This week we got a few renderings of our kitchen! We have an official in house measurement appointment later this week but the pictures below are pretty accurate depictions. We are most likely purchasing our kitchen from Lowe's Home Improvement. So far Lowe's offers the best pricing and has the exact style we were looking for. We were inspired by Studio McGees natural wood kitchen design and feel that it fits the modern farmhouse aesthetic we are going for. Our kitchen layout will be an open concept single galley kitchen. What I am most excited about is the single porcelain slab we are installing instead of your traditional kitchen backsplash. The original kitchen had a window to the right where the door now exists. We decided to shift the kitchen to the center of the room so it faces the dinning room area and large panoramic window. We replaced the window with a door to our deck for easier access to the grill and out door deck.
Studio McGee Inspiration. Not your mother's natural wood cabinets, combined with matte black accessories and the panoramic porcelain slab for the backsplash.
One of the renderings we received. Everything is pretty accurate except for the vent hood. Our vent will have a more custom look ; longer white vent with a thin wood trim to match the cabinets(like the one pictured below).
The first picture is the style of porcelain slab we are choosing for the backsplash. Picture to the right is the color of the cabinets and hardware we are going with. The picture at the bottom is a good rendering of our kitchen's layout.
We will be posting more details of the kitchen as we go along but for now I am excited to share these few details. I do have one piece of advice, many cabinet companies will draw up renderings for free, take advantage of this! Have as many companies draw up your kitchen plans, this will give you a good idea of how your kitchen can look as every company will have it's own take on it. I would also recommend going to Lowe's/Home Depot and take a look at the different cabinet and drawer options. Nick and I hate traditional lower cabinets. A lot of space is wasted and it is hard to store and withdraw things like pots and pans. The first cabinet company included these types of cabinets(they usually do to keep cost down). Shopping around for different styles made us realize what is important to us and what our preferences are.
As always if you have any questions ask away!
xoxoxo, Diane , Nick, Theo & Max
This week we finalized the sale of our condo! We did what everyone advices against, we listed as FSBO (for sale by owner). And to be honest, if it wasn't because I myself have experience in the field and have listed and rented my own personal property, I too would advise against FSBO. If you do not have experience it can be a brutal and frustrating process. The money you may save (which is not guaranteed by the way) in realtor commissions, you will end up paying in headaches and frustrations. A realtor takes all of the hassle of selling your home and their agency may provide the right marketing tools and connections to get you top dollar for your home. With that being said, if you have decided to go the no realtor route and want to attempt to sell your own home here are a few tips:
1. Hire a real estate attorney. They will be able to walk you through the process and provide you with the correct forms and legal documents required to sell your home. Being knowledgeable about the process is also crucial in reassuring prospective buyers that you know what you are doing. We had some prospects concerned on our choice to not use a realtor but our professionalism and preparedness helped us ease those concerns. If you come across as lost or insecure in the process, be guaranteed that people will walk away no matter how beautiful your home is.
2. Run comps. Number one mistake FSBO make is listing their home way over the market rate or comps. One easy way to correct this is one, take your emotions out of this, it doesn't matter how much time and money you have invested in your home. If your home doesn't align with the demands of the market you will have a hard time selling it. Use public records to look up recent sales in your area. Using sites like Zillow will also allow you to take advantage of their free pricing tools and recently sold market data.
3. Declutter and clean!!! Property brothers and I cannot stress this enough, DECLUTTER and CLEAN your home. I recommend storing items in a storage unit, but if you can’t afford this option, make sure everything is boxed and well organized in your basement. Do not shove everything in your closet! People want to see the home and imagine how their own furniture will fit. Invest in a professional cleaner and landscaper if possible, if not get ready to do some serious spring cleaning.
4. Stage your home. When you look at Zillow, which properties catch your eye, the ones you can barely tell the size of the room or the professionally staged ones? I recommend using a professional stager, but if that is not in your budget use your many hours of HGTV marathon training to good use 😂. We spent some time and $$ deciding how we wanted to stage the home and it definitely paid off.
5. Photos! Ever hear of the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Well it is especially true when listing your home! Professional photos are so necessary if you want your home to stand out against the rest. We did not use a professional photographer, but we are pretty tech savvy and tried our best to imitate professional shoots. But if you do not have an eye for photography please hire a professional, the money will be well invested.
