Tag: #build

Faith

Extra, Extra

Sam

Last Thanksgiving my friend put out a text message to our small group asking if anyone had a fancy place setting that they could use for a video for church. We all know that the text was meant for one person and one person only… me. Of course, I have holiday place settings around my table that we must move every time we eat because my kids are heathens when eating and I don’t want my place settings to actually be used…. They are just for looks. Duh.

Do I also do matching PJs on Christmas morning? Yes. Family Halloween costumes? You know it. Matching shirts we all wear on vacations? Usually. Did I throw my dog a 1st birthday party? I wanted an excuse to have cake. Elaborate teacher gifts? Look, they deserve the most elaborate gift in the world for dealing with my kids.

I wear makeup most days, curl my hair, and have worn heals to a bonfire.

I have a closet that is full of gifts in case someone springs a party on me last minute and I also have a cabinet in my kitchen just for when I host gatherings.

I have been accused and found guilty of being “extra”.

Most of my friends mean it in a pretty positive light. For example, when one of my best friends needs Christmas trees for a photo session and I happen to have 6 she can borrow. Or when we do a girl’s trip and no one needs to know anything but to be awake at 6 am because I’ve already got our ride to the airport figured out, boarding passes downloaded and a full itinerary planned. No one complains then….

But sometimes, I have a few people (usually who I am not super close to) call me “extra” in a way that is meant to shame me. It is hard to explain… but it is almost like because I find joy (and I would even call it a gifting) in what they would say are superficial things that I am somehow “less than”. Or I am impractical or lack common sense. Or that I care more about the world and looks than people and Jesus.

I don’t think it helps that I have seen sermon after sermon, and a lot of devotionals about how you should be a Mary not a Martha. And no, I am not referring to Martha Stewart…. Although can we just pause to acknowledge that 1) what a coincidence both their names are Martha and 2) what a shame it is that there is an entire generation who probably doesn’t know who Martha Stewart is???? No lie, I was once asked if I could meet two people (dead or alive) who would I choose? And I seriously said Jesus and Martha Stewart….. anyways.

If you aren’t familiar with this particular part of the Bible, here it is:

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

First, I’d like to take a pause here and insert my husband’s name into this passage at times for Mary…. I know it is a running joke that right before a party all husband’s find the most absurd thing to “help” with… like cleaning the gutters. My husband has taken it one step further and is now indoctrinating our kids. We were about to host people the other day and my oldest decided that was the perfect time to clean his room… nope, he decided he needed to use the backpack blower to rake leaves.

In all seriousness though I sympathize with Martha in this passage. She’s doing all the work, and she just wants some help. However, the Lord urgently says that Martha isn’t focused on the right thing, but Mary is. (I always choose to think Jesus said it not in a harsh, loud urgent way… but more of a “oh my dear child, listen to me” way).

Anyways, the gist is that Jesus wasn’t going to tell Mary to stop listening to Him in order to help Martha.

In a lot of devotionals and sermons on this passage it is pointed out that we all need to stop worrying about this world, and the to-do lists, and we need to rest in the eternal peace only Jesus can bring. We need to focus on the one thing that is needed. Jesus. Which is 100% true.

However……

Let me point out a few things.

  • Jesus went to MARTHA’S house. Not Mary’s, not their brother Lazarus’ house. Martha’s.

My non-bible school interpretation of this? Jesus was hungry and tired, and he knew Martha could cook and take care of him and his whole gang of friends. Do you know how rare it was that it was Martha’s house during that time? A woman’s house? Rare, friend, rare. Martha made Jesus and his disciples felt so taken care of that they dropped in (somewhat) unannounced. Probably more than once.

  • Martha was loved by Jesus.

In John 11, in another passage Martha’s brother was sick and ended up dying and Jesus took His time to get to them. In the description of the family (Martha, Mary, and Lazarus) it is said “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” (John 11:5). I mean we are all loved by Jesus….. but it’s called out here to show just how close they are. Which means Martha knew God (and His word), loved God and loved His son, Jesus.

  • Jesus never told her to stop hosting or caring for others in her home…. She was told to stop worrying about it.

That might not seem like a big difference but to me it is.

A few years back I had a lot of shame when it came to this. I listened to those sermons and devotions saying, “Be a Mary in a Martha World”. So, I decided I’d try that advice. It was right before a party we were hosting. I remember vowing I was going to be a “Mary” not a “Martha”. I picked up the house a little, made some basic food, and settled in to sit like Mary did. Want to know what happened? My husband straight up panicked and thought I was mad at him because I didn’t give him his pre-party to-do list, my kids asked what activities I had planned, and I didn’t enjoy sitting as much as I thought I would.

My husband likes my to-do list (usually, I mean… as long as a house project isn’t on it), it tells him exactly what to do. In fact, if someone could tell me in detail exactly what to do I think I’d like that too.. anyways…. Also, my kids like when I plan fun traditions and make things special. And yes, they might get embarrassed taking in mini piñatas and nachos to their teachers, but you can bet they ask me what I am doing this year for their teachers.

Turns out I am a Martha.

And that is ok.

Jesus never asked Martha to not be Martha. Jesus saw Martha. Like He really saw her. He knew she was the one He could count on to take care of him. He knew she had an amazing gift for hosting and making people feel welcomed. AND He knows that the kingdom needs that. I mean most Churches have a whole hospitality team to make people feel welcomed and feel taken care of.

Christian’s all have a gift or talent we’ve been entrusted with to further God’s kingdom. Maybe yours is encouraging people, or maybe it is teaching, or helping or maybe it is healing, wisdom, prophecy, faith… there are several guys. And as it turns out in order to reach the MOST people to tell them about Jesus, we need all the gifts.

One person might shut down if you start teaching them right away. They might need to see you helping in action to realize they can trust the God you serve. But another person might need facts and truth, they value wisdom and although they acknowledge emotions, they like taking emotions out of decisions.

Here’s the thing, what Jesus was talking about to Martha… is that she needed to stop worrying about the task and focus on the reason. Not change her task per-se.

This means;

  • You might have to recognize that your need to be “right” or “seen” isn’t near as important as making sure the person comes to know Jesus.
  • You have to recognize when someone else’s gifting might be better in a situation. WE have to work together.
  • You can’t let your gifting be used for the wrong purpose or even “just because”. Your talent is a direct gift from God, use it for Him.
  • If you start to worry and stress about “doing” whatever you think you’re called to do, you need to re-exam if you have your priorities right.

Martha started to use her gift in a way that wasn’t accomplishing what she was meant to use it for. Her purpose was to serve Jesus. She did that usually very well, by serving his physical needs. But her sister is different and Martha can’t push that on her sister.

