I figured I’d catch you guys up on the house stuff so far by answering a few of the most common questions that seemed to pop up on the blog and via Instagram comments and DMs. I can also do a follow-up post to this one if there are more things you would like to see addressed. If I missed anything pressing, just let me know in the comments section!
I’d also selfishly LOVE to use this post as a way to receive some advice from all of you! We are very much novices to this whole process and while we’re done designing our plans and framing on our home is complete, I’m a sponge right now and welcome your advice moving forward! Please share away if there’s something you love in your current home or something you did while building or renovating a home that ended up blowing you away or, in another breath, if there is something you did that ended up being a headache or unnecessary in the end, I’d love to know about that, too! The more of your thoughts you can share, the merrier!
Quick House Q&A
-
What decisions have you made that contribute to this being your “forever home?”
We are making a lot of decisions that center around us being in this home for a very long time. First, the property we purchased checked major life-goal boxes for us. It’s on the water (we are HUGE lake people) and the lot is flat, making it ideal for lots of outside play for the kids. We’re also looking at our home as a long-term investment from a financial perspective.
(I love that Sadie visited our lot a bunch of times before she passed. It feels like part of her will be with us there, too.)
In terms of our floorplans, we opted to work with an architect, something we likely would not have paid to do had this not been a home we saw ourselves in long-term, as it’s a significant upfront cost. That being said, we already feel like every cent we paid to our architect has been worth it tenfold because we are obsessed with the layout of our house and thought about it extensively. (Shout out to Troy from Smith-Slovik for being a total rockstar architect and turning our sketches and vision into something even better… and actually buildable!) During this phase, we poured hours into making sure every square inch of our home will meet the needs of our family now and in future years.
For example, we’re building a very large pantry with an extra fridge/freezer inside of it because we know we’ll go through a lot of food as the boys get bigger and hope to have a house that can comfortably host friends and family, especially since our entire family with the exception of my father-in-law lives out of state. We also have space for our parents to stay when they come visit without stairs to hopefully make their visits comfortable as they get older and wish to stay longer. That is just the tip of the iceberg but those are some things we’re considering from a “forever home” standpoint.
We’re also a little more willing to spend money on areas like high quality cabinets that we might scrimp on if we saw ourselves selling this home within five years if that makes sense.
-
Do the boys know and understand what is happening?
Chase and Ryder are so excited about the new house and have been “in the know” from the beginning! (Rhett is too little to understand.) The big kids really loved the beginning of the construction process — clearing the land, pouring the foundation, framing — it totally blew them away!
They’ve also enjoyed sharing their ideas for the house with us and we’ve done a lot of cool things to the home with them in mind, mostly centering around storage and making use of awkward spaces to create enclosed “secret spaces” for them in their rooms where they can have little clubhouses, etc. Above all else, this is a family home and we wanted to build it to accommodate children and everyday life in an intelligent way. Chase’s request for a waterslide leading from his room into the lake, however, got vetoed.
-
Will Chase or Ryder have to change schools?
Ryan has actually been eyeing the property we purchased for several years so we were so excited and thankful when everything seemed to align. The location is ideal for us and Chase and Ryder will thankfully not need to move schools. I know the whole school thing is HUGE and we definitely did not want to move far away from the area because we love and value our boys’ schools so, so much.
-
What are some things you will be doing in your new home that you do not have in your current home?
First and foremost, please know that I am well aware that all of the “issues” I mention below in our current house are not big issues. We truly do love our home and could’ve been here long-term as well. We’re just thankful we’re on the path we are on with the new house but have so much love for our first house, too.
Okay, now to answer the question…
We love our current house so much and while the size (square footage-wise) is just fine, the allocation of space has been an issue for a while.
We do not have a “real” pantry outside of our kitchen cabinets and the lack of a mudroom/drop zone is my number one gripe with our current home since having kids. We will now have a butler’s pantry (a term that was totally new to me before this process but it was at the top of my “must” list for the new house) and a mudroom with lockers, pullout drawers for shoes and a drop zone for mail and school papers. Hallelujah! When people ask what I’m most excited about with our new house, I say the outside space (the lake!) and the pantry/mudroom.
Our current laundry room is small and doubles as the place where we leave our shoes though there isn’t really space for them in this area at all. Having a dedicated laundry room where I can dry our clothes in the laundry room and not drape them over our dining room chairs sounds pretty awesome. And in the list of things that feel unnecessary but also really cool — we’re adding a small dog bath in the laundry room. This was originally designed with Sadie in mind so if you have any ideas for how we can incorporate her memory into it in a subtle way, I’m all ears. We see a dog (maybe more than one?) in our future, so we are making decisions to make this home very pet-friendly, too.
Our current house also has limited closet storage in the house overall — all things that were totally fine before kids but as we’ve added more children to our family, we’re feeling this more and more. I wanted climate-controlled storage I could walk into (not in the attic) because I constantly need to access storage items since we do a ton of hand-me-downs for the boys for both clothing and toys. Closets and adequate storage all over the house were a must.
In terms of the yard at our current house, it is very sloped and not great for outside playtime, something that feels increasingly important to us with young kids. For the new house, we prioritized a great yard/outside space for the boys.
-
How did you select your builder?
