Remember this house?

I bought this house almost 2 years ago. TWO YEARS. I fell in love with it right away. It’s in the beautiful Coronado Historic District, the neighborhood we had just moved out of and loved. I’ve always had a soft spot for Spanish style homes, so I could not let this one go.

Like a week later, I found out I was pregnant. You know when you’re in a restaurant and you hear a server in the kitchen dropping a tray full of dishes on the floor? That was a picture of my life at that moment and the rest of the year. CRASH. Somewhere, some dummy starts clapping because he thinks he’s hilarious. (I worked in a restaurant too long.)

I had collaborated with a friend on the design originally (this friend’s design skill is way out of my league, let’s be real) so we originally had plans, but as it sat there, I think we both became discouraged about it. We decided to change directions and do away with the plans altogether, and this friend encouraged me to set out making it my own (thanks Joel, you’re a good guy).

So, this poor house I love has been sitting there. I decided to put it up for sale last year in hopes someone would take over the project since I just felt like every time I thought about it, I felt like a failure. I won’t draw the story out too long because that’s not the point of this.

THE POINT IS!

Our good friend, and Emmy® Award winner Justin Katz has decided to take on this project and I get to stay on as designer!! We are working with our other friend Justin Novak who is an amazing architect and designer, and I can’t wait to see what this group collaboration yields. And I’m excited to finally implement my new policy of only working with Justins.

We have finally been working on this long enough that it’s not just another false start - it’s REAL. Demo is almost done and everything! WE ARE REALLY DOING THIS HOUSE. I’m going to be sharing some of the process, inspiration, sources, hiccups, and updates. Here’s what I can tell you so far:

The house will be a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home.
It will have an outdoor living space of some kind.
This house is going to be BOMB AS FRICK.
We have already begun demo, and will begin the remodel and addition once plans are approved and permits are acquired!

Here is where we are today:

Thank you Justin Novak for these photos!

And then here was our jumping off point for the mood board as we are working to firm up the layout plans. This is just a general mood board I make at the start of a project to highlight features we like, colors, styles, and various other elements that we’d like to make notes of and consider including.

For instance, with this mood board, one thing that kept jumping out to me in my research of Spanish homes is tile floors. Tile is such a beautiful historic element in Spanish revival homes and true haciendas. Colorful, rich patterns feel like artwork on the floors, and against the southwestern whitewash and simplicity, it feels perfectly balanced. Bringing the history back into the home with a modern twist is something that is putting the passion in this project for all of us!

The original house is less than 1000 square feet, so we are adding a master suite addition and more living space to the floor plan. The lot is quite large so there will still be PLENTY of backyard even after the addition is in! I wish I could share more, but at the risk of jinxing EVERYTHING (professional designers cannot operate legally under a jinx, do your research, lots of jinx data out there), I’ll just have to share a little at a time.

Thanks for following along on this one! Any good hashtag suggestions for this project? I’m stumped!