That’s what Jesus was telling Martha. He was saying; “Martha serve me whole heartedly, like your sister is doing right now.” He didn’t say serve me differently than how you are, just keep the main point the main point. Which is always Jesus.

I am proud to be a Martha. But from time to time, I do need the reminder that my calling is to be a child of God and to lead others to know Jesus, not to just host parties for no reason. However, if you do need a wooden sled to decorate with, themed dinnerware, baby girl shower décor, or just a place to drink fancy coffee from my coffee bar and talk about Jesus… I have that covered.

 

 

 

Farmhouse

30+ Tips When Building A House

Sam

I am no expert when it comes to building a house. Kyle and I don’t build houses everyday and we haven’t even lived int hat many houses either. So when we decided to build a house we begged, borrowed and plain stole ideas of what to do. We were so fortunate to have a lot of friends and family who shared plenty of tips with us. As my way of paying it forward I tried to write down all the tips we received so that maybe we could help others like we were helped out. So………. enjoy these 30 + tips when building a house…..

General-

  1. When you dig the hole for your foundation (before the concrete goes in) spray the ground for termites.
  2. If possible, go with 2×6 walls. This helps with energy efficiency and for sound.
  3. If your builder lets you, get 2nd quotes on everything.
  4. I’m sure most of you know this but when you stake out your house it will be small…. like super small. One thing that helped me was measuring the size of my furniture in the staked off area. We also went to a friends house and measured their room dimensions to put our (ok…. actually just my) mind at ease.
  5. When the foundation gets poured put your conduit in, so there is no drilling through concrete walls. Also, remember to cap in the conduit so that the concrete and waterproofing black tar don’t get in it.
  6. Take pictures of everything. You’ll want to know where an outlet is that was accidentally hid by the drywall guy.
  7. Make your doors wheelchair accessible. Actually, look at your house overall and say “how accessible is it?”
  8. Rough-in plumbing in places you eventually will finish out or want a bathroom in (like the basement). Honestly, one person even suggested a bathroom in the garage, and I think it was genius! While I didn’t do that it made me remember that my boys always come in super dirty from outside, so we put our laundry room with a full wash tub right by our garage door and a bathroom access right as you walk in there too. That way they don’t have to go all through the house to get to a bathroom or to throw muddy clothes into the laundry room.
  9. Interior sound insulation, especially if you are doing an open concept.
  10. Where will you store a vacuum or broom? Think about living in the house. Where will you store things? Where will you hang out? Walking through our house and thinking of those things helped us switch a few things.
  11. Do you LOVE shiplap like me??? Pre-paint it (or buy boards already primed/painted) so that when you put it on the wall and over time the house “breaths” you won’t see the grooves that you missed. If you paint it once it is on the walls then the boards will separate over time and it’s really hard to get paint in those cracks!
  12. When choosing tile try to stay away from white grout. White grout will never stay white. Also, if you go with a dark tile in the shower keep in mind that soap scum is white.
  13. Can you add attic storage anywhere? Our builder was able to make us some attic storage that had access from our bonus room.
  14. Ask for any leftover material so that you can touch up things later.
  15. Also, think about where you can use leftover material. Can you use scrap granite in your bathroom on ledges? Can you use the outside board and batten on the fireplace or around a tub?
  16. Lowes Pro account. Kyle signed up for one of these and we get 5% off our purchases all the time. There are a few advantages to it. 1) you can order at the contractor pack levels (i.e. cheaper rates on lights/drywall if you buy so many) and 2) you can have it pulled and waiting for you and pick it up at the one door that says contractor (it makes us feel official). 3) it is kept separate from our checking account so it is easier to submit when we need reimbursed from our loan. I think using a military discount if you qualify would work well too.
  17. One thing that helped us was having some really smart friends (those who were contractors, inspectors, etc.) walk through our house at each stage. More times than I care to admit they pointed out things (like a wall that wasn’t supported right or a friend who looked at one of my building pictures and sent me a Facebook message about plastic wrapping to prevent rotting porches) that we were able to take back to our builder the next day and ask that they address it. I can’t tell you how much this saved us in failed inspection fees, and it gave us peace of mind.
  18. I can’t tell you how many things we have returned. Lights because I didn’t like the size, fans because I didn’t like the color, 4 different styles of door handles, etc. Make sure you don’t get into a habit of buying and returning too much. It costs money and time to return all those items.
  19. Final walk-through for paint/dry wall. Give family and friends each a roll of blue painter’s tape and have them put a piece of tape by anything they find. The worst thing would be to move into your brand-new house and realize you already have to patch a wall because when they brought in the cabinets, they scratched something up.
  20. And keep in mind that some things will not go right. Try to have a good attitude about everything! I’m a Christian and my faith has helped in ways I can’t explain! This house is not my #1 priority, it is just a house.

Kitchen-

  1. My pantry wasn’t as huge as I’d like it, so my builder found some space between the studs to add an extra small closet. Utilize space between studs well- extra closets, built-ins, etc.
  2. Pot filler- ok this is a splurge, but I am so excited about it!
  3. Pot and pan drawer right by or under your stove/cook top.
  4. Silverware drawer next to your dishwasher for easy unloading.
  5. Think about the places everyone goes in the kitchen when they are over. The trash can and sink. Unless you can access the trash by multiple directions, I would suggest not putting it next to the sink (I know strange but trust me!)
  6. If you have an island with a sink in it, make sure the faucet you select isn’t too tall.
  7. I don’t think you need a ton of specialty drawers, but one or two are really nice. My two were the pot/pan drawer and the trash drawer. Maybe yours is a fancy spice rack next to the stove. In the other cabinets think about wire racks inside to maximize space without the extra cost of a pull-out drawer.
  8. Remember that between your island and your cabinets and where your table is you should have at least 42-48 inches so that you can easily maneuver without hitting your hip on something.
  9. Lights. Two big flaws I have made in our house are the fact that our table isn’t centered to the dining room and the island isn’t centered to the middle beam… which means the light over the table isn’t centered to the room and the pendant lights aren’t exactly centered either. You can’t notice unless I point it out….. but I noticed.

Bathrooms-

  1. Pick tile for your shower that is not shiny! You will slip.
  2. Showers that are really large or open air are cold. Think about either making it smaller, adding glass walls, or multiple shower heads.
  3. Where will you store towels for each shower?
  4. We went with taller vanities in the bathrooms. And a taller toilet. I am not 100% sold on this but the taller cabinets look nice and the toilet is easier to get off of when you get older…..

