Our New House!

[Mara]

Well we signed on our new house yesterday, so we are now officially (almost) homeowners...as soon as the papers file this week. We will get our keys on Friday after everything is recorded...but today we had our walk-through and the place is simply amazing. We couldn''t be happier with it, everything looks great and all our colors and chosen options look excellent. I took tons of pictures of course, here are a few of my favorite collages...there are tons more but not all of them were good.




We move in a week and a half. In the meantime, the painters are coming to paint 75% of the interior rooms a pale taupe and our master bedroom a pale blue. We also have various deliveries coming, one of which already made it into the new house (note the boxes in the big french door shot to the right), lots of new furniture, an awesome front loading washer and dryer and various other odds and ends (blinds!).




As I''m sure you can tell, we are overjoyed. Down to the wire now..and we cannot move soon enough.




Enjoy the pictures!

 

[Mara]

This is our simply amazing master bathroom. The pictures of the bedroom did not come out that great but I posted the model ones in previous posts. The tiles we chose for the bathroom look excellent against the maple cabinets...we can't wait to recline in the jet tub!

I have been hot on the decor trail for the bathroom since I am so excited about it. Lots of bath salts in a big glass vase, soaps in a jar...white plush bath rugs...yummy.

 

[Mara]

A collage of shots...the favorite in here is the AMAZING kitchen. The pictures don't do it justice, in person it's to die for. I am a HUGE kitchen freak and adore all sorts of kitchen gadgets and glasses, plates etc. I have an enormous stash of things that never made it to the light of day in our current kitchen and this new one is just waiting for all my cool stuff to sit in its drawers and cabinets. I cannot wait! The kitchen eating bar will have bar stools.

The first picture is the hallway from the front door entry to the downstairs garage. I love how the tile looks in this shot...there is tile in the garage entry, front entry all the way to the bathrooms. Stairs are carpeted. It looks fabulous in person and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the tile we chose (same tile as through the entire house)..it looks amazing.




Second picture is our dining room. Door to the left is our wine closet!

The second favorite is the amazing view seen there in the last picture..that is out our family room window! Our painter asked us...did you choose this location because of the view? I said WHAT VIEW! We have never been in the house before today really! I had no idea that the view was so great...though we had thought that we may have some sort of a view (when standing outside looking)...no idea it would be so nice. The view is of downtown San Jose, ignore the rain clouds and the ongoing construction. We are less than 5 min from D. San Jose...very close but just far enough away. Beyond SJ are the lovely rolling mountains.

 

[Mara]

Second and last collage of good shots.






The front french doors looking out to the street...ignore the weird ugly car out front! You can see the houses across from us are older...but the neighborhood is very quiet! We wanted the unit on the street for the extra parking and also so we had better views than looking out and seeing our same unit across from us. This way all of our windows look out over the small short houses and we can see farther.




The living room fireplace (looks not quite so stark if I could have fit the entire room in there!)...I am on the hunt for a HUGE metal mirror to hang over the fireplace, and a friend who is good with woodworking is making us a mantel for our wedding gift.

Upstairs hallway shot from the master showing the other two bedrooms, one is actually our office and the other is the guest room. Who's visiting?

Last but not least, guest bathroom upstairs, dual sinks! Woo hoo, I love the tile again in this bathroom! I am just in love with the tile. I have not figured out how I want to decorate the bathroom and guest room just yet but am leaning towards some of the new spring Pottery Barn stuff (the yellow and green striped items....very beachy) to keep it fun and light. Doing things like large glass jars filled with soaps and sea sponges, etc for display. Thinking of painting the guest bathroom a pale sunny yellow to keep it cheery and in the theme.

All of the above rooms, except the guest bathroom will be painted the pale taupe color from the painter. The only rooms not being painted are the office, guest bedroom, guest bathroom and downstairs bathroom. Since I am figuring out what to do still for all these rooms....we will paint them ourselves later.

 

[KittyTiger]

Congradultaions, Mara!! I can tell how excited you are from the way you type.

The pictures are awsome! I'm already imagining how "I" would decorate your kitchen! I am too a fan of kitchen and all gadgets that goes in the kitchen! I love to cook, bake... chinese.. american,.. italian.. anything food! as do my bf. Hopefully next year we'll have a place to call out own too!




Congrats again! More pics when you start filling it up! You'll have so much fun filling up the place!! Sometimes I wish I could be some type of designer.. ~~

 

[pqcollectibles]

Many CONGRATS Mara and Greg!!!

Buying a home should be exciting and you sound excited!!

Your new home looks lovely!!

Enjoy!!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Congratulations, Mara! I hope you have many fun filled happy years in your townhome.

Your french doors are AMAZING! I'm a huge houseplant fanatic, so I'd be in heaven with all the light they're sure to let in

Michelle

 

[PuddyKat]

Congratulations on your new home!!!!

It is gorgeous!!! I LOVE your kitchen, so spacious...and the french doors...beautiful! You have great taste....wonderful colors! The tiles are awesome!
Congrats again...

