Home and Life on Paris: The Little House that Could!

Paul and I were talking yesterday about how much we went through to get this house built and realize it was the little house that was saying all along "I think I can I think I can I know I can." The selling of our house was a breeze but never knew how much of a challenge it would be to get this house built. We've experienced a variance in front of city board members, the demolition of the house, various change in plans, surveyor fees too numerous too count, one failed bid..the one person who did bid was ridicuously high and suspicious, then we resubmitted bids (3 out of 5 failed with the very last one coming in late but pretty much on point) , acceptance of bid, paid an appraiser that almost killed the project literally, second change order in place, waited to hear from our mortgage specialist to find out the bid was not submitted (long story about our loan officer.. argh! )and decided to go over her head to find out the change order was submitted and to hear that second change order did not affect the loan lending price and the final approval of flood plain insurance....finally, whew!
So, fast forward 2 years in the making and we are finally builging a house that I believed wanted to be built. Our house will be our house and we are so excited to see it come all together. It will have 2 working studios, master bedroom, small guest room, open concept living kitchen area and laundry/bath. Heated concrete floors throughout, with ample light, storage and best of all a view and access to water, back patio to sit and have coffee, and a small footprint! We are proud to revitalize an area and have the new title "urban pioneers". We are thankful for having a builder who said this project will happen and didn't think we were crazy for building, our architects who have been our cheerleaders and watch dogs in all of this and will be during the build. I would highly suggest hiring an architect they already have caught a mistake that will be fixed. Finally, the silver lining and this is where I have to thank our rude appraiser...he forced us all to reevaluate the build to get it on price point...did that mean compromises..yes. We had to go with sliding glass doors instead of French doors, double hung instead of roll out and not the entire sidewalk redone. HOWEVER, we are only borrowing $118, 000 to build a brand new home. Yes we are putting a lot of our savings down but we won't be house poor.Paul and are very frugal so we'll be able to recoup the savings. So I leave you with pictures of the little house on 701 Paris Street that wanted to be built. Let the excitement begin! Stay tuned. Almost forgot we picked out color for our siding, windows and roof. We are going with a clay color called Harvard Slate (sounds smart tee hee) by Royal Select siding, roofing by Landmark and a dark brown color around Anderson windows. We want a monochromatic quiet box..very subtle.

This is the south end that faces water. The gravel is our future back patio. On this end glass windows near the pitch of the house with 3 sliding glass doors. Two in the living area and one in my studio.