Well, the time has finally come! Jacob and I have planned to build a house on our property since the day we bought it. Originally it was a 7 year plan that would have us building after I graduated vet school. That grew to a loose 10ish year plan when we ended up in Ocala then started having babies. At that point we started the process, but it dragged out even farther when we couldn’t get the house plans to look like we wanted, then decided to pay off our mortgage. Finally we found another contractor and engineer and all the house plan issues were solved (after many, many months) and more money was saved. Exactly 13 years, 3 kids, 2 degrees, a few jobs, and 2 businesses later, we broke ground!
I’ll write some posts about the process along the way, but first I wanted to write something about what it means to me as well as show the plans. It’s so exciting!
Here are the things I’m looking forward to, in no particular order:
1. A mud room! How great will that be?! It is small, but it will still be great to have a place for our family’s stuff as we come and go.
2. A garbage disposal – yes, this is exciting to me, but perhaps not as exciting as a…
3. Dishwasher! And yes, I’ve been hand washing all this time and it’s starting to wear on me the more kids we have. (My whining embarrasses me a bit seeing as how I’m blessed to live in a place where running water is the norm!)
4. Space – oh, blessed space. Hopefully it will be as great as it sounds. And we can entertain without feeling claustrophobic.
5. A laundry room/workout space – it’s also small, but again, it will be nice to have a space for it rather than having the laundry area in a walkway of the main house and squeezing my treadmill in random spaces and never using it because it is too noisy to do when the kids nap.
6. A large pantry. It’s the simple things that make me happiest. Not having to move 10 things to get to one item in the back of the pantry will be bliss. (Again, I’m blessed to even have that much food!) On top of that I plan to wire it so that the light comes on when the door opens. I just think that’s cool!
7. A fireplace – so fun!
8. Multiple storage closets for EVERYTHING!
9. A screened in porch with an amazing view – I’m looking forward to many, many meals out there.
10. A loft with the same amazing view – just thinking about this space gives me peace. I’ve struggled to find a time and place to have quiet time since having kids. It seems they wake at any hint of a sound or light in the mornings. This house offers a few solutions to that, but the loft is where I hope to seek refuge.
11. Guest Room – the plans have an option of TWO large bonus rooms. We’ll probably only finish out one of them, but it will be so nice to be able to better accommodate guests again. Speaking of room for guests…
12. A dining room – our current set up leaves no space whatsoever for having even a single dinner guest, much less the kids we have. It won’t be an issue anymore!
13. Kitchen cabinet space – maybe, just maybe I’ll not groan inwardly at the thought of digging out my crock pot because I will no longer have to move all of my tupperware to do so.
14. Appliances that work correctly – ok, so we could have remedied this in our old house, but we kept anticipating building and didn’t want to buy something that wouldn’t work in the new place, so we kept limping along.
15. A foundation – it really is the simple things.
These are just a few of the things that make this new house feel dreamy. I could go on and on.
And here it is:
As I write this, building is fairly well underway. One thing Jacob and I are learning to reconcile in our minds is that what we imagined all these years may not be exactly how it looks in real life. It’s not that we aren't happy with the results (quite the opposite!), but we find ourselves frequently walking in it trying to grasp it despite the fact that we thought we knew how it would look and function. I just discovered today that my dresser can’t go in our room! But that’s ok because I was thinking of other plans for it anyway.
As mentioned, I recognize that so many people have so much less than we have and I do truly feel blessed to be building what we consider to be such a nice house. We have been blessed in so many ways to have had the home that we have had for the last 13 years, and have even enjoyed it, but it’s just not serving our needs anymore and is in some ways a detriment. We are hoping to use this new home for good and plan to be thankful for it daily.
1 comment:
So exciting!! I love looking at plans.. I have so many questions. You'll have to walk me through them one day, or maybe I can just wait to see it built at this point! I am amazed that you made it for 13 years without complaining with an expanding family in the space that you had.. and without a dishwasher!!! You definitely should enjoy all that that you've worked so hard for without feeling guilty :)
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