Gathering Ideas

Things have been fairly crazy around here lately.  I have been trying to write these past few posts for over a week, but have been too distracted/busy to get them done.  The kid has been in school for over a month now and I spent about 2 weeks building nightstands and working on some sewing projects.  We’ve been trying to figure out financing for the new house plus had the meetings with the builder and draftsman.  My family was here over the past week while they helped my sister move down here. They have been building a house for her to rent (much cheaper than an dumpy apartment given current interest rates) and we have been keeping an eye on that during the construction process.  It is only 5 minutes from our land and will mark the first time we’ve had family within several hundred miles since we’ve been married.  The house won’t be done until the end of the month so she will be staying with us in the meantime.  Her stuff has been added to ours in the storage rentals and our house until we can move it into her new house.

Mom and I did some shopping last week for the rental house and our new one.  We went to a large nursery and outdoor living store for landscaping ideas.  Since it’s almost fall, we didn’t find too much at the nursery, but the outdoor store was overwhelming. They had hundreds of fountains, pots and statues, patio furniture, grills, stone, and anything else you could think of for outside.  They also had a whole building dedicated to koi ponds with tiny fish all the way up to 3-4′ long koi.  The large fish were in a tank the size of a swimming pool.  They also had a large koi pond outside.

We also went to a tile store I have been wanting to check out.  It is the store that always comes up when I look for a local retailer on manufacturers’ websites.  They pretty much had anything you could want.  We spent over an hour oohing and ahhing.  It was fun to look at all the options, but I’ll need to go back some other time to concentrate on just the tile that we might actually want to use.  Below are a few pictures of ones that caught my eye.

The first 2 pictures are tile by Sicis.

I really like the crackled glass tile and I found a lot I liked by Sonoma Tilemakers.

I really love this next one.  It’s a mix of a stone tile, metallic tile and a dark blue-gray crackled glass tile.  I think it would be neat to use in a bathroom.

I also love this mosaic which also has the dark blue crackled tile.  We eventually realized the prices were on the back of the samples, so I went back later to check the price on this one.  At $850, I don’t think this one will make it into the house.  It would be a neat focal point behind the stove though.

They also had Walker Zanger tile which is pricey, but looks incredible.

I’d really like to use something like this for the kitchen backsplash although I don’t think the colors (and price) of this one will work.  I like the subtle design.

Also like the colors and design of this one, although I don’t think David will go for “flowered” tile.

At over $200 per 6×16″ piece, I don’t think he’ll have to worry about me using it.

Friday, we went to the local Building Home and Garden Show.  Compared to the spring Builder’s Show, this one was disappointing and we were there less than an hour.  We did see a few things we liked and I was able to get some brochures to look over (hardie siding, roofing, tankless water heaters, skylights).  I only took a couple pictures including this rock fountain.  I like the blue glass rock around it instead pebbles for something different and a bit more contemporary.

I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea that I’m going to have to start picking out what is actually going to go in the house.  I have a general idea of how I want each room to look, but I haven’t decided on any specifics.  Since we didn’t know if/when the house would sell, I avoided doing any more than looking for inspiration online.  Now, I need to start checking out the stores I’ve been wanting to visit to see what is available and narrow our options down (doors, windows, appliances, tile, floors, fixtures, etc).  Now is a good time to do it while the kid is back in school and the draftsman is working on the final plans.  Anything I can get done now will hopefully save us time once we are finally ready to start actual construction.  I bought some multi-pocket folders in the clearance school supplies last week so I can try to keep all my information organized and together.  I have a feeling my phone’s camera folder is going to be huge in a couple months 😉