I was so stoked when I got to see what I was dreaming about and explaining to everyone in some tangible form. Sure, they are black and white line drawings, but they are the closest thing to the real deal right now and they give me hope and something a bit more concrete to picture in my mind when I am at work dreaming about what our Christmas lights will look like on the front of the house or what it will feel like to stand on the back deck and bbq.
Click on the image for a bigger version:)
I’m Niki. My husband is Sean. The two of us spent the Summer of 2012 working, winetasting, and looking for a house to buy…with no success (errr, actually we had success with the wine tasting but not with the house buying). We started to get discouraged, questioned our plans, threw around alternatives to buying a house, kept looking, and tried to just enjoy the process. *One of these days I am going to post pictures of some of the houses we looked at. That’ll be a fun post. Oh my, were most houses ever strange. *
Anyhow, I’m rambling. One day a cute little lot in the historic downtown “village” area popped up on the MLS. It was interesting. Our interest was piqued. My step dad is just generally awesome at life and has built a bunch of houses of his own and some to sell. He suggested maybe we just build and offered his help to us if we decided to go that route. Long story short, we loved that option and less than a month later, the lot became ours.
That was October and the past few months and past few tens of thousands of dollars have been spent on soils testing, topographic surveys, engineering, architectural reviews, permits, and other miscellaneous tasks. Mostly boring stuff….EXCEPT…..the plans! The planning process has been so much fun. It feels like such a luxury (and it is!) to be able to decide on the style, the flow, the usage of space, the amount of light, and the finishes of an entire house. That is the fun stuff and that is probably what I will be sharing the most of. Lets face it, insulation and roofing materials aren’t exceedingly exciting.
On that note, this is what the ‘ol house is supposed to look like when she’s built:
Were calling her a “modern farmhouse” and we think she is going to be a BEAUT!
And this is us:
By our pool! HA! I wish. We are actually living at my dad’s house with three cats. My little sister (whose awesome) recently graduated college and moved home to study for the MCAT and apply for Med School. So she’s also living at my dad’s house. God bless by dad…its a packed house. Needless to say as much as we love my sister and my dad, we are so ready to see this house finished and to move in and have a place of our own again.
Some other stuff about us (other than that we are cat-hoarding free-loaders):
we are 27 (me) and 30 (Sean)
we have never owned a home
we love love love anything and everything involving the outdoors
we live on the Central Coast of Cali
we love wine (and beer)
we have a load of awesome people in our lives who have been so supportive and stoked for us throughout this process so far
we are an accountant (me) and an EMT/Paramedic School Student/Aspiring Firefighter (Sean)
we met in ’03 & got married in ’08 and its been the funnest 10 years
we are kid-less but we do have 3 aforementioned awesome cats
Stay tuned!
The House that Sean and Niki Built 