We're Building a Home... Oh My Goodness, We're Building a Home?!?!!!

Our first photo in front of our new home-to-be.

Holy moly, we are building a house. A home! The place we believe could be our final move. Well, maybe not our final - we're still debating on how to spend retirement - living in a big ol' house without our kids waiting on grandchildren, or renting a place in Tuscany and traveling all over. But I digress...

As excited as we are in this picture, this process is stressful. No doubt the biggest undertaking (well, other than deciding to bring humans into this world - three times) we've ever experienced as a couple.

The decisions! Oh the hundreds and thousands of decisions... mortar, brick, soffits, paint, trim, window panels or no window panels, door knobs, cabinet pulls, window placement, hard wood color and size... and those are just some of the obvious ones!

Just my third or fourth visit to the brick supplier, Acme. We're all pals now.

We are lucky enough to contract our own designer to help us with the process (insert shout out to Kelly Hudson, a Huntsville gal here!), as well as a real estate agent (Russ Hayles deserves recognition as well), but a lot of folks take on this endeavor by themselves. Just them and a builder and the builder's agent. No offense to builders - our builder, Pearson Homes, makes some absolutely stunning and what appears to be, quality homes (we hope so, right?!?).

I would be lost during this process without guidance from trusted professionals like our own agent and designer. Or friends that have been through this before... Just earlier this week one of my friends was looking over our plans and found three flaws that I hadn't noticed... The builder hadn't addressed... How many more aspects are out there I haven't considered?!? (Agh - see why this is stressful?)  ​

Seriously - I feel like I CAN'T handle building a house...

Speaking of considered... Do you know the color of your door hinges? I didn't even care until presented with all the myriad of choices for hardware. Now I seem to be obsessed with how everything will look against brushed nickle door knobs, hinges, pulls, [insert all other types of hardware here]. Oh my - I just thought of how our garage door hardware is a different material!?! Does that actually matter? Will my whole design plan fail on this one detail?

That might be a bit of an exaggeration but it certainly feels that crucial when deciding these things. All of these little tiny details that you have never given one ounce of thought to before, become near-lifelong commitments. Because you know 20 years from now you will kick yourself thinking, "I should have stuck with my first choice on that one..."

Who knew I had such a penchant for ivory mortar? But I punted that one for interior eggshell paint. Will I pinch myself over that one in the future? Only time will tell. 

​Even building a house is full of life's little compromises.