In my last post, I shared that a project has consumed most of our free time, and as the title says, we’re building a house! It still feels surreal to me that we’re building a house. I’m excited to share this new adventure, from building to decorating each room. Grab your coffee and settle in as I fill you in on what’s been going on the last few months. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.
So how did we get here? A while ago (timeline debated), we stumbled across a new construction house on Zillow that I instantly loved. However, at that point, we had no plans of leaving our apartment anytime soon. Then a few months ago, my mom randomly called with the idea of us buying a house with a casita. Casitas are cottages built attached or detached from the main house. They can have a small living room and kitchenette, allowing her to stay with us for extended periods (when she retires/we have kids) while still giving us privacy and space. We immediately hopped on Zillow because we were excited by the idea. That’s what jumpstarted the idea of buying a house, but spoiler alert: we’re not building a house with a casita. 😅
We explored buying land, buying an existing home, or building in a master plan community. We quickly ruled out buying land because most of the lots we liked would’ve put us out of our price range after building. And with the market, houses were selling way over the asking price. With the cost of renovations, we would’ve been spending about the same, if not more, to buy a house in our current area. In the end, we decided we’d rather live farther and get to design everything.
Once we decided to build, we started browsing online at different builders. Remember that new construction house on Zillow that I stumbled across a while ago that I instantly loved? Well, I came across it again and still loved it as before. We drove to the community and spoke briefly with someone in their office. Disappointingly she put us off with her attitude — not a good start when making the biggest purchase of your life! Ultimately it wasn’t meant to be for various reasons, but I attached pictures of the model home below.
Back to the drawing board, we both still wanted to stick with that builder because they offer multiple exterior options. One important thing to me was that I didn’t want to have the typical Spanish exterior here in Arizona. It may seem silly, but I want to pull up to my house and love it as much as I love the inside. Brett found another floor plan in the same community as the first house I loved — bless him! I’m excited to share more details about it in future posts.
After we agreed on which floor plan, we contacted a realtor. Although people say it’s unnecessary to have a realtor when building, we’ve loved having ours as an advocate and resource. For most builders, your real estate agent needs to be there for your first visit; otherwise, it will void the possibility of the real estate agent earning a commission. We didn’t know that was a thing, and when we found out after we had already gone in once, we were worried they wouldn’t let us use our realtor. Thankfully, they never said anything, and we chalked it up to the two houses being in different collections and having separate sales offices.
The waitlist was the most excruciating part because we couldn’t lock into our price until our turn. We (anxiously) watched the price increase almost every week until we got the email. About six weeks later, we received word that we could put down our deposit on August 30. There was a significant price increase on September 1, so it was a huge blessing that we locked in the day before.
Everything moved quickly from choosing our exterior to a lot and structural upgrades. I’m going to share all our choices in a blog post soon.
Whew! If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I didn’t know what to expect when we went through this process, so I’m happy to be a resource for others embarking on this adventure. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments. xo
How exciting! I hope you share the fun as you go through the process of building! I cant wait to see the end result!
So exciting! We got the chance to build our own home a couple of years ago, and it was such a cool experience. Good luck on your journey!
Wonderful plan. It is a lot of work building a new home, casitas are an amazing asset to have as well. If mom decides to move out then you have a rentable space and you can earn income! Be sure when you are looking for a lot that you are able to rent it, check the HOA rules. Good luck with your future!!
Building a home is both exhilarating and stressful. Congratulations and enjoy!
That is so exciting!!!
I love the idea of a brand new house, but finding a house and moving it was stressful enough for us! I can’t imagine how stressful a new build would be!
Congratulations! Buying or building your home is so exciting, best wishes
This is so exciting. Congratulations and good luck!
WOW! First off, congrats on the big purchase! Building a home is a huge milestone to celebrate in life. My fiance and I just moved into our new build in Surprise and love the home. The process however can be very lengthy and frustrating at times. If you want any pointers or someone to talk to about it, feel free to reach out 🙂 I also work for a home builder so I have some ideas as to what to look for during the building process that will save headaches later down the road.
Building a house is so exciting, and stressful at the same time! We built our custom home 4 years ago now, and while I enjoyed the process, I was also glad when it was done and we could move in!
-Niky @ thehouseonsilverado
So exciting – congrats and good luck! We just moved and are doing a lot of renovating ourselves. It’s really cool to be the ones making the house our own, but it is a LOT of work!
How exciting!! Good luck with, and enjoy the process!
That’s wonderful! I’m glad you’re able to really pick and choose the things you want. I can’t wait to learn more about it!
OMG. We’re planning now for our dream home, so I can feel your excitement. This is so inspiring. Thank you
That’s awesome. Kudos. I am feeling motivated with your story. Absolutely amazing journey and achievement y’all have.
Cheers…
Wow, good for you!!! Such a big step to build a house 🙂
Wow! I felt the secondhand excitement from this! Keep us posted on how it turns out, we love to see it! xx Good luck and congrats on this milestone!
Congrats! It’s so exciting to build your house! It will be very interesting to see the process and the end results, I am sure it will be amazing.
What a wonderful adventure Kelly. I’m your neighbor here in Tucson and your post brought me back to when we were purchasing our house. Congrats and best wishes.
Nothing better than a brand new house – the feel is amazing, especially when you have a say in the design. Congratulations!
That’s so exciting! My husband and I built also! We would definitely build again, but with a different builder for sure! Haha!
This is a very exciting project. Wishing you all the very best with your new home
I love that you were so honest about your experience! I think a lot of people don’t realize the work that goes into finding the best realtor. Enjoy getting the prefect house.
wow, and congrats. I love the house and your arrangement. Thank you for sharing