It feels good knowing that we are officially on our way to breaking ground on our new home! Today, Brandon was on site with Bob staking out the location of our new home. Based on its orientation on the property, the back of the house will get morning sun, and the front of the house will get evening sun. That’s perfect, and exactly as I had hoped. Brandon also staked out the location for the well and the septic field. Next step is to have the perc test. A whole lot goes into the preparation for a new build. You can’t just buy some property, hire a builder and say “Go for it!” LOL

In addition to purchasing our home plans – 56510SM on Architectural Designs, we recently purchased the full list of supply needs to build the house. This is a wonderful resource for anyone planning to build a home. As for us, Bob has been very busy every day making calls and getting information and pricing for many of the things we need for building our home. This is an important investment, and we don’t want to leave anything up to chance. You can’t believe pricing differences from one manufacturer or building supply to another. Getting the best price takes a lot of time and work. Bob even has a spreadsheet where he is documenting everything.

This is why it has taken us so long to get to this point in the build, of just staking out where the house will be located on the property, taking into consideration setbacks and easements, slopes and trees or brush that may need to be removed, and where your home will sit in relation to the street. If your home is above grade, you will likely be less likely to have flooding situation. If your home sits below grade, you better make sure that if it rains you won’t be pumping water out of your basement or home.

Growing up, my parents built a beautiful home on 8 acres in Brookeville, Maryland, and I recall how many times my father told us all “never buy a home below grade, and definitely never build a home below grade – you’ll be asking for lots of problems.” I never forgot that, and it makes perfect sense. Water runs downhill, so if your home sits below street level or on a downward slope, you can expect water to run into your basement, crawl space, or right into the first level of your home. No thank you! Even now, if I pass a home sitting below the street, I just shake my head.

When we decided to move to Charlotte, NC in 2005, I flew down to look for a home. We had a good realtor and he was showing me around. There were a number of homes that were below grade. He’d pull into the driveway, and I said “Nope, not this one.” Ken would say “But you haven’t even seen it yet!” I always responded “I’ve seen all I need to see. The house is below grade. I’m not interested in a flooded basement,” and off we’d go to look at another home.

And honestly, this is why I am excited about our new home build. It is so hard to find a home in a community you love, with the amount of land you want, the views you want, the convenience to shopping, airports, hospitals that you want, and has the curb appeal you want. Before deciding to build our last home, I spent hours each day for months looking for a home. There is a lot of high priced junk out there. So, Bob and I discussed the things that are really important to us, from location to views, internet accessibility, noise levels, traffic, convenience, and more. Then after finding a beautiful property that checked all the boxes, we were in search for a home plan that would meet our needs and wants.

For us, being that we are in our retirement years, these are some of the things that were important to us …
Front Porch
2-3 Car Garage
Studio Space
Large Family Room
Spacious Kitchen
Walk-in Closets
Spacious bathrooms
Real Wood burning fireplace

and the list goes on …

Now, the question for us was how we could possibly find these features in a house plan of 2000sqft or less. We found it! And that house plan is 56510SM on Architectural Designs. Steve Madden is the architect who designed this home. I like his house plan selections. We are both very happy with our house plan choice and are excited to break ground!

So, every decision we have made in the building of this home is with our children and grandchildren in mind, and hopefully will be a wonderful home in the family for many years to follow.

Have you built a home? What are some of the experiences you had in the journey?