Building a house from scratch is no easy task. It takes a lot of reflection, imagination, inspiration and mostly it takes a solid marriage, as it tends to open a can of warms.
When we sat down with our architect for the first time, he asked us to come up with a wishlist. It sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. The most challenging part is when you have two people, with different priorities, tastes, must haves and pet peeves, combined altogether with Los Angeles City’s size and shape restrictions.
Number one debate, after finding out that the garage counted towards the square footage is whether our cars get to have their own rooms, taking away from our family space or do they get to stay in a carport?
Another debate was over Marco getting a larger man cave than my kitchen?
Do we need a walk in closet that takes unnecessary square footage?
Our architect listened attentively to all our debates but warned that he can find lots of solutions, but will not be able to offer marriage counseling. Believe me when I say that the process if building a home tests ones patience and negotiation abilities.
There are so many things to consider, like storage to hide ones clutter especially when living with a type A person. Do we want more garden or more living space. Does each room get its own bathroom? Do we need a guest room or office, should our ceiling height be nine feet or ten feet?…and so on and so forth.
We would look at the plans with our wishlist, and keep adding more items and changing things around, after consulting with family and friends. Luckily we had a resourceful and patient architect, who kept going back to the drawing table for more options. It took several tries, but he did not lose hope; until we finally had all our requests and whims answered.
