SF Chronicle Article

There is a great article in SF Chronicle this weekend on kitchen and bathroom design.  This is stuff that is much higher end then we are going right now, but it is still nice to dream. 
$35,000 for a fridge?  We'd really have to live in the box.
Here is the article. 

The Man Is Keeping Us Down

Click to enlarge
We met with Rick the other night and he delivered some semi-bad news to us. The City of San Jose has decided that attached garages are negatively affecting the integrity of the neighborhood of Willow Glen. Ouch, says us.
Our options are to A.) Spend a few hundred dollars and several weeks [...]

Home Expo

We made our first of probably many trips to Home Expo this weekend.  One of the contractors that we talked with cautioned us against going there based on the quality of the materials that they have, especially in cabinetry, but we went anyway because it never stops raining here and the kids are tired of [...]

Awesome 3rd Meeting

We had a great meeting the other night. Rick had some good ideas and felt that we were getting really close. At this point, we need to finalize where were are going to have the walls.

Probably best if this is opened in another window, but you can see that we are adding the [...]

Magazines Galore

I am convinced that our biggest expense at the end of this project is going to be magazines.  We have a ton of ripped up home design magazines now.  We buy them, tear through them, and rip out the pages of the things that we like for the contractor. 
Like anything, the more you learn [...]

First and Second Architect Meetings

We had our first and second architect meetings recently.  It was great.  It was like being in grade school again.  We simply took our existing floor plan and a Sharpie marker and drew all over it on velum.  We made 3 different versions and ended up with one that we really liked. 
Holly and I [...]

My Fiscal Disclaimer

Holly and I aren't rich, so I don't want any strange, unknown relatives coming out of the woodwork thinking that we are on easy street and begging for dough.  We have pretty much resigned ourselves that, unless an ultra-wealthy unknown relative kicks it and leaves us all the money or some other financial windfall bestows [...]

First Check

Well, I suppose with the writing of the first check the project is officially underway. All of the contractors that we spoke with recommended several architects, but one name came up with all of them and that was Rick Hartman of HOMETEC Architecture. We were really glad to see this as, obviously, this means that [...]

Before (Hopefully) Pictures

It stopped raining this weekend in Northern California for the first time since Reagan was Governor and I was able to get out and take some pictures of the place. These will be the before pictures. One lookatSchnaars Manor and you will understand why we need to remodel. We love the location, but we have [...]

Financial Head Check

Once we finally reached a point to where we felt like we knew what we wanted with our house, we started to have contractors come over to help us make sure that what we wanted to do was in our budget range.
We really like the work of both DeMattei and Browne Custom Homes, who recently [...]