The Truth | Building our home ~ The Good, Bad, & Ugly

Hey Y'all! As it turns out, building our home was not as glorious as one would think. I mean really. I thought the heavens would open and shine upon us. I thought I would hear angels singing. I thought we would be surrounded by rainbows... Here we are 1 year later! 1 year from the time we sat down with an architect with our plans, to now, living in our home. Whew! What an adventure!

The reality is, it sucked! Sorry. {Not sorry}. I want to share with you our story for 2 reasons. 1. Maybe, just maybe, this will help someone who reads this post. And 2. In the future we can look back at our experience and

I have to say, we are so blessed and grateful for being able to build our home. Truly, we are. I'm just keeping it real.

During the construction process there were things I experienced. It was similar to the bolt of lightening that struck one of our trees. HA! :)

Faith

Faith? I lost it. I found myself begging God to get me through the construction. Begging for it to be over. Not trusting in Him at all. In the beginning of construction we were so excited. Oh the possibilities were endless! I was so thankful for the opportunity, but when things started taking too long, I lost interest. I was sick of picking out floors, cabinets, faucets, etc. Honestly with all the hang ups towards the end, I thought this land/house must be cursed. Why is this happening to us? I know this is not a life or death situation, but it literally felt as if everything was against us. Shame on me for not keeping the faith. Everything happens in His time. All too often we expect God to deliver, but only on our terms, right? Stay focused and know He is with you wherever you go.

Finances

Staying on budget. What budget, right? When you are building your dream home the things you want are quite different from what you can afford. We first had to purchase our land. Once we closed on our land we were able to move forward with a construction loan. We also had to put our house on the market. Turns out it sold in 1 day! We took an offer that would allow us to rent back until our house was ready. Our goal was set for the end of March 2018, but we didn't get into our house until July 13th. Funny that day was a Friday, but we felt lucky. :) I'm getting to the financial part. I promise. I am one of those people who have to tell 5 stories before I get to the main story. HA! It's actually pretty annoying, but bare with me. Before construction even began we were carrying our current mortgage which was on a 10 year (means 2 payments per month), our land payment and now moving into another payment for construction. We then met with a builder or two and did some research. To have a contractor build our home we were going pay at least $100/sq ft at a minimum. We made the easy decision to have Kevin as our contractor. He bought the books. Took a class. Studied and studied. Bam! We have a contractor. (It wasn't that easy, but you get the point). We were able to build a 3,000 sq ft home for $80/sq ft. We saved $60K!!! Crazy! There are lots of other ways we saved during the building process. One of which is our kitchen. I will share those savings with you later. Be sure to sit down with your lender/bank to create your budget. Know what you want and can afford to spend in each line item. Whether it be roofing, lights, floor, appliances, etc. Once you have your budget in hand you are able to shop around and find the most for your money. Being able to make all of these decisions is one of the perks of being your own contractor. We bought everything ourselves.

Our half bath is one of my favorite rooms so far.

Everyone has a different experience. This just happens to be ours.

SNEAK PEAK

Hey y'all!

Found this while shopping yesterday.  

How cute is he?

I think it's gonna look great in the newly painted bathroom. EEK!

Winter projects continues

Hey y'all!

Remember this post from way back when? Well, it's time for a change, and to say bye bye to the monkeys. 

Apparently we love this gray by Sherwin Williams.  So far we have painted the hallway going into this bathroom and also the bathroom, and our office.  We are also painting Mason's room gray.

We decided to put the shelves back in the same spot after painting.  

 Now it's time to decorate.  Mason has decided he would like a seashell bathroom.  I agree. We love the the beach and what better way to bring it into our home. 

I found this artwork on houzz.com and of course my first thought is...  I can totally make those and they will look super cute in this bathroom.

I'm loving this crab!

 

 We have wood leftover from our deck project, so I am totally on board with another diy!  I mean how hard could it be, right?

I have a vision of white and navy with some accents of orange (per Mason's request).  Having a plan in mind seems to help me pick out items when I'm shopping.  Sometimes having a vision can go way wrong or I get disappointed afterwards if it doesn't turn out they way I had planned. 

I would like to have a display of seashells on these shelves.  Maybe a picture or two and I feel like I need something with some height.  

 

Obviously our monkey shower curtain must go.  I'm thinking a white shower curtain with maybe a stripe or two of navy. 

 

An oar would look really cool here, don't ya think?

HomeGoods here I come!

A little bit of color

Hey y'all!

Why is it that every January we're all scrambling around organizing and re-decorating? May be it's just me.  I had/have a list of "winter projects" and so far only 2 of them have been accomplished.  Well, 1 and a 1/2.  

We've lived in our home for 4 years now, so we felt it was time for a little bit of color.  Painting a room can make such a dramatic difference and make it feel so much more "homey". 

