The New House: A Preview and Reasons Why

Well, you've seen the house that we are selling and now it's time to tell you about where we are going.  We are in contract on a crazy Queen Anne Victorian in South Orange.  I'm saying it's crazy, because it's large and ornate and possibly a money pit but a super cool house.  It's something I never thought I'd own because of it's size and because it's not a style that I would specifically peg as my own.  That said, I can't wait to get my hands on it. I've already been pinning concept images on pinterest like a fiend and am excited to share my concepting with you (more on that later, perhaps after we close. I don't want to jinx myself). Here are some photos of the house.

I'll share more detail shots and my plans for the house shortly but since people have been asking me why we are moving, I thought I'd take a stab at explaining myself in this blog post. There are a bunch of reasons but generally it boils down to the following three:

Reason 1: We need more space.  My business has been growing and in addition to having two part-time employees, we need more space to store my hardware and a more dedicated studio space for us to work. While I could rent out an office space in town, I love being able to work from home, multi-task and see my kids. I know it doesn't work for everyone but it works really well for me and I like keeping it that way.  We also now have an au pair who lives with us. We gave up our guest room to have live-in help which has been amazing, but it would be nice to have our guest room back.

Reason 2: We love the South Orange / Maplewood Community.  Don't get me wrong - Millburn is great too, but Soma (as it is fondly known, for all you non-locals) is just more our vibe. Most of our friends are there and there is such a creative feel to the community. Not surprisingly Maplewood is often called Brooklyn west and a lot of people who value the same sorts of cultural events and amenities live in the Soma community.  I've met so many moms who work part time in creative positions and I'm super excited to network with them.  The schools aren't as good on paper as they are in Millburn, but having done a lot of research on the school system we are happy that there is more diversity both racially and socio-economically and that there are still the same high level offerings for academically motivated kids.

Reason 3: We need a new project. It sounds sort of ridiculous but our house is basically done and I was itching for something new. There will forever be small projects to be done around our house, but I've kind of felt like our house wasn't a permanent solution.  I imagine there are people I know that would question whether any house would be a permanent solution for me.  That's a reasonable question given that I'm a designer and chronic mover, but I think there are certainly houses that feel longer term to me. Our LA house felt longer term even though we later moved for a job. This house feels more permanent too. Perhaps it's the ability to grow into it, or the fact that the house is liveable and I can work on it one space at a time at my own pace (versus our current house that I sort of had to do all at once). Whatever it is, I'm excited to stay put for a while and let my creative juices simmer.

So there you have it.  It took a lot of convincing to get Scott on board with moving (he is a creature of habit and generally more risk averse, and he also spends a lot less time in the community than I do on a daily basis, so it's just less important to him). But after making friends in South Orange and Maplewood and doing a little open house perusing he gave the go-ahead.  We have a little business idea up our sleeve too that pertains to the house.  I'm excited to share that with you later as it comes to fruition.  Let me know if you have any fabulous ideas for the house, great DIY suggestions or comments in general. I'm excited to hear what you think of our next adventure.

Our House is On the Market!

I hinted in my last post that there were big things going on over here at the Nest. Well, the major news is that we are under contract on a new-to-us (but actually very old) house in the neighboring town of South Orange (more on that later) and our house is on the market!  I promise this is the last time I bombard you with photos of this house since you've now seen it staged and shot in three different ways (Woman's Day, Apartment Therapy and AT: Complete and Happy Home).  I can't believe I got so much press for our South Mountain cottage. I can only hope that our new house (which is way cooler, btw) gets the same kind of coverage. In the meantime, here are a few of the listing photos showing some of the spaces that maybe you've haven't seen in previous features.

I love how our green guest room turned out even if I never truly "finished" it.  It's also fun to go back through the blog and find before photos.  Man, this house has come a long way!

For more info, you can check out the slideshow and interactive floorplan here as well as a fun video that includes some amazing aerial shots that our real estate agent shot with his drone (job perk much?)!

Stay tuned for photos of the where we will land in South Orange.

IN THE WORKS: Gentleman's Study

I have a couple of new design projects in the works having now finished up Christine and Will's condo.  First off is a study for the husband of a friend.  The idea is masculine and clubby without falling down the Restoration Hardware rabbit hole (which my client admits to having done in the past).  It's a one room project so it's nice and easy to wrap my head around.  The layout will be as per the below.

And I've come up with two options. I like them both. Option 1 is a little more traditional.

While Option 2 is a little more eclectic.

Which are you partial to? We can't go wrong with either although I personally am a fan of Option 2.

Apartment Therapy Round 2

We have some exciting news here at the Nest these days.  As many of you know, Apartment Therapy shot our house back in November and featured it as one of their house tours.  It was such great press and I was really impressed with how well the photographer captured the space.  Well, I guess you guys liked it so much (and specifically loved our breakfast nook) that AT continued to use the images in various surveys and blog posts. And most recently they came knocking on my door, this time to photograph the house for their fourth and newest book.  Lest you get over excited and start scouring Amazon, the book doesn't come out until 2015. Along with all the public spaces, bedrooms, and baths, they shot the new nursery (which I promise to show you more of soon).  It's hard to believe that Baby #2 will be almost 1 by the time it's featured in print.  They also got some great shots of Bryan playing in his room and some rather stiff shots of me posing outside our front door (I'm definitely more comfortable behind the camera!). Here are some behind-the-scenes photos of the photographer Melanie Acevedo doing her thing (and getting very cozy with my shoes).

And some pretty shots of some of the florals that stylist Kevin Hertzog left behind (the other perk being fully ironed bed linens).