6. Marketing. Take advantage of every listing platform out there: Instagram, Facebook Market place, Zillow, Craigslist etc. Do not place the typical red and white "For Sale" sign. Create an attractive sign using programs like Adobe or my personal favorite Canva, then use the printing services at Staples to create a sign/flyers. Another advantage a realtor has is that they can list your home on the largest database for-sale homes, MLS (A multiple listing service). I would recommend using a licensed online broker which will list your home on the MLS for a minimal fee. One very popular option is Entry Only.
7. Ensure you have qualified buyers. Let potential buyers know that all offers must be submitted with a mortgage pre-approval letter (if they’ll be financing) or proof of funds (if they’ll be paying cash). We were very trusting with our prospects because we had the luxury of time (we were not in a rush to sell) but if you don't have that luxury make sure you ask for a pre-approval letter. You would be surprised at the number of people who are not qualified but say they are.
8. Act like a real estate professional. Selling your home should be your number one priority and you should treat it as your most important job. Answer the phone promptly, be professional , be available. That call you don't answer or that appointment you wont make time for may cost you a great buyer.
Even after following most of the steps above, keep in mind that things may still not go as planned and you may end up needing to hire a real estate agent after all. We received multiple offers one week after listing our condo! YAY, we thought, and then the sellers financing fell through, which can happen even when the buyers are pre-qualified 😕! Shortly afterwards, we ended up re-listing the condo and getting a cash offer close to asking price, but it didn't come easy or stress free. So my advice to you is to sit down and really analyze your situation. When do you need to move? Are your dates flexible? What's your break even point? Is the money you think you are saving by not hiring a real estate agent worth all the work it entails to list FSBO?
As, always if you have any questions on this matter please leave a comment below!
xoxoxo Diane, Nick, Theo & Max
As a child I grew up watching my stepfather restore cars and build everything and anything for our house. When I was 12 years old we bought an old home and he restored almost everything in it. His handy work inspired me as a child and as a result I would spend hours taking apart anything I thought I could put back together. Fun Fact: Many years later, that curiosity and passion led me to own and operate my very own watch repair shop called Tic Toc! haha can you imagine?! The renovations of our home has really sparked that passion to build again. So what started as a simple project turned into a whole new outdoor area near the brook. First I built a small dock on the water so our fireplace could be enjoyed near the brook. But of course my vision for this spot grew as I saw friends and family really enjoying this new spot. So, for the past two weeks I have been building wooden exterior stairs and a small stone patio around the dock. I would love to show you step by step instructions on how to build the wooden stairs but I am the worst at documenting such things and even worse at my methods of achieving my builds. For that reason I have linked the Pinterest post that inspired me. I also invite you to check out my Pinterest boards for more garden and landscaping ideas! Check out our ever evolving project and let us know what you think!
A patio would be so much nicer than dirt.....
xoxo Diane, Nick, Theo & Max
What started it all, the dock
The finished product. Look at those smiling faces 😍
Then I saw this patch of dirt and got thinking 👀
Then we hit an obstacle, quite literally when Nick hit a rock sliding down the steep hill.
Then the long journey commenced. There were a few times I wanted to throw in the towel... Whately is rich in Quartz stone so encountering these every other step was 😡
But it was all worth it. The end
Hello, it's been a while! Life caught up to us and I have neglected our little blog, but do not fear, I have so many updates! In our last blog we were picking out finishes because the fun demo work had been done and the not so glamorous plumbing and electrical had started. I am happy to announce (and more for my sake because I was anxiously awaiting this moment) that the fun has resumed! In the past two weeks our new doors and windows have been installed. The small enclosed front porch was demoed and extended to restore it's original farmhouse style porch. Our master bedroom also got a small porch installed and we can already envision ourselves having coffee there in the mornings. The back deck off the kitchen was also framed and it's larger than life. Scroll though the pics below to see what we have been up to!
xoxo Diane, Nick, Theo & Max
Picture Window in the master bathroom. A beautiful tub will sit right below it.
The beautiful slider door off the master bedroom which will lead unto a small porch
The future fireplace & TV wall. We are going to frame it with large concrete tile
Our larger than life back deck off the kitchen
Picture window in the mudroom entry to allow more natural light in
Kitchen door unto our patio
The grand front porch doors! Will be painted black to match with the windows.
