The Girl in the Red Shoes

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Uncategorized | April 5, 2016

Building a House: Frequently Asked Questions Part 2

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I love that you all love talking about house stuff! In my first post, I answered a few of your questions and today I’m back to answer a few more! Let’s do this.
1. How long did the actual “building” part of the process take? 
I shared that the entire planning + finding land + building took about a year…but from the time they actually broke ground to the day we moved in was about 6 months. I’ve heard it’s sometimes faster to build a new house than it is to renovate an old one.

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2. How did you choose your interior finishings (flooring, lighting etc.)?
This part took the LONGEST time for me and was probably the hardest part. Early on our builder kept telling me how much fun this part would be so I was really looking forward to it. And don’t get me wrong, it was fun at times, but mostly it was just overwhelming. I also had a brand new baby during the time I had to make all of these decisions so it made it doubly hard. Our builder has clients pick out EVERYTHING (I’m talking every cabinet pull, doorknob, flooring, light fixture, toilet, tile etc) before they break ground on the house. That way we knew exactly how much money we would be spending. 

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(That’s my laundry room sink sitting in the middle of my living room. Also, I designed the fireplace based of of something I saw on one of my favorite blogs, The Lettered Cottage. I love how it turned out.)

So, we basically had appointments over the course of a few weeks at different vendors that our builder worked with. They had me go to each place with their designer to help me make decisions and help keep me on track with the number of items I needed. For example, our designer would tell me I the number of hallway lights I needed to pick out or the number of cabinet hardware in each bathroom and the kitchen. She also wrote everything down for me and got photos of everything, which really helped since I had Sadie with me at each appointment and I was often a little distracted! Once my designer had a feel for my design aesthetic she was able to help suggest things she knew I would like….I felt like the two of us were on the same page and she totally “got” my vision. But she was more of a facilitator than a traditional designer. 

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Since I had to pick out everything before the house was even built, it meant that I couldn’t actually see the layout or design of my house while making these decisions. Let me tell you….picking out an entry way light fixture when you can’t even picture what that entry way will really look like is tough. Picking out tile for your bathroom, plus cabinets, plus shower tile, plus countertop, plus a backsplash when you’ve never even stepped foot in the bathroom is also hard. I’m no designer, so figuring out what would look good together was tough.  If I had to do it all over again, I would have made maybe hired a professional designer to put together mood boards for each space for me. BUT I had just had a baby, so that didn’t even cross my mind! I spent a ton of time on Pinterest so I knew generally what I wanted before going to any appointments, which helped.  My designer would also give some companies a heads up as to what I wanted (like white cabinets in the kitchen, or subway tile in the bathroom) so that when we arrived for an appointment they were prepared with specific things to show me. I was just plain exhausted from having a newborn…several of my appointments were quick and I knew what I wanted right away. Flooring and cabinets were the easiest for me. Lighting was the hardest and I ended up going back to the lighting place four different times, and I actually changed a fixture when it came in because I didn’t like how it looked in the space. My lighting designer loved seeing how much Sadie had grown each time I came in! Jon went to a few of these appointments with me (flooring, and one lighting I think) but for the most part he let me pick whatever I wanted….or whatever was “in the budget.”

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Speaking of budget, our builder had a general budget set out for us for each category. The goal was always to stay in budget or come under. So, if I ended up going over budget on lighting then I knew I had to come under budget on flooring. At least that is what my husband told me to do. And well….I kind of did this. I went over a few times, stayed on budget a few times, and went under budget maybe twice? I can’t remember. If I had it all over to do again I wouldn’t sweat the small stuff. 

