Preparing and building our house, I spent years tweaking house plans, months of staining trim, weeks of painting (UGH!), laying carpet tiles, bargain shopping for fixtures, door hardware, faucets and anything else you can think of. Not to mention being the general contractor. Now that all of this is done, we are celebrating living here 1 year! (I would say it was complete, but to this day it is still not complete. There are little things we are doing as we can. But, will it ever really be complete? Probably not!) We officially got to sleep in the house (well, there were several nights with no heat-right Sean?-but let's not count those!) the Tuesday after Thanksgiving 2008. It was almost surreal. A day I had dreamed about.
The picture above is how the building process began, with the footer. This picture is taken from the very back corner of the house (which is the master bedroom), looking towards the driveway. The day the footer was poured, was almost more than I could stand! The picture to the left is the beginning of the framing process. This is looking from the very front of the house. The big opening in the back is where the windows in the kitchen overlook the pond.Getting the house built had been a dream of mine for more than 3 years. It is more than just a house to me. It is the place we live. It is where memories will be made. It is where we lay our heads at night. It is where we want to invite our friends and family to visit. It is where Santa comes to visit. It is our haven, when we need it the most (hence the name, Porter Haven).
I spent HOURS (don't ask Heath about it...unless you want an ear full!) designing and redesigning the floor plan. I felt as if I had walked through the house before the first wall was built. (I know how ridiculous that sounds, but I would dream about being in the house and realize a wall/toilet/stairs were in the wrong place. I would then go work on the computer to get it like I thought it needed to be.) It was very much my therapy. Especially when we lived in a 900 sq ft rental house in the middle of nowhere!!!
The of the carpet is Tommy's room. He wanted a race track for his tractors and cars. Upstairs we used the 2 ft carpet tiles as the flooring. They are very economically priced and it was something I could lay myself. The best thing is that since they are individual tiles, if one is ruined, it can be pulled up and replaced in minutes. The next picture was taken mid July 2008. Framing was almost complete.The portico and deck had not been built yet.
And then because Christmas lights (the big old fashioned kind) warm my heart, here is the house in lights.
When I started on the floor plans, I started with the laundry room (because putting away laundry is such a pain. It usually ended up piled wherever it was folded and the kids dug through piles to find what they needed.) To solve this problem, I wanted closets accessible from the laundry room. That way, as laundry was folded, I could immediately put it away. That was easy enough to accomplish. Then I decided, I also needed to be able to access the kitchen from the laundry room, too. Don't know if I am the only one, but the two places I spend the most time is the kitchen and the laundry room. This picture is from the dining room side of the kitchen (really more of a breakfast area, don't have a formal dining room, because we didn't feel it was a day to day usable space). That is the refrigerator in the middle of the floor, before it was placed. We had to get it in the house before the doors were set because it wouldn't fit otherwise. (Again, another sore spot with Heath...we moved it one too many times for him! But as he reads this, he says it's ok with him now. His beer has a spot other than in a cooler on the porch.)The next two are the kitchen today. The kitchen was the most important part of the house, to me. It is where we, as a family, spend our time. If I am not cooking, I am cleaning up. I didn't want what we refer to as a "one butt kitchen". Meaning, I wanted space large enough for people to gather. I wanted it to be comfortable for many people to enjoy. I wanted it to be the heart of our home. We have lived in many houses with "one butt kitchens" and made it work, but how wonderful it is to have space! Sure makes what is sometimes the tedious chore of cooking so much better. I walk through sometimes and it makes me smile. And I wonder in amazement, is this really my kitchen?
These are looking out the kitchen door towards the driveway. The first was taken last August (2008), the second is current. As you can see, we still have work to do on the columns. We will rock the bottom and paint the top.
These are then (August 2008) and now looking towards the pond from the kitchen door. It somewhat shows the all of the work that was done on the pond.When we initially looked at this property (about 5 years ago), what really sold us was the fact that there was a spring fed pond. It was small, but we knew it could be made larger and stocked with fish. To Heath, this was very exciting. He grew up fishing with his dad and it is and experience he wants to share with Tommy.
We had someone come in and do the initial work. They dug until they hit rock. During this process, it all but emptied the pond. All of the "muck" they dug out was put into a pile in the field, which my dad, Heath and Will slowly spread out with the tractor.
This first picture is the pond after some of the trees that sat right on the pond had been cleared. The next picture is the pond today. There is still more they would like to dig out, but we have had so much rain it has made it difficult.
You can see to the very right of the picture is the tree house that is being built. I am taking pics as it progresses so I will do a blog about it when it is complete. The kids are VERY excited about it!
Caroline watching the tractor work (Fall 2008). They sat mesmerized as the tractor dug. They loved watching it work.
Tommy watching as the pond was growing, one scoop at a time.
My sweet girls. This was one afternoon when we stopped by after school to watch the tractor dig. Couldn't help but adding this one. It is one of my favorite pictures of them.
This is the first time I have seen pictures of your house....I know hard to believe . I love it....I hope this time next year we are in our new old home and every box that has been packed for the last eight years is finally unpacked and in the dining room ready for a big food function. gg
I love it! My dream is to someday have the same process go on as well. You better believe we'll be asking for advice when that day comes.