Owner Building Tips

Hi! 👋🏼 How are you doing? Did you survive back-to-school season? 😵‍💫 I feel like even if you don’t have kids, the hustle and bustle in the stores and in the streets really impacts everyone this time of year! If that’s not you then I am way jealous 😳 We are tryin’ real hard to make some new routines + schedules in our home and I am here for it (read: earlier bedtimes), but currently exhausted (read: also earlier wake up times). It is getting better each day, though! 🙂

Ok, let’s talk about owner building (AKA self building). I’ve done it twice now and have loved the process and loved being in control of my own project + design. However, it’s not all fun and games. It’s a monstrous undertaking; each time it has been a 2+ year commitment of time, money, patience, etc. But for me it has been an extremely satisfying and lucrative journey (the savings is FOR REAL 💰). If you’re considering taking it on, I’ve got 6 hot tips to get you going!

1. Have your land already picked out/ purchased and know where and how you want your home positioned on the land. This becomes really important when drawing up your plans and knowing where to place windows/doors. And, always know where the sunrises and sets in relation to your future home site.

2. Make sure you know your HOA requirements (if you are in an HOA) and your city/county requirements. Florida has lots of building regulations because we are right in the hurricane danger zone (boy do we know a little somethin’ about that ‘round here). I think it’s a good idea to set up a meeting at your building department and discuss what the requirements are. It also helps to get you on a first name basis with the folks that will be processing your permits and guiding you through the paperwork stages. Also, if you use a local building supply store for materials they will be well-versed in local codes and you won’t have that extra worry.

3. Before you purchase your land, I recommend that you find out the water, gas, and electric hookup situation. Are you going to have to run those lines yourself (usually the costs are pretty hefty and you may require neighbors permission if going across their property) or are they already on site? These can be make-or-break type issues, so don’t wait to find this out.

4. You can of course develop this in a way that works best for you, but I highly recommend a joint email account that receives all communication, bids, invoices, etc so that you and (whomever else) can both see all communication as it comes through. It really helps streamline information and cuts down on time spent just regurgitating duplicate info. Matt and I do this for our projects and it seems to work really well.

5. In that same vein, I recommend a shared google calendar. If you have a better calendar app, then by all means use that. Google is the easiest for us because we use our joint email through google and then have a calendar attached to that account. Man, it’s so nice to just add something to the calendar and know that we both can see it and know what’s going on. Organization and communication is KEY to project management.

6. PRO TIP: Have an experienced building consultant available. This is the secret sauce. If you don’t work in the construction industry (or maybe even if you do), pay a trusted + licensed contractor an hourly fee to be your consultant. There’s so many reasons to have this set up and in your back pocket, I don’t even have time to list them all here. Construction is a crazy roller coaster ride with so much money at stake. You will thank me later. You’re welcome.

Thank you SO much for being here with me! But guess what?!? My website is getting a makeover so while it’s down I will just be hanging out over on insta @summer_onthecoast

Come say hi and let’s talk home design in stories each day!

love love,

Let’s Talk Trim…

During the construction of our Florida coastal farmhouse I got so overwhelmed with design decisions. I think it’s pretty common with custom house building because every single last detail requires a decision. And it’s draining sometimes. When it came time to choosing our trim work I needed a guide; the options were endless. My research on trim and baseboard options yielded the 7% and 50% rules.

I was seeing homes on Pinterest and instagram that baseboards commonly ranged from 4 inches and up to 10 inches. I was like, “what the heck makes sense and is going to look good in my house?” I found that many designers use a 7% rule in deciding baseboard height, meaning the baseboard should be roughly 7% of total wall height for optimal scale and visual appeal. This was the concrete advice I was needing. The math was 7% of 120 inches (our walls are generally 10 ft tall except we do have a two story staircase and living room) which equals 8.4 inches. Therefore, we used 8” baseboards throughout our home. I love the way they frame our rooms, not too large that they detract and not so small that they get lost in decor.

Also, we chose a daily standard craftsman style trim design to frame our doors and windows. Using the 50% rule (trim should be 50% size of your baseboards) we did 4 inch trim around doors and windows with a large 8” header on top. If we had chosen picture frame trim design, for example, the math would be 4 inches on all sides. I hope that makes sense!

Of course the bottom line is that with anything in life (but especially building your own custom home), you can be creative and choose any size and style of trim design that suits your taste and budget! The rules serve more as a guide for people who desire to use them.

Thank you for being here and I always love to hear from you in comments, DMs, or emails 💚

Love and sunshine,

Summer

Current Cabinetry Palette

Happy, happy weekend! 💛 Memorial Day weekend was so busy that I am savoring just being lazy around the house in pjs. The kitchen is clean, the kids are playing nicely… What. A. Day. 🙌🏼😜

We still have some cabinetry we plan to add to our coastal farmhouse, some areas that we intend to change (the range hood… IYKYK 😑), and one room that I am considering re-painting the cabinets🤫. A home is really always a “work in progress", AMIRITE?!? Maybe it’s just me.

I wanted to share our current picks for cabinet colors. These are all original to when we moved in. If we make any changes, I’ll definitely do an update for ya. Keep in mind our home is built in Florida and faces west. We have mucho windows with TONS of natural light and most of these photos were taken in daytime lighting.

Here is our cabinetry color choies:

• Kitchen perimeter cabinetry: SW Pure White

• Kitchen Island: BM Hale Navy

• M Bath cabinetry: SW Pure White

• Laundry Room: SW Iron Ore

• Powder Bath: Minwax Special Walnut

• Kids Bath: SW Pure Bath

• Upstairs Bath: Minwax Special Walnut

I hope that helps if you are looking to make any paint/color decisions for your cabinetry. Do you have any current favorite cabinet paint colors? I’d really love to hear about them! Let me know in comments/DM/email. Thank you for being here with me!

Have a positively perfect week! ☀️