House Tour: Pre Move-In

The day has come! I’m finally getting around to posting pictures. I almost don’t want to tell you that I took these pictures the day we closed on the house ::cough, June 20, cough:: It is before we have anything moved in aka before we could make any messes. I plan on posting updates as we slowly get our house decorated. We have so many projects planned that we are so excited about. Anyways, enough of me rambling, I hope you enjoy the photo overload.

p.s. to get an idea of our floor plan, check out this post.
p.s.s. excuse the horrible photo quality. I’m still learning how to use my fancy-schmantsy camera…
p.s.s.s. picking colors from tiny swatches is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do…

The basement with a cozy, corner gas fireplace. I spy Jess legs. I forgot to take a picture of the door. We have a walk-out basement. It’s to the left of me in the bottom picture. It’s amazing.

Our wet bar AKA where we spend most of our time. Ok, not really. But once we get bar stools? Really.

The extra bedrooms. The one on the left is our office and the right is our guest bedroom.

The main bath with the cutest little closet you ever did see.

The mud room off of the garage with a separate door to the laundry. Oh, and a happy darg.

Our dining table nook with a terrible view, and the nook looking towards the kitchen.

I. Love. My. Gas. Stove. and the chipped edge granite. and wine in boxes.

More terrible views. This is pretty much what we see from every window on the back/side of the house.

Our main living area which is open to the kitchen. This door will go out to our someday amazing deck. Yes, I picked green as an accent. Yes, I love it. Yes, I’m sure I’ll get sick of it someday.

Where the magic happens AKA beauty sleep. The closet is bigger than it appears. So is the room.

Our lovely master bath. Yes, the tub is as amazing as it looks. Yes, that is a thermometer for the heated floor. Yes, the mirror really is that huge. Yes, we got that last light covered. You were going to ask those questions, right?

A few notes:

* The paint is the same throughout the entire house with the exception of the accent wall. {Sherwin Williams – Nomadic Desert, Dried Thyme}. It was expensive to paint each room different, so we’ll do our own painting and save moolah. I wanted to stay pretty neutral so I could decorate with lots of color.
* I didn’t show you all of the closets. They are all amazing.
* There is more to the basement but it is unfinished. One room we use as our band room, one as the workout room, and we have a toilet in the unfinished bathroom. I can’t wait for that project! Seriously.

There ya have it! Our empty, clean, new home. It’s amazing how wonderful hanging pictures and setting up furniture looks. It makes it much more cozy. Anyone have any decorating tips/ideas? I need all the help I can get.

House Building Adventure: [Floor Plan and Lot]

Wow, this week has flown by! We are hoping to be closing on the new house early next week, so I wanted to get all caught up on this adventure! The juicy parts and pictures are coming! Yay! So, the last time I talked about how we decided between building a buying. Now the super fun stuff happens! Minus the whole waiting 6 months. That part stinks!

So, here’s the floor plan that we fell in love with and knew would be perfect for us! The main floor is 1505 square feet and the basement is 1476 square feet. For all of you that don’t feel like doing math, that makes it a total of 2981 square feet. Definitely not a mansion but perfect for our little family. Our basement will only be partially finished. Gotta keep my handy-man busy somehow!
Our Favorite Things(in no particular order):
  
   *The mudroom! I can’t wait to show you pictures of this room. It is located right when you walk in from the garage. There is the cutest little bench with the cutest little hooks. Almost my favorite room. I can’t wait to hang little jackets and gloves from it someday.
   *The bedroom locations. We really like how the master is separate from the extra bedrooms. I may change my mind when we have kids someday, but right now, I like the idea of having a little privacy and distance.
   *The master bathroom. A garden tub for me and a stand up shower for the both of us!
Obviously we love so many other things about this house, but I’ll share all the little details when I do the big reveal!
There are a few differences in our actual floor plan, though. This is the basic floor plan from the builder’s Cascade Floor Plan.
Main Floor:
 
   * Our layout is flipped, so the garage is on the left and the kitchen/bedrooms are on the right.
   * We have a third car garage. Not surprising given the husby likes his toys. Hubba hubba. Get your mind out of the gutter. Toys as in lawn mower, motorcycle, trailer, tools, etc etc. I am actually very excited to be able to park two cars in the garage and still have plenty of room! It is definitely worth the extra cost if you can afford it. It is pricey, though.
Basement:
   * We have a walk-out basement so there is a door that goes outside from the future recreation room.
   * We are having the family room finished downstairs which includes a wet bar and a gas fireplace. We like to drink and be cozy at the same time.
   * I just realized that there are some big differences in our layout compared to this one, so I’ll have to draw up how we laid ours out. Eventually.

That’s our view. Obviously not as fuzzy. Terrible picture. Clearly if the dog approves it is a done deal. One of our few requirements was that we had a view and an edge lot so we could have a walk-out basement. I love not feeling like you are in a dungeon! We have a view from every single window. Even the front ones. It is amazing. Here are our lot details:
   * 0.85 acres. It doesn’t seem like much, but when every other lot in this subdivision is 0.35 acres or less, we won’t complain.
   * We will never have a neighbor to the right of us. Right now, we have no neighbor to the left, but when we do, our lot is big enough that we will have plenty of space in between.
   * It cost a pretty penny extra. We didn’t have to buy our lot separately, the builder takes care of that. However, their house price includes a certain price lot. Ours was more, of course, so the purchase price went up. It wouldn’t be worth it to everyone, but to us, not being crammed in a tiny cul-de-sac is worth every penny.
I’m not going to broadcast what we’re building our home for, but if you’re in the market and are curious, leave me a comment or shoot me an email! I will say that now is the time to buy. If interest rates weren’t so low, there’s no way we could afford this. If you’re stuck renting and are at a point where you want to buy, take advantage RIGHT NOW!

