Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. June 7, 2010

Wow. We totally did not expect the amount of people and positive response we got from the tour this past weekend. It was a great way for us to celebrate our hard work and share with our friends, family and everyone that showed up. Thanks to MA for getting us involved, Brian and David our architects for doing such a bang up job. Also thanks to everyone I mentioned in past posts that helped us along the way. And thank you to whoever sought us out and said nice things about our home, much appreciated. Funny, as I was equally as interested to hear what people might not have liked. Everyone has their opinions, but it would be interesting to hear regardless. Might even be something we never thought about.

Anyway, sorry to the people we had to turn away, but it was an hour past closing time. We already had our dogs back home, our cats out of the basement and friends and family on the back porch with us having beers and relaxing. Kind of hard to turn back after that. Thanks for being interested regardless!!!

Posted some pics of the event here below….

and our animals happily back at home….

I think we’re done/Welcome June 5, 2010

That’s Dave 30 ft up on the ladder and I’m down below exhausted. We’ve been cleaning windows all day along with tons of coordination with the yard guy, cleaners, and such….it’ been crazy. Anyway, I’m writing this 10 minutes before the tour and just wanted to say “Welcome.”

All of our problems… June 3, 2010

Typically when people walk through our house we begin with pointing out our home’s flaws or the things we are still working on. Like anyone, only we see the problems or the things that need to be adjusted in our house. That said, I thought I would point out a few things you WILL see on the tour…a primer if you are coming to our house.

- Ikea: We’re not Ikea apologists. That store has gotten us out of a bind or two with furnishings and just about anything you can think of – cabinets, appliances, etc. If we had it our way we would probably have a little less of their stuff in our home, but until our bank accounts surge to the point of overflow that won’t happen. I really just think it points out that we fall into the category of middle class modern. Regardless, Kelly has done an amazing job of putting together mid-century furniture items from one of our favorite stores – City Issue (FYI – nice tour break if you are in our hood)

- Upper Decks: Our framer was supposed to finish these If you’ve read back in the blog you’ll see why. Anyway, we really wanted to finish for the tour, but the cost was too much and we had so many other things ahead of this that were more important. Although you won’t be able to take in the view from the upper deck you’ll be able to stare at rubber membrane that covers it.

- Basement Level: Another thing that isn’t finished. One of those Future To Do List items. We weren’t ever planning for this to be done for the tour. Hopefully for us eventually though.

- Back Yard: We thought the front yard was much more important to us and everyone. That said the back yard has taken a little bit of a hit. Actually, there is nothing terribly wrong with it, it’s just not been loved on. Small river pebbles cover the entire back yard. That was the best, immediate approach to working with the thick Georgia Red Clay underneath. Eventually it will get there, so just imagine it for now.

Really what I’m trying to say is that we are real. We don’t have tons of money to buy the grandest furniture from Domus or the fanciest countertop for our kitchen. We have to plan it out and budget it for in the future like real people do. We’re honestly lucky to be in this house for all that we had to go through. Hopefully if you decide to take on building a contemporary home you can learn from some of the mistakes we made and be able to afford some fancy household items.