New Home Sweet Home: how it all began and catching up

I have went back and forth with whether or not I would even have time to document this exciting little phase of our life, or if I should, but ultimately that's what this blog is all about. Documenting our story. I love going back and reading posts for the past 5+ years. The everyday, the details of pregnancy that slipped my mind, baby pics of Cade. Love having it all here. 

Also, I have always been so intrigued by the whole house building process...as well as absolutely CLUELESS. What do they even do first? Then second? Then next? Having never done it before, Chad and I know nothing about the process and were eager to learn more once we got started. I loved reading blogs of those who had built a new home or were in the middle of the process. Also HGTV shows like House of Bryan were so interesting to me. Everyone's process is different because everyone's home is different. (Just like with pregnancies I guess. No two are alike) However, for anyone is thinking about building soon, here's to learning more about the process along with us and seeing it all unfold.  (and for those who are house building experts, do not judge my terminology, because like I said...clueless over here. Also if this all bores you to no end, I completely understand - just skip it and proceed with your day. That's the wonderful thing about blogs - read at your own risk :)

Anyhoo, enough rambling. Here's a brief timeline of how our little house building journey began...

July 2013 - after nearly a year of indecisiveness, we finally bit the bullet and purchased a rural lot of 2.8 acres on the outskirts of small town Due West. We have neighbors to our left,  a row of trees behind us and trees + 100 acres beside us to our right owned by one of Chad's good buddies who also happens to be married to my second cousin. Small world. It was exactly the type of "lot" we wanted. Rural, yet still a little "neighborhood". A small lot to tend to, yet with plenty of privacy. Of course we began to think about house plans, heck I had been thinking of them since 2008 when we were first married. However, we just were never sure when the time would be exactly right.

November 2013 - Well, as most of you know, if you wait for the time to be "right", it never will be. We thought, "Aaah, what the heck? We're certainly not getting any younger and the years are flying by. Let's do this" and met with prospective builder. We've had friends before that contracted their houses out themselves, but we knew there was no way we could do that with me trying to run a business and Chad working 6 days a week. Oh and a toddler. Let's not forget that too. We began getting quotes on house plans we liked online before we actually purchased them.

Prospective builder would come back to us with quotes. We would then go pick out a smaller plan. True story.

December 29th - we decided that month on a perfect little stock plan, by Frank Betz. We noticed they were running a special for 10% off on his website if order before Dec 31st. Y'all know me and a good deal. It was our little extra kick in the booty to get ourselves in gear. Also good for us about the 10% off, because we knew we had to pay extra fees to 1. true reverse the plan 2. switch garage doors from front to side. Fun stuff, I tell ya. (Can you sense my sarcasm?) It was almost the perfect plan. Just needed a few tweaks. A one and a half story (bonus/bedroom upstairs we can finish later) around 1900 sq ft. I will say they were great to work with and let us go ahead and place our order before the 31st to get the 10% off then I think our modifications were complete around the middle of January.

February 2014 - We went back and forth as to what we should do. Start right away? Wait until later in the year? I've mentioned here before on the ol' blog that we are the worst at making big time decisions. Takes us forever. We talked to our builder (the one we decided to go with) and he was getting super busy looking forward at his Spring. We wanted to make sure we got on the list or we would be waiting even longer. Like, months longer just to get on the wait list. If we timed it right, we may have a "first of 2015" completion date. (friends of ours started building June 2013 with this same builder and moved in first weekend of Feb 14') I thought hey, that's the best time for me in my profession to do any kind of major life change. Calmest season for us is after the busy Christmas season. Yeah, now that I think about it...so that's why God planned Mr. Cade to arrive on Feb 3rd? (Big man upstairs knows what he's doing, doesn't he?) We also knew the interest rates wouldn't stay "too good to be true" for much longer, so we pounced.

March 2014 - Around the first of March we went to the bank and started the process. Oh, the process. Shoot me. (Just kidding, it wasn't that bad, but being self employed didn't make it any easier, I will say that. I thought I was going to have to cut off my left arm and give it to them)

......We waited......


.....held our breath.....


.....waited some more....

April 29th - Oh happy day. Closed on our construction loan. What a blessing!

.....then we waited some more....(remember, our builder is in high demand and we were on a little wait list. Totally fine with us because we knew we wanted him to be our builder)

May 29th - Official start! broke ground. graded off spot for house and the driveway.

June 3rd - foundation was completely dug out. Water line in place.

June 7th - finally made brick selection. this was an adventure. he ordered it on a friday.

June 9th - Monday brick arrived and they started laying block foundation.

June 10th - next day, started laying brick to see what looks like!!! Amazing. We could not be more pleased. Love it. They finished the back wall.

{ Brick: Scottsdale by General Shale //  {Messy} mortar: Savannah Ivory with white sand}

{There's going to be quite a bit to backfill here (I think that's what they call it?). They had to dig deep and built it up quite a bit since it was on a slope, but you can see where the two bay windows will be!}

June 19th - entire foundation almost finished. Cement block pillars placed in crawlspace for floor support. Temporary power was hooked up around this time too.

June 24th - realized they bricked a part of the garage where the side entry door should go. Oops.

June 25th - cut out place in brick for side entry door. Also began making middle garage pillar smaller so our garage doors could somehow be 9ft instead of 8ft. Off to a good start.

{not totally done cutting middle pillar down to size. Say hi to our sweet neighbors over there! Believe it or not, we also have friends building on the lot behind them. More friends who already live in front of them...then long time family friends half a mile down the street!}

June 26th - foundation completely finished. Hooray! Load of lumber ready to begin floor and framing.

Holy cow, this is getting real.

We could not be more excited and our hearts nearly burst with gratitude.
This is seriously a dream come true for us.
One we've dreamt of, worked hard for (and made plans and sacrifices for) nearly six years now.

God is so, so good.

"Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established!"

-Proverbs 16:3

(More updates to come...and I promise they won't be this lengthy. Framing should start tomorrow!)