Decisions . . . A stage or loft space?

In our bonus room upstairs, we could do a stage area.
It could be a retreat area but still open to the rest of the bonus room.

The grey rectangle shows where the stage could be,
there are 3 black lines that show where we could have steps up to the space.
To the left of the stage area is a storage closet.

We got the inspiration from here:

Or we could raise the ceiling to part of the area and create a 4' tall loft space.

The loft space would be about 9 feet long and 7'9" deep or wide.

Underneath the loft would be about 6' from floor to the ceiling of the loft above.

The dimensions for this space are shown in the red line square up above.

It could look something like this:

Or another idea for the loft space is from design mom's loft.

We could potentially still have a stage area underneath the loft.

Opinions, please???
Should we just do a stage only
or create a little loft space that you would use a ladder to get to & a fire pole to slide down?

The beginning - Footings!

April 16th

Today it happened. They started on our new home.

Here's the builder's email, letting me know,

"Just a heads up, we are digging today and starting the foundation tomorrow."

We had a busy day, and as a family we weren't able to make it until dark to see it.
So no pictures, yet.
There are so many mixed emotions about the whole thing. YIKES!
Is this for real? Are we really doing this?

As I tried to wrap my head around the reality of the whole thing,
the boys attacked the dirt, and the huge hole and dirt mounds.

A good friend, said, get used to lots and lots of dirt and dirty boys as you build.
Be prepared with wipes and all kinds of dirt removing methods as you drive to and front the site.

Hmmmm. . .reality is sinking in.

Kitchen Countertops

My goal for the kitchen is to have a white kitchen without white cabinets.

Choosing white countertops will help me with this goal.

The white granite choices weren't working for me.

Then, I discovered white in quartz.

Quartz in the color Pearl was exactly what I was looking for.

It's much whiter in real life than this photo.

Plus, the price for this quartz could be under budget than what the builder allowed us for.

I was super excited about this choice today.