Thursday, April 11, 2013

Digiversary

This week is our Digaversary.

One year ago this week we were breaking ground. 



Read about breaking ground and basement digging here in Part 1 & Part 2 and part 3

It has been a bit of a whirlwind for us. We purchased the ground and started the dig 6 months later. Before that, we thought we would buy a nice little starter home...

We built our forever home over the course of this past year. I cannot say that it was easy. There were more than a couple of arguments between Adam and I. A few tears shed. So many nights we would lie in bed awake. Up worrying and stressing over money, budget, time, design plans, mistakes. You name it--we lost sleep over it.

Don’t forget about regular life too. I switched jobs. Adam worked a lot of extra hours. We traveled East to D.C. land to visit both of our siblings. We went to weddings out of state, out of town, and right here at home. We went on a family trip to Mexico, and a few weekends up north to visit the folks too.
All of those things had to be worked into only the busiest months of course, in between laying our hardwood floors, managing the build, moving.
Day before the dig.
We worked together as a team for the most part. Adam kept track of the budget, and playing the role of general contractor. He was the one meeting with the electrician or the HVAC installers each week and supervising the work. I concentrated on all the details; from trim and baseboard style, to paint colors, fixtures, and cabinets.
Don’t worry though, I didn’t have all the fun. I also had to be “the bad cop general contractor”.  
For example: Our tile guy…let’s just say screwed up. More than once. And guess who had to tell him to shove his last bill you know where because he “fixed” a mistake he made and then charged us $150….although it was still not fixed? 
Me. I had to tell him. And get yelled at, and hung up on. (You can see the level of professionalism we had)

Do we regret building our forever home before we are 30? No. We are glad we did it.
Would we do it again? Hell no.


People said to us “If you can make it through building a home together than you can make it through anything!” Well, they were right. It was tough. It was stressful. It was fun. It was exciting. It was scary. It drained our bank account…But we made it through.  

We made a good team for this project. And the result is our home, which we both love. Sure, there are things we wish we would have done differently. Should have put a closet here, maybe chosen a different color of this or that…and have so many other things we still need to do. 
Like grass. I’d like some grass.

But we are very happy and looking forward to our future together, right here, at home. 
Scout too.

7 comments:

  1. We feel the same way about our house. We love it but we would never take on a project like this again. If we ever build again we are hiring a general and letting them deal with all the trades and scheduling.

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  2. Although I'm sure it was a looooong year for you two, a year kind of seems like a short amount of time for building a custom house. It turned out so nice, too!

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  3. Aww this was a sweet post. I can only imagine how tough it is to build, but look at you guys now!! The last picture is so cute...Scout too. :)

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  4. Loved this post! It's been so fun to watch you guys go through this process - definitely more fun than it must've been to actually go through it - but you guys are doing an awesome job. It's going to be so nice to get an early start on living in your forever home!

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  5. Awww! So sweet! I'd love to one day build our forever home, but that's in the retirement plan haha.

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  6. You know, I have always said I would want to have my dream home built, just for me, like you two did, but I can see that It is a lot easier said than done. I don't even think I would have the patience to wait for the house to be built, I hardly have patience to close on a house. Thanks for sharing, I'm sure you both are so glad it's done, and in the past. Here's looking forward to many wonderful years enjoying your home.

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