Thursday, February 17, 2011

The changes.

Although we're totally in love with the 512a and ready to move in, commit ourselves, and all that jazz - it doesn't mean she doesn't have a few flaws quirks.

The husband and I spent a lot of time going through models of this floor plan.  I have taken tons of photographs and we scoured through them, discussing what we would do differently.  Thankfully, we were able to write all of these changes into our contract and with only one round of negotiations - everyone came to a happy agreement.

Armed with a folder full of photographs, I'm going to take you... my loyal followers (all 6 of you) through our house and show you all the awesome-ness it entails.   (And some of the changes we made to the original plan)

(Remember, these are photos from the model home.  I wish we had the budget they used  to furnish this home... but for now, it's great inspiration while we build our savings)

Above is standing in the "extended" entryway looking at the front door.  We are getting an upgraded front door (meaning it's a lot larger with glass inserts).  That small window above the door will not be there, because the front door will almost reach to that point.  You can see a sliver of a blue wall on the right... that is the dining room.  The opening to the left (next to to the front door) is actually where the garage will be.  Because this is a model home... they use the garage space as their office and leave it open.  The smaller opening on the left closest to you is the opening where you'll enter from the garage into the house.  
We have our choice between 12''x12'', 16''x16'' or 18''x18'' tiles.  The patterns will determine which way I go... but I know it will either be the 16'' or 18''.  

Above the is the formal dining room that was just to the right of the front door (when you were looking towards the door in the previous photo).  Although I think Dining Rooms are beautiful, they are not really suitable for our current lifestyle.  If I'm going to be honest, we only eat at our breakfast table on "fancy" days.  Normally, dinner is done in front of the t.v. on the couch.  
We debated having the builders go ahead and enclose this opening with french doors to make in an office for the husband.  In the end, we decided having a dining room would be good for eventual re-sale, and the husband will still use it as his office.  The plan is to change out the lighting fixture and put a desk and bookshelves in this rooms for when he works from home.  Maybe someday we will use it for a dining room... but for now - this is the office.  Thankfully, he's a complete freak about tidiness in his work space so this area will still look nice when visitors first enter the home.  

If you go back and look at the previous photo of the dining room, you'll see these doors.  This leads to the laundry room (left) and planning area (right) and then through into the kitchen.
We also included the upgrade of all oil rubbed bronze fixtures, knobs, hinges, and pluming into our contract.  Once again, all things in life are better in oil rubbed:  men, massages, fish, the list goes on an on...

Here you can see the "planning area" I mentioned.  In our home, the desk will have a granite top.  There are cabinets and a small 'look through' into the entry way.  I plan on keeping cookbooks, keys, bills, etc in this area.  This will also be where the computer lives until we save up the cash to get the husband his office furniture.  

Here is the floor plan once again.  With my expert powerpoint skills I added the visual of the tile extending all the way to the family room.  Originally, that was all carpet and I really felt like tile was a better solution with the amount of foot traffic that area would see.  You can also see that I added new boundaries for the back patio.  We are going to be getting the "extended covered patio" which will be awesome.  It will leave us plenty of room for patio furniture, a grill, and room to spare.  
I'm pretty sure this floor plan is property of Highland Homes... so don't steal it, mmmkay?

So there are the first few areas of the house.  I imagine this tour will be broken into at least 4-5 segments - so stay tuned.  

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