Tour Our New House

New House Home Tour!

You know we bought a new house and won’t be moving in until Summer if at all. For more on that part of the story check out My Will or Thy Will.

However, proceeding as though we may move in, I thought you would love to see the finished interior and some of the finishing ideas that we are contemplating.

First I am just going to show you photos of the home and then I will talk about some of the details.

The selections available for the home were so limited. You picked one aspect of it, like say you prefer this color siding. It was a package. The brick, stone, roof and trim colors were non-negotiable. We liked the stone, I would never pick white shutters and the brick is a bit boring to me, and the last thing you want to hear as a decorator is you have zero choices. Ugh! But in the end, knowing the limitations, we were pleased with how it turned out.

The home is much larger than it appears from the front. I have never had an attached screened porch before and I think that will be a wonderful place to step out when the weather is nice and write or in the evening with family over dinner.

The View

A blustery day but the view is seen from the entire great room, patio, screened porch and any room on that side of the home. As I write I am seated in the great room and the lake and bridge appear much closer than pictured here. Ducks are swimming all over today, it is so relaxing to look at.

The Entry

This entry is one of the things we love about the home. Being able to have a wide and interesting view as soon as the door opens is very inviting.

We added an extensive wood trim package with upgraded base and ceiling moldings as well as the trimmed chair rail.

The Great Room

This is truly open concept living. Here you can see the large Island that seats 6. In the back is the only space for a table, so it is either your dining room or your breakfast room which ever you want to call it. The interior door off of the kitchen goes to the Master Bedroom. The angled exterior door goes to the screened porch and taking the photo I was standing in front of the great room fireplace.

This is the opposite view of the great room where you can see the fireplace and our window wall overlooking the lake and golf course.

The Kitchen

This is a complete view of the kitchen. This is totally downsizing for us. Our kitchen in both our primary home and our lake home are huge. However, when we had our vacation rentals, the kitchens in those homes were smaller than this and we had up to 14 guests at a time and never had an issue with the size. It is the idea that it is so open that makes it work.

I am not sure this photo does the counter justice. It is stunning. The style is Lyra and it is quartz. We had a lovely granite picked out but it was pretty busy and with the busy floors that would have been too much. This overall is a very quiet appearance.

I love the faucet, the deep sinks, the elevated dishwasher and the fact that the counter is high so it actually hides what is going on at the sink from the rest of the room. Isn’t it beautifully bright in there?

These are soft close drawers and there are lots of nice cabinet features like the slide out shelves.

I haven’t had a gas stove since our little flat when we first married and that one we had to light every time we used it. I look forward to using it if we move in. But I will desperately miss my double oven.

 

The Master Bath

 

Here is our master bath. It is a decent size. Thankful for a double vanity, I don’t think we would share very well. The makeup vanity is where a bath tub would have been, but the trend in tubs especially for those over 55 years is not huge and this is a 55+ community. There are two other tubs in the house if we ever want a bath and also this will be a temporary move for us and we will have a tub in our next home in the master bath.

The counters are Cultured Marble in Sand. They are gorgeous. In our renovations going on at our current home we have installed Cambria which is quartz and highly desirable, but I have to say, I just love these. The faucets are brushed nickel and the cabinetry is soft gray. The color of the cabinets is so fresh. I love it even more than the white I just installed in our current home renovation.

I have never had a frameless swing open shower door. I also know I will appreciate the bench in the shower.

Everything costs extra when building a home. I think we took tile that was within the budget of the tile package but I had to pay extra for the little shelf and the accent tile.

The Flex Room

This is the room that you can see the opening to from the front door. It is a flex room. We do not want to store our baby grand piano so this will be its home and if room it will also be my office because look at that view!!!

The Screened Porch

I get really excited seeing this screened porch off the great room and there is a screen door that steps onto a patio but the edge of the patio is the end of our property. There is a sewer just below it so we would do some plants and add a little stone ledge for safety. Back to the porch…I can just imagine sitting out there mornings and evenings and even talking to neighbors who may walk by on the sidewalk. This was one of the reasons we also wanted to move here, community. There are activities daily, plus special events at least once a month. Everyone we met who lives here loves it.

The Guest Room

This guest bedroom is at the front of the home and has a bath out in the hall. There will not be any home directly across the street from us because there is a creek over there, so the view after greened up should be pretty too.

The guest baths are both the same. They have the same counters, faucets, and cabinets as the master bath. The tub surround is a molded product. I would have loved to have had a tiled tub surround but we put money into things we thought were more important to buyers for when we sell the home.

The Floors

So what do you think? Would you believe this is vinyl? Luxury Vinyl, that is. This is PRYZM rigid core hybrid flooring called Grays Beach Driftwood. It won 2017 Platinum award for Design Excellence. This flooring is dull, 100% waterproof and will stand up against pets, heels, cleats, and other things that could damage other floors. It has a limited LIFETIME warranty.

This is not inexpensive, however, for the ease of care and the look of wood, it will soon find its way to the consumer’s choice in flooring over engineered hardwoods.

It comes in a variety of looks. We almost bought a very colorful one that looked like reclaimed painted porch planks, but we realized that might be a difficult resale. Since we won’t own this home more than 2 -5 years, we feel safe selecting this style and it looks amazing with our gray cabinetry.

The Trim

At first look I wondered if I made a mistake selecting a very formal and traditional wood trim with this less than formal and traditional floor but every time I go over to the house it just takes my breath away…so I know it wasn’t a mistake at least for me!

This is also a significant ceiling molding. I find wood trims one of the best foundations to a beautiful room. They don’t stand out and shout “look at me.” But their presence enhances the overall feel of the room.

This is actually the same base molding we added to our current home over the past few years to update it from the basic builder base.

 

An upstairs guest room with a view of the lake! Our daughter and her family come to visit frequently throughout the year and she and my grandson often stay for a week, so we will set up two of the guest rooms for them. We have another room on the main floor that does not have a closet but has a door and window and could also function as a bedroom, but my husband is planning to use it for his office.

This is our loft area. We suppose we will put in a huge sectional and set up a large television. If room, we may also add a game table since our family loves to play games.

The basement is a decent size. We did get a rough in for a bath and there is a window off to the right. If we knew for sure we were moving in, we would start finishing it and add a bed and bath and recreation area here as well as two storage areas.

So here is what we have decided. Since we aren’t putting our current home on the market until Spring, we went ahead and put a “for sale” sign in the front yard just 9 days after we purchased it. It is difficult because we are excited about moving in, but we know we are also excited about moving South and it looks like that may be possible sooner than we planned. If the home sells by April, we will stay put for one more year and then purchase our home in Southern Missouri. If it does not sell, we will put our current home on the market about May 1 and hopefully sell it quickly and move in here. Whatever happens we will be happy either way.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. I have already picked out chairs for the Island and purchased kitchen lights, so coming soon I will share the plans we’ve made for lighting, backsplash and furnishing. Thank you, friends for visiting today. I would love for you to subscribe, follow me on my Facebook page, Instagram and Pinterest. I look forward to reading your comments on the home.