We've been in our new house for about 18 months & I'm finally getting the itch to get my walls hung with art pieces I love.  I've been secretly pinning my favorite pieces onto a boad that is exclusive for my own home...tell me you do the same thing?  I've got furniture pieces, yard projects & paint colors my husband has no idea are coming his way.  Slowly but surely we'll get it done -- I'm in no rush, as I actually enjoy the process of mulling it over, finding pieces & then adding to it over time.  

Currently these are the art pieces I'm loving.  I don't have a ton of wall space in our house, so I'm being extra picky and thinking through each piece...but 2 of these are digital downloads for less than $15 so you can be sure I won't be hesitating on either of those.

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I've been spending a lot of time out at Eastmark working with a builder on a project & while I'm not launching that project today, I'm excited to show you a little of what Maracay is building out there. 

Eastmark is located on Ellsworth just south of Elliot.  It boasts good freeway access & major community amenities. Pools, splash pads & more parks than you can count.  Everytime I'm out there, I love it a little more.

Maracay has a handful of projects at Eastmark, but this one starts around $330k and goes to just over $400k & lots are big enough for a pool + yard space, but given the layout of the community, large lots aren't totally necessary in this community.

One thing I loved in this model were all of the fun light fixtures.  The one above, in the master, is lucite & was something I hadn't seen before.  Naturally, once I saw it, I had to find it.  Get it here.

One thing I'm loving that so many builders are doing right now are these big, huge sliding glass doors.  See them up there ^^^ They really allow for an indoor/outdoor living enviornment that is so perfect for our weather.  This is an upgrage you MOST definitely do WITH the builder.  Yes, in theory you could add it later, but sometimes the engineering for those openings is different and this qualifies as a 'structual' option and structual options are ones you always want to have the builder do.

Back to the light fixtures, the family room's light fixture was amazing as well, and I found similar ones here and here.

Tomorrow I'll be releasing new floorplans I've been helping to develop & I can't wait to show you! Is their a new development being built close to you?  Tell me about it so I can come see it.

I hesitate to make such a strong statement, but I've never been all that great at biting my tongue, so here goes:  This house is nearly perfect in every way.

In years past, I used to work for a local homebuilder & part of my job was editing & examining floorplans.  Were the bathrooms in the right spot.  Did the layout of the family room provide good furniture options?  Where was each light fixture going to go?  Is it livable, does it have a good flow & rhythm?  Needless to say, over the years, I became a little bit of a floorplan snob & its ugly head tends to rear itself more and more the bigger the house gets.

The problem with designing a big house (this one is close to 5,000 sq ft) on a big lot (over an acre) is that you have the curse of being able to include anything & everything, so you add this and then that & since you have the space how about another one of these?  You don't have to be creative or clever with where you put it, because you have more than enough space and as such there is the hazard of it becoming a hodge podge of excess.  We've all seen it, right?

This house? Well it had no such feeling.  That's the thing with homes, it's not the 'stuff' you're buying, it's the feeling.  And this, well, I tell you what, it felt a lot like home.  While big & expansive, it was warm & cozy, which is a huge compliment to the designers at Toll Brothers.

From cozy outdoor kitchens, to another appointed for a crowd, they really did think of everything.

If you're in the market for a new home, sign up here & we'll send you our top money-making reasons to work with a real estate agent on a new build project.  We'll give you a hint: there is more to negotiate than you think.  Just this week, we helped a friend shave $10,000 of the price of her new build home...and we're just getting started.

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