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Once the house was up and some of the items I picked started to come in I was SO happy with how it all turned out. I remember being at the house one day and a worker had some questions about where certain things went…and I totally couldn’t even remember what I had picked! It was like Christmas morning watching him unwrap everything that had arrived! Also, I had to pick out paint colors early on too….luckily we were able to wait until it was time to actually paint to decide, so I could walk through the house and get an idea of what would look good and wouldn’t. Picking out paint for an entire house is hard too! When I saw the painted rooms for the first time I was so excited! I remember walking through the downstairs and just feeling like I had made so many good decisions! I seriously loved it all….that is, until I walked in to Sadie’s room. It. Was. Horrible. And the funny thing was I was so nervous about all of the other colors I had picked, but I wasn’t nervous about Sadie’s color at all….and I turned out loving every other room and HATING Sadie’s room. I almost started crying. It’s silly, but I wanted my little girl to have a soft pink room and somehow she ended up with a pepto bismol room! My mom and I ended up re-painting it ourselves before we moved in. Ha!
Does that answer your finishings question? I can go in to more detail if anyone wants. Let me know in the comments!

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3. What’s your favorite part of your new house?
That’s tough…..but probably my pantry. It’s HUGE and amazing and I pinch myself each time I walk in. 
So that was only three questions, but it was a lot of info! What else do you guys want to know? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be back to answer them soon!


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Comments

  1. LMW says

    April 5, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    It turned out so great. And funny how the thing you were most sure of you hated. Love the pantry.

  2. Jessica (The Newly) says

    April 5, 2016 at 1:59 pm

    Loving these posts. Filing them away for future reference:) And girl – your pantry is the stuff of my dreams! We just moved into this big new home…and the pantry is smaller than the one I had before in my tiny little 1500 sq foot cottage. Makes NO sense. Sigh. One day.

  3. hello erin says

    April 5, 2016 at 2:10 pm

    Yup. Way faster to build than remodel! But I love all the decisions you made. Your house is perfect for you guys!

  4. Lindsay says

    April 5, 2016 at 3:34 pm

    I love these posts, keep them coming! We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen but I am holding myself up because SO MANY DECISIONS! haha 😉

  5. Meghan says

    April 5, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    You made some great design decisions! I'm so impressed you did all this with a newborn! And I can see why the pantry is your favorite… It's impressive!

  6. Jessica Kessler says

    April 5, 2016 at 7:00 pm

    Your pantry is absolutely amazing!!! Can I move in there? 😉 We built our first home and it was great. Once we had two littles we needed something bigger, but man did I love that house.

  7. Ashley Dorey says

    April 5, 2016 at 7:54 pm

    I can't wait to build our house! First…land. ha. But we did a 700 sq/ft addition on our current home and it took a good 6 months alone. Grrr…

  8. Rebekah @ Chronicles from the Peanut Gallery says

    April 5, 2016 at 9:54 pm

    I'm curious about your kitchen & deciding what drawers and cabinets you wanted. Did you have an idea of number and type or did you just go with whatever fit the space? I know nothing about kitchen design but we're building in a couple of years and I'm already stressed about the idea of kitchen planning!

  9. Amy says

    April 6, 2016 at 10:51 am

    We just moved last summer in a new to us house. I've always had interest in homes, home decor, etc, so I find these posts so fun!

    When I was little (and still now)my mom & I would go to open houses. Haha! We now go to our local parade of homes. So fun!

  10. Kelli Herrington says

    April 6, 2016 at 4:48 pm

    Love it and what color paint is on the walls with the stairs

  11. Laura says

    April 6, 2016 at 6:15 pm

    This all sounds like so much fun!! My husband is super handy and I cannot wait to break down a wall or two with him one day when we are home owners!

  12. Michelle Turek says

    April 7, 2016 at 3:15 am

    Your new home is gorgeous, Julie!! Congratulations!!!

Uncategorized | January 19, 2016

Building a House: Frequently Asked Questions Part 1

You know what makes me happy? The fact that so many of you are just as excited as I am about my new house. I’m thrilled that it’s almost done and that I get to share it with you! I thought I’d take some time to answer some of the frequently asked questions about the building process. Feel free to ask any other questions you have in the comment section and I’ll be sure to answer them in my next post!

Also, keep in mind that everyone has a different experience depending on where you live, your preferences, budget, and your builder. This is just mine.