 

[ringbling17]

Beautiful!!!
I can't wait to see it with the finishing touches!
By the way, I noticed that the set up of my bathroom is very similar to yours. I have a seperate shower also in my master bath.
I posted a picture. The tile was chosen by the people who lived here before us. The house was three years old when we bought it.
You have given me an idea about changing my sink to double sinks and maybe getting a new bathroom cabinet.
Hmmmmmm...........

 

[ringbling17]

Hey, speaking about yellow bathrooms, I have a picture of my half bath on the first floor. It is colored pale peach with goldish peach tile.
The picture is not that great, but this gives you an idea of what it could look like.

 

[ringbling17]

Okay, and here is what it would look like with a pink background.
Sorry to hijack your thread. I just want to would give you ideas!
That's the last picture from me! I promise!

 

[Kamuelamom]

Ooooooh what fun, a new house! Mara it looks wonderful. Yes, we can hear the excitement in your posts, this is a big milestone.

May you be blessed with at least a few happy years there (before the big upgrade, heehee). Kayla, I love your pink bathroom.

----------------
On 1/27/2004 11:02:12 PM kayla17 wrote:

You have given me an idea about changing my sink to double sinks and maybe getting a new bathroom cabinet.
Hmmmmmm...........----------------

Is that wall next to your sink a closet on the opposite side? If so, a double sink might get complicated. Also adding more plumbing to something already existing sometimes gets tricky too. If you ever get to do this, make sure you work with someone who knows what they are doing (like a licensed plumber) because of building codes, etc.

I don't have any rooms yet per se, as construction just got underway.

Only about 9 weeks behind schedule.

When I am able I will try to post some pics of the house in progress too. I have faith that all will work out in the wash. I just don't hope it doesn't cost us anything major in the process...like my marriage.

It indeed can be stressful even when things *are* on schedule.

 

[valeria101]

Wow, Mara!

Moving into YOUR new house must be quite some excitement! So overwhelming... All the best to you form this Globe trotting'-tent toting-homeless "gipsy" down here

 

[Mara]

Thanks guys...I can't tell you how long it FEELS it has taken to get to this point. We had a carpet disaster 2 weeks ago when they went to lay our original carpet and found that the backing was defective. A flurry of activity and re-choosing of carpet occured and this was only one of 2 samples shown that was similar to ours that we could get on such a short timeline. I was worried that it would be too pinky-brown (first one was slightly less), but we liked the soft feel (it's a very loose-looped berber). Kept fingers crossed and the new carpet looks really amazing! It gives the house a touch of warmth. Combined with the pale taupe walls, and all our furniture is mahogany or similar...should be very warm which is what I wanted. Our blinds are going to be antique white to match the molding...so I wanted other warm areas to compete with the coolness of the blinds.




Anyway the carpet mishap delayed us a bit and so we have been really anxious since our date was pushed out about 10 days from original.

The walk-through today was such the culmination of many worried evenings and stressful days and to see it all come together so beautifully and know that it worked out was so relieving.




Kayla, I LOVE the pink bathroom. Very pale pinks are my thing right now. Alas, no completely pink tiles for us, but our tiles actually do have some pinky browns in them....hence the match with the carpet!

I love Pottery Barn's catalogs for ideas...I really have gotten some inspiration from there in terms of decor for bathrooms and setup ideas, etc. I also have been ordering like mad from them...and I have something like $800 in gift certificates that I am going to spend. Having only had one bathroom up until this point, I am going NUTS decorating 3.

And that kitchen! AH!

 

[Mari]

Congratulations Mara

Your house looks amazing.


Mari

 

[Hest88]

This is so exciting! Wonderful Mara!

 

[Patty]

Mara, it's so fresh and new and nice. Congrats to you and Greg!

Since you like pink, I'm including a picture of our daughter's new pink bathroom. We had to move her home from grad school a year ago when she got sick and we re-did our basement into a suite for her. She wanted a pink bathroom and she got it!

 

[iceprincess]

Mara,
Job well done on the new place! Bravo!

You really have an EXCELLENT eye for beauty. Three stories, right? What a great location and great views. Makes me really miss the Bay Area! (I lived in Berkeley, SF, and Lake Merritt for 6 yrs.)

I just love the light that comes in through the french doors. What an amazing gourmet kitchen. I have serious jacuzzi bathtub envy

...enjoy!!! I just love how everything is so brand spanking new!

I just don't know how you do it. Moving, new house, decorating, planning for a wedding in a few months, helping us out here at PS...where do you get your energy? I want to bottle some for myself!

I'm just as excited for you. I hope you and Greg have many wonderful years here in your new home.

 

[iceprincess]

Kayla,
I love your bathroom! Man, I wish I had a jacuzzi tub! It's put together really beautifully.

Patty,
Love your daughter's bathroom. Maybe it's the angle of the shot, but boy does that bathroom look huge! I really love those old-fashioned deep tubs with the feet on them.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

OOOH Patty, I LOVE your daughter's claw foot tub

! Very cute.