We met with four builders before deciding to go with Luke of King Farm Building Group. (He is basically a one-man show which we liked a lot.) We actually partnered with a different larger builder through the architect phase of the build and paid a fee to that builder to have them accompany us on that journey. It was well worth it but we parted ways after we learned of some quality issues with other homes they built in the area.
Luke came very highly recommended to us and seemed to check a lot of our boxes. He was the most thorough with his cost estimations and worked with us the most on the price of our build since most of his home builds are closer to the city and he was interested in adding a lake home to his repertoire. He also received extensive praise from a local designer regarding the quality of his homes and was the builder we meshed with the best from a personality standpoint. We were given a lot of advice from friends going into this process and the number one piece of advice we received was to take your time selecting a builder and make sure they are someone you can see yourself communicating with regularly in a positive way.
-
Are you using an interior designer?
No. Never have I ever had more respect for interior designers than I do now that we are more than a year into this process. We are not currently using an interior designer due to budget constraints and, for the sake of complete honesty, this can make the process feel very overwhelming at times. There is a LOT to designing a home beyond just picking out pretty lighting, lovely plumbing fixtures and floors. There’s a big learning curve involved in making the right selections and it involves a lot of measurements, Googling the heck out of things like the right lighting sizes for certain spaces, etc.
Our builder sets us up with great vendors but if they don’t have exactly what we want (like certain Anthropologie light fixtures, for example), we’re responsible for placing orders on our own and then also responsible for making sure everything arrives on time and comes with everything it needs to be installed in our home. That’s the kind of stuff I feel very inexperienced in handling but fortunately the internet has a tooon of information out there… It’s just a matter finding the time to dive into finding it!
-
What have been some things that have been a priority for you in the design process? From a visual standpoint?
Windows! We allocated a lot of our budget to windows because natural light is huge for us. We also wanted to take full advantage of our lake view and there’s just no replacing natural sunlight in a home.
I also spent a TON of time selecting the design elements for our staircase. I don’t love stairs as a focal point in a home but I also really appreciate a subtle yet beautiful staircase. I am so, so pleased with the stair design we ended up with and can’t wait to show you guys what it looks like once it is in our home.
Question of the Day
Please share any thoughts you have regarding things you love in your current home and decisions you may have made while renovating or building a home that were well worth all of the time and effort. Please also share something you wish you would’ve done during the home renovation/build process that may have initially been overlooked or something you did that wasn’t worth it in the end.
I’m all ears and soaking up all the information and advice I can right now!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
Hi, I love that you are sharing the process with your new home. No doubt that it will be absolutely beautiful. My one recommendation that I wish I had listened to when we completely gutted and remodeled the house we are in now is DO NOT choose white grout for your bathroom tile, if that is an option for you. The lady at the tile store tried her best to talk me out of it, but I was determined to have white grout with the white subway tile we had picked. I should have listened. Such a pain to keep clean.
Good luck with everything!
This is very timely as we will be picking out tile within the coming 2 weeks. Thank you!!
I second this! And also I’ve found the smaller the tiles the harder they are to clean 😂 wish we would have picked a larger tile for our master bathroom
So you’re telling me the plans I have for penny tile in the bottom of our shower is a bad idea? Haha!!
We just put penny rounds on our master shower floor and in the niche. I LOVE IT! They are a sage green color with a grey grout and you cannot see dirt! The only time they looked dirty was when I rinsed off my dog covered in mud! Also, we went with double shower heads, one of them being a handheld, and no bench. This has been fantastic. We wanted to do a rain shower head from the ceiling also, but everyone I talked to who has one rarely ever uses it!
We had big tiles in the shower and when piping issues made us redo the shower, I went with subway tiles and white grout… it is SUCH A PAIN to clean. We use Method daily shower cleaners which helps but yes, you do see the pink stains a lot more. And I would avoid dark/black tiles. The hard water stains constantly show.
I third this! Also pay for the upgraded grout that is mold resistant! We did for certain areas of our shower and I wish we would have done the whole darn thing instead of trying to save a few dollars. Darker grout and mold resistant are the way to go!!! Good luck 🙂
Also, choose tile that hides pee well! At least in bathrooms your kids will be using. We have natural looking stone tile in our kitchen bath. It is so pretty, but every drop of pee on the floor shows (I have two boys). In a related note, toilet seats that you can completely remove to clean easily are so much easier.
I wish I could say I have no idea what you’re talking about but OH DO I KNOW. Life with boyssss – phewww!
Those WINDOWS are stunning. We’re still renting right now but dream of a house with great outdoor area and windows. Can’t wait to see it completed!
Beautiful!! Keep sharing! I’m sure the process is stressful but the results will be worth it all. Can’t wait to see the boys (and you!) enjoying the home when it’s done!
What a gorgeous piece of land! I love the glimpses we saw so far. Thanks for sharing this much detail-this was so fun to read! I devoured it!
I haven’t built a home but my favorite go to site for inspiration is stylebyemilyhenderson.com. She has built, redone, and styled many homes and there are some really beautiful pictures and inspiration there. She has a new book coming out with “how to” build a home in 2022 actually!
Yes! Read her post from yesterday!
Thanks for sharing! I’m going to be building a house next year and need all the help I can get. Off to pre-order the book now.
