We bought our appliances for our new kitchen this past weekend!! Mike has been checking out Black Friday deals online and we decided this is probably the best time of year to buy them to get the good sales! He started with Best Buy and Home Depot looking at standard appliances, then called our local Simon's Appliance store and found they were also running a sale. Simon's will match any prices we find but they also have very competitive pricing so we decided we should buy them there to support our local store and they also have great customer service.
On Thursday, 11/8/12, we checked out our options and got a quote for the ones we picked out - which of course was double than the ones we would have bought at Best Buy - but these were much nicer. It would be either a double oven range or slide in range with an electric oven and gas stove, regular microwave, fridge, and dishwasher.
After thinking about it more and looking at tons of pictures of kitchens we decided to switch to go with a built in oven and microwave unit, separate stove top, fridge, and dishwasher - all KitchenAid. With all the work we are going to be putting into the house, this is our chance to make it look nice so we might as well spend a little more and get what we really want. So....now we tripled our original Best Buy pricing.....oh well, the kitchen will look awesome!!
Of course I was a little unsure of our choice, it's hard to know what you want until its there and you feel like you want something else. After talking to some friends about our selection I feel more confident and am excited!! Now to wait for more progress to be done! Crazy to think we will not even be using these until maybe even summer time!
Monday, November 12, 2012
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Figuring Things Out
Right now the budget is feeling a little bit daunting. But....we really don't know until we can get the plans drawn up and start getting bids on things.
Listening to an old classic song I love ("Nothings Gonna Stop Us" by Starship - I know I'm a dork), there's a line in it that needs to be my new motto :) "We can build this dream together, standing strong forever, nothings gonna stop us now" Corny I know, but this is going to be a crazy journey and as my super supportive sister-in-law, Ami, says "You have to keep a smile in your heart throughout this whole process."
The plan is figure out the cost of materials and things that Mike cannot do; then fill things in that we can contract out to make things go faster as the budget allows.
A few plan idea's have been drawn up, but not one that I felt comfortable with and wouldn't feel like I was settling for. The other night I sat down with the computer and told Mike we are figuring this out once and for all! I've had this vision in my head for some time now of what I want it to be, all the plans I've seen so far are not that and I am determined to get what I want :)
So we did come up with a plan I love!!
I really hope we can get it to work out! It has that open concept that I want and all the things on my wish list. The kids rooms will be downstairs and we are still figuring out the layout for that.
Listening to an old classic song I love ("Nothings Gonna Stop Us" by Starship - I know I'm a dork), there's a line in it that needs to be my new motto :) "We can build this dream together, standing strong forever, nothings gonna stop us now" Corny I know, but this is going to be a crazy journey and as my super supportive sister-in-law, Ami, says "You have to keep a smile in your heart throughout this whole process."
The plan is figure out the cost of materials and things that Mike cannot do; then fill things in that we can contract out to make things go faster as the budget allows.
A few plan idea's have been drawn up, but not one that I felt comfortable with and wouldn't feel like I was settling for. The other night I sat down with the computer and told Mike we are figuring this out once and for all! I've had this vision in my head for some time now of what I want it to be, all the plans I've seen so far are not that and I am determined to get what I want :)
So we did come up with a plan I love!!
I really hope we can get it to work out! It has that open concept that I want and all the things on my wish list. The kids rooms will be downstairs and we are still figuring out the layout for that.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Just when you think you have it all figured out...
You don't!! We bought our house with intentions of adding on in a few years, not to live in it the way it is forever. The house has tons of potential and lots of options for adding an addition......maybe that's the problem. We've been dreaming about this for 2+ years and now comes the time to figure out exactly what we want and put it in writing. Wow, this is scary!
The original plan was always to put on a second story and have only living on the main level. Right now while the kids are young, yes that is the best possible option and what I want - all the bedrooms together so we are close to the kids. But then I start to think about the future....when the kids are in their teens will they really want to be next to mom and dad? When they move out what will I do with all those bedrooms upstairs? Do we really have a budget to add that much space to the house? And so the big debate begins!!
We met with Lori, who will be drawing up the plans, this past weekend. Since then we have been coming up with different idea's that will suit our needs a little better. At the present moment we have decided to push the back out 12 feet and have 3 bedrooms down in the basement for the kids and have our master bedroom on the main floor. Completely different than what I visioned all this time! But when we really think about it, the idea works! The kids would all be together downstairs, there would be a family room down there, I think this will be ideal when they are a little older and have friends over, it would be their space. We would also get our space away from them and the house would be perfect and ideal when the kids move out. Less steps and the empty bedrooms would be downstairs and we could always change them into something else. I'm not a huge basement person so Mike had to do a little convincing as he grew up with a bedroom downstairs and played downstairs. I think I am fine with it as long as we put in large windows which will obviously have a big egress spot outside. So....this idea has really thrown me off since this is not what I pictured all this time, but it makes sense.
