Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Warning--totally long post today! 

I've noticed lately that when we tell someone we are in the process of building of a house we usually get one of two reactions.
1) Oh, that's so fun! It must be so exciting to make all the selections and plan everything! OR
2) I could never build a house.  Making all those selections is so daunting.  I'd be so worried it wouldn't look right or I'd mess something up. It's just so many decisions.

While mostly I feel like #1, sometimes a sliver of anxiety works it way into my thoughts and I panic, feeling like #2 (is that door in the right place? should we add a window there?), so I really can relate to both perspectives.  In keeping to the true intention of this blog (that it serves as a record of the building process since last time we didn't have one), here's my take on all this decision making.

Let's rewind back to December (ah, that should feel good on a 100 degree day!) when this whole thing started. 

So much colder back in December! Cold enough for 10-year-old boys to play snow football!

Eric said to me for the bazillionth time "I sure would love to live right by the golf course.  I could just jump on the course and play a few holes in the evenings." For some crazy reason, on that bazillionth time, I told him I'd consider it.  However, I was very clear that I didn't want to build a house again--it was entirely too much work.  I even explained that to our realtor.  No building-no way, no how.  Are you laughing at me now?  I am:)

Too much work! Not doing this again!

So, we looked at existing houses and came to the realization that if we were to buy existing, we'd need to remodel for any house to fit our needs.  It just made sense at that point to build since we'd spend about the same amount of money as buying, but end up with exactly what we wanted in all parts of the house.  And so the first decision was made (well, technically the second--the first was to actually move).

At that point, I thought we'd made the hardest decisions (should we move or not? should we build or buy?), but I was wrong! The next step was determining a floor plan and a builder.  This is where our local (twin cities area) Parade of Homes came to the rescue.

This baby is pretty dog-eared from all the pages we marked to guide us through the tour.

We toured over 40 homes, meeting with several builders along the way.  We already knew some of the big box builders wouldn't work (they only build in developments they own and we needed a builder for our golf course lot). While touring these homes, we discovered that we had a really difficult time finding a floor plan that fit our needs.  There were parts of homes that worked for us, but we'd always end up needing to make humongous (read, spendy) changes to the design.  We decided a custom floor plan was the way to go, which eliminated a few more builders.

Amazing kitchen but waaay out of our price range.

Love this middle island but not the tiny dining area

Super cool loft, but uncool kitchen

If you're a 6 year old girl, nothing beats this room!

At this point, we had it narrowed down to 3 custom builders, and a couple of working floor plans. In researching these builders, we learned our top choice turned out to have a checkered past.  The same family had owned another construction company, which had gone under, taking down some customers with them.  Pass.

Then we were down to 2, which ended up being one of the hardest decisions of all in the process.  These older posts review the process we went through to choose between the 2 options:
A Tale of Two Builders
Builder Decisions
So, we ended up with Johnson-Reiland Builders (aka JRB) and another decision was taken care of.  Check.

 

Next we had to decide on a final floor plan. We met with JBR's draftsman and checked that baby off the list, too. If you haven't seen it yet, you can check it out here.

That pretty much brings us to where we are now.  Oh, wait! During the whole choosing-a-builder/choosing-a-floor-plan thing, there was also the choosing-a-lot thing.  We did go and walk the lots that were in our price range with a realtor to help us really get a feel for each lot we were considering and that, in turn, helped us decide on this beauty. Another decision taken care of. Check.

Our lot on the Lane--we chose this one because it's so deep and we'll have a long backyard.

While we have some big decisions done (we're building! floor plan!construction company! lot!), we still have to make all our selections (cabinet style, colors, carpet, flooring, and on and on and on) so we're not to the finish line yet.  To help us make our interior selections (aka, more decisions), I've been gathering ideas on Pinterest and Houzz.  We'll update you with all our selections once we get to that point.

There have been plenty of other decisions along the way, too--financing, how to arrange the move, temporary housing, storage options while we're in temp housing, etc.  For me, the only way to muddle through all this decision making, which has loads of mind boggling potential, is to take it one step at a time.  Yep, totally cliche, but if I think about too much at once I become completely overwhelmed. 

This guy helps!

Another thing that helps is Eric.  Seriously, I have to say here that we haven't even really disagreed on any of these big decisions (yet!).  So far, we have really balanced each other out and when one of us (mostly me) starts to stress, the other one (mostly Eric) provides a good dose of perspective and stress relief.  I'm guessing that being married for 15 years and 357 days has gotten us to point where we understand each other pretty darn well and can offer solace when necessary. 

Tell me, which response did you have when you found out we were building? Are you a #1 or a #2? Next time I tell someone we're building and they respond with #2, should I refer them to this post? Nah, probably just a "It's tough for me sometimes, too" should do the trick:)

The Plan!

And the moment you've all been waiting for....the floor plan!  Here she is in all her glory!

Reiland House Plans Version 2 by Amanda Smith Sieger

Isn't she pretty?  You can click here, to see the plans and (I think) download them.

If you start at the front elevation, notice how the exterior has a craftsman feel with the tapered columns, corbels, shakes, and decorative trim on the garage.  This is exactly the feel I was going for and the builders have captured that perfectly.  Still gotta figure out exterior colors.

The basement won't be finished right away so that plan is for the future.  The main level I adore.  While I really do love everything, some highlights for me are the large front porch, which will be built of cedar.  I envision a rocking bench or swing there. Something like one of these:

Another highlight is the mudroom, although on the floor plan you see here it isn't correct.  We are still trying to get the closet/bench-and-lockers figured out, but we have faith it will work out perfectly.


