Our home is now complete, and I’m just enjoying every minute of living here. We are about 20 feet from the Long Island sound and the views are spectacular. The house dates from the 1920s and is small, but was designed so beautifully. It has huge windows overlooking the water views, and clean lines formed by the beams in the tall ceilings. My husband chose a beautiful piece of reclaimed beach wood that had sat on a California beaches for 20 years to form a counter height table for us to eat on. It looks like an art gallery when you walk in, and part of that is the amazing art that my friend Christina gave me.

Our house suffered a fire a year and a half ago, and since then renovating and handling insurance claims and moving our family three times hasn’t been the most relaxing. But I’m blessed that this renovation has given me a new room, some space which can multi-task as a playroom and art studio (and guest room). There is so much light and lovely breezes (especially this past week) and I really don’t feel like I’m actually in New York City.

My husband and I have become addicted to Grand Designs, it’s an Irish show but there are a few episodes up on Youtube. The one we watched a few nights ago was about a castle in Ireland where the owner didn’t engage an architect, so he kept changing his mind and knocking down walls which caused so many problems. Reminds me of the Frank Lloyd Wright quote “You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledgehammer on the construction site.” It’s something I still remind folks in terms of user experience all the time, and I wonder why it’s such a difficult concept still to this day for a lot of smart people.

Because we carefully planned this house, with a talented architect, we now have so many beautiful moments to enjoy. And we were able to have a ton of input and put our own mark on it. It was completely worth the time and the investment. So maybe in my industry we just need more websites that are like my house, so beautiful and easy and amazing that they completely change people’s lives.