4 years in the making

I keep hoping for life to slow down. Someday.

But on Monday, we returned from California, and I jumped right back into the mix with a special focus on our Arrington Woods development.

This project is really coming along. Eleven home sites are spread across 90 acres of rolling wooded hills.

I'm so excited to see it continue to progress towards its final form. Sites keep being contracted, and homes keep being built.

A render of our Lot 1 build

The home we are building on Lot 1 is completely framed, and all the interior selections are being finalized and gut checked. Everything is on the line right now; each day, more of our design decisions become permanent.

Although it is not my home, it's very close to what my dream home would be if I were more of a baller. Someday.

It's U-shaped and built around a large central courtyard, which is currently a giant mud pit. We're finalizing the pool design now, but it will be long and skinny, and surrounded by trees, lounge areas, boulders, and decomposed granite paths with pavers.

Orange lines are the hypothetical pool

I love how symmetrical this home is. There are beautiful long sightlines with tons of natural light that connect the 3 main wings. We've got some really gorgeous tile and stone we're using, and we're also going to trim and accent many of our casing openings and built-ins with stained alder wood to create a natural warmth.

Incredible window package too, several corner windows, and they all line up nicely.

Some of the tile selections, we're doing big swaths of floors and walls in tonal textural tile. The color palette will be very tight, moody earth tones.

The stone we're using on some of the exterior and interior dual sided fireplace

I've had this idea for a courtyard garden home clad in wood and natural materials, surrounding a garden & skinny pool, for a long time. Many years.

Not long after we had finalized our plans, the Fryman Estate in Studio City popped up. I was totally enamored.

Sitting on Alex Trebek's former estate, the new structure, designed by Studio Rob Diaz, validated our vision of what we were trying to do with this house, albeit at a radically different size and price point.

So many pool areas today feel like parking lots of pavers with a pool in the middle. We want ours to feel lush, vibrant, and enclosed by nature. More of a garden than just a pool.

A rendering we've iterated on. Not too far from how it will look once landscaped.

The Lanai will have an outdoor fireplace and kitchen, and look out towards the pool.

Primary bath where we'll have two tiled-in sunken tubs that look out over the rolling natural terrain.

This has been 4 years in the making and certainly not an easy project.

But with persistence, the right direction, and the right people, it's amazing what can happen.

Boots on the ground.