1. How did you know building was for you?
For us, this process started several years ago. My husband and I LOVED our neighborhood and our school district, but didn’t love the layout of our house. We talked about moving but our school district was so highly coveted that houses were selling fast. So fast that we often couldn’t even get in to see a house before it sold. We looked for about a year but never found the right house for us. It was then that we started talking about building. Flash forward a year later and we started talking about building a house with a guest cottage for my mom to live in. I grew up with my grandma living next door and wanted the same for my kids. My mom loved the idea and jumped on board…..yep, that’s right, we are building with my mom! I’ll share details on her space in an upcoming post.

2. How do you start the building process?

Oh goodness, this part has many steps:
Step 1: Decide on a budget. My husband is a numbers guy, so he crunched the numbers to determine what we could afford in a monthly mortgage payment. If you need help doing this there are a lot of mortgage calculators online. We also spoke with a few realtors to figure out the approximate value of our current home, which we figured we would have to sell first in order to pay for the new house. For us, the steps to figuring out what we could afford to build were the same steps we would take if we were buying an existing home. We set a budget range we were comfortable staying in and tried to stick to it as best as we could. Basically everyone we know who has built a house told us they spent more than they had originally planned…..and we sort of did too. I recommend having a range and trying to stick to the low end of it….but create a cushion in case you end up spending a little more. We stayed within our range but we did get close to the top of our budget. But the good news is we didn’t go over it!

Step 2: Research builders. We did A TON of research on builders. We went to a home show where several builders set up booths and we spent the day talking to all of them. We made a lot of phone calls. I even drove by subdivisions that I liked and then googled around until I found out who built the homes and then gave the builder a call. We took recommendations from friends. We also toured homes that each builder had built because seeing their work in person made a huge difference! You name it, and we did it. Ask each builder their average cost per square foot and use that number to figure out if they are within your budget. We narrowed it down to three builders and then started more serious discussions. When it came down to deciding on the right builder we just went with our gut…and thankfully we all liked the same one! 

Step 3: Decide on your “Must Haves.” Sit down with your spouse and write out what your dream home would look like. Does it have an open floor plan? How many bedrooms? Bathrooms? From there, discuss what you each MUST HAVE in your home. If you are anything like us, you probably can’t afford your perfect dream home. So take a look at your list and pick 3 things that you must have. These are the things that you will have to look out for when selecting your property location, builder, and floorpan. For me, my must haves were: school district, an open floor plan where I could see my kids while I was in the kitchen, and a walkable neighborhood. My husband’s were: at least 1 acre of property, school district, and natural gas. Since school district was really important to both of us, we knew we had to focus in on a certain area. So we kept all of our must haves in mind while we shopped around. (spoiler alert: I ended up compromising on one of my must haves….finding a property that was large enough for my husband to have some land yet was also in a walkable neighborhood really didn’t exist in our price range.)


Step 4: Find property. This was probably the most challenging part of the process. Some properties restrict you to working with certain builders, and some builders only work on properties they already own….so keep this in mind when selecting your builder. Since we knew we wanted to work with our builder we only looked at properties that didn’t make you work with a particular builder. We looked FOREVER. My biggest advice for this is to ask your builder if they know of any land for sale, check online resources every day, use the map on zillow to find properties, and drive around and look for for sale signs (we found a lot of property for sale that wasn’t listed online). We had our builder meet us at several properties to evaluate them and see if they would work. Sometimes we would love a property but after walking it with our builder he would point out things we didn’t know to look for that would make us change our mind. Again, picking a quality builder you can trust is key!

Step 5: Draw up plans. This stage took several weeks for us. Our builder had some pre-built plans that we used as a guide to custom build our home. They had the base plans loaded in to a computer system that allowed us to move walls around, make things bigger or smaller, and basically customize it to our needs. Do your research online (I recommend pinterest!) to help you figure out what you want. Also, go to open houses or a parade of homes to get the feel for what types of layouts you prefer.