Now Lori is currently coming up with a few different floor plan options we will need to pick from. Then we decided we are going to file a variance with the city to try and put on the front porch that I want, otherwise it will just be a regular sized overhang and a deck on the front to look like a front porch.
So things are coming together a little, it's just really scary to think of deciding on an actual floor plan and sticking to it!!
The original plan was always to put on a second story and have only living on the main level. Right now while the kids are young, yes that is the best possible option and what I want - all the bedrooms together so we are close to the kids. But then I start to think about the future....when the kids are in their teens will they really want to be next to mom and dad? When they move out what will I do with all those bedrooms upstairs? Do we really have a budget to add that much space to the house? And so the big debate begins!!
We met with Lori, who will be drawing up the plans, this past weekend. Since then we have been coming up with different idea's that will suit our needs a little better. At the present moment we have decided to push the back out 12 feet and have 3 bedrooms down in the basement for the kids and have our master bedroom on the main floor. Completely different than what I visioned all this time! But when we really think about it, the idea works! The kids would all be together downstairs, there would be a family room down there, I think this will be ideal when they are a little older and have friends over, it would be their space. We would also get our space away from them and the house would be perfect and ideal when the kids move out. Less steps and the empty bedrooms would be downstairs and we could always change them into something else. I'm not a huge basement person so Mike had to do a little convincing as he grew up with a bedroom downstairs and played downstairs. I think I am fine with it as long as we put in large windows which will obviously have a big egress spot outside. So....this idea has really thrown me off since this is not what I pictured all this time, but it makes sense.
Now Lori is currently coming up with a few different floor plan options we will need to pick from. Then we decided we are going to file a variance with the city to try and put on the front porch that I want, otherwise it will just be a regular sized overhang and a deck on the front to look like a front porch.
So things are coming together a little, it's just really scary to think of deciding on an actual floor plan and sticking to it!!
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Planning, planning, planning
The day has FINALLY come to start planning for our addition!!! We had John and Lori over tonight to start our planning process. Lori will be drawing up our plans for the addition. We discussed all options that we have in mind and how they may possibly work with the budget we have. Our budget seems large to me, but addition-wise may not cut it for what we want.
3 options we've been kicking around:
1) Add on 12 feet on the back and then a second story addition over the entire thing, adding 4 bedrooms upstairs.
2) Just going back 12 week, having 3 bedrooms on main floor, and still one bedroom in the basement.
3) Not go back at all but add a second story with 4 bedrooms.
Each option has pros and cons. I go back and forth if I want all 4 bedrooms together upstairs. It is ideal right now while the kids are small, but time flies and I fear when the kids are in their teens they will be in the phase of I want to be left alone and would love to be in the basement away from mom and dad; and when we are older and the kids are moved out, what are we going to do with all those bedrooms? I love the idea of a big rambler, I love our closeness now.....ok we have a little too much closeness now because it is so small, but things are simple and all right there.
Lori came up with a 4th option tonight that I really like and never considered. Going back the 12 feet, adding a second story with 3 bedrooms (dormer style), and having a master bedroom on the main floor. I love this idea! The kids are all together and we have our own space! When they are a little older they will have each other and not mom and dad next door! So I can't wait to see what Lori comes up with!
3 options we've been kicking around:
1) Add on 12 feet on the back and then a second story addition over the entire thing, adding 4 bedrooms upstairs.
2) Just going back 12 week, having 3 bedrooms on main floor, and still one bedroom in the basement.
3) Not go back at all but add a second story with 4 bedrooms.
Each option has pros and cons. I go back and forth if I want all 4 bedrooms together upstairs. It is ideal right now while the kids are small, but time flies and I fear when the kids are in their teens they will be in the phase of I want to be left alone and would love to be in the basement away from mom and dad; and when we are older and the kids are moved out, what are we going to do with all those bedrooms? I love the idea of a big rambler, I love our closeness now.....ok we have a little too much closeness now because it is so small, but things are simple and all right there.
Lori came up with a 4th option tonight that I really like and never considered. Going back the 12 feet, adding a second story with 3 bedrooms (dormer style), and having a master bedroom on the main floor. I love this idea! The kids are all together and we have our own space! When they are a little older they will have each other and not mom and dad next door! So I can't wait to see what Lori comes up with!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Dream House!
Mike and I toured some renovated homes on the Parade of Homes tour this past weekend. I found one that I absolutely fell in love with the style and want my house to look exactly like it!
The builder is: http://davealanhomes.com/ The address is 4012 Kipling Ave, Edina. Of course the website does not have pictures of that exact house, but I will be stalking it to see if they add any :)
It had beautiful dark wood floors, with a dull finish. All white trim, open concept. The stairs going up and down were also the dark wood with a carpet runner down the middle. On the landing going upstairs there was a built in book shelf and window above it - I absolutely loved everything about the house!!! It had so much pretty detail! And of course it had a front porch which is what I want the most!
