Good-bye House

The Hampton "big house" all started with me being bored and intrigued one day. I had the thought, "what if we add a second level to our house?" So, I sat down with paper and started sketching. Our then-current house was a decent size, but there were aspects that just weren't functional for our family, mainly the family room/living room/kitchen areas. I ended up making house plans for a remodel, adding a second level, and re-arranging the ground level. I showed it to Eric, and we tweaked it a bit. We were quite interested in the prosepect of the new house, and thus it all began. A long story short, we "remodeled" our house. It ended up being quite more than our architect and engineer were aware of. We had to re-do the foundation, and we figured that while doing so, let's rip it all up, and add a basement. So our 2400 square foot house became a 6000 square foot house. It was our baby, all completed within 6 months from the time demo began. Eric made daily trips to the building site. I made daily choices about the interior. We tailored everything about the house to our wants, needs, and likes. It was our dream house.

We never imagined that less than three years from completion, that we would be moved out. It came as quite a hard decision to make to move. We had put our heart and soul into the house, but it was time to move on for our family. Thus, a new adventure began. This post is about the memories I have of the Hampton house and building it.

Kaylen's bedroom

I fell in love with the wainscotting and yellow paint.

The master bathroom - two sinks, a walk-in shower, and jacuzzi tub

The size was so much better than our previous 4' x 8' bathroom with one sink and no bathtub. We loved having the separate areas and not having to share sinks and cabinets.

Our movie room and game room

This was Eric's area. It was decorated Ohio State-style, with a red and gray walls. We had a football mural painted to go along with the other football decor. The game room became a popular place for big sports games. We had some parties where we watched the games on the big screen (that was on the gray wall). The air hockey and pool tables were enjoyed by many people.

My kitchen

Double oven, huge island, many cabinets. I love it! We got lots of compliments about the lights above the island - they were pretty cool. I loved the clear cabinet doors; it allowed for display of plates that I've collected when I've traveled. It was a pain getting all the cabinets right, though.

The backyard

This pine tree had been there since Eric was a kid. The kids enjoyed playing outside on the trampoline and artificial grass. It was good to get away from the psycho neighbor.

The library

This was a perfect room to kick back and relax in. My dad and I built the shelves, before we moved in, and before the power was turned on, 100 degree+ heat.

My workroom

I had designed the cabinet layout in here. There was a place for everything.

The front door

I had to have this door. Eric questioned spending the money on the door and sidelights, but allowed me to get them. They were beautiful.

The staircase

I picked out every aspect of the railing. We had difficulty getting the wood stained, it took about 3 months to actually get it how I wanted it.

The wood floor

I got samples of the wood floor, but still wasn't sure about color. So, when I drove to Utah, I visited the flooring store in Cedar City and picked out the color (taking the tile and carpet samples with me).



The house is still ours, but after having someone else live in it, I'm not sure I want to go back - it just won't be the same. I'm glad I'll have the memories of building it and the good times we had as a family there.