“There's no place like home.”
I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I say, “You can build a house, but it won’t simply become a home. When you’ve created a space that brings refreshment, laughter, encouragement & blessings to YOU, you’ve created YOUR home.
Getting there takes a few steps before you even start with the design phase of building a house.
We’re often asked about the features and fixtures we chose for our custom build. I love to share those details. Also, I love to help you get there faster than I did.
So stick around for all the links if you're interested in what I use in our daily lives!
As I eluded to above, if I could talk about what I really love talking about. I would plead with you to start your house-building project by considering what will make it YOUR home?
Be careful going after a style or features you’ve seen in someone else’s home. These ideas will eventually get replaced with the next great trend. Trends are unlikely to work quite the same for everyones needs.
Start by considering YOUR current lifestyle and habits.
Below, I share three questions. I highly suggest you answer for yourself before beginning the whole "build a house" process.
Your answers will be guideposts to creating a HOME along the way.
When you start with creating YOUR home in mind, each decision throughout the building process becomes much clearer
#1 For starters: “What phase of life am I in?”
A few years ago, my phase of life was much different. I went from shuffling teens from school and church events, practices and sleepovers, to our empty-nester life. In this season, Shannon and I each work from home with no actual ‘retirement’ plans in sight.
Our biggest responsibilities for others include two grandbabies (pictured above) and two Goldendoodles (pictured below).
Thinking about this phase of life for us meant that we needed to consider that we weren’t getting any younger. 😳
This immediately determined for us one obvious decision. First-floor living was a must for our everyday lives. One day we won’t so easily be moving up and down stairs.
We also needed:
a home office for each of us,
AND
to consider features that help us best care for our two boys, Chance, and Shadow. (you gotta check them out in the windows below…& don’t miss their little doggie door in the lower left too!🤍)
Although it’s a little unpleasant to think about getting older, this phase of life also allowed us to be a little more creative. We weren’t building for reselling or raising a family. This allowed us to step outside of the traditional layout.
Maybe you need a traditional layout right now?
Are you at the beginning of raising your family? Maybe there’s more flexibility because you’re right around the corner from an empty nester life too?
#2 By the way “How will we use our home?”
Once you have your phase of life in mind, you’ll want to remember that a phase is just a phase. It doesn’t define your whole life’s desires. It also doesn’t have to encompass everything you wish you could make happen.
When our kids were living at home, I had ideas of entertaining and hosting friends and family. We did some of that, but a higher priority at that time was to host our kids’ friends and ‘social events’ in our home as often as possible.
I always wanted to be the home where they congregated.
Having formal-style dinners wasn’t a priority. We were busy raising humans. Our family needed space for relaxing family time, pizza parties, and movie marathons.
(Oh and if by chance you need a great movie night charcuterie board, check out this list below that I shared on my instagram and then just add popcorn!)
Getting back to the formal dinner ideas mentioned above.
I just want to clarify…we are NOT formal people, and we never have been.
BUT now that our kids are grown, we wanted comfort of course, but our empty nest give us the ability to host gatherings. Even ‘formal’ meals for our kids and their little families. (since we are not everyday formal people, I say let’s find a few reasons to get all dressed up ☺️).
In the last few years, we’ve been able to host baby showers, and gender reveals for both Alex & Devin and Morgan & Michael. Our most recent event we hosted Dexter & Claire’s wedding rehearsal. What a true blessing.
The first year we moved in, we started a tradition of dressing to the nines for Christmas Eve. I hold this “tradition” loosely and still can’t believe I’ve gotten them all to play along. It’s been such an enjoyable event for the past two Christmases in our new home. This certainly would not have been practical for us when they were growing up.
One important aspect to us was to have the opportunity to host guests in a retreat-style atmosphere. This includes our kids and grandkids, of course, but we also love to have out-of-town family and friends, Even some local friends stay from time to time to just relax and get away for an evening or weekend.
How will you use your new home build?
Maybe you’re still in the phase of life like we were a few years back? /when all is said and done, your schedule is filled with raising a family.
How can you design the best layout to make that season enjoyable?
#3 Don’t forget to ask yourself: “What features will support our lifestyle habits & goals?”
One of the main desires I’ve had in mind for many years was to one day have a space that supported our commitment to self-care.
As I mentioned above, we’re not getting any younger. We can’t fight the inevitable. We can, however, be intentional about caring for our overall wellness as we enjoy the season we are in.
Many of my favorite features of our home were intentionally designed to support fostering our health and well being.
Here’s some of my favorites:
1. Our property – I have to say… I am obsessed with this piece of land and how it provides a retreat for our family from the chaos of life.
2. Our windows and glass doors were a must and bring light into our home and create a connection to the outdoors.
3. I now have a luxury that I’ve not always had; I love to create sleep sanctuaries in the bedrooms. Comfortable sleep becomes a priority the older you get. So I’ve centered the rooms around ~r e s t~ now. As opposed to making ‘little apartments’ with everything each family member owns as we did when they were all home.
4. My absolute favorite part of our design is our gym area. It’s our little mini spa and fitness center. This has been a dream of mine from all the way back to when I used dumbbells in my family room.
5. Ok maybe this is my favorite? I call it my ‘shake and bake cabinet’ . It was designed with healthy meal prep in mind. Even though I love to host, we obviously don’t host daily, but we do eat daily. When the kids were growing up, cooking was a priority. These days, I don’t want to spend all of my time in the kitchen. I’m all about quick & easy meal prep. This area allows us to quickly throw together shake ingredients or possibly even a little sweet treat now and then.
Now It's Your Turn - Go Create Your “I Feel Right At Home” Home
We dreamed of building a house, but a house only becomes a H O M E with a lot of time and love invested.
When you build your house, I pray that you not only have an idea of what activities each room will hold but that you intentionally think through what will make this YOUR home. I pray that it will be a space that brings refreshment, laughter, encouragement & blessings to all who enter. Most of all, I pray that it’s a place that YOU can say, “I feel right at HOME!”
