Nessen Dream Home 2013

We're currently building our "dream" home.  It all started about 18 months ago when a realtor friend of ours called and asked if he could show our house to some first-time home-buyers.  Our house wasn't on the market, but we did own a lot in a rural subdivision where we were planning on building a house at some point in the near future.  The home-buyers were renting a home in our neighborhood and really wanted to stay, but none of the homes for sale were in their price range.  We ended up with a contract a couple weeks later, and less than a month after that we were at the title company signing the papers.  While at our closing, the other realtor shared another listing with us.  It was 2700 sf home on 11 acres with a pipe fence and a metal barn.  It had a small pond in the pasture as well.  The home was owned by a widow in her 80's.  The house had caught on fire earlier that year and the woman's children and grandchildren moved her into an assisted living complex and convinced her to sell the place.  It was love at first sight for Justin, but I was much more hesitant because of the hefty price tag.  We ended up buying it with plans to demolish the house and rebuild on the existing foundation.  Eleven months later (and a whole lot of work) we were framing our new house!  It has been a true labor of love.  Designing the new floor plan with the architect took a few months longer than we expected.  Justin had to cut out sections of the slab in order to move plumbing and then fill it with new cement.  The original house also had a sunken living room we had to take care of.  Gravel and rebar had to be put in place so we could fill the sunken room with cement.  To save money, Justin is acting as the general contractor which has proved to be very time consuming.  It's nice that we are currently living about a mile from the construction site so Justin can swing by early in the morning and talk to the subs before he heads to work.  Most of our evenings for the last 5 months have been spent working and cleaning up at the new house.  It's coming along beautifully and we're sure excited to move in next month.  Below are the MOST recent pictures of the progress (I took them this morning).

all the windows on the front of the house will have wood shutters to match the front door

this is standing in the garage looking into my mud room



LOVE my mud room!  I designed this myself.  There will be a shelf under the bench for shoes and hooks above the bench for coats and backpacks.




1/2 bath off the mud room



my laundry room. I'll have a sewing desk under the window and the washer and dryer will be next to it.

this is the wall opposite the desk and washer/dryer.  our upright freezer will go inthe empty space.

this is the same wall as the freezer. we will have a clothes rod for hanging clothes to dry.



this is the storage closet off the laundry room



Kitchen!!

walk-in pantry

closer shot of cabinets

i took this standing in the kitchen looking at the dining room

entry way

study

living room



playroom/4th bedroom



Claire's room

Claire's walk-in closet

Grace's room

Grace's closet

Hall bath

Master bedroom from hallway

master bath vanity.  The cabinet in the middle of our bedroom will go on the vanity between the two sinks.

from left to right: master closet, toilet closet, linen cabinet, walk-in shower

soaking tub!



justin's side of master closet.  my side is basically the same




built-in book shelves in living room



another view of the living room.



we will be adding stacked stone to the hearth and inside the mantle as soon as it is delivered :)

garage.  the double doors on the left side open to a storage closet which houses the electrical panels and hot water heater, as well our side by side fridge.  the entire garage, including the garage door will be insulted so we can use that closet for food storage if needed.