I Can't Believe It // Life Update

So I guess it's about time I wrote a little life update, since it's been exactly 4 months since my last one. It seems like lately I've been being asked constantly how house hunting is going. Well you guys, I am so stinking excited, I am going to cut right to the chase, here goes...

WE'RE BUILDING A HOUSE!

I can't believe that I'm saying those words out loud, well, you know what I mean, typing them for the world to see at least ;) Our very own home, it's still seems unreal to me! I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity.

I guess I'll just start from the beginning. and tell you about our house hunting journey, and how we eventually ended up building.

Just a fair warning, this post is going to be a little long. I want to write this to document our journey and so we can look back at it one day.

The first week in October, Dale, Alan's dad became a licensed realtor. We planned on looking at a few homes as soon as Dale got his all powerful, get into any home, realtor key. So for the first time in months, Alan and I went online and started searching for homes that we might like. We found a couple and made plans to view them the next evening.

One house had everything we wanted, and we fell in love with it. So much so that we actually put an offer in on it the next morning. It was accepted and we had a closing date at the end of October! Everything happened so fast, it was crazy!

It was a beautiful brand new home, glowing with natural light, soaring ceilings, a kitchen island that went on and on, and it was right on a golf course. There was a view, a beautiful unobstructed view of the west, and the sunset. I really was in love, that was a dream of mine, to see the sunset from my living room.

This house seemed too good to be true, and guys, sometimes that's just what it is.

Thank goodness, we paid for a home inspection. There was a huge crack in the foundation and it was all the way down and all the way through to the bottom. There were also other cracks all around the foundation. Now I know that some cracks are normal, but that one was way to big, especially for a new construction home. There was a long list of minor problems with the house, as well as a list of pretty major problems, the cracks being the most concerning. We took some sound advise from our inspector and we walked away from that house, and that view. I'm not going to lie, we we're a little sad.

There was another house just down the street that was identical to the one we walked away from, so we went to check it out. We got under the house ourselves this time, and guess what? Another huge crack in the foundation in the exact same place as the other one! Seriously what are the odds? Something just didn't feel right, so we took that as a sign. We ran away from there and that builder as fast as we could.

We waited a couple days and found another house to go look at. It was another beautiful new construction home with all the bells and whistles and most importantly to Alan, it had a large 3 car garage. The house was full of storage, had an amazing kitchen, a walk in closet I always dreamed of, it was perfect, all except for the location. The backyard backed right up to a busy, and I mean busy road! If we could have picked that house up and moved it we would have. The builder seemed to be motivated and promised all sorts of things, but when it came right down to it, it just didn't work out and he rejected our offer. Seriously, another blessing in disguise.

So third times a charm, right?

A few days later I found an adorable home that really seemed just perfect. I thought, "this is the one." And then I remembered the golf course house and thought, "well that was also the one, so hold your horses and don't get too excited." We all jumped in the car and drove over to see it. Seriously have I mentioned how handy it is to have your dad as a realtor?

The house was beautiful. The location was ideal. I was in love. I thought I knew what "the one" felt like, but now I really knew. We didn't rush this time, we didn't even make an offer on it. We went back several times over the next few days really critiqued it. I loved almost everything. Yes, I'm picky. But this is a huge investment, if I'm not picky now, when is a better time?

As I was making a list of changes that I'd want to make, and discussing if we could even build it, the builders agent called Dale. She said that she noticed that we had viewed the property several times, six times to be exact, and she wanted to know what we though of it, and ultimately, wanted to know what our intentions were. We discussed how much we liked the house, but we weren't in a hurry right now, and there were too many changes we would want to make to the house. We told her we weren't going to put in an offer. And so we walked away from our dream house, again. But this time it felt different. I could not stop thinking about that house. I stopped looking because I just knew we end up building that house.

Sure enough, just couple days later, the builders agent called and suggested we meet with her and the builder and see what we could do. We discussed building the home we loved with all the changes we wanted. They made us an offer we couldn't refuse. The rest is history. We really never even considered building before then. We just assumed we would find something that we loved that was already built, and that would be that. But seriously, it's not that easy. Nothing ever is. Obviously.

The first thing we did was view a plot map and chose our lot.

Next we chose the floor plan. We picked the same floor plans the house that we went into and loved. Then we made our changes. We completely redesigned the master bathroom. We tweaked the kitchen. We added a few windows. We made this house our home.

Emails, phone calls, contracts, and signatures were flying around everywhere, and before we knew it, we signed off on our final blueprints and the builder sent off for building permits.

Eleven days later I met with my builder, the interior designer, and a group of professionals. Alan was working, so I brought my mom along for moral support. I choose our flooring, carpet, countertops, tile, backsplash, grout, cabinets, interior paint, exterior stone, and exterior paint. It was so much fun! I had a pretty good idea of what I liked, so everything came together pretty easily.

I am loving what I've picked out so far.

It was then when my builder surprised me and said that our foundation was poured! What the what??? That happened two weeks ahead of when I though we might start. I was so surprised. Well as I write this post a couple days later, I am still surprised! Thanks to the city, our plans were approved in record time, and our permits were issued without any complications. Just another little miracle for us that our foundation was able to be poured before the weather got too cold.

Of course I had to get over to our house as soon as I could so I could see this foundation. I had my mom take this picture, then I stopped by Alan's shop and had him look at all the finishes I choose for the house. This picture was the last one in my photos, so as he was scrolling through carpet samples and tiles, this popped up. He was just as surprised as I was!

I have stopped by a couple times to see the progress and see what going on.

Forms are off.

Gravel is being delivered.

Sewer and water lines are in.

I just can't wait to watch everything progress and change and eventually turn into our home.

I just cant say it enough, but our builder is amazing. We walked though several of his homes and his attention to detail and the quality of his homes are exceptional. And I kid you not, almost every time I have driven by our place to check on the progress, he has been there, checking things out. I LOVE that! I love that he cares. I love that he is looking out for us.

We were patient and things just fell into place. Once we stopped rushing into things, and having doors slammed in our face, things started to work out. We prayed and put things into God's hands, and then we received a blessing.

This is so exciting/scary/fun/stressful/amazing (insert any adjective), and we can not wait until we can move in! The count down is on and we could not be more excited to move in and continue or adventure in our new home!

We looked at that 1st house on the golf course October 4th, we signed off on our final blueprints November 4th. In exactly one month our lives changed and went in a direction we didn't expect. Honestly we weren't even planning on looking for anything until this spring. But now it looks like that will be about the time we are moving in!

In approximately 100 days and we will have our home sweet home <3

Thank you all so much for stopping by, and taking the time to read this life update. And thank you for you calls, texts, messages, and well wishes! You all are appreciated so very much <3

I'll keep you updated as things progress!