Would absolutely love to hear where you’ve been drawing inspiration from!! Also if you don’t mind this question, will Chase and Ryder still be sharing a room?! We are considering a big home upgrade currently, but my “big kids” (about same ages as yours!) would have to share a bedroom… They’ve never done this before and I know they like having their own space, but I also really really really love this house and it would be a massive upgrade for our family – not sure if you have any advice or insights! (Or other readers!)
We are building the house with space for them to have individual rooms, mainly because we think they may want this when they are older. Right now they love sharing a room and have nooo problem sharing. We’ve truly never heard one complaint from them about sharing a bedroom so far. They both know they have their “own rooms” in the new house but we’re going to ultimately let them choose whether or not they want to share when we move in.
I also have my personal experience in the back of my mind — I remember LOVING sharing a room with my sister when I was little but I was definitely itching for my own space by the time I got to high school so I moved into our family’s guest room which became my room… but this came with the understanding that when a guest came to visit, I would go back to sharing a room with my sister while they stayed with us and that always worked well for me.
SO helpful!! Thank you for taking the time! <3
I know this can be uncomfortable, but would you be willing to post any information about costs of the build? It varies so much based on where you live, but it is so hard to find information about renovation and build costs. So whenever I find someone who is willing to talk about it, it is so appreciated!
We just built a house in FL and this was the hardest thing for me! I’d totally be willing to talk to you about our costs because it was so frustrating scouring the internet and it being all over the board!
Congrats!!
I’m sure all of your decisions will be great. A couple items that we love and would do 100 times over:
Suspended bar seats – makes sweeping so much easier and very sleek https://seatinginnovations.com/
Steam shower 🙂
And – do what makes you happy!!!
ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! Thank you for sharing this with us. I’m living vicariously through you!!
Congratulation! It sounds like you have put so much thought into your plans. Definitely make sure you have room for any counter appliances (like toaster/convection oven, microwave – if it is not built in, blenders etc.) inside your butler’s pantry. That way they don’t take up real estate on your kitchen counters. I suggest building the microwave into the bottom cabinets so the kids are able to reach it and it is out of sight. The best thing about the pantry is shutting the door!
I agree with all of this! We are currently in the process of designing/ estimating our 2 flat to single family home conversion in Chicago. We do have a designer and she has been working with us on identifying everything we have and where it will go in the butlers pantry! We also put the microwave low so the kids can access it as they get bigger.
Our microwave is low to the ground in our current house and I’m not a fan! Every adult that uses it will find it cumbersome. There will only be a few years that your kids can benefit from that height then they’ll find it annoying along with the rest of the family.
I think if I had a low microwave, my little one would NEVER stop playing with it and it would drive me crazy!!
Write a Bible verse or dates with memories on the beams/walls as it is being built…they will eventually be covered, but your new home will be surrounded with LOVE!
Also… heated bathroom floors!
I second this. I live in NYS and I can’t tell you how much I love heated bathroom floors in the winter months.
This is so exciting! And interesting for me! My husbands an architect and designed his parents home in South Georgia! Would love to continue getting updates and seeing photos!
Your home is going to be amazing and I am so happy that you will be sharing this journey! I am in the process of thinking about our forever home and don’t know if a new build or renovating an older house would be better for us. These questions may be a bit odd, so feel free to ignore but it is something I am thinking about when looking for our forever home so I am interested in your thoughts if you want to share.
Are you doing anything to make the home more environmentally friendly (for example, better insulation to use less heat or AC)?
Since the lot is on a lake, how did you have to factor in water levels rising or falling and is that why there is no basement?
What made you decide to go with an architect (and starting from scratch on the floor plan?) instead of customizing a build with a ready made floor plan?
How does one budget for this? When in the process did you have to do the mortgage process with the bank?
Julie your house is going to be one beautiful home. I can’t wait to see the end result. I’m in a 3/bed 2/bath home that’s a little over 1,300 sf. It’s not much but it’s perfect for me and my children. We all have our own rooms yay. We moved in a little over 19 years ago. At the time I wasn’t thinking that 4 years into it I was going to be divorced and a single mom. In a way I wish I had moved and gotten a fresh start somewhere else but my priority was making sure my kids had some kind of stability so we stayed. We don’t have a fireplace but we have a small pantry, a small laundry room and decent sized closets so that’s a plus. There’s a lot we don’t have but also a lot we do. I also like the fact that we’re close to some parks/playgrounds, hospitals, grocery stores and shopping stores plus banks, a ton of restaurants and gas stations. 20+ years ago there was not a lot out here. It was almost considered country living but now lol. While we were watching our house being built from a small piece of land up we would visit a lot, thank God for it and pray. Enjoy your newest edition. God bless you and your family.
Are you planning any fold away doors/windows that bring the outdoor living space inside?
I second the Bible verse idea! The other thought is don’t think about what is trendy/popular color schemes. Trends change; go with what you like and will bring joy every day!
Congratulations on your new home! So very exciting and I look forward to following along.
My husband built his dream home before we met. It’s a three story (not my favourite with kids as it spreads us out more than I’d like), ocean front house and absolutely beautiful but he built it with a bachelor mindset so there are quite a few “issues”. He is open to moving or rebuilding but we are first going to see how we can renovate to accommodate our family. I’m hoping your insight into this process will help us. Could you share some of your favourite blogs/resources?
