Welcome to our first post in the House Series! I am so excited to finally start this series. The idea came to me a few months back when I kept receiving so many questions regarding the house. So, in this series I will be sharing our process with you starting from the beginning, to along the way, and up to present day. The next few posts will be up each Thursday for a “throwback-lookback” blog post on what we’ve experienced in building our first home. With that being said, thank you to everyone that has followed and interacted with me over the past few months regarding this journey. I have received many kind words and relevant questions, and I wanted to start this series in order to help other families that were deciding on their first home. I wanted to help with understanding the process, and even giving a behind the scenes look for those that were interested in our project. During the process I have documented my jotted notes, change orders, and even some stressful moments. I know that when we started this endeavor, I read blog after blog and watched video after video but somehow managed to still get blindsided on a few things. Overall, this experience has had many emotions, overwhelming excitement included. Hopefully our experience will help, inspire, excite, and make you feel as if you are on the journey with us. Let the craziness begin!

When I was pregnant, Jacob and I only looked at apartments. Being fresh out of college and in our early 20’s, our budget was not the biggest. We settled down in an apartment with one bedroom on the third floor in an okay neighborhood. Since then, I had been constantly looking at houses as the time passed. With my best friend living down the road from me and renting a house, we often found ourselves looking for our future homes together. With eighteen months gone by and our lease coming to an end, we had finally built up the confidence and savings to see what was out there. We drove by many houses and through many neighborhoods with some near Jacob’s work and some not so close. With us currently living 15-20 minuets away, he’s just excited to be living in the same town. Although there were many beautiful homes, I personally could not fall in love with them. Even looking at homes higher than our budget allowed, we still felt like something was missing. Not finding our perfect home, we sought other options. Then, we were attracted to this builder that was about 5-8 minuets from Jacob’s work. After browsing the open lots, floor plans, and of course praying, we had a big decision to make. Three weeks later, we revisited that builder and put down the earnest money. Sold, let’s start building!

This photo was taken on July 21, 2017. On this day we signed papers, picked out a floor plan, and scheduled our next meeting which involved the color selections.

There were many floor plan options. Staying within our budget, we narrowed it down to two choices. We could go with the bigger floor plan and less upgrades, or the smaller floor plan with much more upgrades. Beginning the process, I went in with the thought of finding our perfect home. And being honest, we didn’t need a huge house. We obviously hope to be there one day, with the biggest floor plan and unlimited upgrades. But as our first home, we feel more than perfect in choosing the smallest floor plan with the most upgrades. And that is exactly what we did. It truly had to have been the best fit for our family. We wanted a living space that really felt like home, which is the biggest blessing after all.

We chose the smallest floor plan offered. It has 3 bedrooms with a study and 2 bathrooms coming to a total of 2,027 square feet. It’s a lot more than our current one bedroom apartment which is a total of 700 square feet. I don’t think Jermaine is going to know what to do with himself in all that house. What sold us on choosing the smaller floor plan was being able to make more of our own personal changes.

 

Some of the changes involved turning the formal dining room into a playroom, and making the 4th bedroom into an office. As soon as you walk into the foyer, you will see two rooms on each side. To the left will be the play room (was formal dining) and to the right will be the office (was the 4th bedroom). We made these changes for a better fit to our family. That way, we all will have a room to enjoy and are not constantly on top of each other. I also wanted barn doors on each side, so we had them close-in the walls a little bit more so they could fit. Passing through the foyer, you will come into the family room being on the right with the kitchen and breakfast nook on your left. I spend most of my day in the kitchen, so I could not wait to get my hands on that beautiful masterpiece. The only change that I made to the blueprint of the kitchen was removing a wall and putting in a California island, keeping an open floor plan. For the master bathroom, we wanted a drop pan with bench seating in the shower. The last change to the blueprint was an extra sink for the second bathroom. With this change, we had to push back the wall, making it even with the bath. This change also made the closet in the office smaller. Adding 6 more feet to the covered patio in the backyard was the last change.

That wraps it up for the first post in the House Series. I’m so glad that I was able to share our decision making process and blueprint with you. The next post will be about the color selections meeting and will include photos of our final decision. If you enjoyed this or have any questions, let me know!