Our Home Build Journey | Part 1: Behind The Design
If you’ve been following along for a while here, you know our family is on quite an adventure as we bring a historic farm back to life and build our home here. I shared in my last blog post all about the roots of this adventure and so today, I thought I’d share about one of the most fun parts - the design of our home!
The Heavenly World Of Design
I live in the design world. I’ve been designing events for the past 15 years and there are few things in the world that light my heart on fire more than jumping in to create special places and moments. You can imagine how excited creating this space - this soul filled space we will continue raising our babies and carving out life dreams together - makes me. I don’t think I know the words to express my excitement about it really.
And since this entire process has been years long - from selling our home, finding and purchasing our property (and the year it took to be subdivided) to now waiting on plans and permits and all, I’ve had PLENTY of time to think about it all.
I actually have really appreciated the time it has taken as it has allowed me to really hone in on what is important to us in terms of the design of this space. I look back at when I started dreaming about this project, and though certain design elements have come and gone in my must have list, the bones and the roots of what it will be have remained the same.
I think that when you live in the design space, it is even harder to design for yourself. As with weddings, I find an appreciation for so many different styles and aesthetics, used in the right place and time and for the right people. I’ve found that designing for ourselves is much harder. Just as I know planning a wedding for yourself to be a gazillion times harder than for someone else. I find this to be just as true in this adventure.
So, join me as I walk through our thoughts about this space and what is to come.
Branding Words For Life - Thanks Kels!
As my dear friend, Kelsey Kurtis, so wisely teaches… branding words, act as a guide for each decision you make. I find this to be very true in business and life. And it is a practice that I’ve put to use with this project as well! With a million decisions to make, I’ve created kind of basis to run them by, to ensure they align with the core values we hold for the outcome of this project. I haven’t done a very good job of actually writing them down, but they are in my mind. So, I suppose this is my opportunity now.
The words I am keeping close to heart are these: cozy, soulful, love, togetherness, organic, timeless, personal, rooted. That’s a lot of them, but it sums up what I want this space to embody.
The Basis For Our Design
My thoughts on the over-all design of our home is that it is timeless and feels full of soul. Like it has been on this farm for many decades. If it were up to me, I would build an idyllic English cottage, tudor style, full of the ultimate cozy and nostalgia. However, Craig’s taste tends to be a little more modern and so what we are creating is a mixture of both. (But, he’s pretty gracious about letting me steer our design.)
I have such a strong desire to build a house that is not trendy by any means but is true to ourselves, to nature and to the landscape of this special place. I want to create something that is not overdone. I don’t want it to look like a modern farmhouse or have shiplap or a color palette of black and white. I’m fighting against trends that have been long standing in order to create a space that is rooted in uniqueness and stands the test of time. Though there are certainly trends that I appreciate and will incorporate, it is a game of finding a balance of it all.
On a farm that has such rich history (one that I am still researching and learning about) I really want to build something that feels like it has been here for years. I foresee a number of found pieces built into the new construction, leading to something that has a story and richness that just can’t be created with all newly built pieces. I’m on the hunt for a gorgeous arched front door that is salvaged from some past existence and needs a chance to live a second life. (Let me know if you have any leads!!) I imagine what a conversation starter it would be the moment you set foot on our front porch. I love tid-bits like that.
I have dreams for a bar in the downstairs rec-room being a salvaged piece from some historic building that is refurbished, re-loved and given an opportunity to create new memories.
So, with the vision of a farmhouse set in the English countryside as the basis, we will weave together modern elements with pieces that have a rich history, hopefully leading to a home that will be cherished and appreciated for years to come.
Champagne Taste And A Realistic Budget
Life in the design world means high ticket items all around. Unfortunately, this has certainly shaped my taste to be a bit (ahem…a lot) beyond the budget we are working with. Fortunately, Craig is good at reeling me back to reality, while I remain certain we can get creative and build something that looks like a gazillion dollars without actually being.
The reality of it all is that we are trying to build in a way that respects our budget and it makes us recognize that we have to do this step by step and creatively. There are a few things we are keeping in mind as we work to create our forever home so that it doesn’t cost our entire lifetime to pay for.
Being Thoughtful About Space
We are keeping the footprint of our home on the more modest side as we know that square footage can quickly drive the cost up. Living in a huge house has never been a big must have for us and so this feels just fine. Our first home was was 1300 sq ft. Reflecting back on the size, with five of us, it would definitely feel a little small. Our last home was 2280 sq ft and we honestly felt like we had more space than we needed but it was definitely comfortable.
