Well, the big news that I’ve been sort of hinting at is officially here, we’re building a house!! Now let’s take this all the way back to the beginning.
We bought property in the Spokane area a few years ago knowing that someday in the future we’d make the move and build a house. That ‘someday’ came A LOT quicker than anyone had imagined which I’ve kind of talked about before. Mostly it’s meant this year has been spent just settling into living on the east side of the state and working with our design/architect team to do all of the “pre-build” work on the house.
I’ve done enough remodeling and projects around the old house (and watch HGTV) to KNOW that whatever time frame I planned for would never be enough. But man, I thought the delays would come once we actually started, you know, building the house! Not a full year before we even broke ground!
So, last Fall we first met with and picked the company we were going to use to design a house. It is SUCH a cool process to give your ideas & preferences, and then watch it all get put together in a custom house plan! It also gets very overwhelming very quickly!! We spent probably about 6 months going back and forth with our architect getting the plan put together. You’re making sure you have all the different rooms your going to want, what’s the kitchen design that’s going to work best, where do you want windows, how big does a living room need to be to fit all your furniture….it goes on & on & on.
THEN!! You get to sit and have some meetings that last an hour or two and the sole purpose is simply figuring out where the outlets go in every single room & hallway. Which is kind of awesome because you can plan them to be exactly where you need them, and also they have to meet code.
For the first part of this process we were still living in the Seattle area so it was a combination of using a 3d model(so cool!), conference calls, and lots of trips back & forth across the state. Once we moved it got a lot easier.
Once we had the plan done, I was READY to start actually being able to see something get done. It ended taking about another 6 months before we could break ground. I think everything that could be delayed, was delayed when it came to all the ‘outside’ stuff that like HOA approval and permitting and EVERYTHING. Not the most pleasant months for me😬
Actually living in Spokane at this point thought meant we could visit the property whenever we wanted. The pups took FULL advantage of that! We spent at least one day a week exploring and letting the pups wander around which was so much fun. They definitely know it’s theirs now. It was really fun to watch them play and imagine what it was going to be.
These pictures were taken on one of the last days before we broke ground a few weeks ago. I set up in what will someday be the backyard and the pups got to go adventuring one last time. While I’m happy there’s now construction, the pups can’t really go play with all the machines and work going on so it’s a loss for them. It’ll be awesome when all this land is their full time backyard, they just have to wait a while to get there.
I’ve been posting a few IG stories and will now be posting a bunch more as the house is officially being built! Make sure you go follow me on Instagram for regular house updates. There’s probably going to be quite a few blog posts as well over the next year since it’s a massive part of my life right now!
Let me know in the comments if there’s anything specific you’d like to see on the blog, IG, or Youtube👀👀 about building a custom house!! I didn’t know much about the process before it all started so I’d be glad to share any & everything I’ve learned if you’re interested!
~Alison
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