Building Our New Nest

After much deliberation, hemming and hawing, and scouring existing real estate and new developments, the Parks have found our new home!  We decided to go with the Palisade model at Baker Ranch, a Toll Brothers development.  As soon as I walked into the model, I knew this was the home we were meant to be in.  This home design meets all our needs - open great room concept with line of sight to kitchen, home office for hubby, guest suite for visiting grandparents, separate rooms for our girls, California room/patio, and enough room for all of us to spread out and not be on top of each other! A couple of my personal favorite features are the curving staircase at the entryway (has an awesome nook/alcove for the Christmas tree!) and the large island in the kitchen (even though I don't cook!).

Here's the rendering of the home from the Toll Brothers website (and, yes, our house will be this diarrhea brown :( which can't be changed because color is pre-determined by lot).

And the floor plan for the Palisade model:

 

It's so exciting to be part of the build process...from choosing our lot and structural options, to electrical, fixtures, and design options. So many choices but you do definitely have a higher sense of ownership and a vested interest in the house! 

The hardest part of this is waiting to get into the house...almost 6 months!  Meanwhile, we are living in a cramped 2 bedroom apartment...I guess it will just make us appreciate the new house even more!

Bittersweet Goodbye to My Childhood Home

On March 15, 2014 we said said farewell to the house I've lived in for the last 20 years.  My parents and I moved there when I started high school and I lived there through college and grad school. After a brief stint in Seattle for work and love (lived in sin but eventually married the guy, so can't be too bad, right?), hubby and I moved back as newlyweds when my parents graciously gave us the house. We made it through the tough wonderful first years of marriage and even had two kids in the process...needless to say, there were lots of memories created within those 4 walls! While it was definitely bittersweet handing over the keys to the new owners, we are excited to see what the next chapter holds for the Park family!!!

Here are some pics of the house...FYI, it's amazing what staging and professional photography did to make our house look semi-livable!  Normally it looked like two Tasmanian devils whirled through each room leaving trails of snot, crumbs, and assorted toys.

 

 

Here's our last family picture before officially handing over the keys along with our last family meal at the house the night before. We thought it was fitting that the last meal be from the same place as our first meal when hubby and I first moved in as newlyweds. Kept it classy both times around with McD's!