Anyone who knows me, knows I have an eye for the more luxurious things in life. You can put me in any store and my eye will always gravitate towards the most expensive item in the room. What can I say, I have good taste... or at least I think so! ;)
So when looking for light fixtures I obviously gravitated to my favorite stores like West Elm, Hardware Restoration to name a few. But everything we loved was in the $200 - $500/fixture price range. Thankfully my boyfriend Nick is a great bargain hunter. He helped me find the budget friendly version of almost everything on our list!
Everything in the picture above is what we ended up purchasing, and most of it was from Amazon. At first we were a bit skeptical at the price and the uncanny resemblance to the name brand fixtures we originally picked out, but Amazon exceeded our expectations. Everything we purchased was exactly as described and the quality (although maybe not the same material as the name brands) was pretty impeccable.
Below you can see one of our designer picks vs our actual Amazon Purchase. At the bottom left corner you will also find the links to all of the light fixtures!
We can't wait to hang these up in a couple of months and show you the results!
xoxo Diane, Nick, Theo & Max
1. Foyer Light Pendant - Wayfair $199.99
2. Powder Room Light - Home Depot $84
3. Main Entryway Light - Amazon $48.99
4. Master Bathroom Light - Amazon set of 2 $54.99
5. Island Light Pendants - Amazon $44.99
6. Dinning Room Fixture - Amazon $204
Last week we received bad news regarding the original framing of the house. Most of the original post/studs had termite damage or were not up to modern code. So this week we distracted ourselves by picking out some fun design elements for the exterior of the house. Our current enclosed porch will be torn down and replaced with a large farmhouse style front porch. We will also be adding two patios, one off the kitchen and one in the master bedroom. Pinterest has been a great source of inspiration for us and has helped us pick different elements from our favorite farmhouses. We chose to go with the traditional white and black color scheme for the exterior of the house. To save money we will be keeping the current aluminum siding but giving it an update with a good power wash and new white paint. Another way we are saving money is by keeping the original windows and painting them black. We wanted to go with a grand entry door and fell in love with the one pictured above. In our search for this door we realized that metal doors are doubled the cost of wood ones; want it in black? add another couple of zeros. So we searched for a similar unfinished wood door and found an almost identical one which we will paint black. Our awesome contractor suggested for us to go with cedar columns which we immediately said yes to. He will also be adding black metal casting to the columns to give them a budget friendly designer look. Although many modern farm houses showcase wood or concrete front porch/decks, we decided to go with engineered wood for it's durability(also because no one wants to stain a deck every year....) Not being able to decide between a modern gray(Nick's choice) or vintage barn(mine) color for the floors, Nick and I decided to have a competitive but friendly poll on Instagram. Drum roll please..... Nick won, so we are going with the modern gray/Coastline from the Azek vintage collection. Overall we are really happy with the choices we made and are beyond excited to see it all come together. If you would like to see the items we purchased click on the links listed in this post or head over to shop or home page.
xoxo
Diane, Nick, Theo and Max
The house plans before the demolition can be describe as odd and inefficient. The mudroom entry had a coat closet to the right, a small staircase that led to an even smaller attic space to the left and a nook dead center of the entry way with a washer and dryer hook up. Our first floor consisted of a great room/library, kitchen, full bath, office, living room, and bedroom. Second floor consisted of three large bedrooms, one odd room that had no purpose(perhaps it was a sitting area?) and the room with the attic space and wait for it …… a random functioning toilet in the closet!!!
Original Layout
New Plans
Thank you for following along. Until next time.
Xoxo Diane, Nick, Theo & Max
xoxo Diane, Nick, Theo & Max
Welcome to our blog! We are excited to start this journey and hope it inspires you along the way. Our farmhouse is located in Whately, MA. If you are interested in reading more about us and on how we found the home of our dreams head over to our about page! The house itself is roughly 2,800 sqft and comes with 18 acres of land(I know, it's huge!) which includes a beautiful brook that runs along the property. Our goal is to document the entire process: how we found the perfect home, finding the right realtor, home price negotiations, finding the right contractor, budget friendly design finishes etc. We will also be updating our Instagram account on a daily basis(well, we will try ;) so give us a follow for more pictures and video blogs. Thank you for joining us on this journey, till the next post.
xoxo Diane, Nick, Theo & Max
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