The Land

Since, I'm just starting this blog I need to recap what steps we have taken to come to the conclusion we are going to build our dream home.  I can honestly say it started back in the mid 1990s when Drew and I first started dating.  We liked to sketch house plans for our future homes, yes ironically we didn't plan that "the dream house" would necessarily involve the other.  We were still in high school at the time and although we are both planners, we weren't so naive to believe that we would stay together through the rest of high school, college, graduate school, AND our first careers!  Geesh!!  What are the odds?!?!  Well, needless to say that is exactly what we did, and our dreams of building a house began to focus on what "we" liked and didn't like.  Of course, life has a way of putting dreams to the back burner and many years of school, moves, children, and careers have finally put us back on the path of designing "our home".
Our first obstacle was finding the land to build our home on.  We both grew up having a basement, like a true underground living space where we could retreat during storms.  For some reason, these aren't as common in southern Indiana like in central Illinois, but that is what we "dreamed" of having so we needed land that could support it.  Next, we had to decide if a neighborhood was what we desired or land by itself.  There were pros and cons to each of them, but our final decision was to go with a neighborhood.  We enjoy visiting with our neighbors now, the kids running around with the other kids in the area, and the sense of a community that I could easily borrow a cup of sugar from my neighbor if I needed one.  We also wanted a significant amount of land, 2 to 5 acres seemed reasonable.  We didn't want to feel like we were living on top of our neighbors, we would like to have a pool, and yet we didn't want the pool to take up the entire yard either.  This left very few lots available for us to choose from, and we didn't take the decision lightly.  On our own we had driven by subdivisions/lots many times playing the "Is this the right place to build?" game.  Then in October 2012, I met with a realtor who could walk me around various pieces of land we had narrowed our search down to and get a feeling of how big 2 acres really is!  At this same time, Drew and I decided to go ahead and sketch out a house plan that met our criteria (more on this another day) and sat down with an architect.  Nothing like having an architect design a house for a lot you haven't even purchased aren't sure you are going to, but we went with it anyway.  In the meantime, we prayed about one lot in particular we had decided would meet our needs.  We felt that our best move was to wait through the winter, if the lot sold during this time then it wasn't the lot for us, and if it was still available in the early spring we would talk price.
I must admit I had a few weak moments when I worried the lot was going to sell, but Drew always stuck to our game plan that spring would be here soon enough.  So we waited and continued to pray that if this was the place for us then the price would be right and at the right time.

On April 25, 2013 we closed on our land!  It is a little over 4 acres in a quiet subdivision that is still being developed.  We love coming out here and letting the kids explore, they feel like they are being set free to roam.  We look forward to what the upcoming year has in store.  It is our family's goal to make this a fun and exciting experience, not one we barely make it through, our continued prayer is that we follow God's lead.