Follow along as Cindy Conaway and Chris Whann take us along on their quest to buy their first home. When we left off, (in Simply Saratoga FALL), they had decided that living in their ideal in-town location was not an option in their price range, and seeing cows through their car windows was too rural – let’s see how they’re doing!
“What we wanted was a mid-century ranch house within walking distance from downtown (or at least a place to get coffee) and a local pool, either in Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls or Ballston Spa. What we are buying is . . . not that.”
We were getting discouraged.
Luckily our Realtor, Lisa Capone, suggested a builder she thought was a good fit for us. Cerrone Builders was putting together a 55+ community of about 30 houses around a cul-de-sac in South Glens Falls. In The basic model, The Bayberry, we found a one story with 2 bedrooms and den, a great room, mud/laundry room and full basement we could finish later if we wanted to, totaling 1,500 square feet with a two-car attached garage on about 1/3 of an acre, which gave us space for a hot tub or swim spa. The Homeowner’s Association (HOA) would, for a reasonable extra fee, do yard care and snow removal. There were four or five lots remaining. It was only a little more than we had initially planned to spend, but was within range of the other houses we were seeing, or would’ve been, when you added in all the repairs and updates they needed.
Should we get the type of home we wanted in a location further out? –away from things important to me – like a coffee house within walking distance – or hold out for a house that would be much smaller, harder to navigate, or require living in a construction zone? Our good friends pointed out that when we weren’t traveling, we were homebodies. Much of my scholarly work is in television studies, and as I always say, “All that TV doesn’t watch itself.” We both read and write a lot. The ability for me to do the interior design to our liking, and Chris’ inclination to have our house be “green,” tipped the scales.
Unlike other builders, Cerrone welcomes modifications. They routinely work with clients to adapt the standard plans, and then each buyer is given an allowance to work with local vendors to pick what they want for the appliances, surfaces, lighting, and electrical system. We had adopted two rambunctious kittens by then, so I suggested expanding the mud/laundry room to hold their litter boxes. We decided to turn the tiny den into a full-sized office/guest room so that if anyone in our family (many of whom live in Florida or California) needed space, we would have two guest rooms. The galley kitchen layout didn’t give us enough cupboard or counter space, so we planned to expand the counter and cupboards into the “breakfast area” we knew we would never eat in. And we wanted an optional three-season room. For an add-on of 50 square feet, we could have all that.
Preliminary Design
Even before we put down a deposit, we were given a list of vendors and a list of features of the houses. We wanted a “mid-century modern meets world traveler” design scheme, which meant upgrading from builder basics in some cases, which included Delta faucets, KraftMaid cabinets, granite kitchen countertops, Formica bathroom countertops, and a one-piece tub/shower combo in each bathroom. We had a budget set aside for this purpose but wanted to be judicious about it all. We wanted a nice kitchen in the great room—something dark and dramatic, with a colorful backsplash. I knew I wanted a “spa” bathroom with a nice deep tub in the guest bath, which I thought would go nicely with white subway tiles with countertop and mosaic tile in colors of the ocean, and a more dark and exotic primary bathroom with a walk-in shower, to which, along with the same white subway tile, I planned to add to bold colored mosaic and counter that matched some vintage travel stickers I had framed. We paid extra to have hardwood floors in the bedroom as well as the great room and thought that we might do wood-look laminate in the bathrooms, since tile seemed like it would be cold. We were entitled to vinyl floors for the mud room, which were all so ugly we thought we might do laminate there as well. We took initial trips to see Roberta at Security Supply, Rick at Best Kitchens, Tina at Adirondack Precision Stone, Mark at Queensbury Tile, Larissa at Floormaster and Mary and Angela at Askco Lighting.
Each vendor really knew a lot about their field, and we learned things each time we visited. Although each suggested waiting until we were closer to the actual build, we made a few preliminary choices. We couldn’t visit the “remnant area” to look for affordable bathroom vanity countertops until the ice and snow were gone. I couldn’t find the bold tile mosaic I wanted for the primary bathroom at the tile place, so had to get samples from elsewhere. No one gave us much of an idea of how much anything might cost over our allowance, which was in some cases given in a lump sum, sometimes in square footage, sometimes per piece.
During the winter, I set myself to learning the principles of interior design as I would any of my academic interests. I read several books and a lot of “shelter” magazines, did tutorials on a website called Spoak, and watched design shows every night (mostly older ones like Sarah Richardson’s various series). I mocked up my preliminary ideas in Spoak (perspective is not easy) and placed pictures of my “surfaces” and materials together to make a palette.
Ultimately, I learned a lot about design. There are often differences of opinion, even among professional designers. We listened to a lot of advice, we changed our mind a couple of times (Mark convinced us that tile made sense for the bathroom floors), and we eventually picked what we liked. We decided our house needed a name and landed on Miaouhaus (a play on Bauhaus, a design style with, of course, a nod to our kittens and my fondness for talking to them in French). I may have never wanted a house but am excited to see the vision come to life. The build has started, and all is on track.
Stay tuned to see what we ultimately chose!
