A “slow home” gets a new room

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dL4rSNQxeXhFFrojT_uxNBRTFeOOHCewpIyQ7pz1ulsyvyzVunaTK6f0QRDMuGbVmXS84tBXzy3VomcFeapAvv0M_yu7MB_CV2owyzLPwlgECJ-481n9RY_HZTKnohzyXru5vIvxhWsX/s1600/grapevine+1st+winter.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548473543557332898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dL4rSNQxeXhFFrojT_uxNBRTFeOOHCewpIyQ7pz1ulsyvyzVunaTK6f0QRDMuGbVmXS84tBXzy3VomcFeapAvv0M_yu7MB_CV2owyzLPwlgECJ-481n9RY_HZTKnohzyXru5vIvxhWsX/s400/grapevine+1st+winter.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 296px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">2004: First winter in our New England “farmhouse</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">”</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;">We live in an old house. Built in 1904, it was at one time a dairy farm with a large barn and around 15 acres of land. All but two of these acres were sold to other parties</span><span style="font-size:130%;">, with some deeded to the town as conservation land, a large section was developed and is now a street with a handful of homes, and the last six acres belongs to a neighbor behind me. Those six acres were scheduled to be a development of homes, but many of the acres were determined to be conservation land so the project stopped at just one. Knowing that someone could not build behind us or next to us was one of the main reasons we felt this property would be a worthwhile investment. It can be quite unnerving to buy a home in a neighborhood that you fall in love with, only to look out your window one day and<br />see the landscape change before your eyes!<br /><br /><br /></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIaak73Ws4BD6JnfM2bzCLL9kdOO6hglLtejHV-NMFZ6bPOuOm2Aq_MyAhzeilK4q1uc3UZ8bCeUOILmfBZcypikbGfgIJZ0I5660oWoBAaTTYLMNt2s2lylT51lFDCeuw7H5565FoBkCm/s1600/originalBRwallpaper.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548477714004350562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIaak73Ws4BD6JnfM2bzCLL9kdOO6hglLtejHV-NMFZ6bPOuOm2Aq_MyAhzeilK4q1uc3UZ8bCeUOILmfBZcypikbGfgIJZ0I5660oWoBAaTTYLMNt2s2lylT51lFDCeuw7H5565FoBkCm/s400/originalBRwallpaper.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >We bought our current house in spite of<br />room-after-room of dated wallpaper.<br />Today I wish we had saved more<br />of it then just this swatch.</span><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">There were other reasons that we fell<br />head-over-heels for </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">this property:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1.</span> It felt like a “town and country</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> home, located within walking distance to the center of town and most of the schools, yet the backyard felt like a rustic retreat from modern day.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2.</span> Our house is situated in a way that it gets full sun<br />in the backyard with lots of great interior light throughout the day. Shaded farmer porches in front are a welcome place to sit. Tall evergreens stand at<br />the properties edges, adding both privacy and<br />natural beauty.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3.</span> This home is bigger than our last house, but still manageable in size, with plenty of room to grow<br />(barn will one day be a family room, over garage will one day be office space ... )<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4.</span> The dining room probably sold us. We did not have a formal dining room in our last house that was big enough for our young family, let alone for entertaining guests. This dining room is plenty big and is centrally located in the perfect spot to enjoy it every day, not just on holidays.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5.</span> While we realized some areas could use increased storage and energy-efficiency, we figured we redesigned our last home — how hard would it be<br />to do it again???<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNuhbq4X9ziBBacnZT2Ie2JoOG7pFlbZjaJwr053ayoYfXn17c5qz9ud533quDBt45IRQCJ7ou_WQBqUzjqukJe3xroMPu3faNXHdzZ-bXGBwv1DPV_xCZ65ZvomM2i40W7rW-hTxz2vUv/s1600/bird+in+nest_YBlacker.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548426702644306786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNuhbq4X9ziBBacnZT2Ie2JoOG7pFlbZjaJwr053ayoYfXn17c5qz9ud533quDBt45IRQCJ7ou_WQBqUzjqukJe3xroMPu3faNXHdzZ-bXGBwv1DPV_xCZ65ZvomM2i40W7rW-hTxz2vUv/s400/bird+in+nest_YBlacker.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 339px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">If only feathering our nest was this easy!</span></span> </div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />Well of course it has taken us much longer this time around to complete our home renovation projects. When we were working on our last home we raised the roof before we had any children, started our kitchen addition when we were expecting number two, finished new kitchen and bath by the time number three came around, and then finally got around to all the final details just in time to put it on the market and simultaneously find out number four was scheduled to arrive six months after closing on our new home. To say it has been a challenge to renovate with four little ones under foot is to put it mildly! And as our little ones have grown, our visions for our current home have changed at about the same pace. When we were surrounded with babies, we needed to be close at hand, but now we have a bit more breathing room ...