With the basement completed and ready to use, I quickly threw in a few accessories I’d been hoarding, in time to host a party the weekend we finished. (Nothing like cutting it close!)

Since then, it’s been fun to take a more leisurely approach to finding just the “right” items to bring this level of the house together. Inspired by a couple of friends’ houses and a couple of my favorite bloggers, I wanted to bring more of our personalities into this space and make it FUN. Inspired by rooms like this one and this one, the decorating goal was to make it feel well thought-out and cohesive, while still macho enough to house poker nights and super bowl parties.

For me, decorating down here started with the color scheme. We brought in the white trim, carpet, and tile from the rest of the house for continuity. But with the bulk of our house a light and bright color, I wanted to feel a mood shift when coming into the basement. And for a room that would likely host daytime sports watching, a deeper, darker color would help absorb some light when necessary.

I wanted to go a little more modern and industrial in some areas. The house still had to flow, but if we wanted to do something a little edgier, it seemed a basement was the place to try it. A little less C&B, and a little more CB2, if you will. You might remember the picture above, which I posted this time last year after paint shopping. I knew I wouldn’t find the exact pieces, but pulling together a board of elements helped me get focused.

Now that the space is a reality and I’ve been able to start playing around with accessories and art, I have a list of my favorite things already in here, and a list of things I’d still like to do.

Here are some of my favorite elements in the space:

I love the bar counter top, because it was our own idea and we worked together to make it. We wanted an “old bar” vibe and I love the deep color and hearty depth of it.

This screen print at the top of the stairs by Jude Landry not only supports an independent artist, and is the perfect color to set the tone for coming down to the basement, but the saying floors me. I love when you stumble on something that is just SO perfect — the moment I IMed the link to Page, he said, “We NEED that!”. What I love even more is that it made ME think of the infamous “makers are going to make, and takers are going to take” comment around the election (yep, political alert!) and Page thought of it as a play on the popular lyrics, “haters gonna hate”. With a dual meaning, I love it even more. 🙂

Married on the 29th of September, there are “2 & 9” elements throughout our home. These canvas bins were the perfect way to bring the date into this room, doubling as storage for movies and games. I designed the golf print based on a quote Page loved and wanted on display.

And some future decorating projects:

I’m excited to bring the influence of seasons in here. Especially with the wood elements, I have already snagged some birch logs and have my eye on some hearty baskets to put to use in here as the temperatures drop. As the holidays approach, I’d like to incorporate the colors of the walls with some more “cabin” type holiday elements like evergreen branches and reindeer.

I’ve considered and decided against several things for this long wall opposite the bar that leads from the stairwell into the living room. I think I’ve settled on the the idea of a collage of frames (either random sizes/arrangements, or super linear like this) with a common theme. Whether they house a collection of personal photos… or a set of Friends quotes… or prints I make of the various area codes we’ve lived in together…remains to be seen. 🙂

This wall behind the seating area in the main space needs something as well. I’m hoping it might work to incorporate this deer (in silver). I ordered it weeks ago, but it has been back-ordered over and over again and will finally arrive later this month. I like a quirky element here and there that raises an eyebrow – and love that it’s a great play on basements that may ACTUALLY boast real deer heads. I’m not sure it’s enough to hold this wall on its own, so a couple flanking pieces are on my lookout list.

The bathroom turned out to feel larger than either of us anticipated when building. Even after adding in the vanity and allowing plenty of “swing room” for the door to our HVAC closet, I’d like to bring in something cool into one of the corners of this room for a little added interest. It would be great if it could double as storage for some not-so-pretty-to-display stuff like bleach and toilet cleaner. 🙂

There are a few, less exciting, things we might add if we feel they’re needed – like curtains over the bamboo blinds on the window for more light-blocking, and I’m always open to some cool dishes to have on hand in the bar. I love a good decorating project and this one promises to be a fun one!

