The “Perfect” Spot

Sunday, we went out to the land to figure out where the house should go.  We tried to lay out the house where I had placed it on my graph paper.  I marked the x and y for the corners of the house like a grid.  We measured from the property line along the road, then from the road back to where the front corner of the house should be.  Then we measured all the points from there.  It seemed fairly close although it wasn’t perfectly square, of course.  We felt like it was too far east though – even when we first started to mark the front corner.  After looking at it for a while, we decided to move it straight west 30′.  That seemed better although it’s probably off center now.  Moving it over gave us more backyard and less wasted space in front of the garage.  We talked about moving it front to back, but I didn’t want it any closer to the road or the back property line (it’s basically slightly forward of center).  It seems closer to the road than I imagined, but David pointed out there’s more land between the house and the road than our current house’s whole lot.

I had David pull the truck into the middle of the house so I could see the view from off the ground.  From the middle of the house, there wasn’t much of one.  The house will be slightly higher than the bed of his truck, but not enough to make a difference.  Upstairs should have a good view though – the kid’s room, guest room and theater.  Then I walked over to the living room which will have the biggest window in the house.  I noticed from there that you can see the view thru a break in the trees (and that was while standing on the ground).  That room will have the best line of sight which is good since it will have the biggest window and be where we spend the most time. If we clear a couple trees in the backyard, it will be even better.  That got me excited and makes me think we found the right spot.  We talked about the angle of the house a while, then spray painted a line for the back wall of the living room.  Unfortunately, our largest tree is probably going to have to go.  Moving the house over 30 feet helped some, but it’s still too close.  The branches would be hanging over the roof and it’s probably in the way of David’s future garage.  We’re also going to lose almost all the walnut trees.  Moving it over also make the driveway more of a straight shot.

Here’s our line for the back living room wall 🙂

Here’s the view from the back porch (will be a foot or 2 higher though).  Would like to clear a few more trees for a better view between the houses, then plant some landscaping to block our view of the neighbor’s houses.

Here’s the view from the living room (again, will be a couple feet higher).

Same view, just zoomed in.  You can see the mountains thru the trees.

Yesterday, we went to the bank to clear up a few more questions we had.  It sounds like it will take around a month from application to closing on the loan, so we’ll probably start that process sometime in December.  Hopefully, we can get everything ready so we can start building as soon as we close on the loan.

After the bank, we ran to the local lumber yard that all the builders use.  They had displays for everything so we looked at doors, windows, decking, faucets, door hardware, trim, shower doors, cabinets and countertops.  They had some brands I hadn’t seen before so I put them in my phone to look up later.  They had a cabinet display that caught my eye.  I looked up the manufacturer when I got home and they are actually not too far from here.

The cabinet style is a little too traditional, but I really liked the stain.  They are maple cabinets with an espresso stain and khaki glaze.  They had a slight gray tint and almost seemed metallic.

I went through the box on the counter to find the name of that cabinet finish and found another one I also really like.  The sample on the left is the same as the cabinets above.  The sample on the right is also maple, but has a charcoal stain with coffee glaze.  It also has a gray tint and a metallic feel.

L – Espresso Stained Maple w/ Khaki Glaze
R – Charcoal Stained Maple w/ Coffee Glaze

I have been planning on having white cabinets in the kitchen, but would like to have the island be a contrasting color.  I’ve been considering a dark stain, black painted or a shade of gray (anywhere from light gray to a charcoal color) for the island.  The stain above might be the perfect mix.  It has the wood stain plus the gray tint.  I’ve also been concerned with how any of the colors would look on the wood floors, but I think this would work well.  It’s definitely a possibility.