Building A Home

I remember being a little girl, and imagining building a house one day. When you’re young, you think it’s a piece of cake to just put a few walls together, choose some paint colors, and BAM your dream home is built! I remember I wanted an indoor pool, a huge flower garden, a separate house just for sleepovers with my best friends, a slide going from my bedroom all the way down to the living room, a huge closet and kitchen; the list goes on. It’s funny looking back and thinking about what I thought I wanted in my dream home. I may not plan on an indoor pool any longer, but actually some of my other dreams are still the same, (like that huge closet, BRING IT ON!). However I wish the process of actually building was as quick as I imagined as a little girl!

We have a small cabin right on Lake Huron, that we purchased along with a great amount of property with my parents and relatives a few years ago. The past few summers have been amazing. We would always come back on Jeff’s time off before training camp to lake days and sunshine. We were also able to have our annual anniversary and Fourth of July parties there. And in the winter, we would be in our cozy cabin relaxing and watching the snow fall outside. It’s been really neat watching our family grow in that cabin, and seeing how many awesome memories we have in it. We moved back to our hometown when Jeff was released by the Cleveland Browns last fall. At the time we felt like football was still an option, so we just waited day to day as we tried to figure out our next move or plan.

Luckily we had our cabin to live in for the past year, and are still currently living in while our home is being built! But with two kids and stuff piled up from living in Wisconsin, Ohio, and back to Michigan, we’re a little crammed! I’m thankful my that parents are next door, so we were able to fill their basement spare room with most of our storage. I’m still sad I haven’t been able to make a nursery or girly bedroom for Payton yet because we don’t have the room in our cabin. Carter had a cute little nursery in Wisconsin when he was born, but we never really got to design a toddler or big boy room for him since we’ve been back. I’m really looking forward to designing both of those in our new home!

I posted the picture above on my Instagram back in August when Payton was only two weeks old! We were standing in the basement of our new house, and I thought we had made progress then. I look at where our house is at just three months from that photo and it’s incredible. Every night we go look at the progress and imagine where we will place everything. It sometimes doesn’t even feel real that it’s ours.

Just recently our roofing and shingles were put on, (thank the Lord that was done before all of the snow came), so each day it looks more like a house. It takes all of my strength not to go and order a bunch of new furniture and decor right this second for it LOL! But it’s been fun going into different home stores whether it be for paint color options or countertop ideas. There have been days when the kids and I don’t have anything going on, so we hop in the car and go to Home Depot just to browse for inspiration. I’m know what style we will be having throughout our house, so it’s fun to go look for lighting and other items in that specific style. I will also say, that the building process will bring you and your spouse closer together. You may not agree on every single thing, but I know Jeff and I have really worked on compromising with our decisions so that both of our ideas benefit. It’s been really great for us!

I think the biggest part about this house process, besides having to pick every single detail out, is the fact that this is going to be our family home for the rest of our lives. We’ve lived in several homes over the past five years, and now this is it! We finally will have a home that we know we won’t have to possibly move out of if we didn’t make the team. It’s our home that we will watch our kids grow up in, and eventually the home that Jeff and I will grow old together in. It really does bring on all sorts of emotions! We worked hard designing it the exact way we wanted it, and with the help of our builders it’s becoming just the way we pictured.

I’m looking forward to sharing updates as we go along, so don’t forget to keep following my blog and my Instagram account (@nextplaywithmrs.j) to stay updated!

Lots of love and God Bless,

-Alyssa