Earlier this week, I posted a re-cap of the progress we made from last September through January, and our “final stretch” to-do list between June and July. I didn’t even get a chance to take many “finished” pics before we jumped in and started decorating, installing speakers and the TV, and wired a good ol’ dartboard on the wall. We figure we’ve waited long enough, and that we should start enjoying the space immediately! It will be fun to continue to play with the decor and find just the right details for this space, but we’ve definitely gotten started!

Welcome to our basement…

STAIRWELL
The stairwell to the basement was already finished and carpeted by the builder when we moved in. We added two step lights and additional switches to toggle the hallway lights from the top of the stairs, as well as some decor (future post coming on the decorating — of course!).

WET BAR
For the wet bar, I drew out the cabinet configuration in a design program, working from standard-size, unfinished cabinet dimensions. We painted these ourselves and made the counter from planks that we stained and glued together for an “old bar” look. (You can read more about the detailed process of building the bar here.) The cabinet color is Valspar’s “Storm” and the hardware came from here.

STORAGE CLOSETS
Because of the supporting walls, the space under the stairs was already sectioned off so we hung a door to make the area accessible as a storage closet. We also needed access to our HVAC and left room around it for additional storage space. Rather than ending up with a row of three doors down this wall, (to the closet, to the bath, and to our HVAC), we opted for a non-twilight zone vibe and kept it to just an under-stairs closet and put an access door to our utilities closet inside the bathroom.

BATHROOM
I fell in love with this image when planning the bathroom. When all of the industrial-looking vanities we liked turned out to be hundreds more than we wanted to pay, we ordered a sofa table (no longer available) and Page picked out an awesome vessel sink and faucet and made us our own. The mirror came from Lowe’s and the light fixtures from Home Depot. For something a little unexpected (but also something easy to change out down the road), we had this room painted in Sherwin-Williams HGTV “Antiquity”.

LIVING ROOM
In addition to tiling in front of the bar, we ran tile from the bathroom into the entry area in front of the exterior doors. We used the same carpet and tile that is in the rest of the house for the sake of continuity, since the lower level is otherwise a big departure from the aesthetic of the upstairs. Inspired by the house of a friend, Page created the trim above the doors and window totally ad-hoc (stud alert!).

Page schemed and framed the media wall all in one night. He designed it to have three sections of storage – the largest/middle for media components and the shelves on either side are already storing DVDs, games, and other stuff. I’m anxious to find more cool large pieces to flank either side of the ledge (you can see I’ve already started to play around!).

This one’s for the dudes. When we built our home, Page ran extra speaker cables to various spots in the basement, anticipating that we would eventually finish it. He installed the same Polk in-wall system we have on the main floor. I can tell you first-hand…they sound amazing!

As for the lighting, we put our ceiling cans and wall sconces on separate switches (and with dimmers) to accommodate different situations. The sconces came from Lowe’s and the wall color is Sherwin-Williams HGTV “Indigo Batik”.

Later, we removed one sconce and used the spot to hard-wire an electronic dartboard. It’s so hard to imagine when it’s just 2x4s how everything will lay out exactly, but we ended up with a great spot behind the sofas to create a darts area. We don’t miss the light at all (there’s plenty down here!) and I love that we don’t have to see the cord from plugging in the game.

After running the vacuum a final time and scheduling our final inspection walk-through with the city (happening Monday and that bright orange paper hanging in the door can finally come down!), we can collapse onto our comfy couches and high five.

Thanks for following along on our basement-finishing journey. It’s been a lot of sweat and dust and craziness, but we are in love with the additional space. As the furnishing, decorating, and eventually the patio space all come together, I’ll be sure to post updated photos – I’ve had so much fun decorating down here already…but  there are a couple more things on order that I’m very excited to add down here!

There were days when I couldn’t imagine what writing this post might feel like … but it’s official, we’re DONE with our basement!

This post got VERY long in its original format, so I’ve split it into two parts. Today’s half is to refresh memories on the progress we made up through January, along with plenty of updates since we resumed work this summer. The second post later this week will have the reveal!

