Highlights of Homebuilding

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

The biggest reason I have started this blog is to help me remember this amazing (and yes, difficult) thing we have undertaken. Building our home...

It's for you to read and enjoy...

Look at the pictures. We have started from "scratch". Just ten acres of beautiful Western Kentucky property with no electricity or water. Just a phone line! Ha! And not even DSL with that! My awesome man is the GC (General Contractor) of this project. He has experience~Yay! So in addition to it costing less to build, I will also be able to tell him what I don't like and not even feel bad about it:) Just kidding! This project has been nearly two years in the making. I will start from the beginning and show you how the Lord has answered amazing and specific prayers and how he has opened and shut doors.

So first, the land...

When we found out we were moving to Kentucky (and "found out" is not exactly the perfect phrase) the first thing we were looking for was a house with acreage. Paul and I both LOVE the country life and all that comes with it: land for kiddos to run on, a place for a garden, seclusion, room to expand and build, etc. So we knew the city life was not for us! Thankfully, my dad's church has a great realtor who began to look for properties while we were still traveling. We were always getting emails from him with houses for sale. None really stuck in our mind. There was one we looked at a couple of times but the price tag was too out of our range, so...

We told him to narrow it down to just land. No homes on it. The good thing is, land in KY is pretty inexpensive! The bad thing is most of the pretty places were miles and miles away from civilization. NOT good for me! As much as I love country life, please don't take me away from my places to shop:) hehe. Not too long after we told him that, he found our future piece of land! Ten acres of amazing woods with a small meadow in the front. We went to look at it and Paul and I instantly fell in love! He knew deer would be plentiful for his hunting hobby and I knew it would be the perfect place to raise our family. And the best part? The price tag was only $35,000!!!!! A steal of a deal. Paul and I mulled and prayed and thought and prayed. We finally decided that we would offer the owner $8,000 less than his offer and if he tried to counter bid the highest we would go was $29,000. We gave him our offer and our realtor called within a couple of hours to let us know that the man had accepted our bid!!!! Talk about a specific answer to prayer! Praise the LORD!! God is sooo good to us:) That was in November of 2008...it has taken this long to finally begin building our dream home!

We cleared about an acre right away about 200 feet back from the road with a long curvy driveway (!) with help from a Christian man...long story that I won't go into. I know that's what blogs are for, but it would be unnecessary and would only give me a reason to complain, which frankly, I don't need! We did the perc test, which is a test to see if the soil is right for a septic system, put gravel on our drive and laid a drain tile. But other than that, nothing was done until about three weeks ago! :) I look back and can't believe I waited this long.

And I'l let you know, when I say nothing was done...I mean nothing was done to the land. Believe me, I had plans drawn up. By a construction friend, and then later revised by myself. I pored over magazines and books and websites looking for the perfect floorplan, materials, furnishings, etc. The Lord knew I needed that time to get in my head what would be perfect for my family as far as the layout of the house would be. I can't wait until you see my plan! I am going to try to scan it and post so you can see:) Yay!!!!

Well, this is it for now:) A lot has happened in the last three weeks, that I will be writing about soon. I will also be posting pics going from start to finish of our house. Let me tell you, the first few pictures will be "boring". To you anyways, not to me ! :) And also, my blog page will be changing. Check out the links I'll be putting up. They have been a great source of ideas for me. Notice the countdown and the pics I'll be changing around.

Thank you for reading and for being interested in my life:) You all are pretty awesome!

On to build,

Rachael

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations! What an exciting phase in your life! :) Can't wait to see your new house!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Sarah! We are excited, too, and thank you so much for following:) We'll keep you updated!

    ReplyDelete