Building our dream home/Part One-The plan
Part One-The Plan:
Wow! It’s been a LONG time since I sat down and wrote a blog post. But even though things have been crazy busy and don’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon-Â I always knew I’d come back to the blog. And I have.
Periodically to make some minor changes and update some old posts and photos.
Thankfully, during my absence, our wonderful readers new and old continue to visit us, leave comments, send emails, and shop our links and for this, we are immensely grateful.
One of the main reasons I left was I was given an amazing employment opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up. The other was time. I just didn’t have enough of it and frankly, I also wasn’t feeling very inspired.
After we sold our home there wasn’t a creative outlet anymore. We had moved to a rental temporarily and there was nothing to DIY. Honestly, I wasn’t even inspired to create recipes because we were just too busy focusing on fitting all the pieces together to start building our dream home.
finding land
Number one on our list was finding land. One might think this is probably the easiest part of building a home but not where we live. Even though we would have loved it, building a home out in the country was not an option. There are just too many rules and regulations in our county when it comes to septic and water and we just didn’t have the budget for what was required. But trying to find a good sized lot with the ‘country’ feel near where we were renting seemed an impossibility as well.
Then one day God said it was time and we FINALLY found land to build on!! It truly was everything we had hoped and prayed for and so much more.
Now that we finally had land to build on it was time to commit to a house plan.
Michael and I had started looking for house plans YEARS ago. We thought we had found the perfect one and then we’d change our minds and start all over again. I was seriously getting so frustrated because one minute I thought we had found THE ONE and the next I would catch Michael on his phone searching for new plans.
how to find the house plan of your dreams:
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House Plan Websites
The easiest and most fun way to find a house plan is by going to websites like Architectural Design.
This is the easiest way to find a house plan but it can also be the most overwhelming. With so many options it’s hard to choose just one and often you go away more frustrated than when you started. But it is a great way to start the long process of deciding what is important and what isn’t. Things like square footage, how many bedrooms and baths, and whether you want a front porch or pantry.
2. Tour spec or modular homes.
It’s hard to envision how a house is going to look by seeing it on a computer or paper.
There was a time when Michael and I seriously thought about building a modular home so we went to a local vendor and checked out how they are built and toured a few too. In the end, even though we were fascinated by the process we decided on stick build. But touring these homes became a HUGE way for us to gain ideas and inspiration for our home. For instance, it helped us decide on what square footage would work for us and it was WAY smaller than what we’d originally planned. BONUS:Â Many of these modular home companies hire designers to stage their homes. So not only can you see a home that is similar in style and square footage to what you want but many have showrooms that display all of the products they use so you can also get an idea of what products you want to use to design your home.
3. Walk your property
This was probably one of the most important steps for us in deciding on our house plan. Our property has an AMAZING view and we both knew that we wanted to wake up to it every morning. So our plan HAD to have the master bedroom on that side of the house. And we also wanted the kitchen and main living area to have that view as well. We also walked the property to see which side of the house the porch would be, and which way the garage would face. All key elements in picking THE ONE!
If you find the PERFECT house plan that requires NO changes you’re beyond lucky-but in most cases the plan will require some tweaking so be open-minded.
We loved everything about this plan, but even so, it wasn’t perfect.
The front porch was on the wrong side of the house for one. And the house had too many bump-outs, which as far as we were concerned was a waste of space and money. It also had a dormer which although aesthetically pleasing we both agreed was again a waste of money.
Which brings me to the last step in choosing your house plan…
4. Budget
Knowing there is a BIG difference between NEEDS and WANTS is very important when you’re working with a budget for new construction. With that being said, some things are non-negotiable. For Michael, it was his garage. For me, it was my pantry. Both required we make changes to the plans, which in turn made changes to a few other spaces, but we budgeted for the changes, and in the end, we both got what we wanted AND stayed within budget!
After months of tweaking and drawing up sketch after sketch, it was time to hire a professional to take our dream and bring it to life.
I’m not going to lie. When I saw the 1st set of drawings I cried. This was our home. This was what we’d been dreaming about for so many years.
We had our property. We had our plan and now it was time to begin our dream home.
Next up in the series: Part Two: The Design
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