Hollywood Journey

Designing

"Brad we really shouldn't have white kitchen floors with the kids..." I look over the plans he has drawn up of the kitchen, inspecting them closely "They're always dropping stuff, they'll be multicolored by the time Zane's 2."

"So we just have to clean them. You're constantly cleaning or having someone clean them anyway. It won't be much different."

"We can always add a clear stain resistant top layer, my wife loves ours."

The contractor shows me a few more pictures, some of different color tiles, but there aren't any I like much.

"There's a grey one we just got in." He pulls out some samples "It's neutral, so it would look good with your counter tops."

I love it immediately, turning towards Brad hopeful that he does too. He seems just as happy with it, so we move on to the wall colors.

"I think the kitchen should be neutral, something that can match anything so we don't need to worry too much." Brad suggests as he points to a color "This would be nice, that way if we want a change later on we could always just paint the cabinets or something."

"What about the one a little darker? I don't want crazy dark, but with all the windows that's too bright."

"Yeah, that's true. Let's go with that."

"You two are probably the only couple I've ever had agree on things so easily." The contractor laughs, walking us through to the next room "Do you want the dining room to have the same floor as the kitchen, living room, or just it's own?"

"Kitchen."

"So before we continue with the foundation, we need to know how much more natural lighting you want. We can either add in another wall of windows surrounding the sliding door, or do a normal wall, or even a mix."

"I really like the idea of all windows with maybe a few feet of wall at the edges. We love to hang things around the house, but the natural light here is amazing."

"I was going to see if we could put up a wall between the rooms instead of leaving it wide open?" Brad surprises all of us since we agreed on an open floor plan "We only need the one extra wall, that way we have some more space to hang stuff, and there's a little bit of a sound barrier."

"Okay, but we're still having some wall around the windows."

I stop walking, making sure he's listening since I know he's thinking more about what he wants.

"We agreed about the natural light because you really want it, so I want somewhere to hang our pictures in the living room."

"Just as long as it still looks good. You'll have plenty of room around the TV, too."

"If you're worried about space to hang things, we can always change the way the steps are too. They can have wall surrounding the sides instead of it being open. Or you could put a closet under them."

"I like the idea of a closet." Brad looks to me "You could have space along the sides of the door and we could have some extra storage."

"That sounds like it would be nice. We always need the storage anyway."

We follow the contractor through the rest of the downstairs, noticing all the little additions they've done since the last time we were here. There isn't much to the house yet other than lots of drywall and holes where things will be going, but so far I'm loving every little detail.

"Wow, that front door is even better than I thought. I'm glad we went with this one." I stare at the door as we walk through the entryway, loving the designs on it "It makes this room look way classier than we are, but I guess that's good."

"People can get a good impression of us as they drive by before they see all the toys laying around the yard."

"Actually, the surrounding gate that you chose should be tall enough to cover that. We haven't gotten the pieces to start on that yet, but they're saying sometime next week."

"Perfect, that'll give us some good privacy without being too obnoxious."

We eventually end up in what will be our bedroom, looking around at what seems like a huge, half demolished room because we haven't told them anything we want yet. I pull out the pictures we have for ideas to show them.

"We're thinking we want the whole long wall to be windows. That follows the theme, and it makes it feel huge."

"And we definitely want an area for a couch and table off to the side, maybe around the closet."

"There should be plenty of room. Are we doing two separate closets, or one big with different areas?" The contractor takes notes as we explain everything "There is easily enough room for all the shelving and mirrors you want."

"I think we can split the one. We just need to have a divider or something so she doesn't take over my space."

"And we'll still have room for the bathroom, right?" I ask, noticing space seems a little limited "We want a walk in shower, and a deep tub. I think separate sinks would be nice too, that way we aren't in each others way."

"That can easily be done. There's more room around that little corner, so the bathroom would be split a little because of the corner, but that could work out good with the sinks."

"That's perfect actually. This is so exciting!"

We point out everything to him, from where we want our bed and end tables to the exact color and shade of the walls. He gives us some books to let the designer know the other furniture we want, as he goes over everything with the crew so they know what they're doing.

"This is really going to be our room," I walk up next to Brad, who is staring out of what will be our window wall "We'll be waking up to this view."

"I'm more excited to be waking up next to you, but if the view is more important to you than I am I guess I can live with it." He wraps his arm around me, pulling me closer "Just as long as you promise me we can get some dark blinds to keep the sunlight out in the mornings. I like to sleep in."

"Why would we bother with blinds? We have children to wake us at the first hint of sunlight."

"Maybe we should put black curtains in their rooms."

"I love you, Brad."