Outlets/Light Switches/Etc.-

  1. Master closet- for a safe
  2. Hallway closet- to charge cordless cleaning appliances
  3. Pantry- for kitchen appliances
  4. Bedrooms- for nightlights
  5. Living room floor- for power couches and lamps on side tables
  6. Don’t forget outlets on the porch. Maybe even put some on the ceiling so that it’s easier to hang Christmas lights. And outlets in the garage for charging power tools or your kids power-wheels.
  7. Where will your bed be in the master bedroom? Think about laying down in it and the lights being on, then having to argue about who’s turning the lights off…… maybe add a switch to the lights by your bed.
  8. Plan where you are going to put your Christmas tree or entry table and then put an outlet there.
  9. Put in dimmer switches in certain areas of your house.
  10. Put in USB outlets in places you might charge your phone.
  11. Don’t want to see cable boxes and such? Run conduit in the walls from where your TV will go to a nearby closet.

Outside/Barn/Garage-

  1. Are you having gas? Run a line to your back porch for your grill.
  2. Driveway….. while building it (and your yard) will be a mess! Try not to do finishing touches (or concrete aprons, black top, etc.) until all the heavy equipment is out.
  3. Gutters tied into pipes buried to move water away from house.
  4. In barns and garages (if your county allows)- add drains.
  5. Make sure windows and doors in detached garages and barns face the house so you can see if someone is breaking in.
  6. Also we had trail cams put up while we were building. And we had people steal things….. so they came in very handy!
  7. Double garage doors vs. 1 bigger door are more heat/cooling efficient.
  8. Put an outside spicket on multiple sides of your house so you aren’t dragging hoses around.
  9. Think about alternative energy/heat/cooling sources. Could your house use an outdoor wood burning stove, a wood burning stove in the basement tied into the fireplace chimney, an attic fan, or if you had a generator where would you put it and pre-wire it to main areas of the house.
  10. We were told not to put the outside air condition unit by our bedroom because it would be loud- but ours is really quiet… so this is “maybe” a good tip?
  11. Our porch is ridiculously deep. So maybe we are a bit excessive. However, make sure it is deep enough for furniture if you have one.

Finding Land-

  1. We just randomly called up someone to ask if they’d sell us land. Since we’ve done this we’ve heard of so many people who’ve also been able to get their land like this!
  2. Make sure the land you like isn’t too wet. Or if it has a lot of trees- just know that it is going to cost money and time to clear that land and probably will mean bringing in dirt.
  3. Think about where you are putting the house and how hard it is to get utilities to it.
  4. Talking about utilities you can call up the water company to see how much a water tap would be (or even if you have water available) and you can see what your county usually lets you install septic wise (we basically only got to install a mound system). Figuring some of this out beforehand might make you decide if the perfect land is really worth it knowing how much prep you’ll have to do.

Farmhouse

Construction Loan and Draws

Sam

So I really suggest building a house without the use of a loan at all. That isn’t what Kyle and I did (and it may be unrealistic for most of America) but it would have reduced 90% of my stress. Plus you could then build whatever house you wanted, whenever you wanted!

For example: let’s say you want to build a two bedroom house with a basement and put two bedrooms in the basement (so now you are essentially a 4 bedroom house)…. well the bank is not going to loan you that much on that house (so you’ll need to fork over a lot of cash) because the resale value on the house (and what the auditors site will report in our county at least) is that the house is only a two bedroom house.

Ok. maybe that example isn’t applicable. How about this one……… you buy your land out right and decide to do some of the land clearing yourself and add a half driveway so that you aren’t parking your truck on a busy road. Well, when you go and get your loan the bank considers the driveway a land improvement and there now could exist a lien on your property and the bank is going to be real skeptical about loaning you money. (A lien might exist if you hire a dump truck to bring you a ton or two of gravel- you pay the driver of the truck, but he never pays the gravel company…. the gravel company can now put a lien on your land until they get paid by the driver.)

The second example did happen to us. Not the lien, thank goodness, but rather the bank was not happy we put a half driveway in.

I know that some of us are not in a position to pay for a $300K-$400K house in cash so a loan is inevitable. So, there are some basic recommendations and knowledge I’d love to share with you on the whole loan/drawing money process. Plus some suggestions on how to choose a mortgage company. However, like all my posts, my disclaimer is that this is different with each bank and builder…… so the following is just how it worked for us:

1) I would suggest a 100 times over to pick a mortgage company that your builder has worked with before. We did not do this. This will come in handy when you go to do draws. It will come in handy with inspections for draws. And it will come in handy to avoid things like my example above.

    • Our mortgage contact was wonderful, but the construction department was where it would have been easier to work with someone who was familiar with our builder. So if you know someone in the mortgage business- maybe use them (if the rates are favorable) for after the construction loan is done (if that is even allowed??).

2) To be qualified for our loan we had to provide all the typical W2’s, Tax Returns, Bank Statements, etc. plus the following:

    • House plans.
    • Our cost sheet. Our bank had some questions on our cost sheet (ex: the house plans show an extensive porch so they wanted to know which line item the porch was included in since it was not a separate item.)
    • Then they had us turn in a cost sheet breakdown that they typically use (so basically just copying the information from my sheet to theirs) and having our builder sign it.
    • A Builder’s Contract. Our builder didn’t have one of these nor our bank.
    • Letter of Explanation, receipts, and lien waivers for the half drive way.

3) The bank will require you to put (in cash or property) 10% to 20% of the total amount your house appraises at. So some math:

    • The cost sheet of my house to build (without consideration of any of the savings I plan/did have) was $382K.
    • Our land was purchased at $36,500 and appraised at $42,500.
    • Our house (based off comps in our area and our cost sheet) appraised at $425K.
    • The “comps in our area” is very important. Let’s say we had one of the more expensive houses in our area to build, but the housing market didn’t support that, the bank won’t lend you money on it because if you foreclose they won’t be able to sell it because it is too expensive of a house). So that would mean you either need to downgrade your house to meet comps in the area or put more cash into it yourself.
    • So the amount of cash or property we needed to bring to the table at closing was $42,500 (for 10%) and $85,000 (for 20%).
    • So our land that was already purchased covered 10% down. So that was our “down payment”.
    • We decided to only do 10% at that time. The reason we did this was because 1) we planned to not really owe $382K by some of the savings we did so the 20% down when we go to convert the loan to a 15 or 30 year will be less than $85,000 and 2) we wanted to save some of our cash to be able to float while building.

4) You will also need to pay closing costs. Ours was about $5K.

