House Beautiful

Earlier this week, Matt and I met Brett from Woodland Street Partners (have I mentioned how fantastic this group is?) for a walk through. We had not been inside the house in more than two weeks and, while we were expecting major progress, I don’t think I was prepared. I nearly cried. I nearly fell down and kissed the dust-covered oak floors. I could have curled up on the floor of the gigantic master shower to take a midday nap. I felt that happy and that comfortable inside those walls.

It is home.

Now, I could go on and on about our old home and why we decided to sell and why we decided to move to East Nashville and what we’ll miss about our old neighborhood and what we hope for in the new one. Some other day...

Tonight, here’s the short and sweet of it.  

Our new home is a Victorian Craftsman with a modern interior and open floor plan of almost 2,000sf. It will be Energy Star rated and boasts green features throughout.

We will be in the Eastwood Neighbors area of East Nashville, just a few blocks from the delicious intersection of Chapel and Eastland.

And amazingly, the house is scheduled for completion in 3-5 weeks.

An incredibly talented and sweet interior designer, Peggy Newman, was involved from day one and is the mastermind behind the super-smart floor plan. She and the guys at WSP selected the finishes for the home before we discovered the property and, fortunately for all, we loved every single finish and fixture they had chosen. 

Here’s a rundown on my favorite features:

Paint colors. Think light. Peaceful. Clean. The palette of white, gray, blue, green  and natural wood calms me in an instant.

An all-in-one living room, dining room and kitchen. The space is big and bright and open.  (see right)

And it is anchored by...

…a huge island with seating for four that will be covered in Carerra marble (see left). It's a risk, I know, but worth it!

Soaring vaulted ceilings in all upstairs rooms including the loft/playroom, three bedrooms and two bathrooms (see below).

Did you notice I said playroom? This is a huge deal for us. And for Beckett. And for any person who would like to cross our living room without impaling his or her foot with tiny toy weapons or hard plastic dinosaurs or Legos.

 

The master shower. It is ridiculous. I mean, two rain shower heads mounted over a space the size of a Cadillac. Seriously sick.

A screened-in side porch with an overhead fan. I am dreaming of the nights we will spend from April through October talking, eating, drinking and reading on this porch.

A covered front/side  that overlooks a sizeable but manageable fenced yard, ideal for hosting cookouts and birthday parties, playing fetch with a new dog, chasing a new baby (someday…) and simply playing with family, friends and new neighbors.

Isn’t that what I said this was all about in the first place?

The next couple of weeks will be marked by many interior and exterior changes, so better and more interesting photos will come soon.

In the meantime, we are headed north for a long weekend. Home to Ohio. 

Homeward Bound

I once lived in a farmhouse on Hogpath Road. 

I lived in a modern industrial loft on Peachtree Street, in a dorm room on Melrose Place and in my grandparents' 14th Street four-square after my parents' divorce.  

And there was that two-story apartment with four bedrooms, a loft and cute neighbors on Grand Avenue, too, which actually wasn’t grand at all. The bedrooms had paper-thin walls, the creaky loft overlooked the living room’s built-in maroon vinyl sofa and wicker outdoor furniture set, and the cute boys next door included a pyromaniac, a drug dealer and, of course, a true heartbreaker.

I have lived in many homes. Twenty-seven and counting. The most recent was the first I owned. (Well, co-owned.) Five years into our marriage, Matt and I settled into a sweet Arts and Crafts cottage of brick and stone with a sprawling backyard and a good dose of character. We made improvements, and we made it our own. We brought Beckett home to this house on Mother’s Day weekend 2007, and we buried our young dog under a white-blossomed dogwood three years later. Also on Mother’s Day weekend.

I loved this home as much, or probably more, than any of the others. But last Thursday, we dashed out of there just in time for a new owner to enter for a final walk-through. He approved, signed some papers, wrote the bank a check. And now it is his. His office furniture likely occupies Beckett’s nursery. His dishes are by now displayed in the tall glass-paned cabinets I loved so much. 

And he looks out the breakfast room picture window every morning and sees that dogwood, covered only in winter’s white dust and glassy ice.

Despite a sadness that is just starting to settle in today, I am thrilled about our next home (#28!). I look forward to welcoming you in, whether you enter through this site or through the actual front door. The house is being built now by an incredibly talented firm, Woodland Street Partners. (more on them and many design details and construction updates in coming posts)

We expect to move in mid- to late-March. In the meantime, I’d also like to share our adventures in a three-room upstairs apartment. This home is the smallest I have ever occupied. (Shall I say coziest?) Matt, Beckett and I are quickly learning lessons in shared personal space and creative microwave cooking. And I am introducing them to a concept I learned at a very young age and practiced my whole life: adaptability. Making one’s self at home no matter where you are.

While home is certainly about comfort and style and all the things that surround, I became cognizant perhaps earlier than most that, as trite as it may be to say, home is more so about the people with whom you live and eat and drink and sleep and play and love. (and argue… and steal the covers and hot water from…)

As I seek to keep family and friends posted—and perhaps to reach other readers contemplating issues of home, family, necessity, independence and, yes, fun stuff like style and design—I have decided now is a good time to return to this blog space. I hope you will join us on the journey from one home to another to another. And here’s hoping that this most recent “another” is the last for many years to come.