Writing this blog was mainly for Jackson and I to keep and have forever, a journal entry, basically. But we have family that may never get to see our home, and have been begging persistently for pictures. We also learned a lot and wanted to share some tips to make the process easier, if you're ever adventuring into building a house.
The
Eight-Month Headache
I knew
building a house would be hard. I knew being my own contractor would be hard…
let’s just say – I’m lucky to still be alive haha!!
At one point in this process, Jackson literally had to talk me out of setting a match to it and watching it burn to the ground while sitting in my lawn chair laughing. Yes, I got that frustrated that I REALLY wanted to have a good laugh. I think that was the turning point and Jacks realized he may have married a crazy. :)
At one point in this process, Jackson literally had to talk me out of setting a match to it and watching it burn to the ground while sitting in my lawn chair laughing. Yes, I got that frustrated that I REALLY wanted to have a good laugh. I think that was the turning point and Jacks realized he may have married a crazy. :)
When
Jackson and I moved to Monroe we started on the hunt for a home we could save
up for and buy. We shopped around and looked at several, but knew we could
build for cheaper than what homes were listed for. We decided November 2014 to
build and immediately started on house plans. Trent Brown
We
also started the search for property. My dad has always rented a 6 acre hay
field from a lady that used to live in Monroe but has lived in Alaska to be
closer to her children for the past 10 or so years. When she passed away the
next January of 2015, we decided to ask about that property and if her kids
would be interested in selling it. Luckily for us, they were! There was also
10.5 acres of property there, only 6 acres were alfalfa. The process took quite
a while, surveys had to be done, and many water issues sorted out in order to
purchase the property. Four months later, we were property owners!
We
started the loan process and didn’t realize that it takes at least 30 days to
complete, so we sat and waited…and waited! The day we were told we could start
building, we had our excavator over there tearing up our new, pretty and green
field. Randy Draper did an awesome job for us and was very reliable.
I
spent my summer going from place to place and house to house, getting bids and
picking up bids. Heaton was a
trooper! It was very time consuming, but it was also a good way to keep a
budget and an ending goal in sight.
We
went to Mexico on a family vacation and came back to a foundation. That was
really exciting. I recommend leaving town haha.
I
learned a lot after being my own contractor – first thing I really learned was
to order your trusses weeks in advance. I decided to wait until about two weeks
prior to needing them and they were on back order for 5 weeks. So there our
cement foundation sat, for 5 weeks, waiting. The framing went very quickly and
it was so exciting to see walls up and rooms inside our house. I remember
thinking that not even a bed would fit in each room, but once the drywall goes
on – it all magically works out and the sizing was perfect. Trent Adams and his
crew built our home and they were awesome to work with and were speedy quick as
well. Our rough in electrical, plumbing and HVAC went in quickly, as well as
our insulation. I definitely recommend S&R Mechanical for HVAC, Tri-County
for plumbing and South Central for insulation – all quick and very easy to work
with.
I also
learned the lesson of, if you have a tall husband who orders a long bath tub,
make sure you adjust the rest of your bathroom accordingly!!! Long story short,
the entrance of our walk-in shower was not wide enough to pass code and my
shower was moved around 3 different times to get it right. Thank you to those
who put up with that nightmare and helped me get it the way I wanted!
The
next most important lesson I learned was to not pay someone until the job was
completely and 100% finished. I learned the hard way and lost a lot of money and spent way too many hours on my Thanksgiving break cleaning up an unfinished job. I won’t go into detail. You
make enemies when you build a home, it just comes with it, unfortunately. Looking
at the big picture, just a small bump in the road!
It was
fun to see our stucco, rock, garage doors, and hardiwood go on. Even though it
wasn’t painted (because of cold weather), it was awesome to see how the
exterior would look. John Draper did an awesome job on our garage doors, Breinholts did our rock and Par 3 did our stucco. We were happy with them all!
I
decided to save some money and stain my exterior doors and rail by myself. I
still haven’t decided if it was worth it or not haha. It took up my whole
Christmas break. It is kind of fun to have something that we did in our house;
it definitely adds more value and character.
The
next hardest part for me was choosing a paint color. I would have saved so much
time if I would have just asked my painters what color they recommend. I went
through 8 different samples, don’t even want to know how much money, and ended
up choosing a color that my painters (Coating Pros) recommended. By the way,
they are THE best when it comes to paint. Very efficient, easy to work with,
quality work and they work weekends – poor guys. I love how my color turned
out.