5) Once you secure the loan your builder can start work and you can start to make draws. Our contract was written that 5 draws would occur after completion of certain steps. (i.e. foundation was poured was one draw, “dried in”- with windows and doors was another draw)

6) Your builder is ready for the first draw. Now what? I suggest praying and also keeping in the back of your mind it is going to take some back and forth.

    • You’ll need an affidavit….. probably. Our bank required it, but I think if we would have went with a bank our builder is familiar with we would have forgone this step and just turned in invoices.
    • We used Kim’s affidavit. (513) 528-7250 She helped walk us through getting the invoices our bank required, changing language so that our builder would sign it, and turned it all around quickly for us. We had to pay her for each affidavit but this was worth it to us.
    • On one draw you can request several checks: so we would often have one for our builder, our electrician, our heating/air subcontract, flooring, cabinets, etc.
    • You can also have yourself as someone whose getting paid back. Since Kyle did a lot of plumbing and electric work himself we did this often for the materials we bought.
    • The bank will come out and inspect to make sure that the portion needed to be completed for the draw was actually completed. So if you take out a draw for foundation work and there was no concrete poured- they aren’t going to give you money. Fairly positive that would be some sort of money laundering thing too…….

7) After you turn in for your first draw, you’ll start paying on interest for the amount you drew. So our payments started out low, $200, and then reached upwards to $2,000.

      • On a side note; construction loans are usually only good for 6 months. If your build goes longer than this (like ours did, thanks Ohio weather) you’ll need to do an extension. It shouldn’t cost any money, just a signature.

8) Once you’ve had your last draw and get your occupancy permit you’ll then want to convert your loan from a construction loan to a conventional loan. In full disclosure we aren’t here yet- so I’ll come back and update if the conversion part turns into a nightmare.

Ok I think that is all the knowledge I have. Honestly, it might not even be that great of a help because if I have blocked anything from my memory for this build it is in regards to the loan process.

So to recap: pay for your house in cash and do not take out a loan.

Farmhouse

Have It Your Way: Choosing House Plans

Sam

I feel most of you reading the “farmhouse” portion of this blog have a Pinterest board full of future house plans. Heck, I am almost finished with my house and I still haven’t came around to deleting off some of the plans I wanted in the beginning. So, I want to devote this post to all the things you might consider when you are choosing plans.

You should know what your builder can and can’t do when it comes to plans.

Many of the builders we asked for prices from gave us “pre-drawn” plans that you could modify. But to take the plans we loved on the internet and make them come to life- was either super expensive to do through them or was actually just something they flat out wouldn’t do. For these types of builders who were building “custom” houses, a better description would be “pre-selected” customization you could do to their plans. One reason we choose the builder we choose was because he truly took our exact plans and made them a reality.

On a side note:  a few questions I have been asked is if

  1. you have to buy the plans before you get quotes?
  2. if you can get quotes on multiple house plans?

The Answer:

1) No, you don’t have to buy the plans before you get a quote- just keep in mind it might be a little more high level with allowances than a detailed quote

and

2) Yes, you can bring two plans to a builder and determine if there would be a big cost difference between them- but unless you are drastically changing the structure or square foot amount they will probably be close to the same price.

What modifications should you choose?

In full disclosure I can’t tell you what would be best for your family and lifestyle. For example: you might decide you need a place to put a dog washing station in your house because your dream is to adopt 13 ½ dogs……. But Kyle and I decided that since we have three boys we basically have our hands full in the “animal” department as it is- so dog care won’t be on our list of modifications.

Instead, I’d like to walk you through our modifications and why we choose them. I am hoping that you can see a trend of the types of things to think about when you start to choose your own modifications.

  • Dining room conversion: we replaced the dining room with a bedroom, then added an attached bathroom with a shower. Our reasoning behind this was because 1) we have 3 kids and 2) we didn’t have the money for a dining room, breakfast area, and 4 bedrooms- so we had to work with the space we had (2,500 sq ft). And that is my point with this modification: just because in the original plans it shows a dining room and half bath- really think how you want to use the space in that room. Maybe it makes more sense to convert the dinning room into an office on one side and a pantry on the other?
  • Made the breakfast area larger: since we converted the dining room into a bedroom, we needed to make sure the breakfast area was large enough to fit our farmhouse table that Kyle built to fit 52 of our closest friends. Although, I am exaggerating a bit, we did need to make this bigger. In general, we found that we really had to pay attention to room sizes and make sure that our furniture was going to fit. This includes outside spaces too! The attached garage in our plan was only 21×21 and wouldn’t fit Kyle’s truck, so we made it larger.
  • Moved the laundry room and connected it to the master closet: a lot of our modifications had to do with future proofing our home as best we could. We selected a home with the master bath and laundry on the first floor so that we wouldn’t have to do stairs as much. We widen the doorways and halls to fit wheel chairs through them…. just in case. We added a full bath vs. a half bath to the converted bedroom in case an elderly parent needed to move in with us down the road. We wanted to build a home that fit our needs now, and hopefully fit our needs in the future too.
  • The original sketch of the outside of the house vs. what we did: Our plans had a huge wrap around porch with a railing, extra windows in the garage, vertical siding, and a half moon shaped window in the peak of the house. Don’t steer clear of plans just because of the exterior. You can change roof pitches, do stone work, add porches and dormers, and drastically change the exterior into more your style. I mean…. Joanna Gains does it all the time on her show- and she’s using pre-existing structures- you get to start from scratch on your new build.
  • Deleting structured posts, adding pocket doors, and planning where to put mechanics: Another great thing about building a house is that you can figure out ways to make it as open as want. So if you want your basement to have only a few posts in it you can put a heavy duty steel beam to support the weight of the upper floor. Or if you want a super open living room you can buy bigger trusses, thus eliminating a support beam. The same thing with pocket doors or where your air condition will be. You can choose to not put plumbing/electric/ducts in a wall so that you can add a pocket door. And you can plan where you want your heating/cooling inside unit at the beginning to make it the most out of the way. That has been one of the nicest parts of building for us. Instead of walking into houses we wanted to buy saying- we’d like to take this wall down and then realizing it would be way too expensive to do that- we get to start from scratch.

You know what plans you want… now what???

There are so many ways you can purchase plans. Like I said before some people might choose a builder who already has existing plans and they modify them for you, some have CAD programs and will draw them up, you can hire an architect to draft them, you can buy them off the internet (this is what we did), and in rare cases (like where my builder’s from) you can submit a rough sketch drawn on the back of a napkin…… I’m only sort of kidding. In most cases though you are going to need blueprints done by a professional that have basement plans (how tall are the walls, where are the windows, outside doors, where do the footers need to be poured, etc.), a first floor and second floor plans (detailed with square footage, built-ins, where center beams are, etc.), a roof plan, all the sides of the house elevation plans, building section plans (r-values, flashing, vents, etc.), and then an electrical plan.

