Xpressionz of an Architect

We started painting our house today. It really took lot of time… We started around 6:00PM and we worked till 1:30AM. Just returned home… Here are some snap…

Also before and not yet after photo…

We closed our house on 9/29/05. It was swati’s birthday.. So was a great day to close. Things din’t go as well as I had hoped though. First when we went for final walkthru our door was not even painted. That sucks. Next the attorney made mistake in the paperwork so we had to go back again today to sign the papers. Anyway.. I guess that is part of life. It is better that anything that has to go wrong goes wrong before we move in…:):

So now it is paiting and moving time….

Hey guys an interesting thing happened the other day. We had been mall walking over the weekend and stumbled upon this abstract painting. We looked at it from a couple of different angles and then finally decided that this would go very well with our cotemporary furniture. We bought it there and then. Sudhir and me are very impulsive shoppers when it comes to art. The problem is we do not and mind you DO NOT agree upon together to buy anything. Our tastes are totally opposite. So we do buy things on which we mutually agree upon at once.
Now the real dilemma is that the painting totally stands out from everything I had in my mind. I had chosen the draperies , accessories and the theme keeping in my mind the current paintings which we have and everything was well coordinated till then, But the moment I have seen this painting and see it day in and day out, the whole scheme is gone for a toss. Have to come up with something new this time. Thats a bummer. Didn’t see that coming.

This is the most interesting part of home furnishing( needless to say my favourite). The paint, the window dressings, rugs et all. Remember there are deals on these accessories and all home decor, always hunt for them in a local store or keep eyes open while in the mall. Iam making a list of all these things which are required in the house and categorising them in priorities. We dont want to get everything at one time and empty our pockets. The fact is our pockets will be empty after buying the house as it is:(:(:
There is so much info on line about the window treatments and how to measure the windows etc. The site which I found useful is www.bedbathandbeyond.com, and then there are other sites like Jcpenny, pottery barn.

We have white sofas with a dash of bright contrast tones in the pillows. The walls will have earthen shades. The fireplace wall which is at the entrance will be a mandarin /pumpkin.We have not reached consensus on it, still fighting:):) The table hardware of the centretable and the side tables need to match with the window hardware. The curtains will be complementing both the sofa as well as the walls. Also guys do not forget rugs, they are an important piece of accessory in the living room. Select the rugs which pull out colors from the room and get coordinated by a visual flow. This tells you a lot about me , I like to create pretty pictures:):)Dorky
In the meantime the hunt is on!!!

Today I attended the “How To” clinic at lowes about interior painting , it was very good. I had some color shades in my mind which we were discussing on. The clinic was informative and cleared all my misconeptions about painting. I am soo very excited and ready to paint my house now. Also as the closing date is finalised we are getting ready to shop for the furnishings etc.
The house looks good now, its getting there, its amazing how its coming together like different pieces of a puzzle. Our fireplace mantle is up , believe me it makes a huge difference. Now is the time when all the utilities and the minor details go in the house. The cabinets are in place , all the options which we decided earlier during the contract are coming in place one by one. There is a picture of the house which is painted in my mind , believe me what I am seeing in front of me is much more aesthitic.

Hey today we got our closing date for our new house. It is going to be 9/29/05 morning 9:00am. Best part is that is Swati’s birthday…:) Yeyeyeyey..

Enjoy…

The pre-Drywall meeting with the construction manager happened on 1st August , where in there is a walk thru of the house indicating all the utilities . Its a checklist for them if they have added all the reqd. electrical outlets etc as per our specifications. He goes over our options list for the finishes . We were not happy with one thing though that the main entry door is green in color whereas we wanted it to be black. but the exterior features were not in the buyers option:(:(
The drywalls were up after a week from then , Our field guy had told tht the closing will be towards the end of september. Iam soo excited.. I have started finalising the color shades for paint, I want to paint it . I have seen so many shows on HGTV that doing my house is super interesting. I love to do all such home improvement projects. Right now we have decided that the first level will be painted , and am so excited by the color palettes. We decided on an earthy color scheme as there is plenty of light coming in the house.
Did I tell you we ordered our living room furniture? Its a contemporary look and in white microfiber.the next step will be to select the furnishing, window treatments etc. Its getting more and more interesting as each day goes by. I have also decided to join a “How to clinic” at lowes the coming saturday. Will update the blog when I attend the clinic and give u all a piece of my mind. till then chao.

I am looking forward for the house to get ready and move in. Remember never make down payment more than20% for the house. We go in every week and take pics , so we have pics in every phase of construction. To give you an update the framing is all done and they are getting the services in . We should be called for the dry wall meeting soon.

The next home in my life is aTown home. As I told you earlier we are now home buying experts, We zeroed down to this Town home community which is conveniently located near our workplaces, and also to nearby shopping areas. The place is brier creek , which is like a booming community in Raleigh. I like to stay in NC as its very green and pleasant here. Per the rules of homebuying you should always fix a comfortable monthly mortgage amount and then accordingly decide your budget. Did I tell you Sudhir is very good at all the financial aspects of it.So I need not worry:):) to tell you the truth i didnt know much of this unless I actually bought a house .
Our house is being built currently. Its fun to do all the finish options while buying a new home. This house is as per our taste. I love to shop around for home and decor. We will be looking around for some furniture etc… yohooo!!!

Its good that I can see something built in front of my eyes , a lot to learn as an architect myself. Its so different from what I had seen all over in India. Sometimes I wonder people around the world differ so much in their construction techniques.When you retrospect its nature which decides in its holistic ways of these different construction methods. For example here wood is so abundant and easily available their are wood houses here, but back home in India, wood is so precious like gold, pretty scarce supply of resource.