Portland Product Palooza

We're heading to Portland to look at house finishing details.

We get to cross two bridges we haven't been on before.

 It really is a beautiful city.

On the trip up we visit Pilot Truck stop (excellent coffee) and stock

up on Taco Bell burritos and Cheetos. The whole state seems to make

this stop, including these show horses.

Stunning.  But I don't think Tanji would approve of us adopting

any new family members (he still growls at Vladi, six years later).

Our first stop is to take a peak at the Opti-Myst fireplace.

Its electric and using lights and water vapor to simulate

flames.  You can have the flame effect with or without heat.

Its pretty impressive, we want one, only bigger.

The cats could sit inside and not get hot, its kind of brilliant.


On our way to the next stop, Mark spots a huge stone and tile store,

and they had a really nice greenish stone that would be

perfect a walk-in shower.

Next a ritzy kitchen and bathroom store, but no pictures from here

because of sticker shock.  My favorite kitchen faucet (not the sink,

just the faucet) was $1100 and the tub I liked best was $6000,

so thats enough of that.

We zip over to our favorite Portland retreat to regroup.

Luckily the stay includes a happy hour, we can work down our

list of well drinks and not dwell on toilets that cost over $1000.

Brainstorming & Views

We're moving really fast on house ideas, yesterday Mark came up with an entry around a two-sided version of the fire-place, we looked at counter-top refrigeration units (like they have at Subway or a buffet), and the list goes on.  What we didn't resolve was the hardwood flooring.  Basically we like the feel day-to-day of our current industrial carpet.

We're leaning towards a Mowhawk carpet in Confetti

with a good pad underneath.  Sorry boys, sliding on

hardwood would have been a lot of fun.

The new house will have terrific views, and to get an idea of

what they would look like, Mark mowed out the plot area.

Its pretty stunning, that's Mary's Peak in the distance.

Vladi gets excited when we are excited, so he's chirping and

scampering around.

Tanji is a little grumpier, this was not pre-approved.

Uschi is busy staring at Mark lovingly, as usual.

For now we are leaving the little birches, they give the prettiest

dappled shade.  Mark limbed them up a bit.

Plus they are home to plenty of smaller critters.

And Vladi likes to play koala on them too.

Better Head to Jerry's

We're on our way to Eugene for a planning session at the

fantastic Cornbread Cafe, a trip to the 5th street market,

and product shopping at Jerry's home Improvement store. 

I'm going to "need" this crystal lamp in my closet.

After sitting on some plush swiveling and rocking outdoor

furniture and scoring a new drainer for our pots, we

are totally focused on flooring.  The Ideabox homes

typically have bamboo, but its just not singing to us.

But we really like this black sink, it'll hide all kinds

of cleaning sins.

Most of our focus is on countertops.  Cambria quartz is

one of our choices, but similar to the bamboo flooring,

there isn't one really jumping out at us.

I may have found the countertop material for my

bathroom, it looks just like nougat candy.

Its a recycled glass countertop by Geos

in "Red Rocks."

Mark is looking at the Hi-Macs Cosmos pattern for his sink.

It has nice depth, like seashells and glass on a sandy beach.

Manufactured Homes

This has been the most amazing week, and today we got more

good news at work and I had a decent medical exam,

so we are celebrating again.

It just hit me that this is the happy time we were dreaming of.

To get a feel of the size and layout of room spaces,

we headed to a nearby manufactured home sales display.

Its always fun to walk through "someone else's" houses,

and this lot has a dozen models to explore.

This one is pretty big, we're probably going to be narrower

with some of the cool features like the big windows.

 

More to Celebrate

We're eating Mark's birthday cupcakes and double celebrating

because we qualify for a construction loan!

Its the perfect day for a trip to McMenamins and...

Back home for birthday doughnuts and a walk with the boys.

L-Shaped House

Today's the first day of summer school and we are doubly

excited because today we got the word that we will be able

to get a permit to build on our property. Woo-hoo!

An idea we are playing with is an "L-shape" with the

kitchen in the corner, two living spaces to either side,

and the master bedroom suites at the ends.

"L" for Lavs and Les!
 

All of Our Training Pays Off

For over 20 years we've been dreaming together of designing

and building a small house.

Mark has accumulated two paper boxes full of ideas; from

hand-drawn plans to magazine clippings and product catalogs.

Its "Go-Time,"  all of the books and folders are out and we still

like the ideas now that we liked before.

Location, Location, Location

Today we are meeting our potential contractor and our place

has never looked prettier.

This is paradise, complete with cotton ball clouds.

Ikea

We're trying not to get too excited about the house, because we're not sure yet if we can build on our property.  A contractor is visiting tomorrow to look at the site and determine feasibility, cost, and to assist us in navigating city and county codes.  So, O.K., we're pretty excited and since Ideabox has designed with Ikea, we're heading to Portland to the nearest store.

Let's do this!

So many kitchens, this is hours of entertainment.

Its a kick to think about designing a complete house from siding

to flooring to drawers and utensils.

Reflective appliances?  You bet.

We're interested in effective use of space, the house won't be huge.

The plan we've been working on the past few days is to have a

kitchen/dining/living space, with two master bedroom

suites, one that each of us will design.  Fun!

I'm loving the pink cabinetry for my bedroom,

apparently its for for 5-8 year olds.

Lemon drop chair!

I'm definitely going to want this little yellow puff velvet

swivel piece...

...and this green velvet couch (Stockholm collection).

I'm using Mark's birthday cupcakes for my color scheme :).

Ideabox

We heard about Ideabox homes in Salem, Oregon back around 2007, and Mark remembered them as soon as we started thinking about a new home.  Perusing their website, we were instantly impressed and decided to head to Salem to see one of the models, which doubles as the office.  We had the opportunity to sit down with the owner/architect and see two models on the site, both well-designed, comfortable, and a bit sexy.   We like the larger Confluence 2 model, or maybe something a bit more custom to our lifestyle.