Our master bath is pink. The previous owners painted it and the shade looks like pepto bismo

hahaha. The softer tones you all have seem to be more complimentary.

Michelle

 

[Mara]

IceP..I don't know how I do it either actually...I have been pretty stressed lately with all the plans and the wedding stuff is just around the corner so I have to do wedding in conjunction with house and sometimes I get really mixed up (calling the caterer to ask for paint samples?)!

Pscope is the fun down-time stress-releaser...well most of the time.

I LOVE the bathroom Patty! That tub is to die for. I am a huge tub person!!

Love the decor ideas!

 

[hoorray]

Congratulations Mara! The house looks great and the location sounds terrific! What fun it is to move into a new place...enjoy...

 

[Patty]

Thanks for the compliments on our tub...I also am a huge bath person. We have an old clawfoot tub in one of our bathrooms upstairs and we've always liked it (except my hubby who used the separate shower). This new one is a reproduction and it's acryclic. It will never chip and it's warmer than the old cast iron tubs. Plus, we got the hand held shower attachment so our daughter can use it to wash her hair, etc. We added on to our house 4 year ago and in our new master bath upstairs, we put a 6' Jacuzzi tub. There's nothing like soaking in a hot tub on a cold winter day!

Yes, iceprincess, the bathroom is pretty big. It originally had a shower in it where the tub is now and it seemed much smaller than it does now. The basement of this house was finished in the 80s right before we bought it. Our main bath on the second floor (before we added on) was probably a bedroom originally so it's big too. Then we added on a large master bedrooom and bathroom so we are now lucky to have 3 big bathrooms. Until we added on to this house, though, we had no (1/2) bath on the main floor so you had to run up or down the steps to use the potty! We had a little potty chair in the living room when we were training our younger daughter because she could never make it up or down in time.

Michelle, we had a "Pepto-Bismal" bedroom here for a few years! We knew the color was too dark when we put it up so we bought a gallon of white paint and tried to dilute it. After adding about 3 gallons of white paint, it was still VERY pink. Duh...the next time we started with the WHITE paint and added the pink until we got the correct shade.

 

[winyan]

Beautiful new house, Mara, and all who posted pics!

I can't post for long, on my SO's puter since mine is pretty much fried.

I wish I had a nice bathroom, but I guess I'm lucky I have one at all, in a house that dates from 1836!

win

 

[Mara]

Since we all seem to love the bathrooms...here are my two current fave's from PB's site...I LOVE their ideas.




This first one is along the lines of what I wanted to do in our 2nd bath originally with the amazing green color, but decided the green may be too overpowering for a smaller bathroom, this one in the picture is bigger. I love the dual mirrors and sinks instead of the whole same ole' cabinet thing like ours has....the dual standalones are so much more fun. Love the tub too.

 

[Mara]

And this one shows how diverse my tastes are...the green bathroom is much more elegant traditional type to me...but still being fresh. This white one is very modern and clean and reminds me of a 'spa' bathroom...I love this one too. Give me either of these bathrooms and I'd be ecstatic. But wait, I'm ecstatic with ours too.

 

[Patty]

Mara, those are both wonderful! I tend to go for the more old fashioned looking ones so I love the first one but like you said, the second one has a nice spa look about it! I'll take them both, thanks!

Winyan, I hear you on being lucky to have a bathroom. I always think about how horrible it would be to have to go outside in the cold to use an outhouse! Indoor plumbing and indoor heat are GREAT inventions!

 

[pqcollectibles]

----------------
On 1/28/2004 2:31:58 PM Mara wrote:


IceP..I don't know how I do it either actually...I have been pretty stressed lately with all the plans and the wedding stuff is just around the corner so I have to do wedding in conjunction with house and sometimes I get really mixed up (calling the caterer to ask for paint samples?)!

Pscope is the fun down-time stress-releaser...well most of the time.

----------------

I wondered if it was coming to that??!!

I really don't know how you juggle it all!!

I wanted to ask,.... Your tile work on the floor has the look of possibly "marble" in the pics. Is it?

I have berber. Mine isn't soft, but it's durable!!

 

[Mara]

No the tiles are more a matte spanish tile type look. The shiny marble was too pricey (house options are severely marked up!!) but actually we really like the way it looks matte.

A little less formal. We got all the general options we wanted and then some! We had a huge options credit from the builder because we took the house off their hands...after someone could not get financing. Our gain. In the end it worked out so well.

 

[aneelcon]

That's sooo cool. Congratulations on your first house especially in the Bay Area. Did you read the chronicle this morning???? It's crazy what the median price of a home is in the bay area! Because of that I trying to convince my fiance to move. But he's a born san franciscan.

I only have a condo now and not really cool pics on hand. But to stay on the pink theme my kitchen and bathrooms have pink granite. Looks pretty but kinda hard to clean.

Good luck with the wedding and the house decorating! I love your bathroom!