House Nearly Finished...Bittersweet

[Timberline]

Well, our home is nearly finished and it's a bittersweet feeling for me. You see, my dh and I built our home from the ground up. We have literally been building it for 20 years. We bought the property in 1990 and broke ground in 1991. I was 20 and he was 23, now I'm 41 and he's 44 (amazing!). Anyway, we got the shell of the house up and enough done to live in. Then all the excess money went to paying off the mortgage, building his workshop, barns, corrals, two businesses, etc. We've done a lot of living in the past 20 years, and the work on the house went slow. It seems like we either had the time and no money, or the money and no time to work on it. Just last month we put in the last bit of finish trim work in the downstairs bathroom and laundry room. The only thing left is new flooring, can't decide what we want, so it's been put off the longest.

I feel bittersweet about it because it has been such a huge part of our life, and such a learning experience. Most of our weekends are planned around some project on the house. My dh occasionally spends a weekend away and I love planning and working on something while he's gone. I've learned how to properly use a lot of tools over the years, and found out I can do many things I never thought I could. But, it has been frustrating. It's hard to live in and work on a home. When it's spotless clean, it still looks unfinished. I've been pretty impatient at times to have it done, but now that it almost is, I feel sort of lost. It has been a wonderful experience.

I know there will be lots of maintenance, barn projects and other things, but I do feel like an era in our life is coming to an end. The next big project will be edible landscaping around the house.

These 2 shots are from about 5 years ago. We have made several improvements since then, but you can see the house, his shop, some of the barns and pens. There are now covered porches at the entry doors, we've redone some of the pens and cleaned up quite a bit. I'm working on getting some inside pics.



Here's a couple from October 1991. The house is 30x30 on the basement (walk-out basement) and main levels, 30x24 in the loft. You can see the pond in the background of the first pic. Walls going up in the second pic and the camper we lived in while building. Boy, that was a long time ago.

[Common Tator]

How lovely! What a beautiful place!

[Backfourty,MI.]

I think that's pretty amazing! You should both feel very proud of yourself's for accomplishing such a HUGE task! The pictures look Great & I'm sure once all your outside landscaping is done it will be even more beautiful. It looks like your peice of heaven right now from where I can see.
Would love to see a picture of your goats too?
Everyone in the goat forum loves all the little goatie pictures too!

[Backwoods Momma]

This is gorgeous and if your marriage survived 20 years of building you will be together forever. Now,l it's time ot just enjoy.

[SunsetSonata]

Ooooh - that sunset picture is just divine. Gorgeous background, gorgeous lighting illuminating a gorgeous house! What a beautiful piece of property! You're not done yet, all that landscaping, I'm sure after all those years renovating that you will find other improvements that suddenly come to mind, that you hadn't the luxury to consider before.... (I have no idea what, looks pretty great to me, but who knows, maybe you'll install a big pond and then landscape around that, or landscape around your driveway, or... or... or......)

[Timberline]

Thanks, everyone. BW Momma, while we were building the shell, we lived next to the house in a 16' camper trailer, with our pets. We felt like if our marriage survived THAT, we could survive anything!

Sunset, our pond was already here, it's about an acre and a half, our favorite place.
Backfourty, I will add some goatie pics in the goat forum. My pretty roan Nigerian had triplets two weeks ago. I think we jumped into this place so young, because it is our piece of heaven and we both knew we wanted to live out our lives here. This pond is on the property, to the right of the house in the first picture. Our west facing windows overlook it, the big windows in the second pic are the master bedroom windows. It's the reason we bought the property in the first place. Right now as I type this, I can see some Canada geese sorting out nesting sites and mallards trying to stay out of the way.

[KatSpradley]

how beautiful...I only wish my DH would see how lovely the country can be...

[Shushy]

What beautiful scenery!!

[Woodpecker]

Great place!

[Timberline]

You're right, Rose, it will never be 100% finished, but the main stuff is done and that's been the focus of our lives for so long. It's a very satisfying feeling to know every nail and board in your house intimately, it's how you want it and you don't owe anything on it. There were many times we seriously considered taking out a loan so we could just get it all done, now I'm glad we didn't.

[Aohtee]

You have a beautiful home. Is the house considered 1 1/2 stories?

Don't worry about having projects to do. Just start a list and if its anything like mine, it will grow and grow and grow.

[Jennifer L.]

You've done a terrific job. Personally, I wouldn't feel too bad that the work has come to an end, there's always going to be things out there that people like you, who know what they want and how to do it, will want to do. Your next project may be better yet! (although it's hard to see how you'll top that. It's a great farmstead with amazing beauty, as well).

Congratulations!

Jennifer

[Timberline]

Thanks for all the nice comments. Aohtee, it's 3 stories, full basement, main level and loft. The loft is full length 30', and about 24' wide in the living space, the knee wall down the sides are enclosed with built in dressers and cubbys. The entire loft (expect the bath) is done in tongue and groove aspen.

[sirquack]

The sunset and pond photos are absolutely breathtaking. I am just beginning my adventure. We bought the property late last year and I am SO looking forward to beginning to get some improvements on the land.
My wife has never had the benefit of living in the country and she is struggling a little bit with the idea of living in 'the sticks'.
We hope to so as you did and put up most if not all of the work ourselves. A good friend of our did it with his and his parents home on property they have and he will be helping us along the way.
I look forward to seeing some more recent photos.

Ron
Iowa

[Jenn]

time to plan an addition!

[NeHomesteader]

I love your place. You guys have done such a great job and should be so proud doing it step by step with no debt. How many people can do that and end up with what you have? Love the windows that are built out on the house,cute. Dawn

[Timberline]

Originally Posted by Jenn

time to plan an addition!

Oh my, no way.

Dawn, we had debt, the original loan for the property and enough to get the shell up and plumbed, electric (we did hire those out). From bare bones up to finished didn't happen until we had things paid off. I was about 10 years before we installed the final kitchen cabinets. Did dishes in the bathtub for quite some time (not fun then, but fun to look back on now). We had a lot of help along the way from family and friends. Seems like everyone we love came and helped put in insulation, hang drywall, build cabinets, etc. Very fond memories of that.

It seemed like such a grand adventure back then. And it was, but don't know that I'd want to do it again at this age. Living in that little trailer, looking out at the growing house and dreaming our big dreams about it. Now seeing those dreams in reality is rather surreal.

[Timberline]

Originally Posted by sirquack

The sunset and pond photos are absolutely breathtaking. I am just beginning my adventure. We bought the property late last year and I am SO looking forward to beginning to get some improvements on the land.
My wife has never had the benefit of living in the country and she is struggling a little bit with the idea of living in 'the sticks'.
We hope to so as you did and put up most if not all of the work ourselves. A good friend of our did it with his and his parents home on property they have and he will be helping us along the way.
I look forward to seeing some more recent photos.

Ron
Iowa

Thank you, Ron. It has been a long road, but so worth it. It has really built up our marriage, too. We've had arguments over how some things should be done, but we learned along the way to meet in the middle, to really comprise and work together to accomplish our goals. We were both born and raised in the country, and never wanted to live anywhere else, so didn't have issues there.
Best of luck with your new adventure. In the end, it is worth every disagreement, every set back, and every smashed thumb.

[Kelly]

Wow! What a beautiful place! I can't imagine what it must be like looking out those windows. Who needs pictures inside your home...just open your curtains. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing more pics...

[WhiteWillow]

I can't get over the scenery. I really can't imagine living somewhere with such breathtaking views.