Seattle Or Bust, Chapter One

 This little house served our daughter and her family well for many years, but alas, they outgrew it.

After a few failed attempts to buy another home and even consider adding on, they made the decision to move to Seattle.

With my son-in-law's business already in Seattle, it made perfect sense.

 Once that decision was made, there was no stopping them!

My daughter rented an apartment and moved her family so that the house could be staged.

Here's their staged living room.  It looks much larger and neutral, which is what buyers want to see.

Here's their living room after I did a makeover several years ago with World Market furniture.

You can read about it here.

The kitchen was remodeled several years ago too, combining three tiny rooms in to one.

There is no dining room, so opening up the space created an eat in kitchen.

The staged master bedroom looking much larger than it actually is.

This house has two bedrooms and one bath.

At 930 square feet, it packs a lot of punch, but not enough for our daughter's family, plus a new puppy and a cat!

 The back of the house.

I re-landscaped both the front and back of the house about 5 years ago.

 The cobblestone path was my solution to connect the house with the garage.  

Above the garage is a loft that was used as their office.  It also has a bedroom and bath so it could be used as an in-law unit.

Last year, I spruced up the backyard again with new outdoor furniture here.  However, they have since inherited my teak table and chairs from our move, which will now find its way to their new home!

I think their backyard is my favorite part of this house.  I'll always remember sitting on the steps and watching the granddaughters play.

And so it's time to say good-bye to this house and look ahead to a bright future in Seattle.

I'm in denial about them leaving and I know it's going to hit me hard when they drive away next Saturday, but I'm also very excited for them and can't wait to visit as often as I can.

Stay tuned for details about their new Seattle home.

It's fabulous!

A Few Setbacks

"When will the house be finished?"

Well, that is a good question!  We've had a few setbacks and I'll admit that I'm a little discouraged.

We don't have sheetrock yet, but I'm hoping by the end of the month we do.

 One of the first setbacks was finding live termites and dry rot in many places.

I guess that's the advantage of having the entire house opened up.

The good news is that we exterminated them and repaired the rotten wood.

Another surprise was finding out our garage floor was only an inch and a half thick!

So, it was jackhammered up and new concrete was poured over rebar.

Now it's not only thick, but safer--especially if we have an earthquake.

 The one setback that really got to me though was when thieves broke in to our house and stole the contractor's tools, building permits and job cards.

As you can see, they even broke the window of a car parked in front.

Just for fun.

I mean, who does that?

They literally climbed up the scaffolding to get to the roof, then went down into the atrium and broke the lock on the kitchen door to get in.

Then to get out, they forced the old garage door open.  

I'm so thankful my new garage doors weren't installed yet and that they didn't break any new window glass to get out.

Today, the scaffolding came down.  

To celebrate, I bought four quarts of paint to sample on the stucco.  

The concrete will be poured this week for the sidewalks and "driveway."

Things are shaping up!

Trying to stay positive here....

Analysis Paralysis

Analysis paralysis:   "The state of over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. A decision can be treated as over-complicated, with too many detailed options, so that a choice is never made, rather than try something and change if a major problem arises. A person might be seeking the optimal or "perfect" solution upfront, and fear making any decision which could lead to erroneous results, when on the way to a better solution."

A reader actually diagnosed my condition as "Analysis Paralysis!"

I can honestly say that's what I have.  Now that my contractors are pushing for decisions that need to be made, not just considered, I find myself not able to make a final decision. 

For example, I thought I wanted Virginia Mist granite for the kitchen countertops, but when I went looking for slabs, I didn't like the look.  

I thought it was supposed to resemble soapstone, but the slabs I'm finding look like they have clouds all over them and look grainy and too gray.

So now I'm reconsidering soapstone.  

I've read all the articles about the pros and cons.

My contractor even took me to a restaurant in the City, The Commisary, that has soapstone to see how it has held up.

After more than a year in a commercial application, this soapstone looks amazing.  Yes there are chips and scratches but I can live with them.

My contractor has been very patient, I have to say.  Here he is selecting the perfect marble for my bathroom vanity.  I'm thinking I should just leave these decisions up to him-that way a decision will at least be made.  

He doesn't suffer from "Analysis Paralysis!"

I did make a few decisions on lighting though.

Or at least I ordered a few lights.

This one came from Wisteria and is a potential winner for the cathedral ceiling in the living room.

At 37" wide, I hope it's wide enough to fill the space.  However, I'm still unsure about the look and am debating a huge lantern instead...

 I ordered two small chandeliers from Pottery Barn. 

This one for the powder room or master closet...

 ...and this one for the master bathroom.

If they don't work, I can return them.  Most lighting sites charge a restocking fee or don't allow returns, so I feel good about my purchases.

