So I had my first meeting with an interior designer today. Fortunately, my designer is also my most talented architect! There are a lot of advantages to this. The interior designer says, "Let's put a seating area in the bay of this bay window," and the architect says, "OK, so place the window 24" above floor level." The interior designer says, "Let's put the chunky trim above the living-room window," and the architect says, "OK, we'll have to lower the window a little." It's a lot easier when these two are the same person.
Note that an interior designer isn't an interior decorator. We're not picking fabrics or armchair styles. The distinction is whether or not the item is attached to the house. If it is -- like a doorknob, baseboard trim, built-in shelf, fireplace tile etc -- then it's interior design. If it's not attached -- furniture, curtains, rugs -- then it's interior decorating, though obviously there are crossover items.
So, 3 hours later, I know what material, style and stain color the living room trim will be, I have two schemes for the hall and new guest suite (painted or wood?), and I'm ready to order all the windows and exterior doors. And we're only one-fourth done with the entire interior design -- it'll take at least another 3 hours to figure out the 3 bathrooms! But this is all worth it -- our upstairs remodel seriously suffered from not asking these questions ahead of time and having to make decisions on the spot, often badly, and resulting in expensive changes later.
Gabriel has joined a "knitting club" at the CDC. He's in good company, as his grandmother, aunt and yes, even mother, all knit. He likes to finger-knit scarves for his Bear. I took a short video of it -- right as Julian juuuust missed making it to the potty, something he never ever does anymore (hence the goofy audio in the background!):
Gabriel knitting
We took the kids to Spoons for dinner tonight, with the intent of visiting the "new house" afterward since it's so close -- we got the keys today! So we went over to scope it out.
The kids all thought this was fabulous fun, especially Katrina.
My "new" kitchen. Ugly, but, notice those yellow streaks in there? SUNSHINE!
The funky authentic wood fireplace, as viewed from the kitchen.
One of the ultra-plain bedrooms. All three non-master bedrooms are 9'x11' and are right next to each other. This house is a time capsule to the late 1960s -- no architectural wonder by any means, and finished cheaply.
It's not bad for space (1800 sq.ft. and a sizeable, if oddly-shaped, yard) and it's nice and bright. The grassy part of the yard isn't visible from the kitchen; instead a huge useless unshaded concrete patio is. That nasty antenna mast attached to the house is more than a vestigial eyesore, it's also a magnet for toddlers with rocks to bang on noisily.
Katrina insisted on going allllll the way around the house to the far side, where she could play with rocks. My architect has a daughter just 2 months older, and was telling me today about something I know nothing about: clingy. Sigh. That could be useful sometimes. ("Mom out of sight? Who cares?!") Fortunately, brothers were on the job.
Now on top of deciding what goes into our remodeled house, we have to decide where to put stuff in the "new" house. And I'm meeting with our kitchen designer tomorrow to decide how to set up the entertainment area. More decisions! This is too much!
5/23/08
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