Bentley Grove {take one}
Naming a new project is usually easy as I use the street name or some variation. For our new home, I really wanted to come up with something different based on the history of the land. The Bentley family bought it in the early 1950’s and started Bentley Nursery in 1962. My husband, Bryan, worked at the nursery in his teens and always loved the land. In 2014, he purchased the original home (built in 1960) with 5 wooded acres. So, we’re calling our project Bentley Grove.
As I mentioned in a previous post, we’ve been working on the plans for our new house since the beginning of last summer. It took about four months and then we gave them to our builder for pricing. That took two months and another month of revisions to get the price to where we wouldn’t break into a sweat each time we saw it. Let me say that building a house is expensive and don’t believe those per square foot prices people tell you before the plans are done.
Once we landed on a price, it was time to put my Tallahassee home on the market. I highly recommend Jim Butler with Coldwell Banker Hartung if you’re needing an agent. He was patient, a great communicator and never pressured me about the big decisions. It took six weeks (thanks to my very steep driveway), but we found the perfect buyer and closed in about a month. Enjoy your new home, Maggie!
Today I’m sitting on the screened porch and enjoying the quiet country morning with all the dogs. The new place is much older and smaller than I’m used to, but I’m making the best of it since it’s only temporary. I’ve painted, put in some new carpet and changed out a few lights. Having all my furniture and art around me has also made the transition a little easier. It will be nice to live right next to our new house and see its progress each day. Once the new house is finished, we’re tearing down the old one. Here’s a little video I took from our future driveway.
To be honest, I’ve not been very motivated lately to work on the selections or the house in general. I was really excited at the end of last year, but not so much today. I’m a self-admitted procrastinator but I’m hoping this blog series will push me to get things going. If I could afford it, I would hire an interior designer to take the pressure off and make all the selections for me.
For every project I design, it starts with inspiration. Pinterest is the best place to keep all the images I love organized and easy to find later. I highly recommend it if you’re starting a home project. Think of it as a virtual inspiration board. I also use it to find examples of ideas I want to show my contractor or draftsman. Here’s a little slideshow of some Pinterest images that have given me a lot of inspiration at this early stage:
Bentley Grove is about 2500 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. I’m finally getting a formal dining room, walk-in pantry with lots of shelves and a staircase. I plan to use saturated colors, beautiful wallpaper and statement lighting. The overall design is traditional, but the fabrics and lighting will make it feel more modern. Classic. Timeless. Unique. Here’s a mood board I put together for the dining room a few months ago.
Next time, I’ll share why we don’t have a traditional foyer or any porches. I’ll also walk you guys through my selections schedule and the order I use to make sure I’m not creating any delays for my contractor. It’s so important to stay 10 steps ahead to keep things moving.
Thanks for Reading!
Jennifer