I went
through some headache with my fireplace. I learned that I should have measured
my rock before hand, and I wish I would have wrapped my fireplace around the
whole wall. I also wouldn’t recommend the hearth having so many cuts and angles
because it was such a pain, but thankfully the Breinholt brothers (Rock Solid
Masonry) were champs and helped me through it and it turned out gorgeous!!
My
all-time favorite part of my house is my cabinets and countertops. They were
above and beyond my expectations. Jim Holmes did our countertops (such a great
guy) and Dan Rhodes did my cabinets. He had a lot of work to do for our house
and managed to exceed our expectations. He is a busy guy, but if you can snag
him, you won’t regret it!
I have a lot of tile in my home. I am hoping I like
that, but for now I don’t know. It turned out beautiful, however!! Picking it
out was an absolute nightmare. It was a close second between picking out paint
haha. Also, getting it to and from Home Depot wasn’t fun, many trips for sure! Jeremy Johnson tiled our floors and bathrooms.
After
tile, I also learned that it is important to have your rough-in heating piped
off of your CABINET plans and not off of your HOUSE plans. Yes, we had to tear
out some tile and move some vents in my kitchen. This was the night I lost all
control and bawled in front of my dad, and three different subcontractors. I’m
sure their thoughts were “we are working for a crazy”. My dad finally said to
me, “Jadie, good hell, your 25 years old, the general contractor of your house, getting your math endorsement,
masters degree, work full time and raising a kid – give yourself some credit.”
That helped some, but my tile was still being ripped up lol.
We
ordered our carpet through Valley Furniture in Gunnison – they were awesome!!
Get a
jump start on ordering your shutters. I waited and we barely got them here in
time to install before we moved in.
They take 8-10 weeks to build and ship. I knew it wouldn’t be the end of
the world if we had to move in before window coverings, but let’s just say, it
was nice not to have to worry about it. I definitely recommend Jason Nielson
(Made in the Shade).
I wish
like crazy I would have had a 6 yard dumpster, instead of a 4 yard one. I felt
like all I did was call and schedule dumps. I also would recommend having trash
cans strung throughout the house during construction – this may help eliminate
a lot of trash and junk from just landing on the floor for you to pick up on
your Saturday off lol.
I am
very grateful to my husband and dad for framing our basement in. We are now
very close to being able to finish it – that’s a few years away though! They
also helped me make this awesome gallery wall for Heater and future kiddos.
In the
end, yes, it was all worth it. We have a gorgeous home, at least in my opinion
:) If I had to do it over, I’m not sure if I would be my own contractor again.
It was very difficult and hard to get people to take me seriously. However, we
couldn’t have built the home we did if we had to give a chunk of money to a
contractor. I learned so much and it was also nice to see what kind of money
was being spent and where. I now know the ins and outs. Everyone says that building a home is
hard on your marriage. I wasn’t worried, mainly because Jackson is very laid
back. We basically only got in one fight – over having or not having a range
hood/vent over the stove. That night I cooked elk steaks. The next morning
Jackson woke up and complained at how bad the house smelled. I told him there
was no vent to let the stinky elk meat smell out…needlesstosay, we got a vent over
the stove! :)
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| entry table |
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| formal family room |
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| formal family room |
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| guest bathroom |
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| Heaton's room |
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| Heaton's room |
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| Hallway |
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| Laundry room |
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| Living room |
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| kitchen Brian Wuir did my back splash and it is one of my favorite parts of my home. He literally did it in two days and was very affordable. Long story short, we weren't going to do a back splash right away. But we had to move an outlet behind the stove to pass inspection, which left a giant hole in the wall. So we needed a back splash by the weekend. He definitely saved us in a crunch. |
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| dining |
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| hallway |
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| master bath |
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We cannot thank our family enough for helping us out. My parents let us live in their guest house for 2 1/2 years, rent free and Jackson's family helped in countless ways and for things for our house.
Building this house was hard on our marriage. We hardly and rarely fought about the house or decisions to be made, but we were constantly exhausted, stressed and frankly on edge. We took our frustrations out on each other and we had to really work on how we treated one another these past eight months. I know that together, we can do anything! We deserve a big fat five year anniversary cruise…and as of last night, we have booked a 7 day cruise to St. Maarten, St. Kits, Puerto Rico and Grand Turk!! Time for some "us" time :) Until then, we're tackling the yard :(