The one decision I don't regret making though is marrying this guy!

No "Paralysis Analysis" here!

33 years ago today we said "I do!"

Happy Anniversary to us!

Lighting Obsessions

When the electricians came and wired the house, I began obsessing over lighting.

We had a "lighting plan," but still, just walking through the house and pointing to where I want a pendant or a chandelier made the lighting plan come to life.

I've been perusing light fixtures online, staying up way too late, totally obsessed.

One of my favorite lighting sites is Circa Lighting.  Their Atlanta store above makes me want to book a flight!

 There are too many choices, and at the same time, I want more!

For instance, while I love the look above with the maritime inspired pendants, I think two lanterns would also be wonderful.

I love these open and airy pendants from Circa and am leaning towards using this color of metal.

Burnished brass, warm metals or gilded iron.

 This pendant has a glass enclosure and would also be beautiful, but maybe it would work in the living room, hanging from the cathedral ceiling.

Another choice for either the kitchen island or living room is this lantern from Restoration Hardware.

 I keep going back to a more traditional lantern though, like this one from Suzanne Kasler for Circa Lighting.

Shades of Light has a similar pendant.

Although it is for outdoors, it would work over the kitchen island too.

 When I took the dining room chandelier from my old house, I had plans to install it in the new dining room.  But now I'm thinking it's too big and I'm having to work around it's organic look.  

This chandelier is similar but more delicate and has warm brass metal and crystals.

 It I don't go with crystals, this is an option too.

It's wooden, but painted gold.  It would be nice over the breakfast nook.

So to break it down, either I go with my original plan of using my old chandelier in the dining room as pictured above and building my lighting design around it, or I go down an entirely different road and choose fixtures in warm brass or gilded iron with crystals in the dining room and entry. 

Can you see why I'm obsessing?  

You Asked For It

 So many have asked for photos of the house and I've resisted because there still isn't much to share in the way of progress.  So since you asked for it, here are they are:

In the atrium, the original spiral staircase was removed.  It was too narrow and illegal, so a new one is being made.  In the meantime, a ladder is the only access to the roof.  I'm definitely not going to climb up!

 This is our master bathroom.  

The plumbers are installing the valves in our walk in shower.

Just last week, the electricians added the cans and all electrical in the house.

This is our master bedroom, looking in to the walk in closet. 

Recently, the opening was made smaller and a pair of French doors will go there with obscure glass.

I'm very excited about the closet and am working with Marty, the cabinet maker to design it.

 The stairway, looking down towards the family room.

 The family room looking towards the wet bar area.

Marty, the cabinet maker is making cabinets that will be black with just a little distressing.

I plan to top it with limestone.  The whole room will be wallpapered in grasscloth!

On the outside, the whole house is getting a coat of new stucco that will be smooth and have sharper edges.  An updated look. 

Sheetrock should be going in next week or the week after.  That will be a game changer!

In the meantime, I'm gathering light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, paint samples, window covering samples and furniture ideas.  There's so much to do that I've taken a little blog break, but promise to resume again!

Mr. A, the Les Méchantes girls and I also took a break this week and headed north to Asti.  

Les Méchantes is doing a pop-up at Healdsburg's H2 Hotel on May 16th and 17th, so if you're in the wine country, stop by and say hi!

Happy May Day!

This May Day has me dreaming of planting my garden, even though it's way too soon to start digging in the dirt.

 Nevertheless, I'm hanging out with the chickens at the nursery, plotting and scheming up a landscape plan for the City house.

I'm thinking boxwood borders, olive trees and white roses.

 Of all times to be having the worst drought in history!

I want to plant boxwood and I'm afraid they're going to need too much water.

Do I opt to plant them anyway and just take a shower every other day to balance out the watering needs?

The resident kitty could care less about my dilemma!

That's ok.  We'll just wait until fall to landscape and hopefully by then it will start raining.

Wishing you all a Happy May Day!

Sweet Serendipity

 Talk about serendipity!

I bought this new magazine while grocery shopping, brought it home and forgot about it.

Then, a few nights later, I sat down with a glass of wine and started to peruse New Classic Style.

 What a surprise to see our home in Asti featured!

Basically, it's the same article that was in Tuscan Style a few years ago, but this time, the photos are bigger and more dramatic.

 The photographs were taken by John Granan and styled by Bonnie Broten.

Seeing them again brought back so many fond memories of their time spent at our home.

 If only our living room looked like this still!

 John's photography is amazing.

I love how he captured the vineyard views through the arbor.

 Bonnie and John made everything look fabulous.  

I still love how Bonnie styled the mudroom.

It looks as if I just came in with clippers in hand and an armful of summer flowers.

It was such sweet serendipity and a surprise seeing our home again in a magazine.

Thank you New Classic Style for the feature!