This has been a really good learning experience for us to recognize what spaces are most important to have adequate space in and where we can conserve more. We have designed the main floor of our home will be about 1400 sq ft. As we research and wrap our minds around dimensions, we’ve recognized that we could feel perfectly comfortable and content building a home that is about 1800 sq feet total for the five of us.
The slope is fairy gradual and lends perfectly to a daylight basement.
Our home site is on a hill side and so we will have a daylight basement. Though this wasn’t a necessity to us at all, it just makes sense to build a downstairs that is functional since it has to be there anyway in the form of foundation. The basement will add about 1000 sq ft to the house, which is honestly more than we desired. However, because the space is automatically there, we designed the main floor in a way that we could do all of our main living there and use the downstairs for bedrooms and a rec room. So, though, our hope was to keep the house at about 1800 sq ft, with the basement it will end up being about 2400 in total. This feels like PLENTY of room but we recognize it will be likely appreciated more in the future as our girls get older and want more of their own space.
Building In Phases
We are designing our home in a way that we can build it in phases. While it will be completely livable in the first phase, after the second phase, it will be much more comfortable for our family of five. This is our way of building an end product that we want, while the expenses hit us more gradually.
Like I mentioned, we are building on a slope and so our home will have a daylight basement. In an effort to save on costs, we have decided to finish the basement on our own. Wish us luck, I’m sure that will be yet one more adventure we take :) Haha! Thank goodness Craig is handy! I’ve got lots to learn!
The main floor will encompass all of our living spaces, utility/mud room, our primary bedroom/bathroom, one main bathroom and a second bedroom. When we move in, our girls will share one bedroom while we finish the basement.
We know it won’t be ideal for them in the beginning, but luckily they are loving sharing a room right now in our rental. We are crossing our fingers and praying that some of that joy sticks in the new place. Once we finish the basement, they will each have their own rooms downstairs alongside a rec room. The bedroom upstairs will become our office. It will be a process but doing it in phases will make things more attainable.
Prioritizing Our Investments
Knowing our end goal, we are prioritizing the places that make the most sense to invest more heavily in than others. For us, this means the kitchen, great room and the making sure to take advantage of the views in the design of our home.
I LOVE to cook and have exercised my creative kitchen skills in spaces that were small, with limited counter space and less than inspiring for years. This will be the first time we get to create a kitchen we really love and this will be the place we plan to invest more heavily.
We don’t spend as much time in our bedrooms and so, to us, those spaces can be more simple and less costly. We will put a tile shower in our master bathroom but decided to forego the idea of making it a steam shower to make it more affordable. Windows and natural light are important to us and so the design of our home has been built around the natural views that we have on the property. When it comes to the downstairs, we will keep things on the simple side, for sure.
The exterior of our home will have a little bit of stone work around the entry but rest will be standard horizontal siding. We have been thoughtful in the architectural details in the design of the exterior so that the finish work doesn’t have to be as luxe.
Creative Sourcing
Recognizing that we will have to give and take here and there to stay within budget is something that we have been talking about a lot lately. We’ve been using this waiting time to collect a list of different places we can source things on our own to keep them cost effective. (And we are grateful for a builder who allows us to do this!)
For example, I want a nice 48” range in the kitchen, which easily costs upward of $10k. Craig recently found a source called Premium Home Source, which has some incredible kitchen packages that are super cost effective. From everything we can tell, the products are great quality and reviews are great!
The package we are looking at includes a 48” range, range hood, fridge, drawer style microwave, dishwasher and wine fridge for right about $10k. Im not totally in love with the fridge that comes in the package but we can customize things or purchase a fridge elsewhere. Knowing that we could outfit the full kitchen for what I was looking at paying for a Thermador range makes me really excited.
We are also very open to purchasing scratch and dent appliances or open box items, which we have had great luck with in the past. And, in the right circumstance, even purchasing used might make sense.
We are maintaining this mindset for each room in the house and educating ourselves in order to be able to select materials that give us the most bang for our buck, while still staying true to our aesthetic.
Next Up
Stay tuned as I continue this series and walk you through each of the spaces of our home! I will share our thoughts and inspiration for each room as well as some visuals to give you sneak peeks about what we have in store.
Thank you so much for being here and following along on our journey! Please let me know what you want to hear more about!
