lately.

a little bit of what we've been up to lately (in no particular order).

 a sunday lunch at our new place (all moved in!!!!)

ikea with little jonathan

mom helping clean before we moved in (not a posed picture at aaaaalll, nope).

VERY tired of the whole moving thing. this was at like 9pm after our fourth truck load for the night. sick. of. it. 

silas reading with uncle david. serious baby fever going on here, especially after seeing this guy hanging out with the nephews!

house numbers!

hangin' out with baby jem! 

saying good-bye to our old place. 

walking to mom and dads. only 25 minutes away!

our new vacuum works great on the laminate.

first time getting the mail! 

first meal. so many 'firsts' when you move into a new house. loving it!

he was having fun, i promise. 

that's all for now! 

ps. i'll post the orlando pictures soon, promise!

master bathroom inspiration.

I'm obsessed with the white paneling with the dark walls on top!

love these floors! i really like the idea of a long, skinny tile in a chevron pattern. maybe in white though... not sure.

and, depending on the cost i'd love to do two big round mirrors. or maybe something like this if i can't find/afford round ones:

overall, the master bathroom is going to black and white with wood accents. also, a claw foot tub is happening for sure! (like seriously, we already have it ;) 

all photos from my pinterest page

kitchen inspiration.

we are starting to get to the point in building our house where we have to make big decisions. lately we've been visiting cabinet makers to decide on kitchen and bathroom cabinetry. while i'm having trouble nailing down idea's for the bathrooms i've got a clear idea of what i want in the kitchen.

here's my inspiration...

basically, here's what i want:

• shaker cabinet doors, medium-to-dark grey on the bottom, white on top
• white-ish countertops (probably quartz but we have to price it out still. crossing my fingers that we can fit it into the budget!)
• brass hardware. i'm seriously obsessed with the drawer pulls on the bottom left picture. now i just need to find somewhere that sells them for less than $30 a piece! 
• a big island. i think it will end up looking like the bottom left picture. big, with a sink, but with stools along one side. 
• also, drawers. lots and lots of drawers. 
• for a backsplash i'm thinking either white subway tiles or some sort of planking like they have here. what do you think would be better? 

so! what do you think? any red flags going up? do you have something in your kitchen that you love and we definitely need to get? i'd love some advice! 

by the way, i never actually shared our floor plans! here is the upstairs, where we'll be living. david's oma (grandmother) will be calling the bottom floor 'home'. basically we come in on the ground floor and go right up the stairs in the middle. also, it's cut off a bit but we have a front porch going out off the great room. 

(all inpiration pictures taken from my pinterest page)

house update.

we have been making some serious progress on the house. the footings are totally done and we are pouring the rest of the foundation today. it is so cool to be able to see how big everything is going to be and where everything is ending up. i can't wait until next week when hopefully we can back-fill everything and start framing! here are a few pictures of everything so far...

exciting news.

well, i think this is as official as it's going to get: we are building a house! we are unbelievably excited. the land is bought, the plans are being made, and permits are in the works.

but before you go nuts asking yourself how two newlywed students could possibly afford to build a house from scratch let me clarify something. the 'we' in the statement above is david and i, as well as david's parents. david's dad is an amazing builder and recently bought a vacant lot in abbotsford. they are building a house and we are helping design and build the house and we will live there. we are investing and will be applying for the mortgage and we will co-own the house. when we sell it eventually we will split the profits. or, if we feel so inclined (and have the money) we can buy david's parents out. we'll also be able to afford the payments because the house will have a basement suite. david and i will live in the two-bedroom suite while we rent out the top floor to some (hopefully) lovely renters.

of course nothing is set in stone. if we suddenly find ourselves out of work or some other disaster hits we will finish the house and sell it right away. we are all pretty confident that we can build a house that is worth more than it cost to build.

anyway, that's enough about the finances. mostly on the blog i'll talk about the designing and building process. i'll definitely be looking for lots of input! hopefully we'll be able to figure out some creative solutions to keep costs down without sacrificing style and functionality. and if all goes according to plan we'll move in by early 2015.

here's the lot:

again with our awesome sign:

and here's the fantastic view we'll have:

stay tuned next week to see the floor plans, they'll knock your socks off!

ps. if you're looking for a builder in the fraser valley david's dad is LITERALLY the best! he designs, builds, AND renovates. check out his website here.