PART 1: Our Home Build (June-October 2021)

So many of you know that we recently moved, but are usually shocked to hear that we BUILT our dream home! And while we never truly announced that to the world (mostly for privacy reasons), we thought it might be cool to bring you along on our recap of the process. So buckle up, because this one is a fast, furious, and sometimes bumpy ride!

When we found out we were pregnant with our sweet fourth babe, Ivan, the house we were in suddenly felt WAY too small. I mean, how were we supposed to fit two rambunctious boys, our sweet 1 year old daughter, AND a baby in this starter home we thought we would be out of 7 years prior to this point?? (Spoiler alert, we made it work, but more on that later.)

It was on our 11th anniversary that Joe and I took to the roads and drove around aimlessly, looking at lots for sale and dreaming of ways we could somehow turn our existing lot into a building site for a more spacious abode. Nothing seemed to fit. The land lots for sale were way out of our price range, and too close to other lots for our comfort. Our land that we owned seemed like our only feasible option, except for the fact that we weren't sure what to do with our old house, and we wouldn't make any money on a sale to put toward a new house.

So we prayed about it. A lot. We asked God to lead us in the direction we should go, even if that meant to make it work in the house we were in. It wasn't even a week later that He made it VERY clear to us where we were to go. And wouldn't you know it, the spot was less than a mile from where Joe grew up! After discussing details for the land, we officially made it our own and praised God for His guidance. We had a plot!

We quickly reached out to Joe's brothers, Jason (owner of Jason Tanking Construction in Lawrence) and Josh (Business Manager for JTC), and they graciously agreed to make this dream of ours into reality. Their architect met with us over email, and we provided him with our own drawing of what we wanted. He made it doable, and within a month, we had a plan of action! We also went to the bank and did a bunch of other financial planning stuff, but I won't bore you with that. It was happening!!! A month and a half before this we were feeling SO defeated, and now we were about to embark on this next chapter in our lives.

We officially broke ground mid-August. We had so many emotions, mostly joy, but a lot of unknown. Thankfully, we had the best contractor organizing our entire process to let us know what to do next and what to plan for coming up.

A week after we broke ground, we picked out cabinets. This was the hard part for me. Trying to envision what I wanted without even having a house to look at left me a little stressed out, but thanks to Pinterest and a trip to a pretty neat show room, we could sort of piece together what we thought we wanted.

A week into September, the forms were set and poured. It's amazing how much smaller it feels when you're just looking at the forms!

The kids loved climbing all of the rock piles!

The next week, the walls were set and poured, as well as our basement floor! Our tradition the entire home build was to drive out every Friday and have a pizza picnic, rain or shine! We would sit on the dirt in chairs and look at the progress made on our home. It was something we looked forward to every week! We eventually moved onto the basement floor once it was cured.

The rest of the month of September was filled with choices being made for trim, door jambs, and doors. (Again, another thing that was hard for me to imagine!)

Then at the end of September, we got our first shipment of wood for the framers! They quickly got the safe room enclosed, and had the basement exterior walls up just a few days into October!

It was at this point that Joe and I went and met Josh to pick out our LVT flooring, carpet, backsplash, and kitchen countertops.

After another weeks work, it was time to set the limestone retaining wall. Joe had a lot of great help and they were able to accomplish it all in a weekend, with a few minor additions as the dirt settled later on. Sweet Hannah watched from the family room window while her brothers cleaned up the floors inside.

The framers had the exterior upstairs walls up and the front porch posts and trusses set, and before we knew it, all sides were boarded up and this house was really beginning to look like home!

We chose a darker stain for our trim and doors. Our brick color was discovered by driving around Seneca and choosing a house that the brickers had previously done that we thought fit our style.

Mid-October brought our screened-in porch roof and the chimney for our fireplace to life!

Our doors and some of our windows were also delivered and set. Our stairs were installed, and brick was delivered.

October 23rd was a big day with our roof going on, and Joe was able to hook up the electricity so we had lights for the first time!

We spent a lot of time staining the boards that would one day be the ceiling to our covered porch.

Duct work was started, and electrical wiring began.

Click here for part 2!