Taps, sinks, doors, door handles, skirting boards, floors, toilets, tiles, siding, roof colour, position of lights and light switches, wood stove and hearth, kitchen, appliances, tiles, bath tub, vanities, paint colour... what way the windows would open... I'm really proud of us that we got through that without a single scuffle or scrape. We just seemed to know what would work for us, and we each knew when the other had a bit more knowledge or passion about a particular detail, and let them go with it.
We were guided every step of the way by the wonderful team at Denim Homes. Stephanie, their interior designer was a delight to work with. She took the time to get to know our tastes, left us alone to make initial decisions, and steered us straight when she thought it was a decision we'd regret. She kept us sitting at the table until every tap and door knob was nailed down (not literally). She came out to the flooring showroom and helped us get the cork to match the bamboo to match the tiles. She zeroed in on perfect shades of grey for the paint work, and got the roof matching the windows matching the siding.
At this point the house is still just a concept, a drawing. I think I know what it's going to be like when it's built. I think we'll be happy with the decisions we've made, but I don't know for sure. I just take the time to imagine being there, in slow motion. I imagine driving up the driveway, and seeing the front door. I imagine reaching for the door handle, stepping into the airlock (yes, people, this house has an airlock! It's really just an entrance to the entrance, which helps keep the house warm in winter, and gives you somewhere to shake the snow off!). I imagine looking down the hall, looking up at the ceiling, walking down to the kitchen... There's only so much imagining I can do, but I think it's all going to be great when it's done.
It was a holiday of sorts, with a working rhythm to it. We stayed at our favourite Wolfville accommodation, perfectly named The Cottage in Wolfville. We'd wake up, make a breakfast of muesli, yogurt and the gorgeous local blueberres. We'd sip coffee in the sun for an hour, and read the online papers. Then we'd go to work. That might mean a trip to the bathroom showroom in Dartmouth, a meeting with Hillary and Caleb at Denim, an appointment with the bank, a cruise around the appliances at Sears, or a drive in the Valley to the fireplace showroom. We had our list for the day, and we dutifully ticked everything off it. We'd pop out to Fox Hill Cheese House for an ice cream if time allowed, we'd stop in at one of the grocery stores or supermarkets for our dinner supplies... unless it was Wednesday and we'd go to the Wolfville Farmers' Market instead. We'd come home, make dinner, eat outside. We might walk up to the land to check on what it was looking like at that time of day. Was it still sunny? Was there a breeze? We'd walk back to the cottage, go to bed exhausted and wake up and do it again.
It's strange being in a place that's going to be home, but isn't quite home yet. All the time on this trip I was trying to imagine living in Wolfville rather than visiting it. That's actually really hard to do. I've only ever been there in summer, and I know (from the weather web cams mostly) that it's not leafy green and warm all the time. It's going to be snowy and bloody cold a lot of the time. I don't know how to imagine that, as I've never lived anywhere like that before.
But this whole exercise is a bit of a mystery, so really the only option is to go with the flow, make the best decisions we can, and enjoy the ride.
The day before we left Wolfville, we got to see the bulldozer start flattening the building site. That was pretty exciting. Three years since we bought the land, we were finally seeing some action on the site. The best thing for me was to see how gorgeous the soil was under all that scrub and weeds. It was red and rich and crumbly, just like you want soil to be.
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