Thursday, August 23, 2012

Love It or Do We List It?

KIDDING!  We love our house.  All we ever talk about is how we're never going to sell.  We're leaving feet first!

We love the size.  We love the location.  We love the parking pad, neighbors, schools, proximity to transit, walkability...you name it, we love it.  But loving our house brings up all kinds of discussions that can be just as costly or scary as moving.

Like changing it.

*-get ready for a wordy post-*

Since we don't plan on moving, we daydream about making our house more functional for our family.  Having lived here for 9 years, we've come up with many ideas.  But we've also come up with same idea again and again.  Which is where we're at today.

And it all comes down to this:

Our Dining Room Right Now

As much as it pains me to say it, we don't need a dining room.  I love the idea of it.  I really want to want it.  But in our house, it's a repeat.  We eat in the kitchen.  Always.

Instead of a place to eat, our dining room is used: 

1) as a dumping ground
2) as the way to get to the kitchen or the way to get to the living room

So, since square footage is a premium in this house, we've decided we need to replace this space with something that works better for us.

We're looking at reconfiguring the first floor.

!!!

Of course, this idea requires a lot of thought and a money tree. 

Our touchstone with the basement renovation was to spend our money on the right things.  We didn't want to regret NOT investing in something, but always gave our decisions a second thought based on what the budget could handle...or based on other more expensive "wants" we were considering.  We will be doing the same thing this time around.

Our first decision based on that touchstone was to consult a professional in the design and layout of the whole floor.

Source Here



Source Here


I am lucky enough to call the person that designed the first floor of this house my friend.  She's a mom at my kids' school, so we've gotten to know each other at morning drop off over the last two years.  In fact, we went for mani-pedi's, birthday drinks and a road trip to Buffalo before I even knew what she did in the "real world." 

She stopped by last week to discuss some ideas about our main floor.  Steve & I loved every one.  Though terrifying to think we would be drastically changing the house we love so much, it's overwhelmingly exciting to imagine the possibilities.

There is a lot of prep work to do, and tons of planning, re-planning and planning again before any work takes place.  But I'm excited to document it all and share the process as we go.

Hold on for the ride!

No comments:

Post a Comment