You've Got to Have a Vision

I am lucky enough to be married to a man who can look at this:

And see this:

Or this:

When bought our house 2 years ago, it wasn't the mid century modern house of our dreams.
It wasn't an Eichler or a Cliff May. (aren't those Cliff Mays dreamy?  that neighborhood is right down the street from us.  i love those houses.)
As far as I could see, there was nothing mid century about it other than it had been built in 1952.
It was a 50s war box.
And I really didn't like it all that much.


But we needed to buy a house we could afford.
A lot of people didn't and you know how well that has worked out.
Aaron had looked at a lot of houses with our realtor.
A LOT.
(I am surprised the man still speaks to us)
And he had a vision in mind of what he wanted and what we could do with it.
Without overextending ourselves.
(when I say what we could do with it, I totally mean he, because I am not doing anything except watching the kids while he works and bringing him cold drinks.  but whatever)


When he walked into this house, he saw it had good bones.
It had the kind of floor plan we liked.
It had that big window in the living room to let the outside in--very mid century.
No unfortunate, poorly done, cheap "upgrades" had been done to it to get it ready for sale.
It was still in its mostly pristine 1952 state.
With all the wear that comes with that.


But when I walked in and saw this:

I wasn't that excited.
I never imagined that in 2 years that same kitchen would look like this:

Or that this breakfast nook in the kitchen:

Could be transformed into this:

Like I said, Aaron is a man with a vision.

And even though we didn't get to buy the house of our dreams in the neighborhood of our dreams, we are turning this house into the HOME of our dreams.

It's slow going.

It's hard work.

But we're having fun.

And we're making this place all ours.

And I have to tell you, I'm getting pretty proud of this little ol 50s war box.

It just goes to show you, being happy with what you've got is all about you and not about what you've got.

..........................................................................................................

So, the renderings.

We are still trying to decide which color to paint the trim.

Aaron put orange up on one of the windows and it looked good.

We both liked it a lot.

But we are not 100% sure.

It's just so hard to be sure until we see all the windows done.

To aid us in our decision making progress, Aaron drew up a rendering with the trim orange and one with the trim turquoise.

Then he went ahead and started to add all the other ideas for the house that have been floating around in his head for the past couple of years.

Let me give you a little explanation of his plans

The base color of the house will be white.

The door will stay turquoise because we are totally in love with how it looks.

The trim around the roof and door, as well as the gable end will be green.

The trim around the windows will either be orange or turquoise.

There will be diamonds on the gable end.  

Aaron will make them.

The wooden slat 'boxes" will cover an original shelf mounted to the house, and a hideously ugly air conditioning unit.

We only used it for 3 days this whole year, but man did we ever need it on those 3 days.

He will continue the wooden slats on the gate along the driveway.

The new gate will replace the gross, black wrought iron one that is there now.

We will re do our landscape as well--all there is now is some grass--adding succulents, native plants, some of these, and some large pots in either orange or turquoise.

He also wants to add to our very narrow walkway, paint the brick porch and put a strip of grass or other low growing plant down the driveway.

Whew!

But, if anyone can do it, Aaron can.

He really is amazing.

And I'm not just saying that because I like him so much.

Perhaps he could start a side career as a landscape designer.

You know, in his spare time.

Now you get to weigh in.

What do you think?

Orange or turquoise?

Fire away.

Love from,

Greta