sunset magazine

My dad gave me a subscription to Sunset magazine for Christmas this year and it's become one of my new favorites. Although it's targeted at people who live out West, I really love the home and food features. My dream (pipe dream?) is to eventually enlarge our little bungalow by adding a second story. Many of the homes featured in Sunset are older, small bungalows like ours, transformed into larger, more modern spaces and I've been collecting images that catch my eye.

In no particular order, here three home upgrades I've been dreaming about. All images from Sunset.

1.) Tile the shower in the upstairs bathroom - *drool*. Those blue Heath Ceramics tiles are insanely gorgeous. They're also insanely expensive. But what bang for your buck. We need to do something soon about the janky, gross shower stall currently in our bathroom and replacing it with something like this would be dreamy.



I mean, these tiles are so cool they even have their own movie.

http://youtu.be/gNCPygFbHGI

2.) Build a stone patio - At some point I would like to build a stone patio on the top-level of our backyard, which is currently grass. Ours would be a little more free-form than this one, but the intention is to better define an area of the backyard that would serve as an extended living space in warm weather months. I'd also like to enlarge our deck and, if space allows, build bench seating along the exterior of our home, kind of like this patio has but out of wood instead of stone.



3.) Enlarge our kitchen - This is the real humdinger. Because of the layout of our home, any kitchen expansion could only happen if we build that mythical second story and move the bedrooms upstairs, which would be a crazy humongous job. But, if I just happen to win the lottery tomorrow or discover a magic genie who grants me three wishes, you better believe I'd build that sucker in a heartbeat and turn half of the downstairs into an open living/kitchen area. I like the more formal dining area in the top picture, but that cute little Saarinen table and cozy bench seating works for me too.