The Beginning of Our Forever Home Story
It’s wild to think that my last post about the house was honestly when we first purchased our land.
…and now we have a full-on HOUSE sitting there in that exact space, coming together day by day and piece by piece.
Our build officially kicked off in October of 2023, a few weeks after closing, and it was the most exciting week to get the news from our builder and see the digging start to take place.
For about a month, we would visit every few days or so, watching as the progress of our basement moved along. We saw the house marked out with spray paint, then watched as the dirt hole appeared, followed by our crawl space, garage floor, basement walls, and the outline of the rest of our house.
But the truly surreal moment was the day the framers started their work.
Everyone warned us that framing moves quickly, so I had plans to sit in my car and watch the house quite literally come together, a wall at a time.
And I did.
We went out to watch the progress countless times over the course of a few days (although, it really only took the framers two or three days to pull the entire house together). Mila, my husband, and I sat in the back of our car with Sam’s Club pizza, watching their team create and lift wall after wall that eventually formed the structure of our house.
It was unreal.
Soon after, we ventured inside, exploring every room and feature with awe. For over two years, we only ever saw our home printed on paper, in the form of a floor plan.
Finally, we were experiencing it in person for the first time ever.
I loved being in the house at this stage, trying to fully take in the progress and reality of it. “So that’s what the playroom will look like,” and “ah, I understand that layout feature now,” I found myself thinking as I soaked in the magic of each nook and cranny.
A week later, the windows and exterior doors arrived for installation.
I find that as every new feature of the house gets installed, I first pull up to the house with nerves and uncertainty. “Did we make the right choice?”
But then, inevitably, I fall in love with the result, seeing each detail fall in place, moving the house closer to our vision of what we planned for months and years.
The windows are stunning and fit the style of the house beautifully.
Because we made so many of our design-related selections early in 2023, I didn’t think there would be much needed of us through this process.
As it turns out, there are still many decisions and steps along the way that need our sign-off or approval, edits to original design decisions we made or new tasks to check off the list.
But I love it.
I love the ongoing emails and communication with our builder (who, by the way, has been the most stellar partner through this process… we wouldn’t change a thing).
I love hearing that it’s time to select a fireplace tile or did we want to rethink a certain aspect in this space? Her patience and guidance has been a saving grace for us as newbies in the custom build process with basically NO real knowledge of the industry and only a clear vision for our future home.
I walked into the house another week later to see the archway of our coffee bar beautifully cut out of the wall — that was a feature I adored from the very beginning (both for aesthetics and functionality to have a viewpoint to the front door), and my obsession grew as I finally saw it in person.
Plumbing, HVAC, and electrical have all been there almost daily, working through every detail of the home. And we’ve been grateful that the weather has been so cooperative for a December, giving our team quite a few nice-ish days to move forward on their work without turning into ice cubes. Insulation is coming soon, and I’m sure that will make the process even more bearable.
The bricklayers also started about a week ago, bricking first in the back of the house near the basement well windows and working their way around. And my goodness… I’m more in love with the brick than when we even first chose it.
Is it odd I had the inclination to save a single brick from one of the pallets for our own memories and use? No idea what it would be used for, however, so I let it go. That particular brick will hold its own space on one our walls, I’m sure, and we’ll be able to see it every day.
One of our earliest requests of our architect was to incorporate a lot of texture in the exterior of the house design, so there’s certainly more to come — stone, shake siding, board and batten — to pull the full design of the exterior together.
Probably my favorite memory so far of this process was taking the girls inside the house for the first time. We carefully explored with them, showing them their bedrooms, the playroom, the living room where they’ll watch Daniel Tiger while I make coffee and breakfast on a Saturday morning. We brought permanent markers and wrote little prayers on the framing of some of the rooms… our little way of bringing His peace and love and safety into the walls of our home.
Our home is far from done and also so quickly making progress every week.
I’m sure there will be a time when we’re just ready to be in there, officially. But as of right now, we’re simply savoring the process and enjoying our final months in our current home. And looking forward to all that 2024 has in store. From our family to yours, wishing you a joyful, healthy, and peaceful year.
