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A house of our own. . .

Ever since Holli and I have been married (5+ years now), we have had as our primary residence an apartment.  Some have been good (SMU's apartments were pretty nice), others were terrible (so bad that I've blocked their names from my memory).  The day had to come eventually and we made the decision at the beginning of this year to finally pay our last rent check to some apartment landlord.

We started the process first by looking for existing homes to purchase that were at least within a respectable range of Microsoft's offices in Irving.  That search didn't go too well, mainly due to the fact that we were looking for homes in a suburb called Coppell.  We were disappointed to say the least to see 10-15 year old homes selling for above $250,000.  So, we re-focused our efforts on another part of town.  We looked at the suburbs south of Irving, closer to Holli's mother and stepfather and we found things a bit more affordable. 

We decided to take a look at it to make sure that it was true, and sure enough, it was.  the lake behind the property was amazing.  From the research we've done, it was probably part of an old ranch where the owner decided to dam a small creek.  It is very shallow and there's no fishing allowed, but it attracts some of the largest herons and cranes I've ever seen.    It is a beautiful spot in the spring time as well with the wildflowers blooming all over the hills surrounding the lake.

So, we found a spot and a builder, we were half-way there, right?  WRONG!  The toughest part was just about to begin.  For most of my life, I evaluated houses on how they looked from the outside, not giving much thought to the fact that I would be living there.  This time around though, Holli made sure that we did the evaluation from the inside out.  We looked at all sorts of different house plans, but none of them seemed to fit our needs.  Then we started making small changes to a few and things got better.  After a few months of tinkering we found one we really liked.

We chose a two-story model that has about 2400 square feet.  That's an amazing 150% increase over even our largest apartment.  It was hard for us to imagine living in a space where our stuff doesn't fill every available nook and cranny.  We are looking forward to sprucing up the outside with a few trees and some landscaping, planting a garden in the back and having to mow the grass on Saturdays (did I just write that?).

Designing the guts of the house was the hardest part.  Trying to find something that was attractive, yet functional and a good value all at once was a tough thing to do.  We finally settled on a floor plan that had 2 living areas downstairs, along with a den.  We figured that would be enough space for Holli to decorate, but also so that Aaron could hide his computer mess somewhere besides the living room.  By the time Aaron is done playing with his 'computer room' we'll probably have to add an extra air conditioner to keep up with all the servers that will be in that room!

The second floor, we pretty much left alone.  It will have all four bedrooms up there and it will have a nice sitting area on the landing above the stairs.  We think it will be a nice place to curl up with a book on a comfy leather chair.  The two back bedrooms will have awesome views of the lake and the Master will have a view of the valley where Fort Worth and Arlington sit.  The Master 'Suite' is as big as our first apartment.  We are also excited for the girls to have their own rooms.  Holli is the most excited, and she is planning all sorts of cutesy stuff to paint and wallpaper in there.

 Here's a look at how our neighborhood will shape up and how our house is oriented compared to the lake:

And, here's a view of what Aaron's commute is going to look like.  It will probably take between 30 and 40 minutes to drive with traffic.  About 15 minutes without.  Hopefully Aaron can get a spot with a team at Microsoft that works the early shift, that way he can avoid the traffic.

For now, that's about it.  When they start pouring the foundation and building, we'll have updated photos for you to see here.  Stop by often and you'll see the progress.

For more info on our builder, check out http://www.woodhavenhomes.com