Of course, for me the biggest part of the shoot was meeting the founder and CEO of Apartment Therapy Maxwell Ryan.  Maxwell is a hot shot in the shelter blog world and I had no idea he was actually coming to the shoot so I felt a bit like a giddy schoolgirl when he arrived at the front door and introduced himself.  Here is the photo of me and Maxwell that Bryan photo-bombed.

Of course, everyone on the crew was exceptionally nice, working around Bryan's nap schedule and his toddler antics.  And it was great to talk to Maxwell a bit about how his business has evolved.  I'm sure I'll be posting more about the book as it gets closer to publication, so keep checking in.

Fall Family Fun

This past weekend we went out to Riamede Farms in Chester, NJ with our friends the Langners for some fall apple picking.  It was nice to get out of our mess of a house, especially while the contractor was epoxying the basement floor. We came home with a hefty bag of apples (just in time for my mother in law to arrive and put her baking skills to use), some apple butter, and apple cider. We stopped in historic Chester for lunch and did a little antiques shopping, coming home with a steal of a mirror for the powder room at $70 - I can't wait to show you how it looks with the wallpaper.  Here are some photos from the day.

Goodbye JC

I know a number of you have asked or have been wondering: Where have they been living through this whole ordeal of buying a house and renovating?  Well now that we're settled in Millburn, I feel a little more comfortable sharing our accomodations for the past three months (and giving you some understanding of why I am SO relieved to be in our house even though it is nowhere near done).  Our Jersey City apartment served us well. It was large and.... well, it was large. Oh, and it had this amazing view.

Otherwise, I'm glad to be out of there (and Bryan is glad to have his high chair back)

And happy to have more than 2 square feet of counter space and a sink that doesn't leak into the apartment below.

And elated that my child can sleep in his crib again (it gets a little unnerving when the pediatrician keeps asking if he's pulling himself up in the crib and the answer is "no, because he's been in a pack-and-play for the past three months).

And so glad to not have paper blinds that are sopping wet each time it rains (yes, we have temporary paper blinds in the house right now, but don't have the same water problems).

And probably the best part is that I live IN our house which means I don't have to drive back and forth every day to monitor our renovation and attempt to find local places to feed Bryan and eat lunch (lunch at home - yay!).  Can't wait to share more of our new place with you as we get settled.  Hurrah to be over the JC hump.

More on the house

So, a few more photos from the past couple of days.  A lot of progress since the last update earlier this week. YES, we are still moving in on Saturday.  YES, there is still a lot to be done in the next 24 hours. It will by no means be finished. But it should be ready enough for us to move in. Today they did the last coat of poly on the floors, installed the plumbing, refinished the bathtub, fixed the kitchen cabinet debacle, hooked up the HVAC, and got the downstairs painted. Tomorrow the counters get installed and a final coat of paint goes on the kitchen floor. Appliances go in and the cleaning crew gets to work.  Down to the wire I know.  I definitely lit a fire under my GC's arse.  Crossing all fingers and toes, no matter how short they are.

kitchen before they took the cabinets back out and installed the correct ones

dining room starting to look good in elegant black

master bedroom paint job - a soothing brown/grey

Bryan's room being painted an buttery artichoke yellow (considering adding a DIY black chalk-board wall down the line)

And the living room looking a lot more finished than before.

The living room shelving bonanza

Yes, that's what I'm calling our amazing living room built-in that's happening.  Prior to construction that wall looked like this.

This is what it will look like when it's all said and done (plus a few accessories, books and some window treatments). 

The built-in-behemoth houses a coat closet, AC registers, window seats, AV equipment, lighting, bookshelves, and a TV.  I think the only thing that's missing is a mini bar.  And thanks to Danika over at Overlays, this thing is going to be one of a kind and quite the show stopper.  I've selected her Natalie overlay in a custom size to be inset into the panels on the closet doors with mirror behind.  It's going to be high impact for not a lot of dough.  And of course we will be using some hardware from Nest Studio as well (selection TBD).  I've added some Princeton sconces from Schoolhouse Electric Co (it didn't hurt that they were named after my alma mater) to illuminate our manuscripts and some throw pillows from Ikat and Batik for a touch of comfort and color.   The only thing I'm struggling with is the TV.  I wish I could do a beautiful mirror over the mantel but alas, the only / best location for the TV was right there.  So that's where it's going (otherwise we'd be spending a lot of time in the basement and why do that when you have such a lovely living room with windows?).  I'm hoping if I accessorize around the TV it won't be quite as noticeable and that maybe it will blend into the grey wall.  Or perhaps one of these days I will create some sort of folding DIY TV artwork that camouflages it.  Add that to my list of never-ending DIY projects.  What do you think of our sizeable storage solution?

The House: Kitchen Concepts

So, the largest, most detailed renovation we are doing in the new house is the kitchen.  Currently the kitchen is a bad flashback to the 50's and there is an overly large powder room at the back that is modeled after a meadow of screamingly colorful flowers (sans the flower scent).  Here is what it looks like now.

And what it looks like in plan.

We're thinking we will widen the kitchen opening to the dining room, close up the door to the living, and move the powder room to the original fridge and pantry location. This gives us a more open space and allows us to create a set of french doors that will open onto a future deck.

More concepting to follow (think white shaker cabinets, grey marble and some fabulous hardware from Nest Studio).

Exterior paint colors

So, I promised some progress / concept on the house exterior.  I had a tiny bit of time last week between packing for a family reunion, getting things squared away before closing, figuring out part time child care, etc etc etc.... to get some photoshopping done.  Here is what the house looks like now (photo care of my dad).

And here is what I'm sort of envisioning. 

The siding is vinyl, which I've found out can easily be painted. The issue is that if you paint it much darker than the original color it can absorb too much heat and cause the vinyl to warp.  So I'm thinking maybe a slightly lighter grey with some black trim around the windows and a pop of color on the door. So more photoshopping on that later....