Truth be told, I had pretty much written off ever being able to build a home of our own. Maybe I'm a bit of a 'pessimist' like that, but the financial side of building a home seemed out of reach and I just thought we'd never go down that road. When it became clear that this was the path we were going to go down, we all became really excited!
We spent a lot of time driving through the neighborhood, looking at the lots, the progress of the model homes, etc. We made it part of our Friday Family Fun Night tradition - after our Friday activity, we headed to the neighborhood, usually with the kids already in their pajamas, and explored. I loved those Friday evenings at the site of our future home. Around Easter, the kids even took eggs and hid them in the grass to find. We definitely made some amazing memories during the time of our house being built.
I definitely won't lie though.... building our house was full of excitement and stress. We were the second contract in this neighborhood. It was all new to everyone, and it was quickly becoming popular, so they became busy, quickly.
The biggest stressor of the house building process was the lack of communication about how they were going to build our lot up before starting the slab. I could never get a clear vision of what our yard was going to end up looking like, but they kept telling me fill would be brought in and there would be a very gradual slope in the backyard.
Before drywall went up, the kids 'claimed' their rooms by writing their names on the plywood. They thought that was pretty cool. Just more ways to make memories through this whole process.
Look at the beautiful roof line! :)
On the day we did our pre-dry wall walk thru, we had Jacob, the superintendent at the time, take our first family photo in front of our house. I love it! Soon after, the drywall was complete and the kids were so excited to see their rooms.
It was an exciting day when we saw the brick going up. I'm in love with our brick! The designer may not have been a fan of our kitchen choices, but she did a great job when she recommended Arkansas Rose to us. It's gorgeous!
Slowly but surely, it all came together. We had some bumps along the way, but we didn't have any maker issues until the weeks prior to closing. I was so upset with how the yard was turning out. It wasn't as gradual of a slope as they made it seem, and it sounded like the drainage ditch running behind the house was going to be inside our fence line. It was a rough couple of weeks, and at one point, we thought we were going to have to walk away from it all. But, in the end, it all worked out pretty well. Yes, the yard is still sloped - not ideal, but it's doable. The drainage ditch isn't inside our fence line after all, and the size of the yard is great. In a neighborhood full of small lots, we are really fortunate to have such a great sized yard.
Unfortunately, we've heard that having issues with the building process has been pretty common in the neighborhood, so again, we feel pretty fortunate that most of the process was pretty enjoyable. We did close on the house with quite the punch list, and we actually just got everything 100% in the last week, five months after moving in. But, we're still so happy in this home, and absolutely love it. It's been perfect for us, and we're enjoying all the projects we've done. Next up...a home tour!
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