Tuesday, September 4, 2018

After Move-In Update

Well, it's been a month since our official move-in date, and I have to say.. I freaking love our house. It was worth all of the pain and stress we have been through. So, to all of you building out there.. it will be over, and it will be worth it.

Things I love most about the new house:

  • The location. Yeah, we could've bought a similar size house in a neighborhood for a bit more than we paid for the house... BUT we would be looking into our neighbors' houses every time we looked outside. Now, I see grass, trees, and the Puget Sound out the doors and windows. Plus, we have neighborhood friends with kids of similar ages! My kid can ride his bike down the dirt road to a friend's house. My kids can play outside without worry. We even had a small neighborly bonfire and s'mores last week.
  • The private master bedroom. It's tucked into the back corner, and I have to keep my door open to hear the kids at night.
  • The kitchen cabinets. Oh my goodness. There is so much storage that the cabinets look almost bare in some instances. I can put pots and pans in separate cabinets, and Tupperware lids and containers on separate shelves. It's magical.
  • Space. So much space. We don't have to squish behind another person behind the dining room table anymore. We had 5 additional adults and 3 children over at our house and we still had plenty of room. However, I find I misplace things all the time because now I have too much space.
  • The closet. Again, I have more space and organization possibilities than I've ever had. I have my shirts and cardigans organized by sleeve length, shoes by heel height, and even exercise clothes have their own drawers. 
  • The heat pump. The summer heat in the Pacific Northwest is only unbearable for a few weeks, but man.. I love having air conditioning at home.
  • The feeling of being HOME. We have moved 7 times since we have been married (almost 9-10 times if you include when we were dating). We thought we were settled into our first house, but no, I got the crazy idea of building a new house. Despite the craziness, we have been involved with this house from the get-go, and it instantly felt like home. We still have a ton of projects waiting to be done, stuff waiting to be bought, and family/friends to invite over... but we are finally HOME.
Oh, and the crazy thing is, my husband has to travel for work, so he was only able to enjoy the house for 10 days before being shipped off. However, he is working so much overtime that it's helping us pay off the extra expenses for the new house.

Next up... and possibly one of the last home building blogs I'll do before I move on back to real life... Things I wish I would've known before building a home.

3 comments:

sherakay said...

I am really looking forward to your things you wish you would have known before building a home! We bought a newer home (2013) last year (7/28/17) but my mother has property in Seattle we are trying to develop. Unfortunately we are trying to put up three houses that are three stories, and it is near impossible finding a build on your lot builder that has that plan.

Shewi128 said...

Some on your lot builders will take your design plans, but you have to meet with them in person to see what they will charge one. One of our friends had a custom home plan, but their General Contractor was going to overcharge them by $100K. So, they took their plans to Lexar, and Lexar built their home!

sherakay said...

That is reassuring to hear. I have been speaking with Reality Homes only because they were the only ones to have a floor plan (Cedercrest) similar to what we were trying to do. But the reviews are scathing on Yelp and no one else, Hiline, Lexar, TrueBuilt, etc had a floor plan similar. We are trying to do a 20x50 floor plan, two levels, so 2000sq ft on a narrow 30x120 lot and all the Design/Build places in Seattle are saying it would be $220-350 sq ft so we need to find other options.

New home blog coming soon

I have received a lot of questions via email about how the home is holding up for the past 2.5 years. I plan to do a detailed update on our ...