We have plans to build in a daybed/chaise lounge overlooking the water with bookshelves built in around it and art/family photos on the wall. It will make for great cuddle/reading time with our kids. If you plan to do this I’d love to see!
One piece of advise, if you can, is wait a month after the place is finished before you move in (ideally if you can leave windows open) as this will help to release any fumes from the finishing process.
Thank you and best of luck on this exciting journey!!
Will you have a dedicated gym space in this home? If so can you talk about what that will entail. Thanks and congrats!
I’ll definitely share more! It will still be in our garage but the set up is a lot better and not nearly as scrunched.
So excited for you and your family! Those windows in the living room are jaw dropping! A must for us in our next home is two dishwashers. While it may seem unnecessary, we loathe washing dishes. Also wondering if before you move if you’d do some type of home tour of your current home? Love to see how others decorate and use their space, especially with young kids.
This was advice we heard repeatedly, especially with a family of 5 and 3 boys who will eventually be teenagers!
Are you going to have a home gym? That would be my dream!
We went back and forth on this! We’re actually keeping our gym in our garage but will have a MUCH better garage situation so we will have a lot more space. Both Ryan and I actually like the gym in the garage because, in some small way, it feels like we’re “leaving” the house and in that way feels a little more motivating.
Your house sounds like a DREAM and I can’t wait to see if from this point forward! I wish I could stay there up here in winter Wisconsin! I love hunkerd-down blizzards and watching one outside that HUGE window would be awesome!
I am obsessed with the big windows! We built our house 2 years ago! It’s such a fun process. Make sure you add all the canned lights! We added them to our kitchen and basement and I am SO HAPPY we did. Can’t wait to see the house come together!
Great tip. Ryan is can light obsessed so there will definitely be a lot of them!
Congratulations Julie!! Your lot looks so beautiful!!
My family built two houses, one while I was in high school and one while I was in college – my dad said he learned what NOT to do on the first one so he could get it right the second time, lol!
One thing he mentioned is BE THERE the day electricians come to put in outlets. You will want to think through where you will need to plug stuff in. My mom had the great idea of putting outlets inside her bathroom cabinets so she could plug in her hair stuff there and not have cords all over the counter. They also did outlets in the floor for floor lamps, etc.
Thank you!! We have plans for outlets in a lot of drawers and I am so, so excited about this! We’re actually walking the house for the first time with the electrician TODAY.
I second having an outlet (or 5) positioned in the floor so you don’t have wires going across open spaces. Our LR couch isn’t against any walls, so the electrical outlets issue has been a big one for us.
I love reading all the details! So much fun, I dream of one day designing and building my own home! You should check out Erin at thesunnysideupblog, she custom built and has a ton of organization systems in place- including lockers in her mud room and really nice laundry rooms. Her kitchen is a dream too! I’m sure you could find elements from her home that would be inspiring!!
Obsessed with your views — gorgeous!!!!! Just wanted to pop in and say I started reading your blog waaaayy back in the Orlando days and I am so happy for you guys! Thank you for bringing us all along your journey!
One of my favorite things we put into our build was speakers throughout the house and outdoor spaces. We have music going almost non stop! Dance parties in the kitchen with my kiddos, and my favorite part of the day is sitting on the deck in the evening and listening to relaxing music!
We are in the final stages of our architect designs round #2 for building our new house! Our village is difficult to work with and had to cut 400 sq ft from our plans. We are hoping to have permits ready to demo the existing house (100 years old!) and start our construction! Can’t wait to follow along your construction!
Love this! I’m eager to follow along! Actually my childhood BFF just built her forever home in North Carolina too. Small world!
Hubby and I have renovated our little craftsman in town, and just wrapped up renovating a mountain condo for us to use as well as rent out on Airbnb.
I can’t believe what a difference dimmers make. Put every single can light and overhead light on a dimmer! Maximize storage wherever you can! Cabinets and closets are good, but even having three drawer bedside tables makes a difference. We also have a philosophy of just picking a paint color and moving on. We err on the side of lighter than we think we want, and just doing it. No paint samples, testing things out, stressing. Pick it, paint it, move on. It all has to be painted again in the future anyway. We also added a water filter to our sink and having dedicated filtered drinking water is THE BEST.
If I think of anything else I’ll note it! Excited to follow along on your journey!
“Pick it, paint it and move on.” I’m committing this to memory! It can be sooo tempting to overthink things!! We’re in the process of finalizing cabinet paint colors and who knew I would be over here stressed about the difference between greens that, in reality, look 90 percent IDENTICAL. Haha!
Congrats on the new house! I’m an interior designer who lives in your old stomping grounds of Palatine, IL 🙂
I second the comment about being there when the outlets are going to get placed. Think about countertop appliances, where you might want to mount a tv on the wall, etc. Also, if you can get outlets INSIDE bathroom vanity drawers that is so helpful for hair dryer, curler, razor, etc. especially with small kiddos that might grab a cord and pull down. You can also get USB ports put into outlets which I always recommend because there is bound to be something you can plug into them all over your house.
