A Suit of Siding

So all of a sudden we went from Tyvek to Hardie Board in "Night Gray," and our house is looking sharp! I'm getting the feeling that E-Haus is more guy than girl, so we'll call it a suit. What's really interesting is the way this color (and our house itself) looks so different in different lights and from different angles. We apparently have two houses!

Our driveway will eventually branch off into a concrete pad and turn-around by the garage as well as an additional loop that goes more in front of the house for guests. But because we wanted to take best advantage of our scenery and tweaked our house location to that, this angled view is going to be the first impression our guests get. I'm guessing that a yard and some landscaping will go a long way to help!

When we're out in the yard or otherwise coming to the front door, this is the straight-ahead front view, and in this light, our siding almost looks navy blue. I can't wait to see how the stone we chose finishes it off! I can't wait to paint the front door, for that matter! I told Nate that I want to go bold, so we'll see if I hold my ground when the time comes to make that decision for real.

E-Haus Decor Plans: The Main Bathroom

With our upcoming move, we will be moving from a single bathroom to 2.5 bathrooms. Having spent my entire adult life carting toiletries to and fro from bathrooms that are shared in some way, I almost didn't know where to start in terms of making plans for each space. Furthermore, my kids have their own bathroom in this house (well, except for when we have guests until we finish our basement), so I get to figure out a designated kid space for the first time. 

We planned this bathroom to be a blank slate (read: generic) that can be decorated and redecorated easily as our kids grow up from small to tall: rectangular gray tiles laid in a brickwork pattern, a white cabinet with double sinks, slate gray granite countertops and a low-impact brushed nickel light fixture. Then, after multiple false starts, I recalled our now-homeless art from the gender neutral nursery we left behind, and used it to make a plan for adding in some personality. Apparently, even for kids, I love texture more than color.  At least I'm consistent.

1, 8, 16: Hooded towels are adorable and also practical for small people. 

          2: The above-mentioned towels will hang on three of these elephant hooks that I plan to hang across from the vanity.

         3: The light fixture we chose.

         4: Historically we have had major problems with bath mats that get kicked around and folded and lost among our laundry. A bamboo mat will add some warmth to an otherwise cool space and hopefully some durability as well. 

        5: Slate gray granite. I kind of love the lighter matte pieces in it that may camouflage the less than pristine spots that are inevitable in a kids' space.

        6: We found a similar low stool with warm wooden legs and an entirely white and gray elephant top. This will make an ideal extra surface for both a parent who bathes kids and a kid who needs a boost at the vanity. It doesn't hurt that the stool repeats the color AND animal pattern we've got going on. 

   7, 10: Two of the three pieces of our nursery art. 

   9, 14: The bamboo finish will repeat in the wastebasket and shower curtain hooks.

        11: Tile, gray floors with white cabinet.  

        12: We opted to provide all of our own lighting and mirrors throughout our home. In this space we decided to use two round mirrors with modern wooden frames in lieu of a standard frameless rectangle.

       13: A non-slip mat inside the tub is a must with small people. At least in this iteration the color would help tie in aqua balloon art.

       15: We have forever used a ruffled aqua ombre shower curtain, but now it feels like overkill. We already have a solid white curtain in a waffle texture, so it's an easy choice.

And the Framing Details Continue.

One of the coolest impromptu experiences of the build happened on the Saturday that we randomly drove over and discovered a whole crew at work installing windows and exterior doors! Not pictured: we didn't get our normal snow this winter, but we definitely have gotten a bunch of rain, so it's basically a mud slick out that door. One of the guys bringing the door in totally slipped in it and fell flat on his back in the muck. He wasn't hurt at all except for perhaps his ego, so we all had a laugh. 

This door was originally designed as a sliding door-- and yes, that would have been practical-- but the romantics in us went for french doors anyway. I just keep imagining them propped open in the sunshine, especially after we get our deck built out there. The space that leads to the doors is going to serve as a dining nook for a few years at least. 

We wanted open living in our house, so we added a nook so that we could have a little separation instead of placing our table directly between the kitchen (that dark hole to the left) and the great room. The planned dining room is going to be a TV/ play room instead, and we added an angled peninsula to our kitchen that utilizes some of the gap space in here.

I had never before and will likely never again be so amazed by the installation of pipes and electrical boxes into a space!

We have an upstairs! This was taken from inside the master bedroom and through the framing you can see the top of our stairs, the laundry room (right next to our bedroom on the left in this picture), our daughter's room (to the right of our stairs), and if you squint hard enough I can see my cute soon-to-be middle child who is standing in our planned open loft space and another bedroom right behind him.

And the view from our upstairs balcony into the great room! My absolute favorite thing about this space besides the two-story windows themselves is the way that we angled our house altogether so that they all look directly into the woods. I can't think of a better view to watch the seasons change throughout the year!

This is the flat-on back view of our house. Now imagine it with a desk in the space the right that wraps around the right side of the house, and a low patio across the rest of the back. Also some grass and landscaping. 

The garage side and the top of one of the egress windows in our basement. It's funny how much Tyvek, windows and shingles make a structure start to look like a real house! Maybe we don't need siding after all...