The Park, Model homes, and our future home

Last Saturday, we decided to look through some model homes in a new subdivision that's being built about 15 minutes away from here so we could get ideas of what we would like in our new house. The models weren't open when we arrived, so we went to the park to pass the time. Here are some fun pictures from the park. Since then, all the snow has melted and maybe we will have an early spring. I hate when there is snow on the ground (or especially falling) on my birthday. We had a fun time on the slides. Timmy was especially proud that he could climb up the ladders all by himself. He did not, however, like the monkey bars; his dad did, though! Spencer is growing up too quickly! He is now able to crawl and can walk along the furniture. He loved standing on the jungle gym and holding onto the bars for balance. He has a real independent streak like his dad and brother.


We thought you might like to see some of the things we liked about the model. Here are few of those pictures. After looking at these new homes, we came home and incorporated some of those things into our plans on the computer. Troy bought some CAD software (for drawing floorplans of houses) with 3-D ability and we have designed what our "addition" look like. The elements we added were: the stairway shape and the wrought iron ballasts. It's a little hard to see the angles in this picture, but the stairs start in a straight line, then turn 45 degrees, then continue, and then turn another 45 degrees. It has a look similar to a round staircase, but it's a little more modern (and a little less expensive). Besides, Troy will be doing most of the building, so he said straight lines are easier to build.
The corner fireplace, rather than the traditional.We like the way the tile was laid, more like a brick design, than a square design.
We like how on the island, rather than just overhanging the counter and pulling barstools for informal dining, they added legs to the island so it looks similar to a table. It looks better once the counter tops are installed.

We also re-arranged the layout of the master bed/bath after seeing these model homes and made ours a little more "standard." We want a house that will accommodate large groups of people, because I like to throw parties and the way it is designed, we have a lot of open space from the kitchen to the living room, and I think we will really love it.