Step 6: Re-evaluate the budget. Once you have your property, house plans, and an idea of the types of finishings you want in your home (hardwood floors, tiled shower, fireplace etc.) your builder should be able to give you an estimate on your final costs. You may have to sit down with your lender to review the costs and make sure everything is in your budget. 


3. How long does building take?

It depends! For us, the whole process took about a year. Keep in mind that includes the time we spent researching builders, deciding on our must haves, finding land, drawing up plans, and, you know, actually building the house. 

Dang, that was a lot for only three questions. I’ll start working on part 2….but be sure to drop your questions in the comments!


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Comments

  1. Vanessa Esperanza says

    January 19, 2016 at 2:34 pm

    I am saving this post for the near future. We are really looking into building our home. Thank you for sharing! xo

  2. Jessica (The Newly) says

    January 19, 2016 at 3:17 pm

    Love this! Building is something my husband and I want to do eventually – but not until he is finished with residency and we can pick a place to settle for a while! Until then, I love learning about the process and thinking about how fun it will be for us one day. Can't wait to hear more!!!

  3. Jamie Lynn {Cocktails and Carseats} says

    January 19, 2016 at 3:17 pm

    Loved reading this! We're in the plans stage right now, and I'm anxious to get to the next part. Just curious- how long did it actually take to build your home in terms of months?

  4. Curly Girl Confessions says

    January 19, 2016 at 3:44 pm

    Love that y'all put so much emphasis on the builder! Being a builder's wife, so many people I talk to don't even think about that, but rather just go with the cheapest or the ones that build the "prettiest." I love the house!

  5. Kary Glawe says

    January 19, 2016 at 3:59 pm

    I grew up next door to my grandparents too and it was such an awesome experience. I love that your mom will be on the same property. Can't wait to see her cottage!

  6. Karra says

    January 19, 2016 at 5:10 pm

    This post is SO helpful. We're military so were hoping to buy land somewhere, pay on it and then eventually build on it (with a place for my mother as well!) so this helps A LOT. Super excited to see the cottage and end result!

  7. Andrea says

    January 19, 2016 at 5:33 pm

    I would love some nitty gritty details on how you chose your interior finishings! Cabinetry, floors, etc 😊

  8. Kristin says

    January 19, 2016 at 8:06 pm

    This is awesome! It is absolutely my dream to build some day but it definitely seems like an overwhelmnig task! This makes it seem more manageable- sometimes super stressful I am sure – but manageable! 🙂

  9. Whitney @ Work it Mommy says

    January 19, 2016 at 8:23 pm

    This is fascinating! I don't know if I will ever go through a new build but it is such an awesome process. Thanks for sharing your experience!

  10. Tracy Stegall says

    January 20, 2016 at 4:47 am

    Thank you for sharing and being honest/down to earth about all of your answers!

  11. Elizabeth Birenbaum says

    January 20, 2016 at 5:31 am

    This is my dream but I feel like I would have SUCH a hard time deciding on all the details! Like designing the kitchen and bathrooms and everything. Such a hard but good problem to have I guess 🙂

  12. natasha {schue love} says

    January 20, 2016 at 6:04 am

    Fantastic post!!

  13. Meghan says

    January 20, 2016 at 11:59 pm

    What a great post full of info! My parents built our house but it was just a brand new neighborhood being built so there wasn't all this prep work, more just customizing it with the builder. I would love to build a house but where we live that would be crazy expensive! I'm excited to follow along with you though!!!

  14. Hall Around Texas says

    January 21, 2016 at 7:11 pm

    Great info! I love your new house snaps!! It's going to be so beautiful.

  15. Hall Around Texas says

    January 21, 2016 at 7:12 pm

    I hit publish too quick…I love all of your built-ins. So fab!

  16. Laura says

    January 21, 2016 at 9:53 pm

    This is such a dream Julie!! I hope that one day we can build our dream home. I am so excited for you all and I love the sneaks on snapchat!! (PS obviously this loaded for me now!)

  17. Caley-Jade Rosenberg says

    January 22, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    All great tips for anyone wanting to build. So interesting to see how the process differs in a different country! x

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