I have a few basic things I want to tell you about this.

  • Some counties will require an engineer stamp on your plans. In full disclosure I don’t know how they determine that- I think it is if your house structure is out of a normal range of support (i.e. you have an open concept without any supporting posts that is so huge that there is questions on whether it is structurally sound). I also think they may require an engineer stamp if you do rafters vs. trusses. Rafters are built on site by your builder and trusses are common roof dimensions that are built off site and are engineer approved when they are built. In our specific county with our specific plan we did not have to have an engineer’s stamp. My brother who also built in our county did………
  • The electrical plan we bought online was not detailed enough for our county. We needed carbon dioxide and fire detectors outside of each room, where the original plans had can lights and fans were not where we planned to put them, etc. So we had our electrician look over everything and add to it where needed.
  • Like I said before, we bought our plans off the internet and we had them modified. We could have had them modified by anyone we choose- but we decided to go through the preferred vendor of where we bought the plan. I think this was a mistake on our end as it took 10 weeks to get the modifications done. If I had to do it over I would have taken the plans we found online and asked someone familiar with our county to draw them up. My only hesitation to do that in the first place was the cost of online plans seemed to be a lot cheaper, but I didn’t actually get quotes- which I regret.

 

Hopefully this was helpful and answers some of your questions about the house plans, modifications, and next steps. If you have any other questions or I didn’t explain something well enough, please comment below or send me a message. In the meantime- keep finding amazing plans that fit your lifestyle!

Family, Farmhouse

Marriage Proofing Your House.

Sam

Has anyone told you that building a house is tough? Or that it really tests a marriage?

If you haven’t heard this before let me be the first to mention it to you. And if you have heard it let me serve as confirmation of this information. Building a house will be tough on your relationship. 

In fact, want to know what I am doing right now? I am holed up in my room, listening to a marriage sermon that my friend sent me, and I am sulking. Kyle and I had a big fight last night. Like one that ended in me driving around for 3 hours with a stop at Walmart at 1 am with my PJ’s on. I am super dramatic like that.

Want to know what the fight was about? Our house. I am frustrated and upset that we are 6 months into our build and we still do not have our septic in and we’ve been on a waiting list to get it in for almost a year.

Actually, I am just frustrated (period).

The thing is, when building a house it gets frustrating a lot. You’ll get frustrated that it is taking too long, something comes in over budget, a subcontractor messed something up, you have to pre-plan out all these things and you are afraid you might forget something, or you have to make a choice on wood flooring and the choice you want doesn’t work out so you have to go with something else that you aren’t quite as satisfied with…….. and the list goes on and on.

I have only been married 10 years and I don’t think I am qualified to offer any marriage advice. 1) because when we fight I do things like go to Walmart at 1 am because I am throwing a hissy fit and 2) Kyle and I haven’t really been faced with any big complications in our time of being married. But if it is OK with you I’d like to walk you through a few things that might help you if/or when you might build a house. And mostly because I need a list to refer back when these “house” fights happen again…… because they will.

  • Reach out to the one or two friends who value marriage and relationships. You know who they are. Bonus points if they too have built a house together or even tried to plan a simple home improvement project. They are the ones who won’t ever say a negative thing about your spouse even when you are saying ALL the negative things. They are the friends who listen, pray for you, and then send you sermons to listen to. They aren’t judging you and saying “what a terrible marriage you have or you should be more like my perfect marriage”. No, these friends are telling you that you are just frustrated and offering to go to McDonalds at 10 pm once the kids are asleep just so you can throw a pity party over a McFlurry.

 

  • You have to look at your spouse through the lens of LOVE. There are gonna be some tough times. I can’t tell you what those tough times are. For me it is because I want it to stop raining so we can put a septic tank in. Yours might be because your husband can’t tell that there is an OBVIOUS off color piece of flooring in the middle of your living room….. wait no that’s me too. You need to remember some basic facts: your spouse is not error free, they need as much grace as you do, and when you stop looking at them as a child of God and instead as someone whose letting you down- you will fail. Your marriage will fail. Your family will fail. (Note to future self: listen to this sermon when this happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QSJSjNQM68)

 

  • Separate the truth from lies. During this current fight; I am not mad at Kyle, I am mad because our septic is not in and I am still living with my dad in a house that isn’t mine. I am frustrated at our circumstances right now. The truth is that Kyle feels the same way I do but expresses it differently. The lie is that I sometimes get so worked up that I think Kyle can control things that are really out of his control: like the weather. I know it sounds dumb, but honestly during this build I had to remind myself a lot that we were at the mercy of different contractors and the weather… both things that we can’t control. And the biggest truth I had to remember is that we still have the same goal in the end.

 

  • Marriage differences are tough. That might be the most underrated sentence I have ever spoke. Kyle and I are different on so many levels. He’s focused on the structure of our house like the electric and wouldn’t help on selecting what color we should paint the walls. He likes the hot hot summer and I look better in layers in the winter. He is so laid back that at times it comes across like he doesn’t care and I am such a hot head that I jump to conclusions. It’s not easy being so vastly different. Sometimes we can’t see where the other one is coming from and it leads to frustration. It’s during these times that I just have to embrace our differences and be thankful. I have to look at them as an opportunity to grow and widen my view. I have to embrace that differences mean that we are being thorough and that it brings diversity to our relationship. I cannot let the differences divide us. Because again when that happens things in our relationship start to fail, like communication.

 

  • You are not justified. This is really important. When I am mad at Kyle or hurt by really anyone who I have a close relationship with I can really easily fall into a hole where I feel wronged. But we are called to stay humble. And we need to get humble fast. I can perfectly recall a lot of the things that I have gotten mad about over the past 10 years with Kyle. He can’t. It isn’t because I haven’t made my fair share of mistakes- probably even worse than his ever were. It is because he has a terrible memory. But jokes aside you will need grace at one point in time in your relationship. Extend the type of grace that you hope to get when you mess up.

 

This isn’t my way of saying I have this marriage thing figured out or that I resolve conflict really well. I am so far from that. I just want you to know that building a house is not for the faint of heart and it will be tough- even for those of you who have a pretty strong relationship. I also want to tell you that the house you are building is not worth a broken relationship. And in case you need to be reminded……….. your spouse cannot control the weather so that it stops raining so you can put in a stupid septic tank.

