary school  it will be well over a decade away and who knows what our life will be like by then.

Our lot looking from above.

Our search was narrowed to two builders based upon location, Ryan Homes and DR Horton. We looked at national reviews, local reviews, and even got the opinions of some people that had already built in the potential neighborhoods. I also rediscovered a great website for asking advice of others based upon a specific location. After weighing ALL the information, price of the homes, upgrade options, and looking at the available lots we decided to go with DR Horton. When you make decisions do you just take the leap or cautiously dip your toe in the water until you know its safe like us? Hey, there might be sharks...you never know.

a place to call our own

Things have been quiet for a while because we have been busy. We found a house. Well, more like we found a place for a house. That's right...we are starting from scratch and building a home. The past couple weeks have been spent touring models home, signing contracts, making finishing choices, amending contracts,  keeping fingers crossed for permits, and patiently waiting. Although this is most definitely not the path we thought we started down six months ago it is where the dirt road traveled and we couldn't be more excited.

home. sweet home.