House
Alright. I realize its been a long time, but I haven't had a whole lot to say. I've only been climbing a few times since I last blogged, haven't been doing much else with my time cuz its been flippin hot.
To be brief with the last few months, I could say that I've recently been playing guitar with a couple o' gents. We are looking to write some of our own material and play at open mike nights locally. Its nice to play with people who are talented.
I've also been working out a lot lately and have lost about 10 lbs! Still working on that. Running blows unless you're really motivated with something like a goal, or good music. I have resolved to work out at least 30 minutes daily by either running, lifting, biking, or climbing in the garage.
Most of my time has been taken with my boys and their baseball and tee-ball. Its over now, but it was about 2-3 nights a week. They both loved it and will probably do it next year too.
The most exciting thing that has been going on is that Kari and I are looking to build a home in the Solon area within the next 2-3 years. I have talked to an architect and he's excited to build the home that I have drawn up. It is very minimalist/modern and has a lot of windows, and its about 2000 sq.ft. It is one level, but it slopes at about 10 degrees downhill. Imagine a "V" shape with the opening at the bottom of the hill. This is where most of the windows will be, in the shape of a half-circle coming into the opening of the "V". The interior will be at least three levels, maybe four, with an open floor plan. Each level will be separated by a few steps, down to the next, with a large fireplace in the center of the home. A lot of the details are still up in the air, but so far what we want is a polished concrete floor, white walls, ten-foot ceilings, and a large fireplace. Our architect said that he could build this home for less than what our house now is worth, so we have to find some land soon. We are broke for about the next 2 years, but if a piece came up before then (and it was perfect) we might be able to swing it. We are looking for about 2-5 acres with a good view.
One of the reasons for this post was to get some ideas from all of you creative people out there. I'd love to see pics and sites for home design, ideas from your perspective, and any other input you may have. I've recently taken an interest in interior design, so I'd love to see some or your favorite stuff. We have a long time to think about what we will actually implement into our home, but the basics are pretty much already in place.
Thanks for reading,
Cheers
YEAH!! the design I saw was awesome : ) I also think your new chair would look great in a corner on a fluffy rug looking out one of those windows onto a pond of course! Do you get to use recycles materials and "green" design thermal heating, solar water heating, etc. ? Sooo, this begs the question: not moving out to CO huh?
Joe! Just a bit of feedback about the concrete floor. We just spent several days at Karim's parents house over in Jordan. Over there, wood is the most expensive building material and stone is the cheapest so nearly everything is made of stone. Their entire house had a stone floor. It seemed a lot like granite but did not have the "grain" of granite. Anyhow, I found such a hard floor to be not so good. Everything you drop breaks (tv remotes, dishes, etc) and falling kids seem to sustain more drastic injuries. Plus, any spilled liquid turns the floor into a slick death trap. I am not sure if polished concrete would be the same or not but just something for you to consider. -Amos
Amos- the reason we liked concrete floors was so that it would be easy to clean and it looks cool. We would use a lot of area rugs and some of the floors would be hardwood. Heather- the plan is to use geothermal heating/cooling, and as much green as possible, but our plan is to just not have extra stuff we don't need. BTW Colorado is never gonna be out of the question!!!