VERY happy and surreal news to share today…

After YEARS of renting and moving and searching for the perfect little oasis of land, we’re finally in the veryyyy, very early stages of building a home!!!

This has always been a dream for our family, and we couldn’t be more excited to begin this process! And of course, we’d love to take you on this journey with us as we plan and document every step of the way.

The Land

We always knew we wanted to put down roots near family, and with our parents currently living just an hour apart from each other, the bubble for our own forever home was fairly easy to pinpoint. But finding the LAND itself in that bubble was a whole other ballgame.

The type of setting we were hoping to find — in a new-ish neighborhood, but still private, enough land to build, but not so much that we couldn’t take care of — was hard to come by. We checked out lot after lot, using every ounce of energy to remain hopeful that our spot was still out there.

(Getting discouraged was easy; maintaining the search and staying optimistic was NOT. But we knew the months of searching would be worth it.)

Then, about two years and endless lot drive by’s into our search, we stumbled on a piece of land that recently became available and had… potential.

I say that because I want to be honest; for me, it was not love at first drive by. It was an interesting lot with a lot of beauty and advantages, but a few hurdles I had trouble seeing past at first.

Thankfully, my husband did see it — he saw the vision for what this piece of land could be for us. He saw the house and the creek and the sweet little oasis we craved. Little by little, we explored this spot as a real option for our home build. We talked to builders and our architect and city planners trying to determine what it would take to make this spot our home.

Turns out, my husband was right; it was the oasis we were looking for, and the challenges I saw weren’t nearly as intimidating as I thought.

I share this because I understand how tempting it is to check all the boxes in a scenario like this. I so badly wanted it to feel perfect from the day one, but the truth is, the beauty and potential of this space only came to light as we spent more time with it and trusted the process.

In late 2021, this little oasis officially became ours.

The House

Ok, so here’s where we really started running with our vision: we began working with an architect and even pinpointed our preferred builder a few months prior to design our DREAM home.

(Yes, this technically happened before moving forward with the land, which probably feels backward — but as it all started coming together, multiple processes were in motion, and we were lucky to have both an architect and a builder on board who understood the end goal and helped us tremendously through those beginning stages.)

Our architect, Gregg Kissell with Home Design Group, came highly recommended by multiple sources and has honestly been a dream to work with in this process. His level of understanding for our home goals — and patience with us being so new to this process! — has made the experience much more relieving and less stressful, knowing our scattered notes and house dreams were in his hands.

And because we have an extended timeline for this project, we’ve been thankful to take our time perfecting the floor plans with HDG over the last few months. Because let me tell you — even though we had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted in a home that functioned well for our family, there were still SO MANY THINGS we’ve had to discuss and consider and rethink through this process.

A few features we knew we wanted to include were a main floor in-law suite, a main floor office, and a basement (hello, midwest storm protection!). We made a list of “must-haves,” “love to haves,” and “would be nice to haves” to help prioritize our desires in this home while leaving room for negotiations and sacrifices where necessary.

While the plans aren’t quite finalized, they’re getting closer every week and coming together beautifully!

In the meantime, we’ve been doing LOTS of research on interior choices — everything from hardware and cabinet styles to fireplace and flooring options. There are literally so. many. details. to think about and figure out along the way… another reason I’m grateful for that extended timeline.

And this is where I’ll just share: I’m alwaysss open to your real life experiences with interior everything! There’s so much to learn in this process, and I’m finding that there are options I didn’t even know existed for finishes, appliances, etc.

Speaking of that extended timeline I keep mentioning…

To give you an idea, we’re probably still 1-2 years out from breaking ground on this project. That may seem like an eternity to some, but to us, that gives us enough time to focus on the new baby this year while taking our time with house planning and decisions along the way without feeling rushed. For now, we’re soaking up memories with the little ones in our current home and enjoying the process at our own pace.

I’ll be sharing more of our experience with building a home as things progress! In the meantime, feel free to send me ALL the tips and experiences from your own home building journeys!

With love + inspiration from our home to yours,
Jenna