We're building a new home on this lot. Squee!!
Eric and I began this search many moons ago, and then we continued it with Theo in tow. We've spent so many hours over the past year in model homes, Theo shredding price lists (smart boy) and playing with pens as we'd chat with sales people. After looking at dozens of models and resales, we kept coming home drained and bummed that we just couldn't find the right one. We did end up falling in love with a particular home. It was 2500 square feet, not including the basement and had gorgeous views of the foothills and horse ranches. We kept going back to the new development, spending hours pouring over lots plans and structural options. But, a few big lumps in our throat never went away after we'd come home from looking at it. It had room in the garage for three cars. The study seemed like a delightful treat in comparison to our current basement office. It boasted gorgeous hallways, something I've learned I love in architecture. The rooms were huge and the kitchen was gourmet. Three bathrooms and a working fireplace, air conditioning....but...while imagining us moving around and really living in this house, well, everything just seemed blurry. If Eric and I really got true with ourselves (and thank God we did), it wasn't us. At all. It's so easy to get lured into the burbs square footage for the price compared to smaller urban living, something that kept us looking in the metro areas for almost a year. The one thing that always stood out after we'd come home from the metro areas was: it just didn't feel like home. On top of that, the no green building, no Energy Star rating, no green space in the actual neighborhoods just didn't feel right to us. I was having a really hard time getting on board with new construction that wasn't green built, but the sea of space was enough to knock me out of my environmentally responsible world from time to time. Eric and I felt positively silly. I mean, who doesn't want a big gorgeous modern home with ample space? But did we really need it? Those were the things nagging us about actually signing a contract on that beautiful home. Of course the cost of furnishing, heating and cooling it were pretty hard to grasp, too.
So then came a day, a little over a month ago now, when Eric and Theo came home to tell me they'd been to a Denver neighborhood and came across a resale that was in this fabulous courtyard. The neighborhood was Stapleton and I could tell Eric was really serious about this house, about this concept of living on a courtyard in such a cool community. The resale was out of our price range, but the next week we went back to the neighborhood thinking maybe we were onto something. And so we were. We found the builder of the resale and found out that they still had a few courtyards to build on. The model we fell in love with is not huge with grand hallways or a gourmet kitchen. It's lovely and cozy. It was oddly sweet, walking into this home that was nothing like what we'd been looking at in the burbs (and nothing like what we 'thought' we wanted) and knowing right away it was for us. It's like our home now but modern. It's realistic, 1501 square feet with the option of 777 square feet of basement for Eric to finish (ha) and we love it. One block to the north is an 80 acre park and across the street to the east is a greenway that extends for miles with paths for walking and bike riding. Oh yeah, and the entire community builds green: commercial, residential and schools.
Today we signed the contract. For the next five to eight months we will watch our dirt lot grow into our home. Squee!!!!!
Eric and I began this search many moons ago, and then we continued it with Theo in tow. We've spent so many hours over the past year in model homes, Theo shredding price lists (smart boy) and playing with pens as we'd chat with sales people. After looking at dozens of models and resales, we kept coming home drained and bummed that we just couldn't find the right one. We did end up falling in love with a particular home. It was 2500 square feet, not including the basement and had gorgeous views of the foothills and horse ranches. We kept going back to the new development, spending hours pouring over lots plans and structural options. But, a few big lumps in our throat never went away after we'd come home from looking at it. It had room in the garage for three cars. The study seemed like a delightful treat in comparison to our current basement office. It boasted gorgeous hallways, something I've learned I love in architecture. The rooms were huge and the kitchen was gourmet. Three bathrooms and a working fireplace, air conditioning....but...while imagining us moving around and really living in this house, well, everything just seemed blurry. If Eric and I really got true with ourselves (and thank God we did), it wasn't us. At all. It's so easy to get lured into the burbs square footage for the price compared to smaller urban living, something that kept us looking in the metro areas for almost a year. The one thing that always stood out after we'd come home from the metro areas was: it just didn't feel like home. On top of that, the no green building, no Energy Star rating, no green space in the actual neighborhoods just didn't feel right to us. I was having a really hard time getting on board with new construction that wasn't green built, but the sea of space was enough to knock me out of my environmentally responsible world from time to time. Eric and I felt positively silly. I mean, who doesn't want a big gorgeous modern home with ample space? But did we really need it? Those were the things nagging us about actually signing a contract on that beautiful home. Of course the cost of furnishing, heating and cooling it were pretty hard to grasp, too.
So then came a day, a little over a month ago now, when Eric and Theo came home to tell me they'd been to a Denver neighborhood and came across a resale that was in this fabulous courtyard. The neighborhood was Stapleton and I could tell Eric was really serious about this house, about this concept of living on a courtyard in such a cool community. The resale was out of our price range, but the next week we went back to the neighborhood thinking maybe we were onto something. And so we were. We found the builder of the resale and found out that they still had a few courtyards to build on. The model we fell in love with is not huge with grand hallways or a gourmet kitchen. It's lovely and cozy. It was oddly sweet, walking into this home that was nothing like what we'd been looking at in the burbs (and nothing like what we 'thought' we wanted) and knowing right away it was for us. It's like our home now but modern. It's realistic, 1501 square feet with the option of 777 square feet of basement for Eric to finish (ha) and we love it. One block to the north is an 80 acre park and across the street to the east is a greenway that extends for miles with paths for walking and bike riding. Oh yeah, and the entire community builds green: commercial, residential and schools.
Today we signed the contract. For the next five to eight months we will watch our dirt lot grow into our home. Squee!!!!!
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