The Mattila Family: June 2008

Many of you have asked for the MLS listing for pics on our new digs, however, we snatched it up before it went on the MLS so no pics but here is a run down of stats with pictures to boot.

Single Family Residence, Three levels.
3 Bedroom, 3.25 Bath
2380 sq/ft of living space
2840 sq/ft including garage and deck [400 sq/ft garage and 60 sq/ft deck]

1st Floor:
Family/Guest Room
Bath attached to the room accessible via the room or the hallway
Tile/Slate entry way from the main entrance
Two Car garage with storage. [Yes, TWO car garage WITH STORAGE!!!!]
[I say that emphatically because coming from 680sq/ft of current living space this is the frickin Taj Mahal]

Main Floor:
Great Room with gas fireplace
Kitchen
Deck off the living room

Top Floor:
Master Bedroom with 5 piece bath and walk-in closet
Two bedrooms with nice sized closets.
Common bathroom with full bath.
Full size washer and dryer [Yes, upstairs!!!!]

Some other highlights of the place;
- We're reconfiguring the kitchen a bit to make room for a larger center island with a prep sink.
- Adding a full hood above the range.
- Adding a spigot above the range for filling large pasta pots.
- Extending one side of counter space to include an under the counter wine/beverage fridge.
- Gas line to run out to the deck for a built in bbq.
- Granite slabs throughout the kitchen.
- Hardwoods throughout the kitchen.
- Berber carpet in the living room and the rest of the house.
- Wired for 5.1 surround sound in the living room.
- Hydronic radiant heat with tankless hot water. [Fancy terms for green efficient heating]
- Heated floors in the master bath.

So, to give you an idea, see if you can follow through the pics for a guided tour:

Obviously, this is the front of the house. The siding is pretty much complete, however, the colors have yet to be picked out. Looking at the house, the far upper left window is the master bedroom. The top right is going to be the nursery. The sliding glass doors is the deck that leads in to the living room. Over to the right is the kitchen window. The center of the house is the staircase with big windows for a lot of light. On the main floor, bottom left is the two car garage. Did I mention it's a two car garage? And on the right hand side is the main entrance with the guest bath and room.

This is the view as you walk directly in the main entrance. Straight ahead is the door to the guest room/computer room. You can see what appears to be electrical heating vents, however, if you look closer, you can see red and blue plastic tubing going in and out. Don't ask me how it works, all I know that it produces a crap load of heat for fraction of the cost, so I'm not complaining.

As you take your first step in, turn directly to your right and there is the lower level bathroom. It'll be sans jacket upon completion but the nice thing is is that the shower itself is a fiberglass bottom, however, it's tiled all the way up with travertine or some other tile Brandi decides upon for the flooring.

This is the view from the far corner looking at the entrance to the room and the entrance in to the bathroom. It's a huge room and when we decide to sell down the road, we'll build a closet where this picture perspective is coming from and we'll have a 4bd/3.25 bth home for resale.

Here is the front of the TWO CAR GARAGE. I know, I know. 'But Jinoo, you guys have only one car, why need a two car garage?' Uh, storage all. If you haven't noticed Brandi likes to decorate for all seasons which incurs a lot of, shall we say....stuff.

Leaving the first floor, you head up the stairs to the main floor. At the top of the stairs there's about 15feet from the stairs to the powder room and pantry. That's what you're looking at right here. To the right is the kitchen and to the left is the living room.

Here's the living room. Very wide open and that thing that's covered up is the fireplace. To the left of the fireplace is the sliding doors to the deck. This will be the main entertainment room where 5.1 surround sound will be wired in!

If you spin around you'll catch the kitchen. This is where the majority of the changes are coming in to place. As you can see, the back wall is where the sink will be. To the left of the sink will be the dishwasher and refrigerator. Next to the frig is the pantry and the powder room. Directly to the right of the sink will be a huge drawer for garbage. Both garbage and recycling. Where you see the metal box is where the venting is going in for the range. Along that wall is where we extended it out to accommodate about 30 inches of additional counter space for a wine/beverage fridge. The yellow wiring you see in the bottom of the pic is where the back end of the center island will be. We've expanded the center island so it's 72" wide and 60" long. If you consider the back of the island facing the sink, then to the left and front of the island will have 12" overhangs for sit up or stand up eating. And then kiddy corner from where the range is will be the prep sink handily next to the range for some serious cooking. Or baking. As you can see, I'm pretty excited about the kitchen. We've extended it out where we'll have about 8ft left for some sort of dining table if we decided to get one. We're definitely looking to entertain.

If you spin around again you head up the stairs to the top floor where the master, washer/dryer, common bathroom and two bedrooms are.

You can see through this wall in to our master. The nice thing is is that it has a large french double door for it's entrance. In the back corner is where the bath is and next to that is the walk-in closet.

At the top of the stairs directly in front is where the washer and dryer will be. Not a bad idea to have them on the same floor as the bedrooms where the clothes will be stored. Genius!

At the top of the stairs and directly to the right are the two bedrooms. The one on the far left will be Hannah's and the one directly across the hall from us will be the nursery. Yes, that means we'll be planning for another child, however, it doesn't mean anything just yet. And to the left of this pic is the common full bath just right of the washer and dryer.

So, there you have it....the guided tour for now. We'll be updating pics throughout the process. The tentative closing date is August 29th so that's just a little of 9 weeks away! We're pretty excited so we'll keep ya posted.