Truth: I’ve had a bit of writer’s block over the topic of why we built for some time now. I guess the only way to start, is to start at the beginning. It’s a love story, really. Boy meets girl. Girl falls head over heels for boy. Boy and girl decide to cohabitate. Boy moves in with girl. Girl quickly discovers boy is not as clean and tidy as he pretended to be during the pre-cohabitation period. Boy learns girl runs a tight ship and has several OCD (albeit adorable) tendencies. (Some may say girl just has great attention to detail.) Despite this, boy proposes to girl, girl says “yes” and so begins their happy life together. Boy is now lovingly referred to as Mr. Chic(ish) or Mr. C for short.
Mr. C and I lived in my townhouse for over 4 years before we started the building process. Long story short, we needed more space. And so we began the daunting and exhausting process of looking at houses several months before our wedding date. I do not recommend this. I repeat, I do not recommend this. I don’t care who you are, what your financial status is, or how much free time you have – moving is stressful, expensive and time consuming. Add in a wedding and you might start to question your sanity.
I can’t even tell you how many houses we looked at that summer. It was like a full time job! It was super fun at first. We would casually go to open houses on the weekends and make a date out of it. We’d pick apart the location, the layout, the paint colors, the decor, you name it. But we loved it. Yeah, it’s all fun and games until you can’t find what you’re looking for…
We looked at a wide range of houses that summer: everything from fixer uppers to properties that were way outside our budget. A fixer upper simply was not in the cards. Mr. C’s lack of free time + my attention to detail was a combination for disaster. This was something I learned previously during our first (and last) home renovation project together. While I loved that townhouse, the carpet was an eye sore. One day, we got the bright idea to replace the carpet on the main level with “luxury” planks. It was at this point in our relationship that we learned home renovation projects just weren’t meant to be our destiny. My dreams of a Chip and Jo life vanished quicker than I could say, “what’s quarter round?” As many home reno projects go, one project turned into two which turned into three and a cracked windshield of one Jeep Wrangler owned by none other than Mr. C himself.
Then we landed on a home that had recently been flipped. I’m telling you, the views in this place were SPECTACULAR! It had the most beautiful floor to ceiling windows you have ever seen, with a wooded backyard that felt like you were in a tree house simply by standing in the living room. The view, and the view alone, sold that place for me. The white kitchen was just the buttermilk icing on the cake. The rest of the house could have been on fire as far as I was concerned because I was straight up blinded by the view. We put in an offer and so followed the inspection.
The home inspector did his thing while I danced around the house, imagining all the family gatherings we would host, how pretty the snow covered trees would look on Christmas, and even debated with myself which bedroom my soon to be in-laws would stay in when they came to visit. The home inspector rudely interrupted my fantasy.
“Ma’am, we’ve got some problems here.”
“What problems? Will Carol (my mother in-law) not like the accommodations?”
His inspection revealed the following: foundation problems, structure problems, water damage, electrical problems, general ventilation problems, the A/C straight up did not work, mold in the garage…the list went on and on. I was crushed. Fantasy land quickly became stress city.
Fast forward a few months when I decided to stop at the Skogman Homes model home. Even though I had driven by a million times, I thought for sure it would be out of the question. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You never know until you try. If you’ve never looked into building, I would highly recommend it. You absolutely can build a house on a budget, despite whatever preconceived notions you have or what other people are yammering at you. Not to mention, you can customize your home to fit your personal style. My dreams of a white kitchen weren’t out of the question after all! Hallelujah! While I would not recommend building a home while planning a wedding, I absolutely would do it again and 100% would recommend building with Skogman Homes.
I look forward to sharing more about the building process in the future, but wanted to lay a foundation (see what I did there?) since the topic of building could be an entire blog all by itself.
Any questions? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you!
See ya on the next post.
-The Chic(ish) Chick
