The idea to dismantle our koi pond and garden and build a house where the koi pond and garden used to be came to us as we left a party on November 7, 2015. In 2011 David and I downsized from a house that had 4,300 square feet of living space (and a 400 square foot garage in addition to that) to a much smaller house in the heart of Georgetown. Our current Georgetown house has two floors, each with 1,120 square feet, for a grand total of 2,240. Everything we need fits into it. Beyond being the perfect sized house for us now, it came with something that I longed for: a flat, vacant 4,000 square foot. It had a sidewalk on the street on one side and level alley access on the other side. It became the garden project of my dreams. While we realized it could have a house on it, we never planned on building anything more than a great yard.
Then we went to this party. The party was a joint effort of Joe and Kim who own JAS Design Build and two sisters who each had a home of their own before they decided to buy this little Wallingford bungalow and downsize into it together. JAS did the gut and remodel to the bungalow and the work was enchanting to David and me. We had such a nice time at this party: great cocktails, great food, cool glassware, all served up in a wonderfully designed space, perfect space. We spent most of the night taking each other aside and saying, “Hey did you notice the way . . . ” or “Take a look at the way they . . . ” or “This is how we should live, in smaller but higher quality space.”
We stayed at this party way longer than we planned to stay out that night and we took it all in. It was, in our minds, the perfect event. Mary and Melinda (the sisters) gathered fun, interesting people together and presented them with a wonderful spread in a great space. As David and I were closing the car doors and pulling away from the party, I looked at David and said, “Fuck. Now I want us to build a house.
And that’s how it all started.