I think my absolute most favorite of all is the bumped out dining area. For a long, long time, my dream house has had a sun room (any one who knows me knows how cold I am all the time and how much I love warmth and the sunshine). Unfortunately, our budget did not allow for a separate sun room.

I also wanted a dining area that felt slightly more like it's own room while still being open to the kitchen and great room. So, I had this great idea that I could combine a more defined dining area with a sun room type of feel (bumped out with lots of windows to let that sunlight in).  Eric and I toured this house and loved this layout, so it became my inspiration for our new dining area.


Ours is not exactly like this, but it gave us a starting point.

Moving on to the second story, my love there is the owner's suite--large bedroom with a huge bathroom! Hip, hip, hooray for space in the master bath! We each get our own sink and can be in the bathroom getting ready at the same time! Total time saver in our hurried mornings! I'm thinking it might look something like this when it's done:

Traditional Bathroom by Atlanta General Contractors Dresser Homes

Again, that's not exactly what it will be, but it's a starting point.  So, so pretty!

I'm also pretty pumped up about the small loft area upstairs.  I see that being a play space for the kids now and as they get older, it will be a place for them to hang out with their friends.  It could also be a place for studying or for electronics or...who knows?! It's flexible, which seems smart to me.

So, what do you think? Do you have a favorite part of the floor plan?

A Sign of Things to Come

It's not a secret to any of you that we're building (not that we ever tried to keep it a secret), but now the whole neighborhood knows someone is building on our lot on the Lane.

Hard to miss that sign, huh?  We went to the lot again to show the staked out house to my parents.  Marea took this photo.  Not too bad for a 6-year-old!

While we were there, we ran into another family we know who is also building near us.  We gave both my parents and the other family the "tour" of the staked out house.  I'm telling you, you really have to use your imagination when touring a staked out house.  It's hard to visualize a great room with a fireplace when you're really just standing on a slope with a bunch of tall prairie grass tickling your legs and bugs biting at your neck.  For instance, this shot is of the front steps leading to a large front porch and the front door.  See? Hard to visualize.

One thing we noticed while "touring" our house is that the deck ends up mighty close to the side of the neighbor's house.  We're talking close enough to reach out and almost touch.  At least our neighbor's don't have any windows where the deck is supposed to be.  However, the deck would be enclosed on 3 sides so I'm not sure it will feel very deck-like (despite me wanting some privacy on the deck, this might be going a bit far).

So we're now rethinking the deck plan to some extent.  We'll see what happens.  The final plans should be done by the next post. I know you've been waiting on pins and needles (probably not, but we have been!) so we'll get those posted soon!

Stake Out

Last night, we arrived home from a trip to Colorado to see Eric's family.  We had tons of fun--especially the kids who adore their CO cousins even though they only rarely get to see each other.

The girl cousins

The boy cousins

We got to do all kinds of cool stuff, like visiting nearby Mesa Verde National Park, going to our sister-in-law's family's mountain cabin at an elevation of 12,500 feet.  Some of us even used the zip line there (me included!).

Kids and Eric at Mesa Verde

Ancient Pueblan Dwelling at Mesa Verde

Evan zip lining

 Eric and I went to his 20th high school reunion to end the week. Thanks to our CO family for the fun week!

And then we drove 21 hours back home.  Ugh.  At least the kids behaved well for the entire trip--no joke, they were angels for 21 hours in the car.  I love my children:)  This may have had something to do with the fact that they were exhausted from the week and slept, or that I'd planned several car activities, including travel tickets they turned in every hour for a small treat.

Then, today, after we got unpacked and settled back into our normal routine, Eric drove out to check out our lot to discover that it has been staked!

You might have to click on the photos to see the stakes better.  Eric said the grass is chest high, which makes seeing the stakes rather difficult.  Although I haven't actually been to the lot yet, I can't wait to stand in the place where the front door will be and all the other places that have only existed on paper until now.  I'm thinking things will start moving quickly from this point forward.  Here we go!

The House on the Lot on the Lane

Well, that's a mouthful! Really, this is just a sketch of how the house will be placed on the lot (it's lot 8, thus the large 8 on the sketch).  As far as reading the plan, I'm pretty sure you can find the garage.  The house area says "Proposed House FB/WO" which means full-basement/walk-out.  The area in front of the house (it measures 10 x 19.5 feet) is the front porch. Then the deck will be on the back corner.

The builder suggested pushing the house back a bit to leave enough room on the driveway to park a car.  A small detail I hadn't though of, but it's a good idea!


The house is oriented so that the front of the house is facing west, towards the golf course.  The course is across the street (Indigo Lane).  We took lots of time to think through the orientation and really like the east-to-west orientation for a few reasons.

1.  We will get plenty of sunlight, on all sides of the house without too much southern light to roast us (although we will have southern windows, but not tons).
2. The front of the house faces the golf course so we can sit on the front porch and watch all the golf happenings (not my thing, but definitely Eric's thing).
3. The deck in the back (we won't have this right away, but hopefully within a year of building) is protected by the house on 2 sides and is pretty private.  It's also blocked from the harsher late afternoon sun.

We also loved this lot because it's so deep.  We'll still have about one hundred feet of backyard space that extends beyond the house and ends with a row of pine trees.

The trees need a little (okay, a lot) of help.  But it's coming together!  They'll even have it staked out next week.  How cool is that? Cannot wait!!!!