We originally estimated finishing the basement would take us five months, figuring a couple weeknights here and there, and a Saturday or Sunday most weekends. In the end, it took closer to eleven months. (Page tore his ACL on a ski trip and we took about 5 months off from this project.) So all things considered, it took about the time we originally estimated, and with the few unforeseen expenses we knew would happen (we just didn’t know WHAT they would be or when they’d pop up) we came in pretty darn close to our original budget estimate.

So to refresh your memory as to where we started, here are some photos of the “befores” taken in August when we were starting to plan what we wanted to do with the space.

Following August are some “in progress” shots along the way.

You’ll notice the date – January 2013 – was where we last left off. Not far from the home stretch, Page underwent surgery for his knee in February, and any amount of kneeling, crouching, and getting up and down repeatedly was out of the question for a few months. I helped out where I could to keep things moving along, but we weren’t able to resume major progress until mid-summer.

Our home stretch to-do list included the following from late June through July: 

• Paint the unfinished portions of the door/window frames
• Add trim around the window
• Add crown moulding around the bar cabinets and pick up beverage fridge
• Build a “counter” on the media wall
• Build cubbies/shelves to slide into each of the three media wall openings
• Add trim around the three cubby openings
• Touch up ALL the trim with caulk and paint (it was pre painted when we installed it, but all the nail holes and seams between pieces needed to be hidden)
• Install covers on all vents and the return air duct
• Install bath vanity and hook up plumbing
• Wash windows and doors (razoring off drywall paste drops and removing layers of construction grime)
• Touch up wall paint throughout (several scuffs had shown up during these last steps)

In the shot above, I was texting Page a pic of my mad caulking skills where the corners of the door frame meet. 😉 You can also see the first of the three cubbies, the counter, and the window trim, installed in the background.

Are you ready?! We’re pretty excited to share the final product…check back later this week!

(Pssst! You can read the rest of the “finishing the basement” posts right here!)

It has taken me longer than I planned to get some “real” pictures of our finished lower level. I had anticipated a break somewhere between sweeping up the last bits of sawdust and when Page would start cutting into the walls to install speakers and hook up the TV. And then I couldn’t help myself and started hauling my loot of decor items in and playing around. And then we had a party to share the space with some friends. Things just keep moving and while we’re loving the additional space to hang (many a darts tournament have already taken place!), I know I do owe some FINAL photos – they’re coming soon, I promise!

In the meantime, some sneak peeks have popped up on Instagram — here are a couple to tide you over. 😉

Until the photos are captured, I’ve had friends and readers alike ask the following two questions more times than I can count — so I thought I’d address them here!

Did we save much money doing this project ourselves?
The short answer is yes, although you can look at this a couple different ways. We had to buy tools specifically for this project that a contractor would have already owned. We also had a materials cost curve for extra supplies since everything we did, we were doing for the first time in our lives, and yes we have some mess-ups along the way. We returned extra stuff when we could, and I’d considering CraigsListing tools we think we’ll never need again, but it was still a line item on the balance sheet. Yes, it was a lot of our own time, and we definitely figure that is worth something as well. But, when you put pencil to paper, and calculate what we were quoted to do a basic finish (standard full walls, carpet, trim, and canned lights – no “extras”, built-ins, wet bar, decorative lighting, storage closets, custom bath vanity, hook up for hot tub, etc) – we spent ABOUT what the quote was for the “bare basics” – but also gained all of the extras mentioned above. Did we need to spend some money to save some money? Yes. But in the end, I feel like we got so much more than an “out of the box” option — and for a similar price.

Would we do it again?
This is a tougher one, and probably not mine to answer! Page was very excited to start this project and now that it’s done, I see (well-deserved!) pride that he did so much of it himself, without anyone showing him how. Seriously, the dude amazes me. He’s more of a perfectionist than I am when it comes to the little details, so I know there were times he was stressed about how to make something work, but he also is a problem-solver by nature.