My other piece of advise is to put two dishwashers in your kitchen. It seems obnoxious, but having a clean and dirty dishwasher at all times, especially with kiddos, can be really convenient. You can also get dishwasher drawers and put an actual cabinet drawer below if you don’t want to miss out on storage.
Have fun! It is such a fun process!
I have never heard of a dishwasher drawer! That sounds incredible! And thanks for all of this advice. Truly I’ve never respected your profession more than I do now. And looove that you’re from Palatine!
Oh! And if you haven’t laid out your kitchen cabinetry- literally label each drawer/cabinet with what you are putting in there so you know you can accommodate everything. If you are looking for more ‘age in place’ ideas… drawers for your plates, bowls, and heavier items are HUGE. You don’t want to be lifting items you use daily in an upper cabinet once you are older. 🙂
This is great! This morning I received a “final-ish” draft of our cabinet plans to approve so I’ll do this tonight. And YES to drawers. We laughed because when we were talking over cabinet plans, I said I wanted drawers everywheeeere! In our current home, the only drawers we only have one cabinet with drawer in our kitchen and I’ve always thought to myself whyyyy aren’t these the standard because they’re SO helpful!
Haha, yes! Drawers are so so much better than standard cabinets and you can use the entire space for storage without having to dig for things. If you aren’t getting items like spice racks, dividers, etc. built into your cabinetry Rev-a-Shelf is the best company for after-market accessories. You can really lose yourself looking through their website/products.
My hubby and I built what we call “dream home #1” last year (we are in the state for at least 10 more years due to his military service but would like to move out of the Midwest eventually!)
Definitely be there for outlet placement and one thing I wished I had thought more about is lighting. I found that I wanted more lighting than I thought I would (especially in bathrooms) so I wish I would have considered our day to day more. Also if you are going back and forth about whether you want an outlet in a certain place, just do it. You can never have too many outlets!
I chose a white, marbled tile in our bathrooms and I wish I would have gone with a gray color – I have dark hair and three dogs and every little hair shows I could vacuum our bathrooms 10 times a day and they would still look dirty within 20 minutes. I do love that it’s a nice, big tile because it helps the rooms feel larger too.
I love the idea of a dog wash station! I am not sure if this is realistic or feasible but I think finding a way to put one of Sadie’s footprints on the floor or something in the dog wash area would be a sweet way to memorialize her!
You learn soooo much throughout the build process and with how much thought and consideration you are putting into it, you will certainly love it and be so happy once it’s all done! It is so satisfying to finally be moved in and settled after alllll the visualizing and planning that goes into building!
My hubby and I built what we call “dream home #1” last year (we are in the state for at least 10 more years due to his military service but would like to move out of the Midwest eventually!)
Definitely be there for outlet placement and one thing I wished I had thought more about is lighting. I found that I wanted more lighting than I thought I would (especially in bathrooms) so I wish I would have considered our day to day more. Also DIMMERS everywhereeee. I love love love our under cabinet lighting as well. Also if you are going back and forth about whether you want an outlet in a certain place, just do it. You can never have too many outlets!
I chose a white, marbled tile in our bathrooms and I wish I would have gone with a gray color – I have dark hair and three dogs and every little hair shows I could vacuum our bathrooms 10 times a day and they would still look dirty within 20 minutes. I do love that it’s a nice, big tile because it helps the rooms feel larger too.
I love the idea of a dog wash station! I am not sure if this is realistic or feasible but I think finding a way to put one of Sadie’s footprints on the floor or something in the dog wash area would be a sweet way to memorialize her!
You learn soooo much throughout the build process and with how much thought and consideration you are putting into it, you will certainly love it and be so happy once it’s all done! It is so satisfying to finally be moved in and settled after alllll the visualizing and planning that goes into building!
So excited for you guys!! My husband and I have built two homes and it’s so fun, but also such a stressful process! Especially when things start moving quickly and you feel like you’re making all these decisions at once! One thing I’d say is if you plan to use a gas range, research about the toxicity of gas. We had a gas stove in both previous home and we have one in our current home. I had no idea until recently how toxic gas appliances are (plus gas is terrible for the environment). If you do have your heart set on gas, just make sure there’s a good hood vent to use with it. We run our hood vent when cooking, which works well, but it’s so loud that you can barely have a conversation with someone while it’s on unless your standing next to each other in the kitchen. We also looked into getting an induction range only to find out apparently those can put off EMFs, but I haven’t done enough research on that to find reputable data. I know lots of things put off EMFs, as my husband would remind my anxious self. Anyways! Just all food for thought! (pun intended 😉)
Oh and Bosch HANDS DOWN makes the best dishwasher. The model we bought was rated really well on several appliance review sites, including consumer reports. And it sounds dumb but that 3rd little top rack is life changing. We are actually in the process of moving and I told my husband I will need at least a month to mourn the loss of our Bosch dishwasher. 😂
Here is the article on the gas range I read for reference:
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/1015460605/gas-stove-emissions-climate-change-health-effects
Side note: My husband went through cancer in 2020 so all of this stuff feels so important to take into consideration, but I know it might not be as important to someone else and that’s ok!
