I haven’t posted about this mostly because like is this tacky? Is this acceptable to discuss? We’ve kept it off social media as a rule but no one really reads this blog anymore and it’s more for me and journaling purposes and I really want to be able to keep record of this whole process.
So, long story short. We bought a little chunk of land with the hopes of building a forever house for our family.
Long story long. Jazz has been scoping out the housing market for years. Always sends me new listings or things that have dropped in price… he has been ready to move for awhile but noooope not me no. First of all, moving is the worst. Just the absolute worst. Second of all, our house has been just so perfect for us for so long- we have been here eight years- longer than I’ve lived anywhere besides my childhood home. It has four bedrooms, but we use one of those bedrooms as a music room for the harp/piano and as the kids get older, it’s becoming more apparent that we will need more living space. Thatch is in the nursery (with all of Lincoln’s stuff) but Linc sleeps in Izzie’s room in a bunk bed…just can’t go on like that forever.
ANYWAY. We just never found anything we loved. Everything is expensive, surprise, it’s California. Expensive and OLD. Is $200 a square foot PLUS needs to be gutted and totally redone. The silver lining to that sort of home is old trees and established neighborhoods. Nothing came close to even being considerable. For those kind of prices, we could build from the ground up and get exactly what we wanted. I figured we would stay here forever and just shift the kids around every couple of years. Procrastination at it’s finest.
My friend Kelly and her family are 100% responsible for doing the hard work here- they found this beautiful development, built a gorgeous house, and basically made us fall in love with the idea of living across the street. Our kids are great friends, we all get along so well- the street is a cul de sac, gated, on the preserve and WALKING DISTANCE TO MY MOMS. Take my money, right?!?! We talked so much about the area and how great it would be to live by people we love. Kids riding their bikes in the street, swapping kid play dates, sharing carpool and always having extra sugar for our neighbors!
So initially it didn’t look like it would be possible for a couple of reasons, one being that they weren’t willing to sell us the land in the development without using them to build the house, blah blah, anyway, our prayers were majorly answered and in May we got the call that the land was ours.
We closed on our ten year anniversary, June 14th- and celebrated by eating cake in lawn chairs on our little .44 acre parcel. WE ARE EXCITED. I just never thought this would be an option, and it’s taken months for me to work on what we want, what is important, how to maximize our space. I’ve had a ton of help from lots of people and I think it’s going to be beautiful. We have a long way to go and a lot of finishes to choose- hopefully Jazz and I don’t kill each other in the process. (j/k but also not j/k.)
Now we are just about ready to submit our plans to the city so they can approve them (after a couple of rounds of changes) and then we will have a building permit and then we can move forward! I’m going to post here about the build and all the exciting (to me) things we are doing. Aiming to be moved in by next summer. Feeling so thankful.
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| happy anniversary to us! ten years. |
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| eating cake and watching the sunset, a really fun anniversary memory |
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| view from our lot- across the street is Kelly’s, and behind her house is the nature preserve |
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| this was a different day- this is the view of the lot from the road. Jazz and my Dad are scoping out the back edge of the property line |
the sorensen six 