Justin Deserves Some Recognition
So while we were building our house we were very aware of how many people around us were struggling. We have been so blessed in the past few years as we rode the real estate boom with a house in Chandler and some land in ShowLow and were able to save a reserve to allow us to buy some land in Chandler to build a house. It was a risky deal as we had to buy a larger piece and bank on the plan to split it and sell it before we ran out of money making the payments for the whole thing. Lucky for us, we got a buyer within three months, and originally we split the lot into two 1.25ac pieces, but the buyer wanted slightly more land, so we re-surveyed and had the .25 shaved off of ours to give him 1.5acres. He paid us enough more for the extra .25ac that we were able to add an unfinished basement to our plans! It was really a miracle for us because less than a week after we closed the deal his wife changed her mind and decided she didn't want to live there. They tried to sell the lot for over a year but then with the real estate bust the value dropped and dropped until they let the bank take it.
So during this time a lot of people we knew were upside down on their mortgages, losing their homes and/or their jobs (Justin actually lost his during construction but luckily Ellsworth Publishing had a full time opening at exactly the same time) and here we were building our dream home. We felt so blessed but at the same time didn't want to make anyone feel bad, so we always hesitated talking about the size of the house and haven't really invited many of our friends over since it has been done because we didn't want to appear to be show-offs. It's crazy because our income does not substantiate being able to build this kind of house, it was just funny money from the real estate boom, and ALL of it was going into our dream home.
I've been thinking about it for a few weeks, however, and thinking about how much sweat, blood, time, anxiety, and sacrifice Justin had put into this house since we broke ground in June of '08. He was our general contractor and did as much of the work himself that he could possibly do. He woke up early to come to the construction site before work, then often returned right after work for another several hours or long into the night. Justin easily put in 14hr days, often times more, working at his regular job and at this house. He deserves some recognition because it IS a beautiful home and I couldn't be happier. Not to mention it wouldn't have been possible without him because it would have cost us FAR MORE money to have paid someone else to manage the job and we couldn't have had the house we have if it hadn't been for Justin. We came in $35k under budget even after we took extra out at the end to finish the bonus space above the garage (turning it into a 2bd/1ba guest apt.). With the great mortgage rates our payment really isn't that much more than our previous 1600s.f. house in Maricopa! I couldn't get our floorplan to post but if you are curious how it all flows together here is a link http://www.ldwretreats.com/PDFs/JOwensHouse/A2.1.pdf.
Justin really accomplished something great, probably the hardest project of his life, and he shouldn't feel guilty showing it off! Thanks babe!
Front of the house. Our front yard is not finished, not graded. That's another project for another time. The stucco had color in it so we didn't have to paint it, but we do have plans to eventually paint the trim a different color.
Back patio. We accidentally set our house WAY too high so we extended the patio and put steps in to make up the difference. The steps are great to sit on in the cooler months!
The family room off of the kitchen. Our TV doesn't fit in the niche so it's on the floor until we upgrade to a flatscreen like the rest of the world. This sectional was our first retail furniture purchase over $100 since we've been married. We've always bought our furniture used or at auction, but I had very specific plans for the sectional I wanted in this room. The longest piece is over 17ft. long. Thanks for a good deal from Joe at Kerby Furniture!
My favorite room of the house! This kitchen is awesome, and just as awesome is the deal it all was! I had gotten about 8 bids on cabinets from local and out of state companies. The cheapest bid for just the kitchen was $14,000. This was for basic cabinets with particle board framing. We decided to go with a company on the internet for some RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets with solid wood construction (frames made from plywood instead of particle board). These cabinets were actually from their "value" (aka cheap) line and with shipping we only paid $10,000 for the entire house cabinets (bathrooms included). Of course we spent over 40 hours putting them all together ourselves, but we saved a ton of money. We also got our kitchen appliances (Jenn-Air Floating Glass oven, fridge, dishwasher & microwave) from a gal off of Craigslist. They were brand new and we were able to get them for $3,000 when retail would have been about $6,000. The Travertine for the floors we got from a Marble & Tile auction at a great price and the kitchen table/chairs I got for $125 at a model home furniture sale (it still had the tags attached, and you'll die when you see the kind of money the silly homebuilder paid for it - granted it originally came with four chairs and the bench and the homebuilder only sold it with two chairs and the bench. Either way I like the table but seriously it is NOT worth that much! http://www.carolinarustica.com/padmas-plantation-x-dining-table/p/X13/)
The computer center right off of the kitchen so nobody is isolated and mom can work on it without having to be in a different room from all the action. The chairs around the island are from a company called Suspend-it. My kids will eat here until they are 12yrs old, cleaning underneath them is a breeze! The granite in the kitchen was also from the discount section at AZ tile. I think we only paid $700 for three huge slabs to do the entire kitchen. (Of course then you pay the installers so it did cost more than that to finish).
The best thing about this front door is what a deal it was. We had decided that we had to downsize our door because the extra large doors were just WAY too expensive. The plans called for a 4ft x 9ft door but those were about $2,000. We had priced out smaller doors (3.5ft x 8ft) and even those were going to be $1200. Well we found this 4ft x 8ft. door on Craigslist for $800 prior to framing and just had the framers make it work!
Kids bathroom, decor from IKEA. Faucets/sinks/knobs from overstock.com. Our Master bathroom isn't actually fully finished yet so that's another picture for another day.
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ashley