AWER HOUSE UPDATE #7: BROKEN GROUND

Ten months have passed since I wrote anything about our house (AKA Awer house ;)) which personally feels bonkers since designing and building our home has pretty consuming since we started pursuing building again last September. But today is the day! After months and months of so much work, I finally have something to say. 😀

Starting there, let me say that there’s no getting around how intense building a home is in 2020-2022. It’s been a long, wild ride. Half of the craziness has been self-imposed; half of the craziness has come from the “new way of building” – the high construction demands and low supply for both materials and labor, and having to make all of your selection decisions up front – especially building custom. Here’s the breakdown of our timeline so far:

October 2020 – purchased our lot!

November 2020 – started with designing our house plans with architect #1

March 2021 – finished designing our house plans with architect #1

April 2021 – hit the pause button on building the house for two reasons, one being wanting to watch the construction market/we hoped it would slow down (spoiler alert: the market did not slow. not in the least)

August 2021 – we decided that when it felt right to pick up building again, we would build an entirely different home/we were going to scrap our first house that, yes, we had just finished designing. This felt senseless to do, but also smart since sitting with the house plans for fourth months revealed enough about the house that we wanted to change. Ultimately we felt lucky that we could have our “second home” without having actually build the first one

September 2021 – we “happened” upon a second architect who wanted to draw new house plans for us (I don’t believe in coincidences!), and we started working on house #2 with architect #2

March 2022 – finished house plans #2! this was a BIG day

April – May 2022 – house plans were engineered (that took some back-and-forth)

June 2022 – we got our building permit! we waited almost three weeks to have our turn with subcontractors to dig our footings

July 2022 – we broke ground. cue the tears!

I can give a specific date for that, actually: July 5, 2022. Oh what a beautiful day! Clearly starting the construction phase has been a long time coming, and while we likely still have 10-12 months to go with this leg of the run, we’re grateful beyond words to have started. That red, broken ground could not be a more beautiful sight. We’ve been working on this build between October 2020 and July 2022 – almost two years!

There was a time last summer when I was actually angry about how hard it has been for us to build this house. The cards we’ve been dealt in this particular hand from ol’ Life are just kinda lame. Architect and engineering hurdles have been huge. Inflation is sickeningly real. Shortages of the beyond expensive materials are high, and the craftsman we need to build our home are hard to come by. It took me some time to work through my feelings, but I got there. I realized that 1), we have a first-world problem in building our forever home, so my anger literally needed to be a passing feeling. And 2), when certain cards from Life cannot be exchanged, you have to belly up to the bar and play the cards well. Some families have starter homes that they build equity in and over time as their family grows, they save up and sell that starter home (or two or there starter homes) and then build their forever home. But that’s just not how it’s worked out for us. We fit into the camp of renting for a long time, and then getting to a point in your family life where having a forever home to raise your growing children both makes sense and feels pressing (IE, Olivia will be 10-years-old in two months). So the rubber hit the road for us, basically — land popped up for us to build on, Ryan works remotely so building a custom home for him to work in for the rest of his life felt necessary, and just plain getting into a home with our girls growing up fast felt important. We’ve gone from 0-100 regarding owning our own home and that reality has been painful at times, leaving us wondering how we could’ve done things differently. Why didn’t we buy a home and work before law school? Why didn’t we start our family later, like after I had a career? But honestly – questions like that throw open the door for Mr. Comparison, that awful thief of joy. If all 30-something people with 5 kids were renting and facing a wildly expensive building and real estate market, would I feel gipped? Nope. So the lesson here is this: do not compare. Your life journey belongs to you. Your path is uniquely yours. Your story should never mirror that of the family’s next door.

Woo! Soap box over. Just know that this process has been amazing, hard, awesome and very hard, and each passing day makes me grateful for it all. Ryan and I have been mentally pulled and emotionally stretched and physically brought to our knees, and well, what is life for if it isn’t for comprehensive, soul-filled growth?

Here are a few more pics of that broken red dirt…

There’s a little blue mixed in with it here (and a baby boy bump)!

Our builder + Ryan + Chloe scoping out the footings! Our builder is one of our favorite people on this planet. He has been with us since the Fall of 2020 when we were working on our first set of house plans, and the fact that he’s still here says a lot about him. He’s super patient, wise, easy to talk to and he has been so good at moving things along as best as he can. We love Sam!!

Sis and I sat in the car while the footings were being inspected (someone didn’t have shoes)!

Olivia and Claire woke up the other day bright-eyed and bushy tailed and asked if they could see the “BIG plans.” Those sweet girls then walked themselves around the house, in and out of every room, and dreamt for a second of it all being real. Our girls have been unbelievably patient and happy during this whole process, as well. Ryan and I love and admire them so much!

I finalized our roof tile, which felt relieving. Have I mentioned the INCREDIBLE blessing of working on the house for nearly two years? I have had nearly two years to make my selection decisions! Like I actually picked out our roof tile in the Spring, so when Sam told us to go choose our roof tile, I just needed to see my choice in real life and confirm that it was right (thank goodness it was).

Same with our exterior paint color! It’s chosen. It’s that pretty, light gray hue on that foam board that Ryan drove around all the town for me to make comparisons with (he is a good man :)).

A couple weeks ago I spent THREE hours at the rock yard picking our exterior stone. I had more than a few options to choose from…

And I ended up finding just the right combo for us. I am combining two stone groups, so our rock will be totally custom and I’m excited about it. It’ll be perfect!

The next order to place is for appliances! We are *this* close to purchasing our appliance package — just sitting with our choice to make sure it’s the right one (induction versus gas ranges, friends. Who knew picking between them would be such a conundrum). We’re also placing the order for our hardwood floors, and I’m also ready to verify my carpet choice. Our windows are being manufactured (they were ordered in June), along with our roof trusses. We met with the best landscape architect and designer in all the land (we swear, even if he is Ryan’s uncle!) whose vision for our yard put stars in our eyes, and I can’t wait for the time when we actually have walls and I can verify that my interior paint choices are the right ones, too. Seriously. The two-year wait has been good to us on the selections front! We are so grateful.

I have a post in the works about all the “coincidences” (HA, like I said, I don’t believe in coincidences) that have peppered this journey with the sweetest confirmations that God lives and wants to help us all move through whatever Life finds us moving through. I would forever regret not acknowledging the major dead ends that we’ve hit and then been able to push through with His lovingly answered prayers. So stay tuned there! And stay tuned everywhere for this adventure! I am hopeful that from here on out, I’ll have fun things to better consistently share.

xoxox!!