We Are Building Again

BUILDING OUR DREAM HOME 

A couple of y’all had already guessed it! Except for those messages asking if we were having another baby hahhha nope. But we’ve been keeping a BIG secret for a couple of months now and we finally feel ready to share we are BUILDING A HOUSE again! Keeping this secret was hard. I wanted to share updates and post on stories the moment we signed and locked our lot down.

This is something I’ve been working towards for quite some time now. We build our first home 10 years ago. At that time we were young 20 year olds who knew nothing about the real world. Ryan was just a baby and we were just newlyweds figuring out this whole marriage thing. Life has definitely changed for us since then and we are so ready for this new chapter that I been dreaming about for years now. I wouldn’t call this home our “forever home” but it’s definitely our “dream home”.

How It Started

To start with we had been “seeing” houses since early 2020. Just driving around on the weekends and looking at neighborhoods in Cypress. There was never any discussions about leaving this area. We knew we wanted to stay here. From the start I always knew I wanted to move to Bridgeland. I’ve told this to my husband, family, and friends for years now. I would always say- “I don’t know when, but it’ll be someday!”

Well I had no idea that by late 2020 my husband would also jump on with the idea of finally moving. We had several late night long talks and several disagreements too with all the pros and cons on taking on this big important step. While many family members didn’t think it was the best time to sell our home and build a new one given the circumstances we are in (my husband being a full time student) we felt my business has been thriving the past two years and we also knew our house mortgage will be no more than 15% of our monthly income making us feel completely confident we could do this! But it didn’t get serious until my friend Annie recommended me her realtor that she was currently working with for the house she was building. I needed someone who could guide me as I’m self employed and a business owner who had no guidance on what were the proper steps to take when purchasing a home. Our realtor, Helen was beyond helpful and full of knowledge as she had the experience working with bloggers already and knew what was needed financially to be pre approved. It wasn’t easy and required so much paper work and commitment from our part to get the results we wanted.

In the meantime while we waited for the approval we started narrowing down the home builders we were most interested in, for me it was Perry, Beazer, and Coventry homes. We drove around to look at model homes to get an idea of what floor plan we really loved and wanted. I at first thought we would go with a Beazer home given their houses start at a lower price but after realizing how much needed to be put towards upgrades because their options were very standard and adding a room cost so much we agreed that wasn’t the home builder for us. We started looking between Perry and Coventry and I immediately felt in love with the “Ingleside” model for Coventry. It was a two-story home and it had absolutely everything I wanted. A walk in pantry, a butlers pantry, a huge laundry room that would be big enough for my dirty clothes stash that connected to the main closet, all the kids would have their own rooms and privacy and I’ll finally get my office. When we first went the prices for the month still fit within our budget. However once we went back two weeks later with our realtor we noticed they had drastically gone up and by then the house was up 20k more than we originally saw it for. We had to be realistic here and since we knew our numbers and were we stand we knew that once we added the potential upgrades we wanted the house will be close to 100k over our budget.

That is when the building manager reached out to us later that day and told us they had a “inventory” home that was just getting started in the beginning stages. We were open to go check it out and see the floor plan. It was a one-story (not what I had in mind but it was what my husband wanted from the get go) we decided to give it a chance and look at it that day and were so in love with the floor plan. It absolutely had everything and even more bathrooms that we anticipated on. Since the house was listed as an inventory home it came included with several upgrades that would be costly to us for example wood floors all through the entire house (minus the bedrooms), big sliding doors, covered patio with brick, 3 walk in showers (4th bathroom is a tub), overall the house had 50k in upgrades and it was such a good steal we couldn’t pass up on.

Once we got approval with a conventional loan the rest is history. We put down our earnest money for the lot and began this journey! Once we had our actual appointment with the design center we did some changes and upgraded a few things more. Overall we stayed within budget and only did an additional 14k more in upgrades.

Questions 

And since I’ve had a few people ask already since we announced why am I so open with sharing our community/ neighborhood/ area it’s only for the reason that I was already open before prior to this that we live in Cypress, Texas and that we live in the Fairfield area. I’ve never felt unsafe about sharing our location since we have never shared the exact section we live in & overall to me Houston is pretty big that we don’t feel we are exposing our children to any danger. And not to mention Bridgeland is so big there is the old and new side with multiple sections. I  still find myself getting lost sometimes. 

About Bridgeland

I’ve had the most questions about the community and the builder I figured I answered those questions here. For those that don’t know Bridgeland is the #1 selling master planned community in Texas and #10 in the nation with 17 home builders to choose from. It has everything for families an outdoor living community with 3,000 acres of lakes and trails amid 11,400 acres. It’s an award-winning community that offers an unrivaled balance: the tranquility of a seemingly untouched natural environment and the luxury and convenience of modern facilities and amenities.

While many say the cons here are the houses are so close side by side along with a high tax rate we felt the amenities & the district our kids are currently already attending here over won these cons.

Some of those pros for us were

•Dragonfly Park– Bridgeland’s newest amenity spans 25-acres and is surrounded by a 25-acre lake. It includes a well-appointed fitness center, flex rooms, playground, sprayground, tennis courts, open play field, basketball court, dog park, kayak launch, and hike and bike trails. The swimming complex features a fitness pool and fitness lawn, leisure pool with beach entry, lazy river, and rope swing.

•Jocey Lake– an extensive 140-acre waterway. It took four years to develop, offers unparalleled opportunities to canoe, kayak or paddleboat on a three-mile loop. A boathouse includes space for canoe and kayak storage as well as boats to be checked out for resident use. A sky bridge over the lake leads to a two-story birding tower, complete with stationary binoculars. An events pavilion and lawn provide an incredible setting for residents to get together for movies in the park, concerts and more. A sprayground, playground-style zip line, hammock swings, and other outdoor activities create opportunities for monkey business and lasting memories. Josey Lake is a favorite destination for families and neighbors to play together and commune with nature.

•There is equipment rentals for activities such as kayaking, paddle boats, and frisbee golf

•Year round activities — Naturefest, Howl-O-Ween Fest, monthly outdoor movies, etc

•Miles and miles of hiking, biking, and jogging trails. I’m not a nature/ outdoor person but husband and kids love all that so I’m defy looking forward to changing my ways.

•Convenient to the freeway, Hwy 290 and we easier to access 99 for us.

•They have their own shopping center, the outlets are still nearby along with many other retailers

•Cy-Fair School District -this was our main reason we didn’t want to leave it.

Building With Coventry Homes

As far as Coventry Homes they are ranked amongst the top new homebuilders in the nation for years now, making it a great choice for building a new home. They have a customer recommendation approval rating of 98%. We just loved how it can be customized to fit your needs

Overall we cannot wait to share this new journey and everything about our building process. I’m so grateful for the community I’ve build in this space over the years and all the job opportunities it has brought me and my family through my blog. I’ll be sharing more details as we get further along. If you have any questions feel free to ask!