We’ve lived in our home for 10 months now and not a day goes by that Billy and I don’t comment how blessed we are to live here and that we can’t believe this is actually our home. All the painstaking planning really paid off.

That being said, I often get asked (I think mostly by people who are currently building, or getting ready to build) “What would you do differently?”. To be honest, the list is short and our budget was the biggest contributing factor.

The first thing I would change that wouldn’t effect the budget is the upper windows in the living room. When I designed them I didn’t realize there would be a giant brace going down the center instead of a grill. If I’d had known I would have added 2 additional vertical grills to make them look like separate windows. I would have also add a window between the two existing windows to take full advantage of the view from the loft. For some reason I was only thinking about what the exterior would look like. What a rookie!

If budget wasn’t a factor, I would make our dining room 4 feet wider so I could position our dining table the other direction. I would also make our locker room 2 feet wider in each direction. Then I could’ve added a 6th locker and more walking room to accommodate all of us while we’re in there.

Lastly, our builder convinced me to take out 2 feet in the living room, (22′ x 25′ instead of 24′ x 25′). He said the spaces would feel too disconnected and I wish I didn’t listen to him. While I don’t necessarily miss the space inside, we have enough room for furniture and walking space. I do miss the space we would’ve had on the deck.

So all in all, not bad! We love our home and how functional it is for our family. We spent 2 years planning every inch of the place. To be honest, I’m a little surprised at how little we would change being our first time building.

Check out this post to find out how we added character to our home. You can shop our home here.