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Friday, August 8, 2014

"Hello boys, I'm baaaaaaack!"

Yes... it has been while but I am back! Lam and I have been very busy not only finalizing the design of the new house but getting the current house on the market. I have learned one very important lesson over the last 2 months and that is "Stop hoarding!" Man did we had a lot of unnecessary crap in the current house and there is no one to blame but myself. Lam has only a handful of boxes and i had, well lets just say a lot more. Luckily it is finally done and the house is on the market! Fingers crossed it sells quickly!

As far as the new house we have finished selecting our features. We met with the wiring company and also picked out our final interior and exterior design selections. It was a really fun experience but also really overwhelming. Although we prepared as much as we could have, there were selections and options I didn't even know were available. Below I will give you a little information about each meeting, our experience  and the selections we made.

A/V: Wiring Company
We met with Noel of Trinity Wiring last Friday. He was the nicest guy who really made the selection process fun. Our meeting was only an hour. We added the following:

- added a cable outlet to basement, all bedrooms, and study
- added phone jack to kitchen and office
- adding hard-wiring for flat panel TV to living room wall (this will hide all the nasty wires behind the wall).
- alarm system
- built-in ceiling speakers in kitchen, living room and outdoors


Interior Design Selections
I worked very close with Kim from Drees Design center. Lam came to the first meeting where we picked out the majority of our design items but I followed up with Kim both in person and on the phone several more times. The design center was neat to visit. They have a couple kitchens built so you can get some design ideas as well as some wood flooring options installed, bathroom fixtures and other selections. Lam and I spent a couple weeks prior looking at sites such as Houzz.com to get some ideas on what we wanted. We decided on the below:

Kitchen
The kitchen was the hardest room to make selections for and the room we had to make the most selections for. There are SOOOOO many options. We definitely gravitated towards a white kitchen and decided on the following:

1. Timberlake New Haven Painted Maple Linen: "Shaker style" cabinets
2. Absolute Black Granite
3. Bruce Hickory Bison 5 in. Engineered Hardwood Wide Plank
      - This will be throughout our entire main floor and upstairs hallway
4. Kohler Apron front farmhouse sink
5. Progress Lighting Brushed Nickel Fresnel glass lighting
      - 16 inch diameter in breakfast nook
      - 12 inch diameter above island- 3 of them
6. Whirlpool 26 cu. ft. French Door Refrigerator with MicroEdge Shelves



Rest of the House
The kitchen and wiring company were the bulk of our selections but here are the remainder:

Railing: We went for a knuckle banister/railing with iron balusters. The banister/railing will be stained to match our wood floors.

Carpet: We will have carpet in the upstairs bedrooms and throughout the basement. The first picture is the upstairs carpet and the second is for the basement.



















Master Bathroom: Our sink cabinets will be an espresso wood with a white marble counter. I do not have a picture and couldn't find anything good online. Here is the shower and tub tile we picked out. 


Basement Bathroom: This will be Lam's parents bathroom once they move in. Sink and cabinets will match out bathroom. Here is their tile:




















Since it has been so long since I last wrote I am happy to say they broke ground with our house! I will follow up shortly with another post highlighting the work that has been done so far. :)

Happy Building!
Amanda and Lam

Monday, May 5, 2014

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Between now and May 17th Lam and I have to decide on all interior design features for The Ung House. Our A//V appointment is May 16th and our interior design appointment with the Drees Design Center is May 17th. They really move this process along, geesh. I have 2 weeks to decide on things I will have to live with for a long time. Yes yes, I know, I can always change these things later but I don't want to pay to have something done twice. If I really make an effort on these decisions and then fail, I hope to be more forgiving of myself when I am tearing out the counter-tops. 

I am assuming most people don't decide to build a house on a whim like Lam and I so they have months, if not years, to patrol interior design magazines and websites. They tear out pictures and save articles in attempt to find the perfect kitchen and develop their "design style". Do you know what your "design style" is? Apparently it is very similar to declaring yourself as an "Autumn" or a "Winter". While trolling the internet I see comments like "I'm a modern, but love your traditional foyer", or "Your mix of transitional and classic is amazing!". Seeing all these woman declare their style made me think that maybe picking things would be easier if I was sticking to a single design category. I ended up taking a couple of those "find your style" quizzes to see what the fuss is all about. Well, I was very disappointed.  They all say I am a "transitional" and "traditional", both of which I like but don't love. The only thing these quizzes helped me decide is that I don't give a *beep* about my "design style"... and that has been my motto while looking at interior design pics. I am going to just go for what I like while keeping an eye on the big picture. Fingers crossed I make it through this with all my finger nails and my marriage intact. 

