Recently, I shared a sneak peek and a bit of our newest project and long time dream on our newsletter (sign up here and stay up to date!).
Long, long ago (around 2016), in a land far, far away (that is how Staten Island feels), my husband and I started planning our transition upstate. We both wanted to live in a place that offered more land, and I wanted to overhaul how I spent my days entirely. I worked in a corporate setting in New York City for years and enjoyed everything that living in the city that never sleeps had to offer. Although I liked my work and admired the company’s mission, the last couple of years took a physical and mental toll, a combination of working with an unpleasant supervisor and discovering that using my creativity in the form of design to help others was a mandatory function of my purpose.
After lots of personal preparation, tough conversations, and overcoming a little bit of fear, we finally made the transition. We settled in the Hudson Valley to discover what our new routine would look like both as a family, financially (very important) and find which areas we liked the best. The learning curve felt steep and took a little while, but we finally felt ready to embark on our next phase after more than four years.
This summer, we had the good fortune of coming across a lot whose size feels right, over 2 acres, and where we can build a modest home that will suit our needs. The house itself will be over 2,1oo sq ft which surprisingly many folks find rather small, but since it is only the hubs and I, and is double our current space, we feel confident that we will have plenty of room to grow. We spent a long time studying and understanding how families tend to utilize the areas in their homes and concluded that it did not make sense to purchase a home with so much square footage that we would have to heat and cool but would never actually use. We also love hanging out together and working in the same room, so this home’s layout will function to enhance how we already live without wasting an inch. If that wasn’t enough of a deterrent, the prices right now are insane, and we had no interest in purchasing a home that would put a halt to our lifestyle financially.
The house is designed as a modern craftsman with exterior details that are traditional to this wonderful architectural style. Our long-term goal is to include craftsman interior details throughout the house while making the space suit our tastes which lean more farmhouse and traditional. I am a slow decorator and like to purchase furniture and decor pieces whose classic style will outlast trends and whose function will adapt as we move about the space. As a result, this particular design project (dubbing it the #LPIHomestead) will move slowly, but I hope to take you all through each step, from design plans to the executions of each phase. Stay tuned for future blog posts of our walk-through, kitchen design plans, and which room we will address first.
If you have any questions, ask below, I’d love to share more!
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