Our Next Big Endeavor

I mentioned this in my 2013 resolution/goal post and I had some of you asking for details on when we are planning to build, what we’re looking for, etc so I thought I would start the fun now…

How did you decide to build? Jeff and I knew when we bought our current home that it was a 3-5 year house for us…something for us to live in as a newly married couple, and possibly the home we’d have 1 MAYBE 2 kids in before needing to upgrade to something bigger. Well, as you might guess, space is becoming an issue and we’ve maximized it the best we can with adding in built-in storage and such, but it’s plain and simple…we are outgrowing the space we have and we need more room.
We knew at some point we would want to build a house, our “forever home” as we lovingly call it, and we are fortunate that it seems like this next year is the right time to bite the bullet and make that move.
Any ideas on your overall house design? Looks? Size? Etc?  This is when sites like Houzz and Pinterest come into play and become extremely helpful for people who are as picky as us. Let’s face it, if this is the house we will raise our family in and plan to stay here for years and years, we want to think of all the miscellaneous little details that truly make a house a home. When we sat down with our builder and brainstormed ideas of what we want, we came up with southern, traditional, and comfortable. In terms of specifics, we want loads of windows, space for the kids to play/craft/do homework, a formal dining room, huge kitchen (oh a girl can get carried away), a few extra bedrooms for overnight guests, an office that either Jeff and/or I can work out of, lots of outdoor space for entertaining, endless amounts of storage room for keeping items organized, and a massive master walk-in closet (yes, this is my must-have).
What’s the timeline? We have a LONG way to go…as of now, we are in the introductory stages. We have set our sights on the development we are looking to build in and will select our lot within the next 3-4 months. Until then, I will be searching for the perfect house plan with everything we are looking for and then we can modify as necessary to meet our needs. Luckily for us, my uncle is an architect and so is my best friend’s dad so I know we can get all sorts of advice of what/what not to do from them which will be a tremendous help. Even better, I’ve watched my parents build 3 houses so I know they will be there to jump in and offer help, too. As of now, it looks like we will begin building the latter part of this year with a scheduled completion of summer 2014.

We are so excited to embark on this next “challenge”…I know it’s going to be a lot of work, but the end result is going to be oh so worth the wait! You can visit my Design and Decor Board on Pinterest to see all kinds of ideas of our style and such…and as always, feel free to send me your advice/tips/tricks if you’ve built before. I am ALL ears!