Here are some notes on the direction I am currently leaning towards with my design selections:

Wood Floors
We have wood throughout the entire main floor as well as the stairs up to the 2nd floor and the 2nd floor hallway. We like the look of darker wood like the below and feel we will choose something along these lines:

Kitchen Cabinets and Counter
I know many of you might cringe but I am leaning towards white cabinets with a dark counter. I like the cool, clean feel white cabinets give off and how they let your eyes flow through an open concept home. There will be crown molding on top of the cabinets and I plan on adding some upgraded design storage (wine rack, glass doors, etc) to class it up a bit.  I am not a huge fan of lighter wood cabinets but I am also considering a dark,espresso like finish with a lighter counter. I have run close to 100 pics past Lam and he seems to be on the same page as me which makes me feel better. Here are some pictures I like that I pulled from Houzz.com:


Appliances and Hardware
We upgraded to stainless steel kitchen appliances and fixtures (faucets, door knobs, lighting, etc). We will pick out the specifics on May 17th. Nothing too exciting on this front. They have a limited selection so we might end of changing things. Lam and I are already shopping for island lights on our own.

Fireplace
We have already decided on a stone faced fireplace. We will pick out the exact type of stone and mantel at the Design Center but it will look something like this (with different wall and floor color of course):



A/V
We are not exactly sure what the A/V opinions are but the company Drees works with has a catalog and also does custom work. The catalog has a simple listing of speakers, intercoms, surround sound, etc. We know they will show us more at the appointment. Lam is taking the reigns on this portion (gasp!) and has showed some interest of installing the following:

- upgraded wiring throughout the house
- Built-in speakers in kitchen, living room, breakfast area and deck
- alarm system
- Flat panel TV mounts in Master, Living room and Basement
- some additional outlets in various places around the house

I am told that once we get to the Design Center and A/V shop that we will most likely change our mind on many decisions. I still feel like we need to go in prepared for a fighting chance.

Happy Building!
Amanda and Lam

Monday, April 28, 2014

"If you build it, they will come!"

We met with Brian yesterday, our Sales Marketing Manager, and gave him our earnest check. We are officially building a house! The whole thing still feels so surreal.

We sat down with Brian and went over all our structural changes we previously made as well as some new ones.  I'll explain those changes a little later in this post. We really like Brian. I know his job is to make you feel uber-comfortable, but he's good at it lol. He has suggested ways we could cut costs that are at no benefit to him or Drees. It definitely helps to have Lieu and Amado (Lam's youngest sister) building a house along with Linh and Karl (his oldest sister) who pioneered this whole thing.

I should clarify one thing for everyone. The Ung's DO NOT build houses... their spouses do. I thought it was Lam's gender traits that kept him from taking the lead or having any major opinions on the design aspect but apparently it's an Ung family trait.  I have been working very closely with my brother in laws, specifically Amado as he is building the same model house as us. Luckily their floorplan is flipped, our exteriors are much different and their structural changes were more severe as they plan to have 6 children. Yes... 6 and they are half way there. Several changes we made were suggestions from Amado.  Brian would even tell us what they did so we could decide if we wanted to add it. Some of the items were things like additional doors, the master suite closest structure and some basement items. Amado's parents are moving in with them as well but they are creating almost an entirely separate living space to accommodate his parents. 

Lam and I spoke for a week about what we like in our current house (very little) and what we wish we had or could anticipate wanting. We also met with his parents to see what their needs are. I have discovered that the 4 of us are very simple people. We are not changing the floorplan much as we liked it as is. We are just adding a few things to make his parent's life easier and to make sure our needs are still met as well as our future family.

I'll go through the structural changes we made with pictures below. These aren't our final blueprints but are Brian's notes for the redraw. I'll put the model floorplan pictures below each updated version so you can see how our changes will look. Feel free to make suggestions but please only till Wednesdsy as that's when our major structural changes need to be set lol. I don't want any "should'ves" and "could'ves" quite yet, I know they will eventually come but I rather postpone that moment.  Here are what a few of the drawing markings mean- a circled R is for recessed lighting, dollar sign is a light switch, and FRT is for a fan rough in.

THE BASEMENT- Part 1: his parents room
We made the most changes to the basement. We have a full bath that is only accessible to the den which we are finishing, expanding and adding a walk-in closet to for his parents.  We also are adding double doors and 2 windows to the back wall. The room will be about 12x20. 





THE BASEMENT- Part 2: the rec room area
We are adding a half bath for the rec room, laundry rough-ins so his parents have a separate laundry area and a wet bar to serve as a mini kitchen. His dad likes to stay in his room and told us he would like to be able to drop off dishes or grab something from a smaller fridge downstairs without having to go up to the kitchen. We also added a window in the back nook and a sliding glass door for access to the backyard. Our plan is to add a patio eventually.




THE MAIN FLOOR
We added a boxed ceiling in the family room, recessed lighting, additional windows in breakfast room and dining room, external door from family foyer, and we are squaring off all archways. You can't see the arches in the pictures but they are between each room transition. Oh and a 3 car garage with external door which is not pictured on our revised draft.