Would we do THIS basement again on THIS budget at THIS time in our lives with THIS skill set? I think probably, yes. It’s hard to remember the “before” stage though where we hadn’t learned the things we did along the way — finishing this same basement again now would be so much easier, but of course any project like this in a new house would be different. We’ve learned the value of hiring a pro (hello, drywall and tile angels!) and where we are most comfortable DIYing to save some hard-earned cash. While there is something pretty cool about getting to sit back and know you built/painted/thought up something once it’s finished, I would hire out more “parts” of this process the next go-round, but we’d probably take more of a general contractor role and only step in here-and-there to do tasks where we knew we could save the most bang for our buck.

It’s easy to forget the middle parts when we were sore, sweaty, frustrated, and stressed out. 🙂 But now that it’s done, I think the enjoyment factor is just that much higher knowing WE made this happen. Is this what they call a DIY high?? 😉

You’ve probably caught wind of my excitement by now that basement progress has resumed in the past few weeks, finished just in time for a party this past weekend. There are a couple last details being finished up now, but pics of the whole reveal are soon to come. For today, I’m excited to show our completed BAR!

I’ve been trying to keep the basement series of posts to only a handful, so that each post shows some real progress and not each of the fifty (million) tiny steps it has really taken to get to its current state. But while I mentioned putting together our bar in the last “Basement Diaries” post, I thought this area warranted its own post as to how we went about DIY-ing it.

We started with standard-sized unfinished cabinets from Lowe’s. Armed with the dimensions of the various pieces available, I used Illustrator to lay out options until I had a configuration that I liked and that would fit the corner we had deemed bar-space. (Note: we added spacers between the top/wall cabinets so that their total width would perfectly match the width of the floor/bottom cabinets — you can pick these spacers up in the same aisle where you’d find cabinets in the hardware store.)

Once the cabinets were delivered, I applied a coat of Sherwin Williams wood and wall primer. (I purposely wanted a little wood grain to show through, but to avoid this, I would have applied a second or even third coat of primer.)  Already knowing I wanted to do them in a dark grey, I attempted to do a little thrifty recycling and reopened the leftover paint from Page’s office (Valspar’s “Storm” from Lowe’s). Two coats of “Storm”, and two coats of polyacrylic sealer later, the painting portion of the program was done just in time to break for the holidays and some carpet installation.

As for the sink base cabinet, they didn’t make one in the width we needed (only wider or narrower) so we bought a regular base cabinet and I simply removed the actual drawers and railings, adhering the drawer front only back onto the front of the cabinet as a facade. This left room inside to drop a sink in, later.

I ordered our hardware and with Page’s help to drill the holes (I am SO not a careful measurer!) I wrapped up this step by attaching all the pieces to the doors and drawer fronts.

Meanwhile, it was time for the counter. We had weighed options like a remnant piece of granite or a piece of stainless steel. In the end, this was a place where we could cut back on cost and still love the result so we went with a thriftier option (this cost us less than 100 Washingtons!) that was a little more one-of-a-kind. Following a plethora of Pinterest tutorials, I put together a plan to make a stained, plank-style countertop. While this was, in theory, part of the basement plan that I thought I could do myself, I did need a little help intervention when it came to cutting down the planks to the exact length we needed.

We took two 11-inch-wide pieces of pine and cut them to the exact length we needed (in our case, 70″). To get the depth right, we added an additional 2×4 strip in the back. We lined them up and traced around where our sink would go and Page cut each of the boards along the sink lines with a jigsaw.

I gave each piece a good sanding and glued them together using Liquid Nails then used vices to clamp them tightly together while they dried.

We let them dry for a full 24 hours before I filled in the seams with stainable wood filler, which I left on for several hours before sanding the whole counter smooth. We set the counter on top of the bar to ensure everything fit properly before I began staining. (Note: the counter is pulled away from the wall in the shot below, there is not really that much over-hang.)