Off we go to Sherwin Williams!

These are two of the color swatches we picked out.  First up was the master bath. 

 We chose Raindrop for the master bath.  It turned out a little darker than I thought, but we do get a lot of natural light coming in from the window.   

 

I love to see comparison pictures. Especially side by side.  You can really see the difference.  I'm loving it already.  And now I need to replace that runner. 

Next up will be the master bedroom, but in the meantime, we started painting the office. 

The color we chose for the office is called Online (3rd one down from the top). Actually, we are painting the guest bathroom, and Monkey's bedroom this color as well.  I never realized how neutral gray can be.

This is a work in progress.  We have finished painted, but after it dried we noticed our brush marks.  Being OCD that we are, we will go back over some of the areas with a small roller.  The roller will hopefully give the wall texture and cover the brush marks. 

 

Stay tuned for more updates as I'm sure I'll HAVE to buy more decor accessories. See ya later!

Wasted space

Hey y'all!

How many of you live in your dream home? 

And how many of you are making your home a dream?

Well, dream or not, hubby and I (mainly me) are constantly changing or working on something. I'm not always looking for work to do, but I seem to always look for ways to organize or use all of what we have.  

We downsized 4 years ago into our current home and first I was in shock by the space we were limited too.  Now, however, we seem to have all that we need.  Sure I would love to have this, that, or the other, but I'm happy with what we have currently and we both love making our home comfortable.

Our kitchen could use more cabinets, so I thought this space next to the fridge would be perfect for a tall cabinet. Our pantry is behind the laundry room door and not very easy to access in the middle of cooking.  This new cabinet would be great for flour, sugar, spices, oils, etc. 

The tall cabinet could be as tall as the current cabinets and would look as if it were built in with the house. Hopefully the cabinet information is in our closing paperwork so we can match them up. 

The space above the cabinets is a complete waste.  Other than being able to decorate this space has no purpose.  I'm not sure if there is anything in the plans for this space.  I guess I could always add some baskets storing smaller items, but it wouldn't be easy to get things down as I need them and this space seems to get very dusty!

This next area is in our foyer.  I'm thinking a wall tree with a bench would be really neat.  We don't use the front door often.  Mostly go in and out through the garage door, but it would be nice for guests to come in and be able to hang their jacket. 

Just to get an idea, I found this one on wayfair.com.  Very cute and has lots of storage. I think the style with the cubbies would work as well.  

Guess we need to get busy!

Make room for hot tub

Hey y'all!  

We had absolutely no plans to purchase a hot tub, but sometimes you just can't pass up a good deal.  Well, "the deal" literally fell in our laps back in January.  We get the hot tub in the middle of winter which would have been great; however, it sat in our garage for about 3 months before we could move it out due to all of the snow we had this year.  

We thought about several different options on what to put under the hot tub. Concrete, pavers, etc. 

And so the construction begins...

 

We decided to add on to our current deck and have a lower deck area for the hot tub, grill, and extra sitting area.  Before we started the frame, we placed cinder blocks under where the hot tub will sit for extra support.

After lots of sweat, some blood, and a few tears, we are done! Well, for now. 

We love how it turned out! 

Perfect spot for the grill.

Plenty of room to walk around the hot tub.

Now we have a ton of space on our original deck which will be nice when entertaining.  

I'm not sure who is enjoying the hot tub more.  Us or monkey! 

Finally

Hey y'all!  It really is the little things in our family.  Well, this one is actually a 14' x 14' little thing!  HA!

After several years of waiting and talking about it and then moving and waiting and talking about it.....

 

Thank goodness!  The shed/man cave/barn/shop IS FINALLY here!

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as excited, but I think Kevin could have slept in that thing the first night!

The boys were so funny on Saturday!  

Waiting....  Waiting....

Mason was so excited about the BIG truck coming to delivery the 'fort'.  

I must say, I was pretty impressed with these guys.  They have definitely done this before.  I mean driving in our backyard...  I would have been sweatin' bullets!  YIKES!

Seriously, look at the size of the truck vs. the size of the building!

I do believe the driver made a 20 point turn before getting it set in place.  Well, maybe only 6 point or so!  

Next up was getting it in between two trees, which really wasn't a huge deal. 

 

Finally, we are headed in the right direction.  Backwards.... 

 

These two were on pins and needles.  I don't know who was more excited.

Mason was not going to miss a minute.  He kept inching closer and closer.  He had to know all of the details.  What, When, Why, & How!  Over and Over!  HA!

The guys did a great job setting everything in place and making sure the building was level.  

I'm so glad we left it up to the professionals.  And I know Kevin was glad.  So he could just relax and supervise!  

 

So there you have it!  Our long awaited journey to becoming a shed owner.  I think it's a must when you live in the country!