We moved into our house one year ago. It has taken me exactly one year to finally share photos of this house. I’m always slow to post, but a full year?! I just posted last year’s Santa pics too, so maybe massive delays are just my thing.

Here’s a little background on this house and how it came to be.

We moved to the property we call #magnoliaridgeLA in the spring of 2020. We got married here by the pond, just as the world shut down for a global pandemic. Truthfully, having this land to spread out on and explore when we were forced to stay home was such a blessing. We had no idea how grateful we’d be for these 14 acres when we first bought it.

The property came with a quaint, old house on the hill. It was two bedrooms with just one bathroom and boasted dark paneling and old carpet. We painted everything white and put down some new flooring to “make it work” until we decided what was next. We crammed our family of 4 into those two bedrooms and did so as a test run to see if we liked country living. The plan was to either add on to that house or build a new one once we confirmed that we didn’t mind being so far from town.

Those four walls closed in on me pretty quickly and we had to keep a lot of our belongings in the shed out back because there simply wasn’t room inside! We ended up living in that tiny house for almost two years.

One day while hunting near the pond, Zach decided the hill he was on would be the perfect place to build a house, overlooking the beautiful pond. The day we met with our builder for the first time was the day we found out we were pregnant. (Cue my panic. And nausea.) On the list of things no one should ever do is build a house while miserably pregnant and/or having a newborn. Heed my advice, friends. Don’t do it.

On one hand, it was great that we were making plans for a bigger house since our family was growing. On the other, I was miserably sick. I don’t mean a little morning sickness. I stayed nauseous all day and all night and typically went from my bed to the couch, back to the bed.

We realized pretty quickly that we would not have a finished house before this baby arrived. This meant we’d be bringing home a 5th human to live in that small house and I’d traipse through all the postpartum stuff in a shared bathroom and rooms with paper thin walls. This also meant we’d have to make room for baby basics and shower gifts. We took more stuff to storage and stashed baby gifts at the neighbors’ and my in-laws.

Since I was so sick, I had zero desire to make house plans. I tasked Zach with choosing three floor plans and I’d pick one from there. He picked the location, the floor plans, and pretty much all of what we did next. I did no googling. No Pinterest. No late night searching for light fixtures and such.

I just wanted a bigger house where I felt like we could all fit. As my body grew, I literally felt like there was no room for me in the current house. I didn’t care what he picked. I just wanted more space.

We brought our baby boy home in July and we were no where near finished with the house. In early November, we moved to my in-laws while the old house was moved off the property. We thought we’d be there 2-3 weeks and it ended up being closer to 6. On December 8, 2021, we spent our first night in this house and we couldn’t have been more grateful.

Now, a little about the house itself….
We built this house right as building costs skyrocketed. We purchased our lumber at peak pricing. On closing day for the loan, we were already over budget and we hadn’t even started, based on supply costs alone.

We were sooooo over budget on this house. I’m still sick about it. This wasn’t because we made poor purchasing decisions. As a matter of fact, we cut out a ton of extras to save money. We drilled back on what we wanted in almost every category. We were over budget because of rising costs + items missing from our original bid. And I’m not talking a few pennies over budget. I’m talking lots and lots and lots of pennies.

The goal became to simply get it done as quickly and cost effectively as possible. Several things weren’t as we initially imagined, and we still ended up with a wonderful home we love.

We’ve been here for a full year now and while I still cringe at how much the cost changed, we’ve been so thankful to have this home for our family. This last year didn’t look as peaceful as I’d hoped, even with that beautiful pond to see out back. My hope for the coming year is that we’re able to settle in a little more, finish the projects that are still undone, and have a house full of family and friends on the regular.

This sign now hangs by our back door and sums it up:
“COME ON IN. TAKE OFF YOUR COAT & SHOES AND ALL OF THE STRESS AND BURDENS THAT THE DAY HAS PLACED ON YOUR SHOULDERS. IT WON’T ALWAYS BE EASY HERE, BUT IT WILL ALWAYS BE SAFE… A PLACE FOR YOU TO BE YOUR TRUEST AND MOST AUTHENTIC SELF — EVEN THE NOT-SO-SHINY PARTS. LAUGH, CRY, BE QUIET, BE ANGRY. BE SILLY… ASK YOUR QUESTIONS & DREAM YOUR DREAMS. THERE IS ROOM FOR IT ALL. EVERY BIT.” – @Lindsay Letters