It’s official — we’re building a house! This has been a long time coming and we are so excited! Let’s start from the beginning.

On our way to sign the contract!

TJ and I have been interested in the idea of building our own home for about a year, but the whole process seemed so overwhelming. Our biggest hesitation was this: we knew the “Starting From” price was NOT the actual purchase price, but we had no idea how to estimate what the actual cost would be. We visited a couple new build neighborhoods, and it turns out every builder does things a little bit differently. We found that there’s really no standard answer for what the average home buyer will spend in upgrades, or if there is, we couldn’t get a straight answer about it. On top of that, some builders do upgrade incentives, some do allowances, and some don’t do anything to help with the cost of upgrades. So, even after some preliminary research, we were still just as confused as when we started. We decided to bring in a Realtor (Pro Tip: DO THIS! It doesn’t cost the buyer anything in a new build situation and they will be your biggest advocate!). We told her our budget and generally what we were looking for in a house, neighborhood, etc. She suggested a couple neighborhoods for us to check out. Turns out, none of them were right for us. I’m tellin’ ya, this has been a long process!

We were a little defeated after spending a whole Saturday in a couple towns we were targeting. We even left one neighborhood nearly in tears because it was just SO EXPENSIVE. On the way out of that crazy expensive neighborhood, we came across another smaller neighborhood nearby. We popped in on a whim and visited 3 of the 4 builders there. We liked the neighborhood, but none of those builders were quite right for us. I realize I’m sounding a little like Goldilocks here — too big, too small, too expensive… There was one last builder in that neighborhood but we had been touring model homes for literally HOURS. We called it a day and decided to drive back up that Sunday after church. Y’all. My attitude was TERRIBLE.

I love seeing him so proud!

We walked into the model home and honestly, I loved it, but I still assumed it wouldn’t work out. We walked into the second model home and one of my favorite Christian artists was playing on the radio throughout the whole house. Wait, WHAT? I’m not big on “signs”, but I see you with that hint, Lord. Believe it or not, we still didn’t know if this was right, but we did know we loved the neighborhood. We left, gathered our thoughts, and called our realtor. She said she wanted to visit the builder’s office with us, so we scheduled an appointment for that Friday. We left that meeting knowing we wanted to work with that builder in that neighborhood, but we were still stuck between two floor plans.

It feels important to note, I do NOT struggle with decision making. My sweet husband, on the other hand, is paralyzed by decisions. So, when I tell you we decided on the floor plan over the weekend, believe me when I say that was a huge deal for us! We spent the weekend in Arkansas celebrating my grandpa’s 82nd birthday, drove 6 hours home on Sunday, and went straight to sign the contract. It was equal parts exciting and terrifying! We signed the contract on 9/23/18 — I remember because our wedding anniversary is on the 23rd, and it seems like big life events tend to happen to us on that day! Even though it seems like a lot went into it up until this point, this was honestly just the beginning.

Our little piece of Texas

I can’t wait to share more of the story and continue to watch our house go up! Has anyone ever gone through this process before? What was surprising to you about the whole thing?

Here we go!

Love,
SB