Do youuu knowwww what today isssss?? It’s our Housi-versary! I probably made that up but I can’t believe its been four whole years since we moved into a home that we built for our family. While we absolutely love our home, we were so naive during the building process and that made for one heck of a learning experience.

Would we change the experience? Of course not, it’s one of the best things that happened to us. Now this wall color on the other hand? It can go.

Hindsight is everything and here are 10 things we wish we knew before building a home:

1. Research the builder.

Houses are built by humans and humans make mistakes but man some things just are unacceptable. We had to double/triple check behind our builder every step of the way because they never seemed to read the build list. From carpet instead of wood floors, to no fireplace at all, they had to redo a lot. Let’s not forget how our kitchen sink completely fell in a month or so after we moved in because it wasn’t mounted properly. If you’re building I’d recommend visiting your site a few times a week, if not daily. Everything ended up getting taken care of in the end but I doubt that we’d use our builder again.

2. Stick to your guns.

From sticking to your budget to knowing what you want in a design, don’t let outside opinions sway you. This was our first home/new build and the entire process was extremely overwhelming; especially the trips to the design center. We originally wanted the interior painted white but one of the design center assistants convinced us it was a bad idea. That made way for the awful dusty yellow color we have on our walls. Thanks lady. I’m not the type to have regrets but I do regret this. It’s even worse now that we’ve finally decided to get the house painted. We want the interior to look a certain way from design standpoint and this paint color is a major roadblock.

3. Dark Laminate Wood is unforgiving in every way.

Dark wood is beautiful… for a whole 5 minutes after you’ve cleaned it. That’s it! If you’re not getting real, hand scraped wood floors do NOT get a dark wood stain. I can breathe and the floors will look dirty. So you can probably guess that I’m about ready to replace those too. Keeping them clean with 3 kids is stressful. Save yourself the headache and get solid wood.

4. You need extra closets/storage space.

Aside from the closet in our master, suite I really didn’t think twice about a closet. Fast forward to now, not having a linen or true coat closet makes me want to pull my hair out. We have plenty of space but not enough space to hide things! Now that I think of it a more functional master closet would’ve been great too. LOL

5. Don’t be the first one in the neighborhood.

If you’re not first you’re last …and when choosing a new neighborhood that is just fine. Our developer completely deviated from his original plan of building a community center and pool for our neighborhood and because we were like one of the first ten families to build we are stuck. The only thing worse than a neighborhood with no amenities is an HOA that over charges and under delivers.

6. Get a regular front door.

A stained glass, wood frame door with no peep hole is unbelievably beautiful until someone shows up at your house unannounced and you’re afraid to open the door. If I’m not expecting anyone, then I just don’t open the door. Especially after dark. Oh well.

7. Get bedrooms on one level.

The privacy of having a master suite away from all the other rooms sound like heaven unless you have children under the age of 5. The helicopter parent in me refuses to put my babies upstairs while I’m downstairs. As a result Zoe and now Luke have been in the room with us since birth. Pray for big James, nothings wrong but he’s sick of us. I’m ready to let Zoe go to her room but Luke isn’t going anywhere right now. #MomProbs

8. The extra space is tempting.

We were a family of 3.5 when we started building and officially a family of 4 on closing day. We had 5 bedrooms that included everyone having their own room, a guest room, playroom and a media room. Now that Lukey is here we’re contemplating turning the playroom into his room but then where would all of the toys go? We can’t cancel the guest room because almost all of our family lives out of town, so where would they stay when they visited? It’s like we saw this big ol house and said “challenge accepted”.

9. Decorating can take years.

We went from an almost 2000 sq ft town house to a 4000 sq ft home and we were not prepared. Ummmm what furniture? Furnishing a home is expensive and will take time, especially if you don’t want to run up a ton of credit card debit in the process. We took it slow and decorated one room at a time. Most wouldn’t know but we had a broken couch in our family room all of 2018 (*coughs little James did it) and we are just getting around to purchasing new furniture for our master bedroom. We’ve been using older bedroom set that James parents gave us back in 2013. Make sure you stay tuned for the reveal btw. I’m so excited!

10. It’s a money pit… in the best way possible.

We love our home but man, we haven’t stopped spending money on it since we put down earnest money to begin the building process. From regular maintenance and appliances to yard work and everything in-between, upkeep has a hefty price tag. There is no rental office and no maintenance men to come to the rescue. If something is broken you have to fix it or hire someone. Which means you get on YouTube pretending to be a handyman and end up making things worse. We understand that we’re only increasing the value of our home but this expense gives new meaning to being an adult.

I think that’s it. I hope that read more like constructive feedback than complaining because we are so blessed to be able to experience the building process and have a home for our family. #CasaDeMeeks There is something so rewarding about living in a home that you got built just for your family. God has been so faithful to our family. Everything has it’s draw backs and not so glamorous side to I just want to make sure I share those with you too. We learned so much though our experience that we will know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into when we build or forever home. James is itching to build a new one already, I’m not there just yet.

If you’ve built a home before does any of these things resonate with you? If you’re planning to build did you find these tips helpful? Talk back to me!