Farmhouse

You need a Builder’s Contract?

Sam

So as some of you might know from my other posts, we decided to be our own General Contractor and we choose a Builder who although did quality work, wasn’t exactly on the up and up for legal contracts and such. Not in a “trying to evade the law” type of way, he just builds quality houses and his word is something he takes more value in than a contract. In fact, when doing loan draws and such, we had to omit the language “I solemnly swear” because it went against his beliefs. Anyways……. so when our bank said we had to have a contract vs. a hand written out sheet of notebook paper that our builder provided us as our “quote”, we weren’t really surprised and even a little relived that our house would have some type of paperwork aside from a loose leaf piece of paper and a handshake.

However, our Bank wouldn’t supply a sample contract and we were the general contractors so it was up to us to figure out what a builder’s contract even looked like.

After some Google research I found a few samples all of which I borrowed from (so this isn’t my own original content), and I also had to modify to apply to 1) us building on our own lot 2) agreement from our Builder that once he signed it he would uphold it and 3) that we were building in Ohio (different states have different regulations).

I want this site to be a 1 stop shop for all your building questions, so I want to provide you with my modified sample of the contract that our Builder and our Bank accepted. HOWEVER…… this is meant to be an example only. I am in no way a lawyer nor is it my intent to provide you something that you haven’t completely vetted with your legal counsel that you intend to use as a legal contract. So again, DISCLAIMER: FOR EXAMPLE PURPOSES ONLY. I’m in no way responsible if you decide to use this to submit to your Bank/Builder.

Instead I just want you to see some of the categories and typical language in these type of contracts. For example: “the draw schedule” is a really nice table to compare to your contract to see if it lines up. Or it is nice to see the clause that the Builder isn’t responsible for weather delays is a typical statement.

I think this gives you one reference to make sure your contract isn’t missing anything, but I also encourage you to have a lawyer look this over and look at other contracts.

BUILDING CONTRACT (EXAMPLE ONLY)

 

 

Farmhouse

Building Timeline

Sam

So here’s the deal. I am going to give you an actual check list of what order things are typically done when building. But I need you to know that building a house is dependent on………. weather, humans, and where you are building. Which means that if you have terrible weather (thank you Ohio) this list might change and timing might be adjusted. And because building is so dependent on sub-contractors, if one is running behind it can mess up timing of other things too. Also, depending on where you live this list can have things it is missing or things that need to be added to it (i.e. a structural engineer stamp or added township inspections).

Also, I know you know this but planning is key. I highly suggest you read First Things First: Building a House. This list is really for after you have your land secured and builder selected. Also, because I am super nice if you want this in a PDF list scroll to the bottom.

  • Address
    • Through Township- Our township trustees are only there a few times/hours a month, but we got it approved the day we took it
    • Also register mail address with USPS- took a few weeks
  • Driveway Permit
    • Through ODOT (Ohio Dept. of Transportation because we built on a State road)
    • Ours came within a week
  • Soil Samples
    • Took about a month
  • Site Survey/Septic Design
    • We gave a set of plans we drew up that showed approx. footage off the road, size of house, angle of house, etc.
    • They used this for official plans which was sent to the Septic Designer who overlaid Septic Plans
    • Site Survey said 6 weeks out but took more like 8 weeks- dependent on how backed up your contractor is
    • Once the Septic Designer got the Site Survey and soil results this only took a few weeks
  • House Plans (working on at the same time as septic etc.)
    • This took almost 10 weeks and I had to stay on top of them
    • We did not have to have an engineer stamp
    • Our plans had trusses not rafters (trusses are stamped by the manufacture of the trusses)
    • Our plans had the basic electric work up (i.e. pointed out where the double oven was, smoke detectors, etc.) but did not include the number of circuits needed which we got that number from our electrician (we needed this for the permit application)
  • Township Permit
    • Through our Township- they are only there a few times/hours a month, but again this was approved the day we took it
    • You will need your Site Survey
  • Septic Permit
    • Through the Board of Health
    • You will need your Site Survey, Township Permit, and Septic Design
    • Approved within a week, typically whoever is doing your septic gets this for you but he was busy so we just went ahead and got it
  • Building Permit
    • Through our County
    • You will need your approved Septic Permit, multiple sets of plans, Site Survey, Township permit, and plus we had to fill out an application
    • We had our plans not accepted once because we needed to mark two small things (CO detectors outside all bedrooms and bathroom exhaust fans needed to vent outside)
    • The process of turning them in, rejection, then resubmitting and approval took 5 days
  • Temporary Electric
    • This was through our electric company and our electrician helped set it up
    • We had to wait on land clearing and loan completion
  • Loan Process
    • Pre-approved in March, construction loan finalized in August. (6 months) (I think this can go faster if you stay on top of the bank. We were not in a rush.)
    • Items the Bank requested
      • Financials Records (W2, Tax Returns, paystubs, etc.)
      • Cost breakdown (Builder’s cost plus all “other” costs)
      • Builder’s Contract
      • Builder’s Risk Insurance (through your agent)- this is good for one year
      • Additionally, since we did do some land clearing and half driveway before our loan was approved we had to send a Letter of Intention
      • Application fee, plus down payment
  • Final plan design with Builder
    • Once we had the loan closing date we scheduled a time with our Builder to go over the plan one more time.
  • Foundation Poured (footers and basement walls)
    • Two weeks out from loan closing
    • I think this depends on what projects they have going and where you are on the list
    • Footers need inspected.
    • Also, if like us you do a roughed-in future bathroom in the basement, this will need inspected before you pour concrete.
  • Framing
    • Completed within a month of ground breaking
    • Framing needs inspected.
  • Dried In
    • This includes outside wall sheeting, windows, and doors installed
    • Within 2 months of foundation being poured
  • HVAC, Electric and Plumbing
    • Once your house has doors and windows and can be locked you can start on these projects
    • These all take a lot of time. I’m hesitant to even give a typical time frame as it is really on-going the entire time you are building.
    • All this will need a “rough-in” inspection and a final inspection.
  • Water Tap and Permanent electric
    • Through whoever your utilities are through.
    • From applying for the taps/meters to install this was about 10 days.
    • Make sure you meet with these utility companies before they install so you know where you’ll be running these from the road to your house.
    • Once the tap/permanent electric is done you can run these pipes/conduit to your house
  • Septic Installation
    • This can actually be installed as soon as your basement walls are up and your pipe is through the wall. Again, we did not have city sewer and the wait list for contractors in our area was a YEAR. Seriously. It is based on how wet it is, and for us we picked the wettest year in Ohio.
    • This will need an inspection.
  • Exterior and Interior Insulation
    • Took a couple days to do.
    • This will need to be inspected too. When in doubt get everything inspected.
  • Drywall
    • You have to have insulation and HVAC done. Side note: make sure your HVAC does not run when they are sanding drywall. Trust me.
    • This take about 2 to 3 weeks.
  • Painting and Staining
    • About a week.
  • Doors and Trim
    • About a week.
  • Flooring
    • Again about a week.
  • Kitchen Cabinets, Appliances, and Counter-Tops
    • You want to make sure you are timing this right. Our cabinets came in about 4 weeks too early, which the company who we bought the cabinets from was nice enough to let us store them in their warehouse.
  • Final grading
    • This will typically include some final landscaping and sidewalks.
  • Final Inspection
  • Occupancy Permit
  • House warming party that you invite me to and serve wine at?

