As many of you know, we bought a lot about 5 years ago with the intention of building our "forever house" (aka where we plan to live for a LONG time...possibly forever) sometime in the near future. After lots of prayer we feel like that time is NOW! (Or at least in the next couple of months). We have been working with our builder for a couple of months now and things are really progressing!
About two weeks ago our builders came over with our plans. They were all rolled up and when they unrolled them I got a little giddy and told everyone I had to take a picture! The boys were all laughing at me!
I know this will probably bore most of you, but I just want to document/remember every part of the process. We've been warned that building a house can be super stressful, and I know there are/will be those frustrating times...BUT...we are ready to take on the challenge and can't wait! Here's what has happened so far...
December - For the last three or four years I've off and on looked at house plans. I've drug my cousin Erika along to every model house in Dallas anytime we visit them. =) I've had ideas but never found that "perfect" plan. It's something we've prayed about for a long time. (We wanted the plan to be something that would work for our growing family now, and also be something that will work well when our kids are older and we are empty-nesters). God answered that prayer in a crazy way...back in December my sister called me and said she and Curt had been having fun looking at house plans online. She said "I'm sending you a link. I think you are going to like this. I think it has all the things you want." Well, I'll admit that I'm pretty picky so I didn't have super high hopes (sorry Linz) but when I looked at the plan I started crying. I seriously felt like God was saying "here is your house." It was like a mixture of being so excited at finally seeing a plan where EVERYTHING came together, and also just knowing that God totally provided that. I wouldn't probably ever have found that. HE DID. (Through Linz).
January - We had been thinking about which builder to go with and ultimately decided on our "team." It is a father/son team and I actually went to high-school with their son (he was a year ahead of me). The dad lives across from Ryan's parents and they have done work for Pam and Rick and several people we know. They have a great reputation and we are so excited to work with them!
February - We called them and set up an initial meeting. We showed them the online plan and talked about budget. We asked them to change a few things on the plan (actually, they FLAT-OUT TOLD me I had to change some things on the plan to stay within budget...HA!) and they said they would draw up the plans and we would meet in the next couple of months.
April - We felt like it was time to really get the ball rolling. We talked to the bank. We set up another meeting with the builders...and this was the exciting one. They brought the plans (see above picture) and we looked over every little thing. We knew there were still tweaks to be made (after they left and we had a week or so to "mull" it over, we talked to them about like 10 more little things to change...push a wall out here, change the closet doors to pocket doors here, etc...and asked them to not throw darts at our pictures! HA! They assured us this was a normal part of the planning process, thank the Lord).
As of right now, they are making those last few changes, working on the elevation drawings, and working up a pretty detailed bid/estimate. We will meet with them in the next couple of weeks to discuss their bid and then go from there. We are thinking they will break ground possibly in late summer.
It is definitely an exciting time. When we bought our lot several years ago, we drove out there all the time. We DREAMED about the future. It seemed SO FAR AWAY. We still drive out there all the time, and are excited about what is coming up. (I have to admit, one of the things I am so excited about is having a pantry to put things like canned goods and bags of chips...not having chip bags fall on my head when I open my cabinet drawers is going to be exciting! HA!)
From the very beginning we have tried to pray that, more than anything, our future home would be a place where people can come and tell that our family loves the Lord, that our ultimate goal is to love Him and honor Him with our lives. We pray that we would honor Him through this whole crazy process, and we are excited that the process is BEGINNING!
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