<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuO9n-9bzXh9ektF86rS8YPJ6DcQRutpwiMS5Otq2dziauYki19IQeMc7JD82SF3afF3rh2A9vYLgypqCLyVwfy5BDLeL680eWhJYnDOlRDTNwXrp72y51RjHvoVwyAj41FJegMN7-LJK/s1600/chair%253Awindow%253AnewBR.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548427930186551634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuO9n-9bzXh9ektF86rS8YPJ6DcQRutpwiMS5Otq2dziauYki19IQeMc7JD82SF3afF3rh2A9vYLgypqCLyVwfy5BDLeL680eWhJYnDOlRDTNwXrp72y51RjHvoVwyAj41FJegMN7-LJK/s400/chair%253Awindow%253AnewBR.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 356px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">A sneak peek of our newly completed master bedroom.</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Today I am happy to report that as of last night we have officially finished one of the major renovations that has been on our construction “<a href="http://designvignettes.blogspot.com/2010/10/10-weeks-10-projects.html">to-do</a></span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> list ... the master bedroom that we built from scratch is a reality! </span><span style="font-size:130%;">What was once an inaccessible attic space is now a brand new room with a new set of stairs, new carpet, freshly painted new walls and it even has the<a href="http://designvignettes.blogspot.com/2010/01/master-bedroom-preview-part-1.html"> newest type of insulation</a>. We slept in it last night for the first time (our twelve-year-old actually helped us move the bed upstairs ... we have come along way!) and it felt like we had traded in “this old house</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> for a new and improved version.</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">I always knew this house had room to grow, I had just imagined it would be laterally not vertically!</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> Some day we may do that addition we dreamed about, but for now, we are happy with this new arrangement which is actually more energy/cost efficient in the long run than a large-scale addition would have been.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://slowhomestudio.com/the-slow-home-test/"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548426717300195714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwVgdy7fSgUauGQPUwIXmHHukv5D_1cxSqy7WyXp6Nwi0BWoEzHxWkyRc1u1oQQ-z1Jh0nEToxgt_zVZH_PKwcsz7FRmKUzfjAK5EaXx9atmo4vBG5EJt99jNj_4rZjVGuzLitZgFy8go_/s400/slowhometest.png" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 317px; height: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Find out how your home rates by taking this</span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br />test available online at <a href="http://slowhomestudio.com/the-slow-home-test/">Slow Home Studio</a>.</span><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">While we could tell our home had inherent value, we mainly bought it based on a gut feeling. It felt like the home I had grown up in and it seemed like it could be improved upon without too much effort (okay, we were off just a little bit with that part!) </span><span style="font-size:130%;">What sold you on your home? Are you comfortable living in it or are there areas that could use improvement? There is a great test available that evaluates the quality of a home’s design. It is called <a href="http://slowhomestudio.com/the-slow-home-test/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Slow Home Test</span></a> and it is great if you are looking to solve design issues in your current home or if you are looking to buy a dream-home of your own. I recently mentioned this test in a post on the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Slow Home movement</span> that I wrote for <a href="http://www.alluminare.com/">Alluminare.com</a> (which BTW sells some really great custom designed lighting and home decor pieces). The Slow Home movement is all about creating homes that feel as good as they look. Learn more about it by checking out the following links:<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:130%;">• <a href="http://blog.alluminare.com/slow-home-101/">Slow Home 101</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">• <a href="http://blog.alluminare.com/the-language-of-slow-home/">The Language of Slow Home</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">• <a href="http://blog.alluminare.com/slow-home-and-going-green/">Slow Home and Going Green</a></span><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;">Later I will post some true “after</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> pics of our new space. I really should be decorating for the holidays about now, but I’d much rather be accessorizing our new room than pulling out boxes of ornaments and wrestling with strings of lights! How long do you think I can put it off without the kids noticing that we don’t have a tree, yet? ; )</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgRUXW2UceLZoxH2lddJxLS_L1lURasNrJGUYBgrpU6xdGx6lVPj6hIGkSjvyXd3BsDdtVWSs3ryIePMf2P49gCCDFgGHv4Vs1XGLQ2w9mlUYb9os-UC64QevJE_hTrA_2Pn-SHQ_GTVhK/s1600/ph_tvproject_5.jpg"><br /></a><br /></div>

A “slow home” gets a new room

2004: First winter in our New England “farmhouse ” We live in an old house. Built in 1904, it was at one time a dairy farm with a large barn...

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