YIKES. Are you still with me????? Did your eyes glaze over???? I’ll admit it is a lot. This was by far my least favorite post to write because of how overwhelming it is. Even now I’m afraid I might have missed something. I still think it gives you a good approximate timing of projects and order. And in full disclosure since we aren’t 100% moved into our house (again thank you Ohio weather) I will update this if it changes. If you just want the PDF of this list click here.

If I missed something please let me know!

Farmhouse

You did WHAT yourself?

Sam

So I told you in 5+ Ways to Save $ on Building a house that Kyle and I (heavy emphasis on Kyle) did some of the work ourselves. So I wanted to provide you some honest feedback on what worked for us and what didn’t.

I’ll be real (and maybe a bit braggy) Kyle and I rarely fight. It’s not because I’m an amazing person who solves conflict well or never does anything wrong- it is mostly because Kyle hates conflict and is really easy going. Ah– but that was prior to building a house together. I still think we weathered the house building storm well as a couple but if we did fight about anything on the house…… it’s most likely on this list.

  1. Being our own general contractor. The beginning part of building and being your own contractor is hard. Knowing what steps you have to start with and filling out permits are a bit confusing. Thankfully, we found a lot of helpful people at our township and county, plus some friends who had built/build houses for a living. The biggest part is how time consuming it is. Being there for inspections, filling out the permits, scheduling the temporary and permanent electric, etc. I would suggest only doing this if you have some type of flexibility. Kyle saved up all his vacation time and he scheduled things on his lunch hour. Not to mention the time before work and after.
  2. Some land clearing. We bought 8 acres of trees. Tall trees, small trees, dead trees, beautiful trees, just lots and lots of trees. Kyle started cutting up trees for where our driveway and house would be in February 2018. A year later and he is still cutting up trees. Two of our builders’ quotes included tree clearing at about $10K. This is a high price because DISCLAIMER cutting down trees is dangerous. I still lean on the side that this was probably worth doing it ourselves  Kyle doing it (the boys need their mom so I wasn’t cutting up any trees!). We could work at our own pace and the only thing it bothers is that the outside of the house is a little messier than I’d prefer. But for $10K I can handle it looking like a tornado went through. (We also spent money to have a landscaping company clear the undergrowth and cut ATV trails in our woods. This was about $1,500 and well worth it!)
  3. Electric and Plumbing. Well. Here goes. It was nice being married while it lasted. My answer is this is absolutely not worth it. We saved about $2K from our original quote and Kyle spent about 90 hours in total to save that amount. Now here’s the thing, Kyle needed to have a part in our house build. I am not sure if your spouse (or maybe you do too) find worth in having your hands in the actual building of the house, but my husband finds worth in this. He doesn’t care about the paint color or kitchen cabinets, he was about as useless as they came when picking out flooring or tile. But he wanted to run the electric and plumbing and there is value in that. Plus he now knows intimately all the workings of our house. So although my answer still leans towards the not worth it column on this in general, if I wanted to be a great supportive wife I’d tell you that by doing it ourselves we saved some money and the quality can’t be beat.
  4. Fireplace Installation. Kyle did all the framing and installation of the fireplace. This took about 5 hours and saved us $900. One thing I want to make sure I mention here is that for $50 the same place who was going to charge us $900 to install the fireplace came out to inspect my husband’s handiwork. This ensured our warranty was able to be enforced (just in case) and honestly gave us peace of mind. Totally worth it.
  5. Fireplace mantel, hearth, and surround. We are still working on this so I’ll update this post once we are finished with a full report.
  6. Kitchen Cabinet Installation. Between the Builder helping (for free!) and my husband we saved about $2K on installing our kitchen cabinets. I can’t recommend enough to just check with your Builder to see what they would charge to install the cabinets vs. what the company where you buy your cabinets will charge. Like I’ve said before get multiple quotes for everything!
  7. Island knee wall and stove vent hood. This is another thing we are still working on, so TBD. But I’ll let you know that custom shiplap vent hoods are super pricey! Like over a thousand dollars pricey. So I think it’s probably safe to assume this is in the win column for saving money but I’ll update once it is 100% done.
  8. Running Water/Electric to house. So first, a big shout out to our brother-in-law Joe who helped Kyle with this! Along with hiring a friend who owns a mini excavator, Kyle was able to run electric and water from the road to our house for about $1.5K. This took one 8 hour day and was worth it. We’d estimate we saved a few thousand dollars by doing this.
  9. Interior Insulation. We spent $760 on the actual material to reduce the sound in our walls since we have an open concept living area. It took Kyle, his dad, and myself 3 hours to do this one night. We probably saved at least a few hundred $’s and honestly it was some of the most uninterrupted conversation time Kyle and I have had….since….well….. since having the first kid. Well worth it!

There are still some areas of the house we are working on but for the most part this is what we tried to tackle ourselves. If you are going to build (and want to do some of the work yourself) I would sit down beforehand and make sure you have a good estimate on how much time it would take you to do something and if the potential savings is worth it.

Looking back on it we were really happy with the projects we decided to do…… and we are still happily married.

Farmhouse

Who Built Just Another Farmhouse?

Sam

Blah. I am sure you are going to hate seeing this as the opening line to every single one of my posts….. but here it is again…….. this is just who we used to help build our house. You can take this list or leave it. Although, I think they do quality work and I would recommend all of our vendors (which I think is unique for someone whose built a house because boy oh boy have I heard horror stories!) you might not have the same experience as me- or know even better vendors. Also, if you aren’t in the Cincinnati area this is probably a pretty useless post for you to read.

