Greg and I are building our dream house. Our plan is to start by the end of the summer.
It’s turning out to be more difficult than I anticipated.
When I was 7, my parents built their dream house. We were living in Topeka and building on Pomona Lake in Osage County. My parents, decades before the term “sweat equity” was in vogue, decided to save money by doing most of the finish work themselves.
A construction crew dug and poured the basement, framed the house and put up drywall. Experts installed ceiling coil heat and popcorn on the ceiling. Carpets were laid by professional installers.
But my parents cut and stained all the trim, painted all the walls and hung wallpaper. Knowing my dad and his love of power tools, they probably did more but these were the projects I remember from weekends. And I recall the all-nighter they pulled as my sister and I slept up the road at our godparents’ house. The building inspectors were due the next days and the punch list was huge.
My favorite part of the project, though, was picking out the carpet and wallpaper for my room. My sister and I each were allowed to decide the color of the shag carpet in our bedrooms. And we could pick wallpaper for the one wall with no windows. The other walls — that had doors or windows on them — were painted.
Now that I’m in my 40s, I know the drawbacks of having too many decisions. That’s a big reason why Greg and I have decided to purchase a factory-built home. I’ll do fine when handed a display with no more than 12 carpet colors on it. Having the material and color already narrowed down will be a tremendous help when selecting floor covering, cabinet tops and siding.
Still, I’m finding myself bogged down in the details.
We want a fireplace in the great room, but not the zero-clearance that the factory can provide. Instead, the builders will stud out and put up drywall over the chase. We’ll have an independent contractor install the fireplace. That means decisions are back in our hands.
What size fireplace will we get? Will we build it in my preferred limestone from floor to ceiling or have drywall above and limit the stone to the hearth and mantel? Do we remove a portion of carpet from in front of the fireplace and replace it with hardwood or tile? If so, how big of an area?
Already I’m overwhelmed because these details have to be ironed out by the time we order the house and draw up plans.
Greg says decisions about the house are mine to make. He got to pick the land, I get to pick the building.
So, even though I’m not in the market, I may be attending a lot of open houses in the near future just to look at fireplaces.