Home Sweet Home!

We're finally in! After many last-minute gymnastics, we're finally living in our dream home. In order to satisfy the inspector, we had to make some real-time adjustments in the hand railing in the stairwells, and sign a bond to have some landscaping corrections in the back yard.

The electricity was turned on the same evening, but a dead short was discovered in the AC, so we spent the night with the windows open. The short was corrected the next morning, so we're in business.

What have we learned from this experience? If you can't afford to go substantially over the budget, don't start. Unless you're willing to take more time than you expected, spend more money than you can afford, and stand more stress than you think you can, have someone else build the house for you. Managing, or co-contracting a home is not for the faint-hearted.

Thanks so much to the friends who patiently listened to our struggles and complaints day after day without running the other way when you saw us coming. You’ve heard more than you ever wanted to know about our construction process.

Thanks also, to the extraordinary help, faithful moral support and encouragement from our families. Thanks to my wife and daughter, who worked like pack mules side-by-side with me every step of the way, as we logged in untold hours of sweat equity.

Was it worth it? Drive on by our place some evening. And as your car crests the hill, look over to your right. Yep. That beautiful structure, unique in its appearance, awesome in its design, majestic in its stature, basking in the warm yellow glow of its many lanterns, is ours. It’s hard to believe it’s finally ours.