Building a House

So I can't remember if I originally said what happened with our home buying, but I'll briefly bring everyone up to date. When we went out in November to look at homes, we were not super excited about any of the pre-owned homes that we saw. I was really, really wanting a five bedroom because we have to have a guest room because family are going to visit all the time, and I would really like to have a separate craft room if possible. I just have too much stuff to keep in a separate space and dragging my embroidery machine out of a closet every time I wanted to use it was going to be a pain. I also really wanted a space for a play area. But none of the pre-owned houses in our price range had five bedrooms. So our realtor suggested we go look at a builder in The Bridges, which is the planned community where Bonnie and Dennis live. We went and totally fell in love with one of the floor plans and decided to go ahead with it. But a few weeks later we decided we hadn't looked long enough and backed out.

Well, by February we'd been watching the listings and hadn't seen hardly ANYTHING we were impressed with. We always kept comparing them to the new build. And so we actually went through with it that time! We signed the papers and everything. Here's the layout of the home we are having built, although our house is a mirror image of this. 

So Logan's bedroom is bedroom #3, Parker's is bedroom #4, and my craft room is bedroom #2. The loft will be used as a play area. 

They told us it wouldn't be done until October/November so we knew it was slow going. Fortunately we had Bonnie around to check on our lot for us. We were thrilled to get this picture from her on April 14! I've never been more excited to see a bunch of dirt.

We were pretty excited that by the time we got to Arizona on May 8, only 3 weeks later, the house had already been framed! We weren't expecting that so it was really fun and exciting!

The only thing I'm not thrilled about it how tiny the yard is. It's okay. It's small, for sure, and a huge adjustment from our acre in Georgia. We'll have to figure out something really fun to do with it. 

We're going to check on the house every week because we're attending the ward in the Bridges. So we're going to go before or after church to see the progress being made. 

On May 15 when we went to check, they'd put in some air vents, maybe? I'm not really sure what anything is. 

When we went upstairs, Logan said, "What's all this stuff in my room?" Its really cute that he knows where his room is!

Today, May 22, we went to check on it again. The outside still looks exactly the same, but there was more piping and some electrical work done (maybe?)

We were so excited to see that the guest bath/shower had been installed.

And Logan was very excited that his bathtub was installed as well.

But no one was as excited as me about my tub! Having a tub in the master bath is a make it or break it deal with me in any house we purchase. I do wish it were a little bigger but it will still be great.

There was even some drywall put up around our master tub and shower.

Here's Jordan checking out the downstairs wiring and pipes.

It's really fun to watch it come together each week. We'll enjoy checking on it and we're hoping it will be done early October. Fingers crossed!