Excited to see the house come along and thank you for sharing the journey with us! ☺️
We just moved into our forever home we built with a solo builder in November, and it was an amazing process! I loved being my able to text him and not deal with a company and finding fixtures I wanted myself. There are little things I may changed like making sure they seal grout, paint better, etc., but I feel like I should have paid for updated closet shelving to be nicer materials and added another half bath! We also should have paid someone to make sure the grade off of our house is better. We added an asphalt driveway and are leveling the dirt around our driveway and adding dirt around our house by ourselves before we landscape in the spring. It is totally backbreaking, but fun for our kids who spend all day outside playing while we haul wheel barrels full of dirt!
Congratulations, this is so exciting for you and your family. I love my house and there are just a handful of things that I would change.
One of the things I love is that our stairs have lights (low to the ground, like night lights), so you can see the stairs in the middle of the night without turning on a bright light. I love it. I was at my sister a few weeks ago navigating her stairs in the dark and wishing she had them.
Someone else mentioned USB ports, and I second that. My sister changed some of her outlets to also have USB ports and I think it is so helpful.
Also think about kitchen lighting. Needing to see under cabinets, and in other corners of the kitchen. I have can lights all around the edge of my kitchen and they are so helpful.
Note about the mud room. I have one and love it, but my kids come in from school through the front door (and leave that way too) and I still have the pile of shoes, coats and backpacks at the door. I can’t seem to get around it.
I wish my laundry room had a soaking sink. I also added a rack so I could hang clothes in there.
Good luck! So many choices, so much fun!
Ya know your comment about the front door is the ONE thing giving me pause about our floorplan. We don’t have a “drop zone” or even a closet right inside the front door and I hope I’m not kicking myself for this. Right now we always use our garage entrance and I think the way our house is set up will mean our garage is our family’s primary entrance as well so my fingers are crossed this works out okay.
I think it will be fine! Just having a designated area for all of those things will be so, so helpful! We all go through the front door even though our mudroom is closer to our garage door, and while I definitely do have to remind everyone of the “shoe area” (even my husband!) it is working out! I think your boys will do well getting into the habit of going to your mudroom to drop everything off no matter which door they enter from!
We just moved into our custom home in October and loved the whole building process. There were definitely stressful moments.. especially during a pandemic with price increases and supply issues. I can’t wait to see more updates! Your home looks SO beautiful. We worked a lot of the things into our new home that we did not have in our previous home as well. Lots of windows for natural light, an actual laundry room with a folding counter, a HUGE master closet, and a HUGE pantry. Storage was a big issue at our previous house and now we have more storage then we know to do with. I love it. We do not have kids yet but we did build this home with hopes to have a baby in the next couple of years so we definitely have room to grow. We also extended our garage and I love how spacious it is and I did not realize how much I would appreciate that (my fiance’s request).
I saw some comments on electrical outlet placement and I highly agree with that. I also wish I had thought through the type of light fixtures I wanted to use. I love that you are doing a dog wash. That was something we wanted in the laundry room but had to cut from the budget. We do have an unfinished basement that we will begin finishing this year so I may have to add that in.
I am also in the Charlotte area you are and we went to Carolina Tile and Stone on Stateville Rd. to pick out our tile. We had a great experience! They have a beautiful showroom.
I feel ya on the storage requirement. I was adamant that I wanted no “dead space” in our house — if it could become a closet/storage, we are utilizing the space for that for sure! And your garage comment made me laugh. Ryan is garage-obsessed and has definitely taken the oversized garage thing to heart — haha!
So excited for you! I wholeheartedly agree with the white bathroom thing – though in my case, it’s not just the grout! I have one bathroom that is entirely white (floors, walls, vanity, tile… big mistake). It could clean it 100 times and within seconds, somehow there is hair glaring up at me from the floor, or some seemingly unremovable pink stain on the grout. It looks beautiful but takes up too much of my life, and I wouldn’t do it again! My other bathrooms have a natural stone look (one grey, one beige) and those I LOVE and they never look dirty, even on weeks when I may be a little lazy (though I am childless, and admittedly don’t have the peeing issue mentioned above!) 😀
The other regret (for lack of a better word) I have are my floors. I chose what I thought was a beautiful dark cherry throughout, and while it does look really lovely, and blends nicely into any decor, my gosh, you can see EVERYTHING. Every speck of dust, every crumb, every hair. In the kitchen where the natural light is particularly good, I cringe. Let’s just say my Roomba gets frequent workouts! So, not sure if you chose flooring yet, but particularly with kids and pets, don’t let you aesthetic wants overrule your practical side!
Finally, I love the dog bath idea, particularly the idea of paying tribute to Sadie in some way. I assume it will be tiled, so have you thought about having maybe a single Vizsla silhouette tile in amongst the rest? Something like this, (only with whatever style/colors would fit the rest of the area’s look)?
tinyurl.com/muvhjshn
Or maybe something like this, but on a wall tile instead of a coaster? Maybe even from an actual photo of her?
tinyurl.com/cfuhu2mr
I’m certain that nowadays you could get something custom to match your aesthetic. I love the idea that she would always be there with you!
I cannot wait to see everything when it’s done! So happy for you and your gorgeous family!
I had no idea vizsla tiles existed!!! This is so sweet! My initial thought was an “S” tile but I love your suggestion so much. Thank you!