I have stained a couple things before but had never heard to use wood conditioner first. It definitely made my coats of stain go on more smoothly! You can see the deep color that came through in the very first coat…I was so happy with the color! (Yep, cleaning gloves = staining gloves.)

Two thick coats of dark wood stain (left on about 15 mins each time to further deepen the color before wiping away the excess), three sealing coats of polyacrylic spray, and a final 24 hours to fully dry, rounded out the finish for the countertop.

(You all know what happened next…Pager tore his ACL on a ski trip and doing any work down here was physically out of the question for several weeks as he underwent and recovered from surgery. We could have hired some help but we were SO close to being done and knew just what we wanted and as impatient as I can be, the truth is we were in no rush. So fast forward through some calendar pages….)

In early June, our super-helpful friend, Chris, came over to help hang the upper cabinets (we swapped services as I helped his wife plan a baby shower…but we definitely got the sweet end of that deal!). Here’s the pic the guys texted us once the three pieces (and the spacer pieces in between each cabinet) were up on the wall. It was so exciting to see something new down there after such a long break. Tools + Beer = Successful Install.

Following this picture, the end cap pieces I had painted were adhered with construction adhesive and I added some bumpers (similar to these) to the insides of the doors/drawers so they wouldn’t slam when closed. The plumbing was hooked up and the sink/faucet added, but not before Page discovered the standard sink clips that came with the install kit weren’t big enough for our extra-thick counter top. (Good to know if you plan to create a similar type of counter — the ones we needed had to be special-ordered.)

We added a beverage fridge among the bottom cabinets (thanks, Amex points!) and hooked up our counter top wine cooler (thanks, Mom & Dad!). We relocated the wine glass racks I originally added to the red hutch (that’s now in our guest room, where we HOPE wine glass racks aren’t needed), and installed them under the center cabinet. After adding some trim to the tops of the cabinet (made a big difference in helping them look “finished”), our only future item is to look at some under-cabinet lighting options to go under the two longer/lower cabinets.

It was an all-out, one-person party filling up the cabinets and drawers with lots of entertaining goodies. Voila – our DIY bar! Celebratory completion martini, anyone?

And as a special “share the love, we’re celebrating!” type of thing, feel free to print your own Dom Perignon quote for yourself! You can use the settings in your printer to create it as a full page (roughly 8″ x 8″)  or scale it down to fit a smaller frame (like mine, which is 4″ x 4″).

To download, simply click or hover/right click over the words below:

DomQuote

Back soon with the rest of the tour…

Linking up today with Home Stories A to Z!

I’ve been itching for weeks to get some things done around the house, but the ridiculous weather (hello, it SNOWED this time last week!) has held us back. We finally were able to get outside this weekend and attack a long checklist of items. We are sore and tired, but sooo happy to have some things checked off!

Page got the oil changed in all three cars (a must, since we are preparing to sell two of them!) and we got a bunch of his knee surgery supplies listed for sale as well (goodbyeeeee crutches, braces, and more!).

The CRAZY winds this weekend, coupled with what we and our next door neighbors have deemed “the wind tunnel” that runs between our two houses (with no trees!), resulted in a huge piece of our flashing peeling off and eventually ripping altogether to fall to the street. Oh, but not before spending a solid 12 hours banging away against the siding. Right on the other side of our bedroom. Beginning at 3 in the morning. #joysofhomeownership

It doesn’t look like much in this photo, but this sucker was LOUD. Fortunately, the same guys who resided this whole side of the house last spring due to hail came to the rescue to get it fixed. We didn’t DO the work, but I considered this another item checked off!

To get away from the noise and distract myself from what I was sure would be a cell phone call telling me it had ripped off and taken out a neighbor, I headed to the garden center to pick up some new pretties to replace much of what late frost has killed off. I was bitter at first to be nearly starting over, but in the end, I really like the process of digging in the dirt, and I REALLY like that going forward these are all (supposedly) low-maintenance plants!