Our addition is finally in sight!!! We have a budget and are now figuring out how to make our wants and needs fit into it. So stay tuned to hopefully a lot of planning posts coming up!!
Today marks the day that we have finally finished business with our old house. 2 YEARS LATER!! What a ride it was, I'm so glad to close that chapter and move on! It's fitting to now be making plans for the addition, our original hope was to wait about 4 years before doing it, but things seem to be falling into place sooner, which is very welcomed! When this process started we had 2 kids, plans for a third but since we didn't have that 3rd in the making yet, out of sight out of mind was hard to picture in a tiny little house! So....I am very ready for this!!
The builder is: http://davealanhomes.com/ The address is 4012 Kipling Ave, Edina. Of course the website does not have pictures of that exact house, but I will be stalking it to see if they add any :)
It had beautiful dark wood floors, with a dull finish. All white trim, open concept. The stairs going up and down were also the dark wood with a carpet runner down the middle. On the landing going upstairs there was a built in book shelf and window above it - I absolutely loved everything about the house!!! It had so much pretty detail! And of course it had a front porch which is what I want the most!
Our addition is finally in sight!!! We have a budget and are now figuring out how to make our wants and needs fit into it. So stay tuned to hopefully a lot of planning posts coming up!!
Today marks the day that we have finally finished business with our old house. 2 YEARS LATER!! What a ride it was, I'm so glad to close that chapter and move on! It's fitting to now be making plans for the addition, our original hope was to wait about 4 years before doing it, but things seem to be falling into place sooner, which is very welcomed! When this process started we had 2 kids, plans for a third but since we didn't have that 3rd in the making yet, out of sight out of mind was hard to picture in a tiny little house! So....I am very ready for this!!
Monday, September 24, 2012
Outside Before & Afters
Before and afters of the outside:
Front
Side of Driveway
Boulevard
Side of House
Back
Back Patio
Side of Garage
Back and side of Garage
Corner of Backyard
Shed
Ripping out Bushes (3/25/12)
This spring we pulled out some bushes up front. There were 4 of them in a small space, they needed to be trimmed all the time to even tell there were 3 separate ones and I really didn't like the style of them anyways. So we took them out! I put in some decorative grass and am still trying to figure what else to put in the space.
Before:
Ripping them out:
After:
Before:
Ripping them out:
After:
Friday, September 21, 2012
Closet Doors
Jonah and Evan have been sharing a room....at times it went well, but for the most part it was pretty crazy!! Getting to sleep was the hard part, they would keep each other up. It was either a party or a cry-fest before bed. Most of August Jonah was having a very hard time falling asleep and would have to cry it out for quite some time, this meant Evan would not want to stay in the room until he fell asleep so he'd hang out in the living room with us until at least 9:00.
With school starting we decided it was time to move Jonah downstairs into the extra bedroom; this way we could get everyone to bed a little earlier and everyone would get better sleep. We had been using the bedroom downstairs as a toy room and we never put the closet door on when we refinished the room. It was just easy to put some shelves in with lots of toys. The doors still needed to be painted white so I primed and painted them this week and Mike hung them and added new matching knobs.
Finished doors:
With school starting we decided it was time to move Jonah downstairs into the extra bedroom; this way we could get everyone to bed a little earlier and everyone would get better sleep. We had been using the bedroom downstairs as a toy room and we never put the closet door on when we refinished the room. It was just easy to put some shelves in with lots of toys. The doors still needed to be painted white so I primed and painted them this week and Mike hung them and added new matching knobs.
Finished doors:
Grass
TruGreen came out yesterday to aerate and put down grass seed in both the front and back yard. HOPEFULLY it comes in nicely and we have a beautiful yard again in the spring!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Losing Battle with the Grass!
After a hot summer our grass in the back yard looks horrible!! We are SO disappointed! We had TruGreen fertilize for us all summer and probably in the last month we could not water the back enough; almost all of it has died. There were obvious dead area's that TruGreen had sprayed for weeds so we had them come out and take a look at those area's. Come to find out we actually have grubs. They eat away at the roots of the grass killing the grass. TruGreen was supposed to spray for insects, but they missed the grubs. So free of charge, they put down insect killer and will be coming back to thatch and over-seed. It will be interesting to see what they do, literally you can roll up the dead grass like sod :( So disappointing!
Beautiful Grass (4/2012)
Our grass came back beautifully this spring! So green and lush, we were so happy after all that we went through last summer that it came in so nice!!
Closet Door (3/2012)
Our bedroom is pretty small.....and so is the closet. We put a door on it to match all the others and Mike planned to modify it by cutting it in half so we have a door on each side to open in order to clear the bed frame. Here is the finished door, it turned out really nice!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)