I’ve been trying to get a blog post up with some photos of our finished custom home build for about 4 months now … hopefully 2022 is the year of reviving the blog and spending a bit more time sharing information here! We broke ground on our home on Dec. 8th of 2020 and moved into it in September of 2021! Building during a pandemic certainly had its fair share of challenging moments and difficult situations but we got through it and truly have our dream home to show for it. I’ll do my best to share sources and details in more broken down and specific blog posts but feel free to find me on Instagram @sweetersidemom if you have further questions! We kind of went into this whole process blind but learned SO MUCH along the way and are happy to share with others.
Custom Home Build Specs and Big Details
Foundation – Superior Walls
Siding – vertical and horizontal vinyl siding
Windows – Pella Impervia Casement Windows in Black
Sq. Footage – footprint of our house is roughly 40’ x 30’. Main floor and upstairs are about 2,400 sq. Ft. And we also have a finished guest room and guest full bath in the basement. Eventually the basement will be finished into a gym and bar area.
All cabinetry and built ins (kitchen/bathrooms) – fully custom built
Flooring – CoreTEC LVP in Calypso Oak
Ceilings – 9’ throughout
The centerpiece of our main living space is definitely our beautiful fireplace. It’s very simple but a perfect blank slate for anything we want to do decor wise. The mantle is a log from the log cabin we knocked down (and lived in for five years prior to and during this build!). The gas fireplace is a Heat N Glo fireplace that we are pretty much obsessed with. It’s so incredibly easy to use and so cozy and warm! We already updated it and added in a more powerful fan and remote so we can set a timer, use to essentially heat the whole room and control the flame height and embers more specifically.
Our oversized, beautiful, black-framed windows were a cornerstone of our budget. Since we were more limited on square footage to keep the budget under control we knew we needed show stopping windows that made every room feels as bright and open as possible.
When designing our custom home it was super important to think about little details we could add simply because we were building custom. One of those details were the outlets we wanted to have inside the cabinetry! They have been so useful for charging devices, plugging in internet equipment and having a convenient place to charge the dustbuster. We also added outlets along the wall for our beloved Christmas Snow Village (which many of you saw and loved on instagram!).
We designed the built ins with our builders custom cabinetry maker (a husband and wife team who are so good at what they do!) to be highly functional for our specific storage needs and to be a beautiful way to display various family treasures throughout the year. The lower cabinets along the big right hand wall are just 12” deep and, again, are perfect for our Christmas snow village!
When framing first started on our home we were super bummed to see a post added by the engineer smack in the middle of the house at the base of the stairs. After discussing our options and realizing it really couldn’t be changed without some massive budget increases and structural changes we decided to wrap the post in log from the cabin house. Ultimately this turned out to be a bonus because this beam is so beautiful and really a focal point of our home now. It’s such a beautiful reminder of this whole home building experience and permanent reminder of where we started.
The entryway of our house has been one of the most anticipated spaces of this custom home build project. Our old house didn’t have any kind of entry (front door led right into the living room, literally bumping the door into the sofa) so this is a major upgrade for our family! It’s so great to have a giant coat closet here and big beautiful doors I can see out of. These doors are paint grade doors that we had painted Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black. They’ll need to be touched up over the years (ahem, dogs) but that’s no big deal for the huge cost savings we were able to take advantage of going with these over some various other options. We learned big beautiful wood statement front doors can cost upwards of $30,000 which was absolutely not anything we needed in our budget.
Here’s a step back view of the living space and front door to give you a sense of the flow. While not enormous, the main floor living area is spacious and perfectly laid out for our needs. The entry flows into the dining area with the kitchen on one side and the living room on the other.
On to the kitchen!
This first kitchen photo (above) was taken right before we moved in.
I spy one of my favorite favorite FAVORITE details of our home…
The lockers! These beasts are full size lockers and we got one for each person in our family. They are such a perfect way to contain each persons stuff (coats, shoes, backpacks, sports equipment). They were an absolute nightmare to order – the wrong ones were delivered and they come on a massive lift truck that blocks traffic… it was quite tricky haha.
The backsplash tile we wanted was a very dimensional zellige tile in a straight lay 4” x 4” square. It’s so pretty and lends beautiful texture and warmth to the kitchen. I’m also slightly obsessed with our faucet and sink combo. The sink is actually made of quartz and was so budget friendly for a farmhouse sink. It’s the perfect size and I *love* the faucet. (Again, we are keeping this post free of links and making another reference post just for product links to keep it easy and organized!)
Last but definitely not least I just wanted to share a shot that includes our barstools. I hemmed and hawed over spending big bucks on barstools but ultimately went with these. They were a bit more budget friendly when buying six and it turns out our island can comfortably fit 8! I’ll definitely be ordering two more. They are indoor outdoor material, pretty much indestructible which is great for kids and dogs AND they stack which is really helpful when I’m cleaning the floors!
I can’t wait to share more parts of our home with you as we go. We are definitely newbie home bloggers and living in the real world meaning it will take us time and savings to finish each space how we want to. Hope you stick around to see all the final results. <3
This Is Us.
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