Start Fresh, Buy New: How and Why We Built Our Home

I've mentioned before that we moved several times growing up. My family lived in 10 houses from when I was born until I left for college, and as an adult, I did my share of renting before getting married to a (strikingly handsome) homeowner.

So I've done a lot of living in someone else's home. But this past December, I took a seat at the signing table for the first time as Duff and I closed on our home.

Before deciding to build, we spent months looking at existing homes. In our case, as we entered our second year of church-planting with two small kids, it made more sense to opt for a home that wouldn't require a lot of time we Duff doesn't have, rather than buying a fixer-upper. And honestly, a pretty serious fixer-upper was all we would have been able to afford in the neighborhood we're committed to church-wise.

So we started talking to a builder about customizing a spec home.  (A spec home is a home built by a homebuilder without a sales order.) This was a great option for us. We signed a contract on the home last June, but didn't actually close on the home until it was complete in December. I loved the checks and balances this provided.

Our builder was super invested in the decisions we made, because at any point we could have backed out without any penalty other than losing our deposit. So he wanted to make that we were happy, but also that he could sell this house if he had to. (So no, we could NOT have given the living room floors a pink zebra motif.) On the other hand, we had input on everything from the floor plan to bathroom vanities to kitchen countertops. But we DIDN'T have to get a construction load or hire a general contractor or any of that because that was our builder's territory. We'd seen his homes, loved his product, and were thrilled to work with him. On this side of things, we're extremely satisfied with his work and our home.

One of my favorite things about building this way was working to make sure the floor plan fit our family's needs. The original plan we looked at included a garage. Our lot is steep, and to build a garage would have made this home too expensive for us. So we suggested lengthening the porch and finishing the space that would have been the garage as an office, or in our case, a first floor playroom. That playroom makes this house for us. It's full of toys on a daily basis but when we have visitors we can throw an air mattress down and use it as an additional bedroom. It's a perfect little extra for us. We also brought the floor plan in by 2 feet in each direction to keep the cost within our budget. Having this kind of input made building doable for us, both in terms of what we needed in a home (kid space!) and what we could afford.

We feel incredibly blessed to be in a new home in an old neighborhood. My favorite combination! I'd definitely recommend this process, and while we hope we don't have to, we'd do it again in a heartbeat. Click here for info on how you can Start Fresh and Buy New.


I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.