What We're Going to Do with My Childhood Home

My Mom kept telling me she wanted us to go back to the childhood home. The decision to go back was made on Dad's birthday after she passed away. It was bittersweet and it took me months to start on sunsetting the house. Emptying the house took two long years. 

We took time to really plan what to do with the house. Tito Bert built the house to last, but at some point you really need to redo the electrical and plumbing system. We had the house reviewed by a structural engineer and several architects and engineers. The recommendation was the same for everyone. Demolish the house and build a new one. 

We eventually decided to follow the professional recommendations and started to think about what we wanted in our forever home. The funny thing is our current home is similar to my childhood home. I started a wishlist to detail our goals.

Here are our goals for our future house:

• 
  The house needs to be PWD friendly :) 

• Provide appropriate space for our needs and lifestyle. 

• Proper ventilation to keep heat out and be protected from bad air quality. Assume all rooms will have air conditioning and air filters. We are fine to have a loft for storage. All rooms have air purifiers.

• Preserve Mom’s garden. Ensure structural integrity of garden and where house will be built. Be able to collect rainwater.

• Proper drainage system and keep out flood water. Build house higher than current height from road. 

• Follow property line and ensure security*.

• Solar energy and future proofed

Listing our goals helped communicate what we wanted out of the house. We gave this and our room wishlist to the architects we consulted. It took awhile before we chose one. I'm glad we followed our instincts and chose the one that closely aligned with our values and expectations. 

Next week I'll write about how we finally chose our architect.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Color Seasons

My favorite color changes every few years. I've gone through mint green, red, yellow, peach, violet, pink and then it went back to red. I haven't had a favorite color for a few years now, but friends noticed I have a lot of blue colored clothes. I think I'm used to wearing blue because I wore a blue uniform throughout elementary and high school. My bags and device covers are mostly red. I have a lot of random pink stuff. 

I've been thinking about what to do with my craft room. Should I make it colorful? Or stick to neutral colors. We just have everything in white right now. I had the kitchen cabinets repainted to dove gray from midnight blue. I wanted it to be brighter and just chill. We haven't considered coloring anything for now and will probably keep things as it is for now. 

I've been struggling with choosing colors right now. I used to be so decisive about these things! I decided to make our curtains, but it's been two weeks and I haven't chosen a color yet. Gaaah! I've been changing my selection for the fabric almost everyday. I'm not sure why I'm dilly-dallying over my choice. I already had a long discussion about colors with a friend and we agreed on warm neutrals. That's how I ended up with dove gray for the kitchen cabinets. 

Maybe I'll stick to neutral colors for now. I can always have add colors through accessories. Did you notice it's easier now to change how things look? One can easily buy sofa covers or chair covers. I can easily make themed quilt throw pillow cases. I plan to also make different covers for my appliances based on the season. That should keep me busy for a long time. 

Now that I've thought this through I think I'll make gray curtains for now. It should help accentuate the Christmas tree more (well... when we get around to setting it up!). 

What do you think? On hindsight, I could have thought about this before, but decorating isn't really my cup of tea, haha. Recos are welcome!

#Home35 #NewG211 #Xmas19 #StayHome #BeKind