Our New Home

It is finally time for the big reveal of our new home.  We moved in right before Christmas, and it is so perfect.  I am excited to decorate and plant trees, but after a major step like this, we are going to take our time and do things gradually from here moving forward.  After all the time, emotion, and money put into this house, we can honestly say that it was so worth it.  We are in love with the way it turned out. 

I want to sincerely thank my loving husband, Jake, for funding my dream and turning it into reality and for supporting and encouraging me along the way.  Thank you to our builder, Jake Ray with True-Built Construction, who has turned out not only to be a exceptional contractor but a true friend as well.  Thank you to all the workers on our home, especially our superintendant, Todd, who graciously put up with me throughout these past several months. And thank you to all of my friends and family who stuck around and stayed excited for me even when I hardly ever saw them and only talked about the house every time I did!

Here is our country house:

           

Thanks for visiting!

Making Home Update

It’s been ten days since the first Making Home post, and the difference is remarkable.  My contractor negotiated us the deal of a lifetime with his stucco guy, so we were able to retexture the whole house in a sand stucco.  It is so beautiful, especially compared to the heavily textured brown stucco that was there before.  We will be painting it white with black trim, and I cannot wait to see the finished product.

October 31, 2013

The master is primed for paint and the baseboards are down.  Cabinets have been installed in the master bath.

The playroom is ready for flooring and paint.  Liam is ready to go home.

This is a view into the kitchen and dining room from the great room.  Cabinets are in, and so is the range hood.  I am really happy with how it’s turning out.

View of breakfast nook and adjacent dining room (left) and great room (right).

November 4, 2013

This is what the flooring looks like today.  We chose a medium tone wood tile with a natural-looking grain.  The tile is easier to maintain and works better with a wheelchair down the road, but you can’t beat the look of hardwood.  I am loving it.

 

I am giddy at how Country House is so bright and airy with so much natural light streaming in.  It makes my day every time I go see it (and that’s every day).

Making Home

We have been actively searching for our perfect house since July 2011.  That may sound like a long time, but believe me, it feels like eons longer.  We have known that our future house would be one story – no upstairs, no basement – so that we could include Ari wherever we were.  We wanted it to comfortably fit our family of six, and allow us to be within ten minutes driving distance to our beloved Carlson Elementary School.  We needed a swimming pool, or at least, space to build a pool down the road.  We hoped that it would have a yard for our kids to play in. 

Our road to finding our perfect home was rocky at best.  We have attempted to build three homes, came thisclose to buying a land lot, and have written contracts on many other houses.  Although we’re not counting our chickens yet, I think that we are finally nearing the end of this stressful chapter in our lives.

In June, we found a house on a county island in south Gilbert.  It was one story – check.  Close to school – check.  Had a swimming pool and one heck of a yard – check check.  It didn’t have all the room we needed, and it was badly in need of an update, but we decided to move forward.  The more we saw it, the more it felt like ours.  It is a country house surrounded by other country houses on a dirt road… in the middle of town.  When you go visit it, it feels like you have just left the state. 

This house (we’ll call it Country House) was full of potential.  I say it was full of potential, because we’re in the middle of actualizing much of that potential right now.  There is so much I’d love to do to this house right now… like giving it a new front door, laying pavers in on our dirt path, or planting a few big trees in what used to be their animal pasture and is now our backyard… but I can wait.  I’ve waiting this long, and we are nearly there now.  What we are doing right now is huge enough.  We are adding a master bedroom and bathroom, redoing the kitchen and slightly enlarging it, creating a laundry room out of an old bedroom that didn’t have a single window in it, adding a couple doors, redoing the flooring in most of the house, and more.  We’re also doing this on a budget.  A crazy tight budget.  This only complicates things.  Most people know that problems seem to disappear when you throw oodles of green at them.  Let’s just say that our problems go away one at a time, and after no small amount of effort and with the help of a few awesome people (I’d be happy to refer our favorite builder, TruBuilt Construction.  If you want their info, just ask).  But in the end, it will be worth it.  All the emotional ups and downs, all the time and energy spent (and sometimes wasted), all the craziness… will all be worth it.  We simply cannot wait to move into our dream home!

I didn’t take many before pictures, because I didn’t think that I would want to remember the house that was, but I wish I had now for comparison purposes.  Right now, it still doesn’t look like much, and it’s hard to tell what goes where because there’s nothing in the rooms for scale.  These photos were also taken with whatever lens I had on me, were snapped with a baby on my hip, and were not edited at all, so don’t judge my photography here :).  Anyway, here is a little peak at the progression of the project of our lifetime.

Before: June 2013

Kitchen.  For those who are wondering what happened to everything in the original kitchen, I sold it all.  Every last thing :)

August 26, 2013

New master bedroom, bathroom, and closet addition.

1. View of the master addition from the pool area.    2. View of the small kitchen addition from the pool area (about 100 sq ft).

1. View of the kitchen and great room area.   

 

1. View of the kitchen and dining room area.     2. View of the dining room from the great room.

 

September 6, 2013

View of Master bedroom, bathroom, and closet addition.

1. View of new door in great room from inside.    2. View of new door to great room and kitchen from outside.

1. View of entry to master bedroom addition from dining room.    2. View of the yard from the house without the block wall around the pool.

1. View of dining room from kitchen.    2. View of kitchen addition, kitchen, and great room from outside.

 October 18, 2013

View of new kitchen from great room.

1. View of new master bedroom from interior door.    2. View of new master bedroom from front exterior.

1. View of new master bathroom shower.    2. View of new master bathroom and entry to closet.

I will keep you updated as we make progress.  I’ve been keeping everyone in the dark until we got out of the first trimester of the remodel, so to speak.  For me, that was all inspections passed and drywall and stucco up.  Thanks for looking!