Home Sweet Home-Part 3

Welcome to the last and final home post! It feels like a long time coming (which it has been), but I am excited to share everything decorated and completed. **As a disclaimer** we have yet to hang things on walls and finish changing out a few fixtures (towels bars, toilet paper holders, etc), that will happen over time and we aren't in any rush. We are still waiting on a few final details to be fixed. There is a whole kitchen cabinet that needs replaced, flooring trim pieces that still need installed, among a few other things. It kind of comes with the territory of new construction homes (other friends who have built homes can verify). Hopefully those will all be taken care of as soon as possible. If nothing else, at least we can say that we finally have the correct garage door, haha! As I wrap this up, I will be posting photos below that I have taken of some of the rooms in our house (home photos are not my strong suit, and also the upstairs isn't entirely put together yet). I plan to link as many home decor pieces from the photos that I can so you can shop as well as scrolling through the photos.

The first room I want to start with is our Florida room (sun room, fireside room, etc. *all of those are the same thing*). In our initial design we weren't going to include this, but after receiving pricing on a third car garage for the extra space it just was not in our budget. They then talked to us about the Florida room, which was cheaper and would add liveable square footage to the home, which in turn is better for resale value. So, we decided to go for it and are so happy we did; It has become my favorite room! It is so perfect to sit in and drink a nice hot cup of coffee before starting your day.

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From there, we'll move into the dining room and living room. They are both one long stretch including the kitchen, because the floor plan we chose is completely open concept. I tried my best to make sure all the furniture, accessories, etc. went together since it was one big open area. I spent forever trying to decide on a dining table and bar stools, but I finally nailed it down. Our current sofa came with us from our old home because we had just bought it not too long ago. We feel like now that we have it in this home, it doesn't really match the aesthetic, but I wasn't about to replace it after just purchasing it. So, I did my best to make it match!

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I am going to save the kitchen for last even though it makes sense to include right after the dining room and living room. But, I wanted to head into the master bedroom, bathroom and the entryway. I am not giving the entryway it's own dedicated section because there isn't much to it. It's certainly grand, which is exactly what drew me to this home plan in the first place! The master bedroom and bathroom have become everything I ever envisioned...a true oasis.

A little secret between you and I, I think my husband is using the bathtub more than I am ;). But, how could you not! it's everything I could've imagine. Fun little story on the bath tub... initially they did not have that option. They only had a garden tub which I was going to concede and have them do. We happened to walk around in another house that was the exact same layout as ours. It had the soaker tub and a giant window above it. I fell in love, so my husband texted our supervisor that night. After making sure it was achievable and spending some more money (because that's all you do when you build a home), he was able to make it happen! So, so worth it.

We also had a closet company (Meridian Closets) just recently come out and install a closet system in our master closet (if you're local you can give them the code PAYGE25 for 25% off!). OBSESSED.

Something I did want to mention, a lot of the light fixtures, hardware, and faucets we replaced ourselves to save money; plus, unfortunately, our construction company didn't offer a lot of the designer pieces I wanted in the house. So pro tip, if you're wanting to build, have them put the fixtures in that come with the house and then replace them yourself!

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Last but not least, the kitchen, pantry and half bath. I chose not to worry about posting photos of the upstairs because there isn't much exciting happening up there. It's really just being used for storage. There are a few bedrooms, a bathroom, and a loft space. The majority of the furniture up there are things that came with us from our last home.

The kitchen: We poured our heart and soul into this kitchen. We believe it to be the heart of the home, so we wanted it to be perfect. We tweaked the original layout because we wanted more cabinet space, more countertop, and a larger island. One thing we also did that I would highly recommend is we had them make a spot in the island for our microwave (that's the cabinet that needs replaced because it was cracked on installation). BE SURE TO GIVE THE SPECS OF YOUR MICROWAVE TO YOUR SUPERVISOR. If you're new to this like we were, it is very important to figure out what type of microwave you want to use and give those specs up front so they can make the cutout the appropriate size.

We paid someone separately to install the backsplash because they didn't have what we wanted, and again saved money. He also installed our vent hood. And, we had Meridian Closets do our pantry as well. Originally, I wanted to do gold in the kitchen, but decided not to because it goes in and out of style. So I decided to put it in the half bath where it can be easily changed. It's subtle, but I love it!

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What we learned most with this home build is to go in with very little expectations; and I am not saying that in a mean way. What I mean is, just keep in mind the timeline they give you will more than likely not be met. Sub contractors can be very careless (we had a window shattered by a sub contractor and are still waiting on the replacement), and communication is not always the greatest. A lot of people will blame a lot of things on the construction company, but what we've learned is that a lot of it falls on sub contractors and their timeline/workers. Sometimes it would take weeks to have them come out to start or even complete a project and that was no fault of anyone except for them.

Now, the ultimate question I posed in the last post: would we ever build another home again? Now that we are in the home and have been through the process I would say MAYBE. I know that it is not a solid yes or know, but there is so much involved in it. We would be more prepared the second time around and we would definitely not do it during a pandemic. However, we are in love with how it all turned out! And, above all, we are so grateful and feel so blessed that we are able to live here and call it ours.

That wraps up the blog posts covering our new home, I hope you enjoyed following along. If you see something in the photos that isn't linked, don't hesitate to comment or reach out to me on Instagram. Or if you have any questions around new construction homes, reach out to me about those too! If I don't have the answer, I'll work to get it for you. Thanks for coming along on this journey with us!

Lots of Love,

Payge