You may have read in an earlier post that we were filmed as part of the Comcast On Demand Series “Master Suites. Even as much as we don’t like seeing ourselves on camera I’ve posted the video here for you to view if you’d like…Enjoy!
Lessons Learned…
It’s amazing that after all of this time we still feel the effects of the tough experience of building our home…Mind you our experience was different than some as we had plenty of time and money taken from us and our family. As with any lesson, we’ve learned something in the process and have been able to pass along our experiences with others so they won’t make the same mistakes. Part of the reason we wrote this blog was to inform others like us.
Today the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article on what to look for when looking for a contractor. Writer Felicia Feaster interviewed Kelly about our experience building our home. Would like to comment on something that wasn’t included in this article that’s very important – our architects. Along with our builder Russ Jackson, they were an extremely important part of the process of getting us back on our feet and finishing our home. One of the reasons we can look back on this process with a positive eyes. It’s unfortunate they couldn’t have been included in this interview seeing other architects were given a voice. It’s important to us that everyone know they were an extremely positive element to why we are in our home today.
You can view the full article here…
MA Drive By
It’s that time of year, the once a year drive by from the Modern Atlanta crew. Bernard and Elayne do such a good job of having great homes on the tour and equally great events to attend. Definitely worth your while if you’re in Atlanta during this time…Click here or on the image for more info…
Master Suites
We were recently asked to take part in Season 2 of the Comcast On Demand series Master Suites. Master Suites is a locally produced show that takes a look at unique and interesting homes in the Atlanta area. It’s created by Atlanta’s own Market Zero. We hosted show creators Michael and Andrew and their crew this past Friday to interview us at our home.
Any time you invite someone to your home there is a frantic rush to get the house together, get everything in order. Typical for us at least. The funny part is how most of what we were worried about will never show up on camera. What I should have been more worried about was being more awake on camera. Will be honest to say that I’m not the best interviewee. Kelly did a great job – me, not so much. I’ll pray to the gods of Edit to fix in session…
I believe our episode will be available starting mid-May, of course On Demand on Comcast in the Atlanta Area. To get an idea of what the show is about you can view some of their past episodes here. Here are some pics from the shoot…
AIA Georgia Design Award
Congrats to bldgs for the awards they were given at the recent AIA Georgia Conference in Savannah. They pulled in two awards, one for our house and another in Atlanta – Ansley Glass house. Both were given the highest awards – Honor – Overall Excellence. Congrats to Brian and David!!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
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
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…
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.
City of ATL, you’re the best.
I’m being facetious of course. Looking at the photo you can see why I’m bothered. If you’ve seen the photos of our street recently you’ll see that it’s a nice, newly paved blacktop street. That was until recently when the City of ATL doing sewer work has marked up our entire street like it was a big graffiti project. To top it off, yesterday they replaced our manhole/sewer cover and made a huge mess right in front of our house. In my experience with the City, they really don’t care about cleaning up after themselves which is awesome – being facetious again….Hoping that it actually improves our sewer system. Anyway, apologize for the rant and if you come to our house for the tour I apologize for the mess…
ClosetSmith is working in my house, my House!
If you are familiar with the LCD Soundsystem, my post title may have a ring to it. “Daft Punk is playing at my House” is what I was imagining as I wrote this…
ClosetSmith’s Garrett Gerst and son came by yesterday and knocked out our closet systems. In a matter of hours I had a whole new closet system and Kelly had a new addition. As you can see from this pic below it was needed. My clothes had exploded in our guest bedroom. Knowing that I had a new closet coming I just treated it like one big bachelor pad closet. I’m a guy, what did you expect.
Check out the before, progress shots and after…