  1. House Plans: Architectural Designs- House Plans
  2. House Plan Modifications (used by AD- House Plans): UO unlimited options, inc.
  3. General Contractor: Tritek, LLC  (even though we didn’t use a General Contractor Joe Speeg was more than helpful at the beginning and answered a ton of questions)
  4. Builder: Ernie Miller (937-515-0894)
  5. Foundation (used by our builder): Mark Edenfield
  6. Electric and Plumbing: Kyle and Kena Willingham (OK so here’s the deal he also goes by Pineapple so if you are from our area and are thinking “who is Kena?” it’s Pineapple’s real name) (513-238-0611)
  7. HVAC: Carney Heating and Cooling
  8. Painting: Adam West (he gave us an amazing quote and we’ve seen his work- unfortunately our Builder had us use his sub-contractor.)
  9. Flooring: RJC Flooring and Construction (513-233-5581, he also gave a great quote and does quality work but we had to use our Builder’s sub-contractor.)
  10. Fireplace: Vonderhaar Fireplace, Stoves and Masonry 
  11. Land Clearing: Libbee’s Landscaping 
  12. Driveway: Foebar Excavating (513-616-9595) & Borcher’s Excavating (513-623-8387)
  13. Kitchen: Kelley Hensley with The V Collective
  14. Septic: Jest Enterprises LLC
  15. Percolation Test (soil test): Clear Creek Environmental
  16. Site Plan: Robert Shannon
  17. Water Tap/Electric Tap: dependent on your area

OK, I think that is the list of the vendors we used. What is not included in this list is the sub-contractors our Builder used for drywall, tile, and flooring. They did great work, we just don’t know their contact information since our Builder sub-contracted it out for us.

Also not included is what all we (aka Kyle) did to help build our house and cut down on cost. Check this out for that list!

Farmhouse

First Things First: Building a House

Sam

I feel obligated to tell you (again) that I am not a professional contractor. My goal of writing these blogs is to help those who think they might want to build or are planning to build. I realized that there is a lot of information out there when it came to building. There are blogs about decorating, picking house plans, what not to forget while building, how to build the house yourself, etc. What each of these have in common is that it is based off our own experiences. So what I think is important to mention is not all inclusive but it is what I’ve found helpful………..

And one thing I asked when starting to build is…… where the heck do you start when you decide you want to build?!

Step 1: Homework.

You do not start with picking out house plans, or even picking out where you want to buy land. No, you start by looking at blogs like this or talking to people who have built and getting a good idea of what it entails to build. I can’t imagine I am the only one, but when we decided to build it was a completely foreign concept. I knew how to buy a house- well let me rephrase- I knew how to look up houses on a real estate website and then ask my realtor to show me a house, and then have her draw up all the contracts to buy the house. Building a house is starting from scratch and is so unique from state to state, county to county, and township to township. It is really important to ask questions to people who have built near you and to make some calls to your township/county to see what they require.

Step 2: More homework.

Hopefully when you did your Step 1 homework you included curriculum about figuring out what it costs to build a house. If not, let me spell it out: You need to know what you can afford, what it costs to build in your area, and you need to talk to your preferred lender to see what all they need.

I like to work backwards to figure out what I can afford. I think budgeting a house payment at 25% of your monthly income is recommended by Dave Ramsey and it has worked for me so far. You need to have a really good idea of what you can afford. Not what the bank says you can afford but truly what you can afford. If you have never done a monthly budget- you need to start.

You need to know what it will cost you to build. This was semi-fun for me. I say semi because I love all things budget but it was also shocking to know what some things cost (curse you beautiful board and batten!). Our first quote we received was from a commercial builder. They had model homes we could tour and gave us a quote and a spec sheet after about two hours. This was amazing for us because now we had a baseline to measure against. When we met with other builders we knew exactly what to ask for and could compare apples to apples. Plus they build a house every other day in our area so they walked us through the timeline for our county. Even though we choose a different builder it was a great experience for us with fact gathering.

Just because we knew what we could afford and we had got quotes within that budget doesn’t mean the bank is on the same page. I also got pre-approved for our construction loan. We did this the same way we got pre-approved for a conventional loan. So we provided W2’s, tax returns, bank statements, etc. It wasn’t until we went to actually apply for the loan that we provided our building contract, house plans, and cost sheets.

Step 3: Oh my land-a.

Another part of your homework will be figuring out where you are building. No matter if you are searching for land, buying in a sub-divided neighborhood, or building on your family’s farm, land is a big part of the equation from a price standpoint. We bought 8 acres of trees (anyone need firewood???), a long narrow plot, no access to public sewer, and no existing driveway. This meant we knew we’d have extensive costs for land clearing, a septic system, and to put a driveway in. We already knew we couldn’t afford to build a house way back in the woods because that meant buying a transformer for electric, running water back to the house, and doubling the cost of our driveway so the narrow plot was OK for us. My point is, when looking for the land you plan to build on make sure you are thinking about how you plan to get utilities to it and what it will cost to make it house ready.

Step 4 : Stop looking for 4 bedroom houses.

Ok, maybe this is too in the weeds of my own build but I swear this was eye opening to me! When we started to look at house plans I kept putting in the desired number of bedrooms. It wasn’t until we started obtaining quotes that I switched my mindset to looking for square feet. If you are building a custom home you can configure it anyway you’d like. I started to be less concerned with how many rooms there were to concentrating more on the structure of the house. Is it open concept, what is the roof pitch, in general where are things laid out? Once I knew what my budget was I knew I couldn’t afford more than 2,500 square feet. We found a three bedroom plan with a formal dining room that we turned into the fourth bedroom we needed.

Step 5: Go on tour.

I think this is an extremely important part of the building process. When Kyle and I first moved in together we lived in a lovely trailer built in the 70’s or 80’s (?). We had a mouse problem, an insulation problem (it was cold in the winter and hot in the summer), and it was an amazing house for the two poor kids we were. We upgraded after about 5 years to a foreclosed house that we loved. It had three bedrooms, no master bath, color-blind previous owners, and a hodge podge of furniture and fixtures. We added three boys to that house and we quickly realized our once forever house was really a 7 year house. What I am trying to say here is that we did not even know what our preferences were when it came to a forever house. We took a list of things we didn’t like about our old house, what we loved about it, and then married it with what was out there. One way we did that was by just seeing what was out there. We toured model homes, asked friends what they loved about their house, or wished they had. We went to home shows. We used a lot of date nights to look at houses and research together to know what we wanted out of our house.

 

As you can see, RESEARCH is the first step when building a house. As you might recall in my 5+ Ways to Save Money When Building a House post I said one way you can save money is by planning well. Doing a lot of research up front will make your build run more smoothly and hopefully save you money.