I can’t believe it has been a year since we purchased this home! We closed right before the holidays in 2019 and began construction in January of 2020. Of course, we had no idea what would happen in February – March of 2020 when we made this decision. We only knew we were preparing to welcome our third baby, Millie, in March and that we were quickly outgrowing our three bedroom home in our beloved neighborhood.
Our first plan was to add on to our (then) existing home. We literally had the plans drawn by an architect and approved by our HOA. We were ready to get started on construction when I was browsing HAR one night in bed and came across this (almost) untouched, original home in our neighborhood just waiting for someone to bring it back to life!
Image credit: Courtney Robertson of Compass
I started doing the math in my head and told Fred I wanted to go look at it the next morning. He told me to go for it, but he wasn’t coming. ha! So I texted my realtor friend, and she made it happen. I could immediately see the potential so I had our contractor come meet us to walk through the house and give me ballpark estimates on what he thought it would cost to execute my vision.
This was the day before we were heading to my family’s ranch for Thanksgiving. My mom is a realtor in my hometown and my parents and my brother have a lot of experience investing in and flipping houses. I pulled up the listing and started walking them through my ideas. I shared that if I could get the house at the right price, our overall investment wouldn’t be too much more than what we would have in our first home with the addition. All this sounded like a no brainer to them, too. Now, I just had to get Fred on board. 😉
After a little convincing and a lot of trust, Fred agreed to make an offer on the house. Obviously, we came to an agreement and had a quick close. Our house sold off market to the second couple who saw it and the rest is history!
If you follow me on Instagram, you have seen a lot of the ‘after’ either in photos or on my Instagram stories. It was always my plan to share the process with you, but when Covid hit, I didn’t feel comfortable sharing. The whole world was on lock down, we had a brand new baby at home and talking about a renovation felt very insensitive and out of touch.
But the even bigger reality is when things get hard or uncertain, I unconsciously disengage on social media. I personally just don’t have the time or the capacity to share online, and I buckle down and focus on what is in front of me and what matters to me the most – my family.
Now it has almost been a year since we moved in and things are starting to look up. Both sets of the kids’ grandparents are vaccinated, the Covid numbers are finally moving in the right direction, the election is over and I am ready to share!
We are done with construction, but I always have a wish list in the back of my mind. (I wish I didn’t, Fred really wishes I didn’t!). Just little things that we can get to ‘one day’ like wallpaper for the mudroom (It’s already picked out in my head.), finish the kids’ playroom, give Andrew’s bedroom (that he doesn’t sleep in) some love, add an outdoor kitchen to give all Fred’s grills a more aesthetically pleasing home, and the number one on the boys’ wish list – a pool!
But for now, we are just so happy with how everything turned out. I never imagined when we bought this home at the end of 2019 what was about to happen to our world and the housing market. (Or how much time we would be spending together in it!) We updated the run down garage apartment into Fred’s home office and that alone has made the move the best decision! With the cost of building supplies and the housing market in general, we lucked out with our timing from an investment and quality of life perspective.
Now, I can’t wait to share more ‘afters’ with you!
Leave your thoughts