Lee Roi - What's with the name?
Our house plan was inspired by this house. Its real name is Ancient Modern, but we originally didn't know that. We nicknamed it the "LeRoy house" after the name of the designer.
Of course this is a mansion... our house will be it's baby cousin from Alabama. However, what we loved about this house is its:
Genesis 16:13
"Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”[a] She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”"
This is one of my favorites, because its such a great reminder when you feel forgotten, looked over or unappreciated. God sees you.
"We need to realize that just as God saw Hagar, He sees us AND He sees our struggles.
- Classic design
- Timeless features
- one-level look
Before we started designing our plan, we had a few things that were "musts"...
No stairs... no basement, no second story, no stairs ...period.
Along with the no stairs policy...Main Level Entertaining. At our last home, because we had a basement, our pool and entertainment space was a climb downstairs from our kitchen and back porch. So, get-togethers were spent running up and down the stairs. Most adults stayed upstairs while children and a few moms had the duty of being downstairs near the pool. We also had a theatre room and bar area in our basement that had the same problem. No one wanted to go downstairs. The men would go downstairs sometimes, but then the party was divided.. part in the basement and part upstairs in the kitchen. We wished for a giant entertainment space... all on one level, that flows from inside to outside...front porch to back.
Low Maintenance...we wanted a home with vinyl windows so that we would have little maintenance and up keep. We want a house that doesn't require to be painted every 5 years.
We want tile flooring so that water, dogs, and furniture can't damage it!
We want a big laundry room to be located near the master closet and the mudroom.
NO FORMAL DINING ROOM... In our previous houses, the dining room has been a total waste of space. At our last home, I seriously considered making the dining room into a huge laundry room. We have get-togethers all the time, and no one wants to eat in the dining room. A few would eat in there, but everyone preferred to stay together in the kitchen. So we knew that we wanted our house plan to fix this problem. Our kitchen, dining room, and living room will be one big room. There is no breakfast area.... no separate eating rooms!
The combined issues of multiple levels, and the separate dining areas led to us standing and eating a lot! I had a friend build a nice outdoor table for us to use on the back porch. When the weather was nice, I would be so happy to see everyone sitting and eating together.
We knew that our dream would be to have everyone together whether we were all inside or outside... or even in close proximity if we were using both!
Our last home had a SUPER nice built-in in the living room. This was the most functional thing I've ever had in a home. It was an office, a craft closet, filing center, and more. It even held our printer and had a pull out desk. But when you closed all the doors, all the clutter was hidden. BRILLIANT! We knew that we had to have this in our next home.. somehow, some way... We decided that we wouldn't want it in the living room, but where we decided to put it is perfect. We are calling it "The Planning Area".
At our last house, our upstairs was HUGE, like, almost as big as the main floor. My kids had their own apartment upstairs. A playroom which was the size of the living room downstairs, three bedrooms, and their own bathrooms. They could go up there and disappear. I knew that our house plan would include a floor plan where I can easily have an eye on my little ducklings.
Lastly, although, I want to take away a lot of the extra space that my kids had at the last house, I still would like a space for them to go, if I do want them to do their own thing. So, we created the den on our house plan. It is on the master wing of the house, so it's still an ear-shot away from my bedroom and kitchen. It's also very close to the laundry room, so I imagine my 2:00 coffee/laundry hour being in the den!
So, we took all of these "musts" plus some floor plans insp.'s from pinterest to Clem Burch. Here are the two plans we used to inspire our custom home plan.
We brought our ideas to Clem Burch and he put them all together perfectly. Well, almost... We moved onto the property and realized a few things needed to be changed. We made changes after considering the sun's direction, certain viewpoints, driveway placement, and the need for a mudroom. We have a lot of DIRT and MUD to deal with, so we have appreciated our current mudroom.
We finalized our house plans and started meeting with contractors! Our plan is uniquely us and I cannot wait to see it in real life.
So finally, the name...
We had nicknamed the house LeRoy because of the designer. And of course, our last name is Lee.
Also, one of my favorite names of God is El Roi.
"Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”[a] She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”"
This is one of my favorites, because its such a great reminder when you feel forgotten, looked over or unappreciated. God sees you.
"We need to realize that just as God saw Hagar, He sees us AND He sees our struggles.
He sees us struggling to hold our tongue when our children aren't behaving properly.
He sees us burdened with the schedules, busyness, and pressures of life.
He sees our resentment when we've been hurt again and again.
He sees our pain when we are waiting for that breakthrough.
He sees our frustration when we lack self-control with food, commitments, or our words.
He sees our despair when marriages become lonely, when energy is focused on our children or hobbies and not one another.
He sees us burdened with the schedules, busyness, and pressures of life.
He sees our resentment when we've been hurt again and again.
He sees our pain when we are waiting for that breakthrough.
He sees our frustration when we lack self-control with food, commitments, or our words.
He sees our despair when marriages become lonely, when energy is focused on our children or hobbies and not one another.
French writer, Paul Claudel, wrote, “Christ did not come to do away with suffering; He did not come to explain it; He came to fill it with His presence.” My friends, take courage, He Sees Us."
So when I started considering a name for our home/farmette.... calling it Lee Roi made me smile. He sees me. He sees my family. He sees my home. Why yes, I'd love to call our home the Lee Roi.
We decided to call it a farmette instead of a farm, because the truth is... we're really city slickers. We bred golden doodles last fall, and it was such an amazing experience that I don't regret. However, I don't think we will do it again for a while. I have 7 hens and 2 roosters. I have no idea what I am doing. I love it and I'm learning, but I have no experience and I consider myself a google chicken expert. I have a 4ft by 4ft garden that is doing well, but it barely makes enough for my own family. Definitely not enough to keep us from buying produce at the grocery. So to call it a farm seems a little silly.
So.. The Lee Roi Farmette it is...
"Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails."
Proverbs 19:21
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