Yesterday, we bought a new house. Well, an old house, with wonky plumbing, faulty electricity, and a faint smell of must in the air. But, it has the biggest, loveliest, sunny yard with lilacs, a prolific fig tree, plums, a Southern magnolia, Japanese maples, camellias and all kinds of wild strawberries, raspberries, herbs and irises. It's in Seattle, a few blocks away from our current house, and we're excited to build a new home for our family on the property. And so begins the dreaming and design phase! I'll be sharing snippets of the process here, so you can follow along. Kitchen ideas! Paint swatches! Kids room concepts! A great big office with built-in bookcases for all of the books I currently have stacked in piles in my office (can't wait!).
My parents built a house when I was 12, and I remember "helping" my dad work on it (hammering nails on the roof, even). Ever since, the idea of building a house from scratch has been in my blood. My husband and I have looked at all kinds of properties over the years, and nothing seemed just right until we found this house.
Now, to come up with a name for the house and property! I love how Martha Stewart names her homes (Skylands, Turkey Hill, etc.), and I adore Jane Green's "Figless Manor." What should we call our fledgling home? Because a little green tree frog was spotted on the property by the former owner, our 5-year-old wants to call it Frog Hollow. Hmm---not quite sure about that one!
More updates soon!
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