Building a house can easily be a full-time venture.  There’s the back-and-forth e-mails and calls with the window vendor, getting the sizes exact and changing last-minute things; with the appliance vendor, adding a service pantry sink/faucet or changing our freezer size; with the custom cabinetry liaison, asking for interior dimensions or tweaking the order by an inch to allow for just the right size countertop; with the bank, approving funding releases to the builder and tracking the schedule; with three handrail companies, comparing bids and showing visual images of what we are looking for.  There are the regular site visits and many showroom appointments to keep (lighting, tile, cabinetry, flooring, windows, exterior stone).  If a person weren’t organized, you could end up missing a sink or with the incorrect size window glass.

If you’re super OCD like I am, you could also attempt to chronicle the entire process in a scrapbook, regular blog posts, and an app.

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Things are not set in stone until they actually are I guess.  While we were at the last stages of pre-build, I could not really imagine what the house would come to look like. Two huge changes that led to a month-long delay: We eliminated a wall of our staircase, opening it up with a cable railing. We also opened up the master closet.  Rather than have a wall dividing the center, it’s now one large area.  Both changes required structural engineering to redraw the plans.

WINDOWS

It took me quite a long time to figure all this out. I began with the measurements that the architect put in the plans and started tweaking from there.  For instance, why would we want a tiny window in the top center of the house? I enlarged that.

In planning the room details, we realized that it would be odd to have a window right behind the guest toilet.  What would you cover it with that would stay clean? So we eliminated that window.

However, I wanted to add a window to our mudroom to let in some natural light.

With those 2 changes, I had to remove a window in the office on the same wall or that side would look odd from the exterior.

CUSTOM CABINETRY

After all this work, as far as I’m concerned, “custom” is a bad word.  It means extra time and thought, as well as the hassle of figuring out finish and trim and measurements down to the millimeter, incorporating plumbing or electric into the design too.

I decided all tile selections a couple months ago, but now it was time to give specific cabinet details – sketch each area where there is custom cabinetry to be built. There are 23 of those.  That took a lot of time and focus.

Of course this is an opportunity to create a home that is exactly perfect for our specific needs.  I can make a counter higher or lower than standard.  I can have a built-in jewelry drawer. I can have the laundry hamper in the closet open up on the other side of the wall into the utility room.

Step 1: List everything that will be stored in each area and your general goals, from your vacuum to your toothbrush.

Step 2: Sketch the room dimensions you are working with, remembering to subtract the difference between exterior and interior walls and where the finished drywall will be.  Begin penciling in and erasing some ideas.

Step 3 to 57: Meet with companies creating specific areas and carpenters to see their work, and get help piecing together organizational inserts you want and where they will go.

Step 58: Think through it once again to make sure you will have a spot for every little thing. Map out where your cake decorating supplies will go and where your can hide the china you never use.

Step 59: Draw final version with relevant details on graph paper.

Last: Turn over drawings to project manager with pictures, any relevant appliance dimensions or electrical needs, and walk through each area to discuss.

THE STORY OF A SERVICE PANTRY

There was once an idea of creating a little nook for wine/drinks and for serving buffet-style food.  I wanted to copy this image on Houzz (left).  We worked with a company called Madeval to create the design (right). Madeval is making our kitchen/service pantry/living room cabinets, as well as our master bath vanity.

That is actually not the original because you can see we were toying with the idea of adding refrigerator/freezer drawers in there, which we decided not to do, and we had added a built-in coffee maker.

We tweaked the shelves many times.  Then we added a sink and faucet, which changed the specs of the lower drawers and cabinets.  I had to make sure to note that we need reinforcement on the back wall for the wine pegs and also make sure that they could be cleanly drilled into the backsplash tile.

In the kitchen, we’ve had many many versions of the design.  Changes with overall design, drawers and cabinet sizes, inserts, lighting, materials, and colors.

Originally we wanted to put an extra fridge in the pantry or mud room, but it became clear when I was sketching the cabinets in there that we don’t have the space for it.  Rather than add those cold drawers in the service pantry, we changed our freezer size from an 18″ column to a 24″ column.

Long story short, to comply with code, we had to eliminate the 2′ wall outside the pantry and build a panel there.  We also went from a door that the architect drew to no door to a pocket door behind the fridge. At this point, we aren’t yet sure if the pocket door will fit or if we’re back to square one.

This is not the final version either, but we’ll be placing the order any day.

After many versions of the hood for the range, we decided to build a box for our quartz to adhere to. How much clearance do we need? How to support it? Makes my eyes cross!

Under the sink, we have much to put in a small space because we have U-shaped drawers.  There’s the disposal, but also a filtered water system and hot water tank. Ultimately, I had to go through each appliance and plumbing fixture before placing the Madeval order.

The Container Store is doing our bedroom closets.  We met with California Closets, but the saleswoman drove me batty with her slowness and I just had to move on.  They are very pricey too and I couldn’t get any drawers and cabinets with them without breaking the bank.

So this is our Master closet design from a bird’s eye view.

This is our daughter’s closet:In order to give her deeper drawers on either side, we added 6″ to the framing.

In her bathroom, I wanted to add a little linen closet in this storage closet, which ended up changing the door options.

Here are a couple other rooms that have carpentry we are having the builder make.

LIGHTING AND ELECTRIC

I realized that wiring the house for lighting isn’t as simple as I thought.  I don’t want things in their “usual” places! This is actually about to begin in the next few days so I’m sure there will be more to report.

I wanted to do something whimsical over the kitchen island, so I decided on a grouping of 5 lights very similar to this: 

I’ve been working with a glass light maker in Providence, RI.  This one is going to go in the master bath above the vanity area.

I can’t tell you how much I’m staring at electric plans these days.

In the art room, I’m having them put outlets above my worktable and below it.

HANDRAILS

Long story short, this is what our handrails are going to look like (outdoor on left, indoor on right).

Our latest conundrum… how to connect the garage and garage office to the house.  Everyone has at least 2 ideas.  Stay tuned.