And thanks for your thoughts on the floors — we definitely are not going dark for that very reason. A friend echoed your comments and that was enough to immediately dissuade me from that option.
Also, if you happen to have pics or links to the natural stone looking tile you mentioned, I’d love to check them out! No worries at all if you don’t remember or don’t have a moment to find them again — just thought I would ask just in case it was an easy thing to share!
You’re very welcome! I can’t wait to see what you decide on for everything!
For my tiles, coincidentally, the tile place was 1 block away from the house, so after 6 months of saving a million things on Pinterest and having a general idea of how I wanted things to look, I walked in with my builder (with him carrying an old school yellow lined notepad). He said “Okay, bathroom 1 – floors and walls – go”. Much like the paint advice of “pick it, paint it, forget it” I knew that if I didn’t just go with my first instincts, it would have been a neverending process. I loved the natural stone look so much so that’s how I ended up going with two different shades for different bathrooms. I tell this story because it explains why I don’t have links. However, I do have photos that I can email to you! for potential inspiration!
Build your cabinets to the ceiling even it makes the top shelves hard to reach. You don’t have to store important stuff on those top shelves, but you do have to dust the tops of your cabinets if they don’t reach the ceiling.
Make sure you choose a lighting style that supports DIMMERS at an affordable price.
Neutral colors age better over time. Be sure to carefully consider where you choose to add the louder colors. It might be quite expensive to change things later.
Storage space is everything and makes the difference between a neat house and a cluttered one.
I just want to comment and say that when I was a kid, around five or six, my parents built a house on a lake. We had to move after about 10 years, but it was paradise. I loved it so much, and it still feels like home. So just know that you are giving your boys somewhere they will treasure forever. 💚
THANK YOU for saying this, Wren. My dad actually said he wished he would’ve done some “big” things like this earlier in life when my sister and I were younger rather than wait and I’m trying to take that to heart, especially when building a home can feel overwhelming for a myriad of reasons. We truly are so, so excited and so grateful and hope our boys grow up loving their home.
Congrats and how beautiful! A dog bath, I’m jealous. 🙂
We bought a heritage house in our city last year and did about 3 months of renovations before moving in. Sorry to say my only regret is not engaging an interior designer sooner. I ended up losing my mind near the end of the project and brought someone in to help decorate the living room and dining room. But I wish I had brought her in sooner especially for lighting help because once the electricians have gone home it’s hard to bring them back to rework things, and you don’t want to have to put holes in your brand new walls! I am now adding more lighting to our too-dark (and unevenly lit) living room and it’s a real pain.
I’m sure you’ll do a great job and good luck. It’s a stressful but fun process.
We tried to keep as many things the same as we could. For example, all vanities in the bathrooms (the only difference is size), tile and countertops the same. It’s less decisions you have to make and things seem more cohesive and “flow” throughout the house. It’s important to remember this is YOUR house, while decisions from experts are helpful, but if it doesn’t line up with your forever home, don’t do it. We aren’t tub people and opted for a tiled shower instead of a jacuzzi tub and the realtor kept talking about the tub being good for resale. I told my husband “we are not building this house for someone else. We will never use a tub (there’s a shower/tub in the other bathroom) so and we love our big tiled shower 😂
Hey! Congratulations! We built about a year ago and it was THE BEST DECISION. Here are some points that might help! 1) Build a spice cabinet into the side of part of your kitchen wall, maybe on the side of the pantry so all spices are in ONE spot without having to go through a pantry door – you will NOT regret this. 2) Make sure deep bottom cabinets have slider drawers – also worth it. 3) Under cabinet lighting is a non-negotiable. 4) Spend your money is places that will last – save on things like guest bath faucets and toilet paper holders that can be replaced later easily with a Home Depot sale, and 5) this is most important – pick a tree in your yard as a “Sadie” tree, plant flowers around it, and buy yourself a nice bench or weatherproof seat that you can go out there and sit ‘with’ her. I did this after our dog passed (after we bought the land, but before the house was finished) and it was the BEST decision I made to bring him “with” me. Pick a flower that will bloom each year, and when the blooms come in, you’ll remember. Best Wishes, Julie!
Oh, and porch furniture? Do not buy anything but Polywood. I live in Wisconsin and we can leave it outside year round, and it’s so weatherproof, it lasts forever. It’s very reputable.
My daughter overheard me telling my husband that you are building a beautiful home in North Carolina (that view!!!) and now she is playing a game about going to North Carolina- except she thinks it is the North Pole. She’s currently making a plan to come visit Santa near your new home HA! Congrats!
Keep these house posts coming, very exciting! My only advice, which you probably already thought of, is make sure you get a double oven in your kitchen! Makes holiday cooking a lot easier
I shared my advice on the last post (practice saying “no” to a few things here and there… upgrade later if/where you can easily) but I just wanted to say again how awesome this will be for your family!
Sounds like you and Ryan are very wise in your thoughtfulness, and as long as you stay humble and reasonable to keep things in check, the house will be perfect no matter what you decide. With our home build in 2019/2020, my husband and I very intentionally tried to make sure we never lost sight of the purpose of the house rather than the “things.” It’s so easy to turn the experience into an HGTV stress – ha! We left a few things for the end after move-in so make sure we stayed in check (cosmetic like backsplash, additional landscaping, fireplace mantel, etc) but it also helped us slow down and get a real feel for the house post-move if that makes sense.
