I hope you have ear plugs in because I have something loud to tell you.. WE HAVE MOVED INTO OUR NEW HOUSE! I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am to be in. It has been a LONG summer of building. And really it has been an even longer year of tearing the old house down to get ready to build. But it has all been worth it.
There has been so many ups and downs in this process and lessons learned. Like, do you know how many banks think it is ridiculous to build this far out in the country? I mean, how do we ever plan to sell it?! The idea that we are building on our ranch, where we work and live, was such a hard concept to grasp. I also learned that living out in the middle of nowhere makes it hard for contractors to want to come out. But with the promise of a home cooked meal and a place to sleep we were able to get the workers to come. And let me tell you, when they give you a date, whether its when a project will be completed, when they will start something, or the day you get to moved in, whatever date it is, add on about half as much time and that is your realistic time frame.
The Rancher has turned into a fine electrician, plumber, negotiator, excavator, framer, and all around handyman. I could probably hire out as a great painter, with a twist of high wire acrobatics if you are lucky. And if anyone wants any advice in picking paint, flooring, cabinetry or anything else that has color, I would love to help you…. But its pretty stressful so you are on your own!
As we were building there were a few musts that we had to have. I wanted a real laundry room for the mountains of dirty clothes we accumulate from ranch fun. And it had to be separate from the mud room because a laundry-room-mudroom combo means just exchanging dirt rather than actually getting rid of the dirt. I needed to have a bathroom close to the back door so The Rancher wouldn’t track mud and dirt and poop through my new house (because I already know that the boots aren’t coming off…). The Rancher wanted a garage, one big enough to TWO trucks in and his 4 wheeler and his tools and still have room to work in. So pretty much our garage is as big as our house… Ok, not really. His final must have for the garage was that the roof couldn’t slope so that the snow didn’t dump off in front of the garage doors, something we are already so thankful we planned for!
After all being said and done (even though we aren’t all done…) it has been such a great experience. Everyone needs to build their own home at least once in their lives. And when I say build I really mean build. Being the ones to string wires, put in flooring and cabinets, to paint the walls and hang garage doors has helped us to appreciate our home so much more. When we began building I told The Rancher that this house was to be a house of perfection- everything absolutely perfect. But I’ve learned that it is more a house of forgiveness- mistakes have been made, some that can be fixed and some that we cover up and some that we just live with. But imperfections and all, it is ours.
I promise there will be more details and photos to share later, but that will need to come as we get everything finished and after it is decorated all fancy and after I do some cleaning (its amazing that even though it is a new home it is a lived in home and is messy already!) But here is a few shots of my LOVELY kitchen, the kids play room, the mud room, and our bedroom. Now don’t judge that things aren’t finished and that there are things hiding under my bed… just look past it all!