Behold…two of the three boxwoods replaced, and the spruce has been swapped for a much lower-profile rose bush. I’ve been told this is a better option because by the time it gains much height, it will have had plenty of time to get solidly rooted. Here’s hoping!

I also attempted some potting for the first time since the year we were married. We call it the great disaster of 2007. I forgot to water and then to compensate I ended up drowning everything. I was like the kid who couldn’t take care of his pet. I’m hoping I’ll be able to embrace responsibility this time around. 🙂

The other stuff I didn’t get pictures of included sweeping out the garage and vacuuming and washing the cars. Ahhh. It was so much more pleasant driving to work this morning…the seasons have finally turned for us, bring on Spring!

I’m excited to start a new little series of posts here on the blog –> “Set The Table”. I love studying tablescapes from the cleanest and simplest to the most glamorous and elaborate. There really is an art to a well set table that doesn’t feel too cluttered nor too bare for the occasion. No matter the level of complexity, I am all about using items I have on hand, mixing and matching to get the most mileage out of my stuff, and coming up with something fresh each time.

After my bestie picked up a couple of these aqua Ikea runners I’d been eyeing, I wanted to pull an Easter brunch scheme together around them! I feel like brunches can get a little stuff and overdone, when really, it should be about being relaxed, enjoying a leisurely weekend morning chatting and eating with friends and family.

I tried to keep the vibe casual by not using a tablecloth, and keeping silverware only to a single fork, which I laid IN the bowls for something different and less formal. I like using these shorter (55″) runners horizontally to double as place mats for each setting. I mixed some chargers I’ve had forever with our everyday dishes and some acrylic glasses I’d spied at TJ Maxx earlier this month (in the color of the year, no less!) and some cloth napkins from Target that I bought solely because they had all the colors of my new scheme for this main area of our house and I couldn’t walk away from them. A vase I had on hand and some sticks from the yard make a very simple centerpiece. The only new item for this setting was the $1 package of Peeps that I stuck on coffee stirrers and popped into each glass. The lemons were in the fridge anyway. Groceries serving double duty as decor – love it. 🙂

Ironically after creating a table set for four, it will be just the two of us this year for Easter – but I’m so looking forward to a relaxing morning to ourselves. Hope you enjoy your Sunday, wherever you’re spending it!

A year and a half ago, we signed an offer to buy a lot and begin building a home. We had never built before, or even purchased ANY home, none of our friends had built, and we threw ourselves into a process of “learning as we went”. Here we are, in all our pre-groundbreaking excitement… 🙂

Since then, I’ve been asked by a few people if we’d do it again or if we’d do anything differently. The answer to both questions is “YES!” and after getting to know many of our neighbors, who also are first-time builders, I feel like I have a collective pool of advice to share with anyone considering building a home.

You can read the full series of posts on our build here for all of the week-by-week details. Below is our list of things we’ve learned, more than a year after moving in!

