Meet Amy Slaughter

We have a wonderful team of professionals helping me on this project including Cary Kipp of Kipp Flores Architectural Design Services, Slaughter House Design Services, Jim Donaldson, Superviser of Construction and ME, General Contractor...image that! Amy of Slaughter House Design is a blessing to me because a project of this size needs many eyes, ears, hands and feet. I couldn't possibly be in Fredericksburg night and day for 2 years while this home was being built, so Amy is my designer on the ground! She works with Cary, Jim and all the sub-contractors to be sure the overall design of the house completes my vision. She is one of the few ASID Interior Designers living in Fredericksburg so when Jim needs a question answered quickly, he calls Amy.

Now let me explain how wonderful this relationship is: she thinks like I do! We will be looking at soapstone, for instance, and after looking at many pieces of stone, we will both agree on the one we like best. In fact, it has become a game of sorts. I will not tell her my first choice until she tells me and it's ALWAYS the same...kinda spooky!...Naturally I think her taste is impeccable! Smiling...

The other wonderful gift of Amy is her sketches. She prefers to draw every detail herself. Cary did many basic sketches but Amy did all the interior wood cabinets, fireplaces, shelving, bath and kitchen design and even the iron work and door schedules. We worked together on lighting design, plumbing fixtures, hardware, placement of art and furniture, floor transitions and appliances. Unless you have built a home, it is hard to believe all that goes into this project and more importantly, the coordination of all that is selected so it indeed looks like the home I have invisioned.

So what is that "look" we are trying to achieve? I want a home that reflects all members of our family: warm, inviting, open, comfortable, casual and loving. ( that is, the family ideal, right?) The style is Hill Country Hacienda with a " dirt kicking", beer drinking, "boots on the coffee table" attitude. and DOGS ARE WELCOME!

...so this is what we have started inorder to make this Hacienda look like an old, warm structure with loving bones: We searched high and low and all over Canada and the USA for antique Pendleton blankets. Each casita has at least one we used to pull colors and develop a theme for the space. Remember we are trying to keep the naive American influence of this region in mind so the symbols, style and colors reflect this. We collected old gates from El Paso, Mexico and the Southwest for the privacy doors on the toilets. All the interior doors come from a source in El Paso who has helped us find antique wooden doors from all over the world. This will be our biggest challenge! Our poor trim carpender will have an individual door schedule for each interior door because they are all different! We also started collecting antique rugs from all over the world. These will be mixed with skins and hides for a colorful Hill Country look.