THE TOP FLOOR
The only structural changes we have made is to replace the half wall in the loft with a railing, added a sink in the laundry room and we extended the owners suite. In the owners suite we added the optional linen closet in the bathroom and removed the partial walls that sepertated the sitting area to make it 1 large room. We also removed the walls between the closets to make it 1 open closet with 2 sides. We wanted it to feel less cramped and figured we had a door outside the closet to hide anything we wanted to hide.  And again some recessed lighting.



DESIGN FEATURES
We went ahead and added some design features into the house we knew we wanted. We also have some design features included for "free" as a promotional bonus from the builder. Here is what we got so far:

- gourmet kitchen with granite and double oven (promo)
- stainless steal appliances (upgrade)
- hardwood throughout entire main floor with exception of study. (upgrade)
- fireplace in family room- stone (upgrade)
- crown molding in dining room, study and foyer (promo)
- chair rail in dining (promo)
- ceramic tile and upgraded vanities in owners suite (promo)

The next step is our meeting at the design center. We will walk around with our design specialist Kim and all my magazine clippings/internet printouts to pick out our design finishes. This meeting should happen within 20 days of today and will take around 4 hours. Just waiting on Kim to give me a call. 

I promised last post I would put up some lot pictures. First one is of course Lam standing on our property and the second is the view from the basement... we hope it's even better from the main floor elevation. You can see Broad River and the farm land behind it.





I will post again next week with an update. Feel free to leave comments or questions. Love you all!

Happy Building!
Amanda and Lam



Thursday, April 24, 2014

"It's All Happening!"

Looks like Lam and I are building a house. I know many of you would love to follow our build process and I figured blogging was an easy way to keep you all informed and a fun keepsake for me. :)

Let me start this out by giving a little back story on how and where we decided to build. 1 week ago we were not building a house. Lam and I have always known we eventually wanted to build our own home and move a little west, not too far from Lynette. The communities there are full of young families and seem like such a great place to grow up. We just didn't think it would happen for a couple more years. 2 years ago Lam's oldest sister and brother in law built a new house in Gainesville, VA, exactly the area Lam and have been thinking about. We have been there many, many times and absolutely love the neighborhood and development. Of course his sister has tried to convince all of Lam's family to move out there. She finally roped her youngest sister and her husband in. They announced a month ago they were building a house just a block away from Lam's oldest sister.

After hearing this news we then found out the development was ending sooner than expected due to a new county law and there was limited lots left. We really felt like we needed to look into their development a little more to see if we should consider moving sooner. The two things about our current property that we love so much are that:

1. we border woods and no one will ever develop behind us
2. we are in a cul-de-sac. 

We knew if we didn't have these same features in our new property we would regret not waiting for a better location. We took a drive to look at the lots and decided if we didn't like any we would drop the whole idea and wait a little longer per our original plan. Well of course we found one we really liked. It's about 1/4 acre (Lam's excited to do less yard work lol), it's off a pipe stem of a cul-de-sac, has the Broad Run river behind it and farm land on the other side of the river. Seeing the property I think really motivated us to make a decision and we decided it was time to build. If we waited we might miss the opportunity to be in the same development as his family, something we decided we really wanted.

The builder is Drees Homes and we will be in Glenkirk Estates, Gainesville VA. Definitely Google it and check it out. There are MANY things close by like a movie theater, Wegmans, Giant, SuperTarget, Lowes, multitude of restaurants and more. School systems are top notch as well.


Our plot is in yellow (29), Lam youngest sister Lieu is in red (36) and his oldest sister Linh is in blue. The green is protected trees around our area. Yes... We will be very close to his sisters and yes... I have thought about it thoroughly lol. I love his family and I'm excited about it. His parents will be moving in with us eventually as well so we are basically creating an Ung family commune. There is no doubt in my mind we will be recognizable in the community and I am prepared for that, lol.

Here is the basic floor plan. I'll explain our changes in a later post but we aren't changing it too much. We are expanding the owners suite, keeping the study on the main floor and adding the den and some other amenities in the basement for his parents. I'll get blue prints of our house in the next month and post those as well.

This Sunday we will put down a hefty chunck of change to start the build process and finalize our structural changes to the floorplan. Here is a generalized list of steps we will have to take to move into our new house. They say it can take about 6-8 months... really fast!

1. Finalize structural changes and put down earnest money to start the build
2. Within a month go to design center to pick out everything from shingles to carpet to bathroom faucets. They will not break ground till you pick out fixtures and such.
3. They break ground and build foundation/frame.
4. Have pre-drywall meeting before drywall goes up. This is where we give the ok that the structure is correct and that it matches our changes to the floorplan. It's harder to go back and change that stuff once drywall is up. We get our estimated closing date then as well.
5. House gets finished!
6. Settle mortgage and place our down payment. 
7. We close and move in!

I'll take pictures of our land on Sunday and make sure I post it in my next post! Happy Building!

Amanda and Lam