Well, hello. It’s been nearly 3.5 years since we wrote a blog post but hey…we’ve basically been snowed in for the last two weeks so why not?
The hiatus wasn’t exactly intentional. It just sort of happened. We were doing less work on the house, I had less time to blog and, like many others, I was starting to lament how the blogosphere (is that even still a real term?) was changing. We also started to feel differently about privacy and how we included our kids in the posts. (Although I still post regularly to Instagram, I opted to make my account private a few years ago.) Finally, it was starting to get to a point where we needed to get creative about content and that didn’t feel very genuine either.
But we didn’t shut things down. We just accidentally ghosted?
So, what’s changed since 2015?
For starters, we now have three kids! The girls are now 6 and 4 and we had a baby boy in September 2017!
A few months after Arlo was born, we also lost Bailey to cancer. It was unexpected and devastating, as he’d been such an important part of lives for those 12 years. It has taken a long time to grieve his loss, although we feel that we are getting closer to adding a new dog back into our lives.
In 2017/2018, we remodeled our old garage/carport into the Studio Zerbey workshop + office! We’ve been working out of the new space since last year which has been a welcome change from the loft! The interiors are 99% done so we hope to do a little photo shoot soon and share how the space turned out.
We’ve made minor changes to our house, including painting it an ever darker and moodier color in 2017 (goodbye white trim!). And yes, we have three kids in our small house. (But where do you put them??) True, it often feels cozy…but it has also forced us to continuously evaluate and rethink the stuff we own and how we use our space. Is this our forever home? Probably not, but we are focused on making the most of it right now.
Things that haven’t changed?
Well, we’re still not quite done with the house remodel. The basement bathroom and laundry room has been back-burnered in order to finish the office space (which naturally took longer than anticipated) but now that that’s done we plan on directing our efforts for that one last push. Or maybe last push? We also have (eventual) plans to add a small addition off the back that would include a powder room and mudroom space. We would then convert the existing bathroom on the main floor into a “master” bath, accessible only from our room. And then after that I suppose we start redoing the first projects we did? I had a realization the other day that our dishwasher is almost 13 years old (love that Bosch workhorse!), which means that’s how long we’ve lived in our house. WHAT?
We’ve continued to grow Studio Zerbey as well. Our website was redesigned last year and we’ve completed many new projects. We also have an Instagram account for SZ (studiozerbeyarchitects) but it doesn’t get updated super often. Projects typically take years to complete from the initial meeting through construction, which doesn’t necessarily lend itself to regular social media content. That said, we’re brainstorming ways to contribute more to our feed while still being interesting and authentic.
We’ll be celebrating 7 years of self-employment this summer! It’s still just Kyle and me although we have space in our new digs for a couple of employees once the timing makes sense. Our focus continues to be custom homes and remodels in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The Seattle housing market has continued to thrive the last few years as more people move into the city. Some of our clients have been newcomers to Seattle, others have been families who have been here for awhile but are trying to make their house grow with them, seeking creative solutions in a market that can make “buying up” challenging. A few of our recent remodels include a whole house renovation in Ballard, a new kitchen in the Madrona neighborhood and several others that are still in the works. Our custom homes are spread across the region. In addition to our Alaska Surf Shack, we have a project beginning construction in Hawaii and one that recently finished up in Northern CA. We’ve also continued to do work in the Suncadia development east of Seattle. Our Wing House project is also under construction and our Nelson Preserve Family Retreat wrapped up last year. In 2018 we also saw the completion of our Kingston Beach House, which had a completely different set of design challenges being on a shoreline property.
So where do we go from here with the ol’ blog? I’m not actually sure. But it does feel good to write again. We’ve debated creating a separate blog for Studio Zerbey – a space where we can delve deeper into certain areas or simply talk more about what it’s like to work with an architect and go through the process of remodeling or building a house. This also feels like one more thing to manage. So maybe we do both here? Maybe this tiny little pocket of the internet could be a place to speak authentically and openly about everything we care about – our house, design, the business of architecture, dogs (SOON!?) and how our kids are fairing with two architect parents. (I mean, did you see that hot cocoa stand??)
What do you think? The motivation to keep a blog is certainly greater when you know there’s a community that’s interested in what you have to say. I’m guilty of leaning more on microblogging (aka Instagram) these last few years but maybe things are starting to swing back in the other direction?