1. Shop around with builders and ask a LOT of questions. You are the customer, so don’t feel like you’re being annoying. Different builders own lots in different neighborhoods, so if there’s a particular area you like, ask for a list of any/all builders who own property in that area so you’re getting the “whole picture”.
2. Everything is negotiable. Builders, just like sellers, want to do business. While the price of a floor plan is pretty “set” (as opposed to buying from a private seller of a pre-owned home where you can counter with a lower price), you can negotiate finish upgrades, floor plan changes, permit expenses, and more into the listed price. Work with your realtor to feel out where the “limit” of what you can/should ask for should be, but if there are a couple of “wants” at the top of your list that might seal the deal for you – simply ask for them. The worst the builder can say is no.
3. The “list price” of the house plan you buy WILL increase before your close date. We bought a plan, on a particular lot, at X amount. We very much had to pick and choose where we could spend some extra money, but by the time we upgraded the appliances, carpet, kitchen cabinets, added extra stone to the front, expanded the size of the standard deck, and added a handful of extra lights/outlets/etc the price had jumped. A good bit. Consider yourself warned. 🙂
4. Ask if you can do some DIY during the build. Every builder is different and at the end of the day, they have to put their name on the house they are building and they ARE the expert. But if you have an interest in running your own internet, wiring for speakers, etc, talk with your builder. They may or may not allow you to come in and do this yourself, with the supervision of his electrician. Technically, the house belongs to the builder until the day you close, but some may allow you to come in and install speakers, hardware, etc before that date.
5. Pre-wire for everything you can think of. Even stuff you don’t need. You’re BUILDING so take full advantage of having no walls yet. Pre wire for anything you can think of – ethernet, cable, future electrical in unfinished spaces, in-wall speakers, etc. It is a zillion times more difficult (sometimes simply not possible) to do this stuff later on.
6. If it’s not already standard, opt for higher ceilings on the first floor. This didn’t even cross our minds and the standard for our plan was 8 foot. I wish we had known to spend the extra money to alter this part of our floor plan. It’s not a cheap upgrade, but one that would have been well worth the money for the impact. One of my (few!) regrets.
7. Don’t assume that the options given to you are the ONLY options. We went to a specs meeting and were presented with five different backsplashes, none of which were majorly different from the next. FIVE. TOTAL. We did a little more research on our own and asked about a white subway tile – nothing like anything we had been offered. Customize and ask for pricing on a material that isn’t “standard” – it’s a great way to keep your house from looking like every other one in the new development.
8. Upgrade your appliances. Page is a MAJOR review reader before buying anything. Upon researching the “standard” appliance package, we read all kinds of less-than-great reviews, in particular about our dishwasher. Because the appliances are bought via the builder’s vendor, the pricing is MUCH better through your builder than if you choose to upgrade later, at retail cost. So pay the money NOW to upgrade, when you get to take advantage of the discount. (While you’re at it, ask if you can add on any other appliances not covered in your house price, as long as you get the discount. We saved a couple hundred dollars by buying our washer/dryer “from” our builder this way.)
9. Plan out your lamps, Christmas trees, and anything else you might want to plug in. Current building code calls for a TON of outlets as compared with older homes, but the beauty of building is you can put things EXACTLY where you want them. We had an outlet added to our living room floor so we could plug in laptops from the couch, and the lamp on the end table, without running cords across the floor (trip hazard) to the nearest wall outlet. We also added extra outlets in our master bath so they were on either end of the counter, rather than just one (no one’s reaching over cords during hair-drying sessions). A year and a half later, we still haven’t added the rope lighting we plan to above our kitchen cabinets…but at least we have the hidden outlets installed up there ready and waiting!
10. If there’s a spec home of your plan (or similar) ask to walk through it during the day, and again at night. Even if it’s not your exact plan, get a feel for what certain finishes look like during day and night, how much light the windows let in, etc. The downside of building is you don’t get to walk through “your” house before deciding to buy it. Walk through every spec home of your builder’s that you can and make notes. After going through at night, we realized we wanted to pay to add more canned lights in the kitchen. So glad we did – it would have been a very dim kitchen otherwise!
11. Finish it yourself. If you’re even halfway handy, and have the time and interest, know that you can finish certain tasks for far less than what a builder will charge, and with the time/freedom to make some more customized choices. We saved about $600 by buying and installing our two garage door openers ourselves, rather than having them buy/install, and we ended up with nicer quality (quieter!) openers than the “standard” for our home plan. We took on larger projects as well, like finishing our basement ourselves. For what it would have cost us to have the builder finish the space “bare bones” (walls, paint, and carpet, no extras) we accomplished the same, PLUS we added a wet bar, a half bath, separate storage closet, and a media wall with built-ins…all for what it would have cost to have the builder simply drywall and carpet a four wall space.
