some design bits and pieces

Please excuse my scrawls here!  This is the basic design of the downstairs.  It's still a bit off from reality -- we moved the platform a couple of feet to the east and added those two feet onto the rooms (studio, bathroom, bedroom), so the dimensions are a little wonky, but this is pretty much it.  I hope it makes it easier to understand what all my pics of drywall  and windows really mean!  I didn't draw any dog beds on to the plan, but try to imagine at least one in every part of the house :)

At some point in the next few months Bobo will make the built-in between the dining and study areas; an even bigger project for the summer is the built-in that will house the tv on one side and the desks on the other.

After having most of our books boxed up for the past two and a half years, it will be really nice to get them unpacked, but that will also require bookshelves, probably in the form of one long row running under the eastern windows.  We have lots of building in our future.

Last of all, we think we've come up with our (very, very neutral!) colors:  we're going for the same white on all the walls -- it has a pink undertone, which doesn't show up on the walls themselves, but definitely adds some warmth to balance out our cool northern and eastern light.  The counters will be a white solid surface and the cabinets will be gray.

Colors look so wonky until you see them in a particular space, but after much swatching we think these can handle all of the chaos and color that will come in the form of all of our stuff.  We think we'll probably add a lot more color in the future (we seem to go through seven year cycles of lots of color, then lots of white -- we're in a white phase right now!), but at least there will be something on the walls when we move in.

(ps.  One day I'd love to put this color on the kitchen wall, or this, or this :)