Saturday, March 17, 2012

Buiding a new home!


It’s official, we’re building our very own home from the ground up!

Here is the condensed story on how we got here.

My husband, Jeff, and I love to design and build new things. A few years ago, we had this grand idea of buying and fixing up an old home. I love old houses and the character they usually offer vs. new ‘cookie-cutter’ homes you see all over today. We found a ‘sound’ home that was anything but beautiful due to it being severely outdated, yet we had a grand vision and took the plunge, buying a home that would need to be redone from the ground up. Fast forward two years to May of 2011, and we had completed the renovation of the entire home, from the kitchen and living areas, to the bedrooms etc. Encompassing everything from new flooring and lighting, to new windows, heat and AC, to an entirely new and updated kitchen. 

Now, fast forward 3 weeks to Memorial Day 2011. I was offered an opportunity with my employer for a transfer to DFW along with a promotion. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse! Though we’d only been finished with the house for a couple of weeks, we put it on the market, and 2 weeks later we had sold the house and moved to Texas. This left us no time to find a new home here in DFW, so we ended up in an apartment with one goal in mind: get out of an apartment and into our dream home.

As of today, we’ve spent almost a year studying and researching neighborhoods, communities, homes, school districts, etc. We came to realize that to get what we wanted out of a home, and not have to spend 2 years renovating it, we would have to build a new home from the ground up. As much as we loved spending 2 years making our previous home into our dream home, we don’t ever want to do that much work again!

We’ve found a great builder, the perfect little corner lot ,in the perfect little new neighborhood, in a great part of town. We signed a contract with the builder last week. It doesn’t get much more exciting than that does it? Wait, yes it does. We got to pick out all our options yesterday like lighting, brick color, and other various add-on features. We also got the drawings from the architect yesterday giving us our first visualization  of the new home. On top of that, we expect to break ground in the coming weeks.

What has been, until recently, only a vision and a dream, has quickly become a reality, and Jeff and I could not be more excited!

6 comments:

  1. Jennifer that sounds exciting. Congratulations on building your dream home. I am moving to Justin this summer, which is located by the racetrack off of I-35. Where are you and your husband building in the metro? Once your house gets built you might think of adding some pictures, that would be very cool. To see the foundation to the finished project.

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    1. Thank you! I'm not very familiar with the area so I don't know where Justin is, but we will be the North Dallas area.

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  2. When I read about your promotion, I automatically said, "Figures." LOL. Funny how life changes so quickly and heads in directions you never see coming. I've built two houses in my life, the first one was a total learning experience. The biggest lesson, make sure you build in a good neighborhood. My second house was a much better experience, better neighborhood.

    Good luck on your new house. I hope it goes really well for you. Post some pictures, I'd like to see the progress. :)

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    1. Thank you! I will be posting pictures of the process along the way. I think it will be a great thing to look back on after its finished.

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  3. Thats really exciting!! Your experience with your first home sounds exactly like what me and my husband are going through as we speak. We have been renovating for about two years now and can se light at the end of the tunnel. There is always something to do though. Building a home from the ground up sounds perfect. That might be where we are headed in a few years :)

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    1. Oh yes, the light at the end of the tunnel is a good feeling! I hope you all enjoy it was it is all completed.

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