12. Deck space is cheap “square footage”. True, in Iowa we can’t use it year-round, but in the warmer months, our deck becomes almost a bonus room off our house. The original plan for the deck was a square 12′ x 12′. I remember taping it off in our townhouse living room and being shocked at how cramped it felt. For something like $300 more, we expanded it by several feet and it feels much more spacious, with room for a table/chairs, grill, and still with plenty of space to move around. Another cheap upgrade was pouring an extra $100 of cement to expand the patio below the deck, to (someday) allow space for a hot tub, and additional seating, comfortably, without feeling cramped.
13. Run an extra gas line. Our neighbors would back us up on this one! We had one gas line already in place for our living room fireplace, but we ran another line on the opposite side of the house so we could upgrade to a gas stove (would do that again in a heartbeat – LOVE my gas stove!). In our neighbors’ case, they ran an extra line for the basement level of their home. At the time of purchase, they didn’t want to pull the trigger to put a second fireplace in downstairs (they run a few thousand) but if they ever want to down the road, they (or future buyers) have the option, ready to go.
14. Focus your attention on the more expensive finishes. There are a MILLION choices to be made, fairly quickly so things can get ordered, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed and feel rushed. Paint is cheap and easy to change, so is cabinet hardware. Think about the bigger things – the ones that are more involved/expensive to swap out later if you decide you dislike them. In our case, I had seen tons of DARK wood flooring on Pinterest, loved it in contrast to our light walls/cabinets, and we picked a floor swatch instantly and never looked back. In retrospect, I would have gone out to the flooring vendor’s showroom and seen it in action, rather than choosing based on a 6-inch sample square. I researched what I wanted like a crazy woman, so a year later, I still love 95% of the things we chose, given the short time frame. The hardwood laminate floors are one of the few things I would change. They look great and flawless in photos, and I’d do laminate again (more durable/less expensive than real wood) but in real life, the dark color I love so much shows everything. I’ve had friends comment they would like this, because it forces you to keep it clean, and how gross to think what lighter floors are “hiding”. I appreciate the support. 🙂 But I still would rather go back and swap them for something a shade or two lighter, and with some texture (ours are perfectly smooth, no fake “grain” to them) to hide the day-to-day a bit better.
15. Be sure your builder guarantees some sort of new home warranty, and take full advantage of it. The homes on our street are built by a variety of builders, but in all cases, they included some sort of one-year warranty to cover the things that can happen in a new home. New construction is constantly settling during those first months. One day your wall or ceiling will look great, the next, there’s a crack or a nail pop from something shifting. Our warranty included a one-month and eleven-month visit from a contractor to fix these types of things, including recaulking our counters (granite is heavy and had settled, pulling away from the backsplash a bit), and fixing a handful of nail pops in various rooms of the house. Take advantage of these provisions – because after the first year, they’re GONE. Thankfully, our roof debacle happened during the first year, and was fully covered by this warranty (and we’ve since learned from MULTIPLE builders that this is just a risk you take building in Iowa in the winter). (Note: anything weather related, like the hail that took out our west siding, is NOT covered by this warranty, but rather your homeowners’ policy.)
16. Congratulate yourself – you just built a house! We sounded like broken records throughout the process, but even on the more stressful days, it was still amazing to see our home literally come to be out of nothing, straight out of the ground. To see your choices on paper take shape in real life is just pretty darn cool. In a time when people are struggling to sell homes, we chose to build, a decision not everyone around you might support should you decide to build. It is also a time of unemployment for a lot of contractors, and slowed business for home builders, most of whom have a staff they need to pay. You can look at it as taking away a home sale for a family — we saw it as providing work to a handful of carpenters, drywallers, plumbers, and electricians, all with families to support. I’m so glad we stuck to our guns and celebrated our decision to build – we would do it again without hesitation and I can truthfully say we enjoyed nearly every minute of it – even the stressful minutes. The home that YOU put together will be there for a really long time, lived in by many families after you. Kind of a cool thought!

If there’s anything I didn’t cover, or a question that’s on your mind, please leave it in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer! Hopefully someone out there, ready to build, gets a little snippet of help from what we’ve learned! Happy home building 🙂