It's getting more "Real"

So a few days ago I started this really nice post about learning more about our house and comparing the committment you make to your home to the likes of entering into a relationship or marriage. It was all nice and good in my head - but I never finished it. So like any good gen Xer - I will just jump to the next thing and leave it for some day when I have more time to reflect.

The house plans seem to be getting more real by the second. On Saturday while I was off at "Jump Start January" (an all day scrapbooking event) with Jill and Amy, Steve was hanging out with the contractor who came over to draw up preliminary ideas for the house. And I do mean "hanging out" - I don't get the idea that they had nuts and beer, but I believe they were watching dog fights on the history channel while measuring in the living room.

In any case, the house has been measured! Along the way the confirmed my suspicions about our bedroom. There was at one time a fireplace in that room with a chimney that went through the house. It may in fact still be there. Closets were built on either side and it is possible they just covered it up to make it more of a bedroom.

On Sunday afternoon, we got a phone call from the contractor (let's call him Bob for sake of me continuing to type "the contractor" a million times). Bob had some rough plans for us to look at and wanted to get some guidance from us to see if he was headed in the right direction. I was in shock - I expected it to be at least a week before we heard from him again. In his words, "It's like a good book - once you start you can't put it down."

So we treked over and he walked us threw the existing and the potential new plans for both floors. I have opted not to show here since we already know some inital changes we want to discuss with him. Besides - it feels a little weird to put that out in cyberspace.

After discussion, a Portillo's dinner and me walking around the house with the drawings in hand - I have started to put together my list of "5 things" that are important/must haves in the house.

1. Re-use the built-in kitchen cabinet from upstairs. I love this cabinet. My original thought was to keep it upstairs as part of a laundry room. It just might not work as well - and if/when we redo the ktichen it would be so great to use it for it's original intent.
2. Reading room. Part of what we are debating right now is how many bedrooms do we need. Do they all need to be upstairs? I love the existing 2nd floor dining room as another family nook area for a couch, tv and a place for kids to play upstairs.
3. Full bath on 1st floor. As a follow on to #2 - we would like to have a bedroom downstairs (where the existing "little bedroom" is) for guests, extended family stay, or possibly a kid who doesn't want to share a big room upstairs. I also want it to have an entry from a hall (no more walking through a bedroom to go to the bathroom).
4. 2nd floor laundry room that is not part of a bathroom. One of our original ideas was to split the upstairs kitchen into a 2nd full bath and laundry room. Depending on how we divide the space - it may end up making more sense to put the laundry room as part of the existing dining room (thus encroaching on my reading room). This one is still not all clear in my head.
5. Toy room off of kids bedroom. Currently upstairs there is a small room (that was my grandpa's bedroom) which I think would be ideal for lots of shelves and toys. The idea of having a space for everything seems perfect to me.

So that's kind of where my head is at. Steve needs to come up with his top 5 as well. We then will take these ideas as well as a million questions back to Bob, so he can than fix up the plans. He will probably also fill us in on the pros and cons of our ideas.

We are still trying to get through to him - that we are more than ok with making a house that isn't "resellable". We aren't going anywhere and any future generations - well, they will be getting a free house...