The Fun Part!

Well I have been missing in action on the blog front!  We have been enjoying getting into the holiday spirit around here and I can't believe it is right upon us.  There has been a little travel for work for me, and a trip for thanksgiving with a wedding all wrapped into one.  It has been busy! But onward we go with house planning right in the mix of it all....

I love this part of the design process!  Seeing how it will all look is so fun.  Taking a floor plan and actually turning it into a house is the amazing part of architecture to me.  We started by sending Wilson(the architect) tons of inspiration photos.  Some of which were just in my "inspiration folder" on my computer before the evolution of Pinterest helped me keep them organized. 

I wanted to show him tons of pics so he could get an idea about the things we like.  Even if there was just a part of a photo that we liked I would send it his way so he go a feel for what we were going for.

Source: Builder Ron Ross

 And again...what I call contemporary Texas architecture.  Limestone, metal roof, and a little bit of wood mixed in.

Source:  Ron Ross

Oh and this little beauty!

So simple and has the mix of materials we love.

Stone, stone, wood, metal, and my new love on the exterior of a home..board and batten!  

source: Mangum Modular Homes

I have usually never been drawn to any kind of siding but the board and batten mixed in with these materials is gorg!

So you wanna see one of the first renderings that Wilson prepared for us?

First..I have to share this pic that I made the hubs and Wilson suffer through.  Welcome to the home of a blogger.. If you enter your sure to be photographed so smile and enjoy yourself!  That's hubs on the left pretending he likes to be plastered on the internet...and then the architect being shy and pretending to work;)  Seriously though he is a trooper to spend some time at our casa late at night after between the two families we get our six kids to bed.  Because there is no way we could talk about board and batten or sill heights( I don't really know if that is the right word but you get my drift) with kids running around.

Be still my heart!  The materials and look were spot on!  He even went for it and gave us a glimpse of what it would look like with a little color! 

 After drooling a bit and studying what we liked and didn't like about it with Wilson we decided we needed "more" for the front door.  What more?  We weren't exactly sure but the door was lacking a little importance to all of us so we decided to start playing with adding more of an entry way to it.  More to come on that....

This is the back.

As far as I'm concerned this is perfect!  Actually..I haven't told Wilson this yet but he may know now;) I think we want to give the dining room(the area that juts out right in the middle) more of a "sunroomish" feel so I want to move those taller windows in the living room(to the left) over to the dining and do the shorter ones in the living so we have a little wall space underneath them for um..well..who knows..I just like the thought of not having to put anything right up against a window.

And here is the garage side of course...stating the obvious here.

I love square windows!  We wanted to add them where we could..

See those awesome square windows and this gorgeous inspiration pic? Wilson totally picked up on that!

source

oh and then there is THIS side of the house!  I love this!  Is it weird to love the side of a house?  I mean really it won't even be visible to anyone but the neighbor to our right.  What a waste of some beautiful architecture;)  More squares!

So what do you think? Are you as excited as I am?  Of course your not silly but I do hope you enjoy following along this adventure and seeing how we have to give a little or a lot to get this whole house building thing into our budget...It's way too gorgeous for a thrifty couple like us right?