Pretty sure he’s as excited as we are! I’ll be back tomorrow with another Friday’s Letters!

House Building Adventure: [To Build or Buy?]

Oh. Em. Gee. I wish I could just show you what our house looks like right now. It is so close to being move-in ready and it keeps getting harder and harder to stay patient! Good thing I've always believed patience is nonsense a virtue. I must keep the suspense up, though, and continue the house building story. So, we left off at the beginning, right after we were married. This time, it's all about finally deciding between building and buying.

We were all moved in to our temporary home which was also up for sale. It is a long story but to make it short, it was a fixer upper that I stupidly purchased with an ex-boyfriend. The only good thing about it was that we had a place to live for cheap and my husband is a master handy-man to do the stuff the lame-o never did. We just hoped it would sell so I could wipe my hands of it. Anyways, back to the fun stuff...

Very shortly after we were moved in and settled, we visited the model home of our dream house about a jillion times (in addition to the jillion times while we waited for the other house to sell). We wanted it so bad, but before we could totally jump in, we wanted to check out what was on the market. There were quite a few houses for sale in our price range and we knew we wanted something newer. Travis had his fair share of projects in fixer uppers and he was ready for something nice and new. So, we had our realtor take us around some homes. It basically assured us that we would be 100% happier if we built. We knew exactly what we wanted, and that didn't include being trapped in a flat subdivision surrounded by neighbors. Don't get me wrong, we love neighbors, just not smooshed up next to us. Travis grew up in a house that had 10 acres, so .00004 just wasn't going to cut it. There was also always something just, off, about the houses we looked at. We knew what we could get for the same price and nothing else came close. We were so glad we took the time to see what was out there, though, because we know we made the right decision.

Basically, our next step was to find out how much money we could get and start talking with the builder.If any readers live in Southeast Idaho and are looking for a good home builder, check these guys out. They are super easy to work with and do a beautiful job (more about this later). So, we found out how much we could spend and started making our offer! I hope you'll stick around with me and see what's next! I promise photos will come!

I just want to end this post with a few bits of randomness about me so you can learn a little more about me!

Watch out for this guy if you go to the Utah Zoo. He's feisty. Rawr.

* I am obsessed with this song. You can't tell me his voice isn't dreamy. Thank you Alt Nation (and husband for buying me Sirius).
* I can't say no to ice cream. Fro-yo, sherbet, sorbet, gelato...get.in.my.belly! Ben & Jerry = my heroes.
* I try to play the drums. I had a gig once at an open-mic night. There will be a band room in the new house so perhaps you'll hear about my drumming adventure. My husband happens to be an amazing musician and plays in a band with his brothers.

Okay, that's it for now! Thank you for commenting and following along! It makes me giddy. Serious.

House Building Adventure: [The Beginning]

Right now, we are at the end of the long and super awesome but sometimes frustrating process of building a brand-new, super pretty home to call our own. I thought it would be fun to document the process for a few reasons. One, so that we can look back in 20 years and remember how lucky we were to be able to build our dream home, and two, to maybe help someone else that cannot decide between buying or building.

So, to start this blog with a hammer bang, this will be the first post in an ongoing series. I am planning on having a little thing I am calling the "House Building Adventure". I'll have a number of posts documenting the process. Since we are hoping to be moved in in just a few short weeks, it definitely will not be in real time, but that's okay with me. There will be other random posts as well, so you can see what we're up to, which will more than likely include making the new empty house a nice, cozy home! We are beyond excited and I cannot wait to share all of our decorating adventures!

Okay, let's get this series started!

How did we get to the point to think about building a house???

To make a long story a bit shorter, it all started back in 2010 when we found a house for sale that we loved. We weren't married OR engaged yet, but we were living together in Travis' fixer-upper house. The only reason he saw this dream home was because of a new subdivision going in within the view of our old house. He was intrigued since it was up on the hill and he went to check it out.

He was in love. The layout was perfect, the view was amazing, the upgrades were awesome, and the best part, it was affordable. He was not in the market to purchase a new home, but once he saw it, he knew it would be perfect for us. He took me up to show me, and of course, I was smitten as well. It is pretty hard not to like a brand new home, but this one was special.  Seriously.

Since the old house was as fixed up as Travis was going to make it, we put it on the market and put a contingency offer on the new home. That meant that we would buy the house if our old house sold. Well, 9 months passed before we sold the house and the new dream house had obviously received a cash offer in the meantime. Needless to say, we were pretty bummed. Also, in the meantime, we got engaged (I hope to tell our story on the blog someday)!!!

Ignore the horrible picture quality. Husband isn't evil, promise.

 This was a good distraction for us since it kept us busy and our minds were off of the evil people new house selling (for the most part). About one month before the wedding, we got an offer on the old house. We were very excited but also a little stressed. Doesn't it seem like everything always has to happen at once?! We accepted the offer, and after a few weeks of craziness, we moved out the day after the wedding. Did I already mention it was craziness? I highly recommend not moving the second day after your wedding. Not cool. I guess ya gotta do whatcha gotta do though, right?

We were just happy and excited to be out of the house and ready to start our new adventure together. Thus, the beginning of the building process! I hope you will come along on our adventures, so keep checking back to see what happens next!

Anyone have any experience buying or building? I'd love to hear your opinions/thoughts/comments!