Practically speaking, if you have a sump pump try to put it on a dedicated circuit, and it sounds a little backward but from a cyber security standpoint, I’d recommend at least one hardwired ethernet access point (even in the wireless world we live in!)
Congrats again!
No prior experience with building our home, but we recently moved into a new home. Not sure if you’ve heard of Studio McGee (they are the center of a home interior show called Dream Home Makeover on Netflix). I binged both seasons, and there interior design style is beautiful. They give so many tips and tricks on their website and they also have a line in Target! Just thought I’d pass it along for you to check out!
YES!! They are a go-to for me for all of my design inspiration and questions!
I am so, so excited for you guys! The picture of Sadie on your new property is so precious. You could have that picture framed in your house once it’s complete!
I spent 9.5 years as a mom without having a pantry…so when we moved 1.5 years ago, I was beyond excited for the pantry. One thing I didn’t consider? Mice!! Even though the house we bought was only 4 years old, it was summer, and finding mouse poop was so traumatic that I took all the food out, put it in the cabinets like I’ve been doing for years, and now our pantry is now mostly a toy/game closet. We no longer have mice (we even adopted a cat!) But for some reason I just cannot go back to putting food in the pantry. So 100% do something to avoid mice invading!!!! Also, you will absolutely love having a mudroom area!!
I don’t know if it’s an option or not, but one thing we love about our new house is having two separate AC/heating units (one on each floor). We too were so excited to have more storage within our house and more storage within our closets.
I am so excited to hear all of the details about your new house!
We just moved into our custom build (we drew it too!) last November with littles. A couple things that I am REALLY glad we did….
1) Doors on lockers. We have a large mudroom and every family member has a locker with doors! It’s great to just SHOVE the kids stuff in there and not worry about it being tidy or straightened up as often.
2) Two hot water heaters. We were going to do tankless but our lot didn’t have natural gas access so we opted for 2 50gal tank heaters and I am SO glad.
3) Ethernet wiring. Have your electrician do it now and it is literally 20% of the cost of doing it later because they don’t have to fish wires or tear out drywall
4) A dog wash in the garage. It works great as a utility sink (we did this instead of one) and it’s also great for rinsing off kids! Everything is super muddy in the first year after you move in until the grass establishes so we used it CONSTANTLY in the early days and still use it all the time… and then obviously it’s great if you ever have another pup. No need to take them into a bathroom for a shower!
5) Bigger lights than I thought I needed. I bout front porch lights that are about 1/3 the height of our door (which is shockingly hard to find… most are very small lanterns) and super big lights over the island/massive fans. I think it really adds to the aesthetic/custom look of the house and they are ALSO super functional
My regrets –
Black cabinets. We have a black island that I LOVE the look of but it looks dirty super easily. Same with the girls bathroom which also has black cabinets.
… that might be my only one!
CONGRATS to y’all! It is such a fun, challenging and wild process but it is SO worth it when you are moved in to your forever home.
This was so, so thorough and helpful! Thank you!! And doors on our mudroom lockers was one of my first “must haves” because I have ZERO desire to try to make that area look pretty on a regular basis. Also, thanks for the ethernet tip — we just met with our electrician today and I didn’t even think to ask about that so I will follow up!
Congratulations! We built our home 3 years ago and I am SO glad we did! There’s so many pieces of advice that come to mind but the one we didn’t think of that was most helpful is to put REALLY think about electrical outlets and light switches! The standard placement is lacking! Where do you want lamps? Do you want outdoor outlets for patio lights or Christmas lights? If you’re going to get more dogs, do you need a flood light outside? Treadmill in the basement, definitely add a dedicated outlet! We added lots of extra outlets and didn’t regret it! Also we scaled back in a few places to stay in budget and now I wish we hadn’t, upgrading to tile etc in the guest bathroom wouldn’t have been much more per month in the mortgage. Lastly, use of closet space. The builder grade shelves in the closets were not a good use of space. We totally redid 2 closets and our pantry with the Container Store last year and now we have even more usable space.
If you have central vacuum (do it!) add a space under the counter where the kids sit to open up and suck up the crumbs. I am not explaining it well but it looks like this:
https://builtinvacuum.com/product/vacport-toe-kick-led/?matchtype=&network=u&device=c&adposition=&keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAiAlfqOBhAeEiwAYi43F467wQMJkosrNoivwaME9Gqz2TSMdCwxBGQOL2gQr6_L5ot44-ComRoCp8oQAvD_BwE
The driven by decor blog has some great kitchen inspiration details along with more technical design advice. Built-in toe kick vacuum! Serving platter storage! So good.
Also, something a colleague did when she was building her house was a Christmas window candle light switch. Not sure if you do window candles, but it is a single switch on the first floor that would turn on/off all the window candles (for the whole house) at once.
That Christmas candle switch light is so creative!! I’ve never heard of that!
The only advice I know is not to forget where you will put your trash and recycle in the kitchen planning! Shocking it often gets overlooked. And with a family like yours, a small
Can under the sink isn’t going to cut it! 🙂
Oh yes!! We have that considered for sure!! And another one close by in the pantry!