Our BIG Secret- Revealed!

We've been keeping a big secret for the last year. Well, sorta. Before I jump to the big announcement, I wanted to give a little more depth to what has been happening the last twelve months. Last year was a big year for my husband and I. As I've talked about before, last year was a "debt-payoff" year and as we look forward, we know changes are coming.

My in-laws have an addition that was added on to their house back in 2001. We always call it the "new building", though it's not "really" new since it was built 17 years ago. The house was framed out but that was the extent of it being finished. Though it's attached to their home, it's a completely separate house. It was always brought up that we could finish out the addition and move in there when we got married but we never took it seriously. We wanted to be on our own and experience home ownership first-hand.

It was March of 2017 (last year) when we had went to visit his parents one spring-like afternoon. They were out cleaning the "new building" addition and as we began to walk around the framed house, I began to envision life there. Strange. I've never had those feelings before. Long story short, I brought it up to Taylor again that evening about the chances of finishing out the house and moving over to the family farm. He wasn't crazy about the idea but was open to suggestions. 

After a few weeks of tossing the idea around, we decided that it wasn't the right timing for us, as we still had debt to pay off. As I talked about in this blog post before, last year was such a great year of learning patience and discipline because boy, was it ever so taunting to me as a creative designer; knowing eventually, there was a chance of designing a home from scratch but not being able to because of timing/budget. 

We love our first home dearly. It has everything we need and is the perfect size for Taylor and I in this part of our lives. As we begin to think about the future, we know this very small 800 square foot home won't house babies comfortably in the future. With this in mind, we (or rather I), began to plan for the next step. Though we quite aren't ready to add to the family just yet, I (the planner) can't help to think bigger. 

So, let's get to the good stuff already. As though you don't see it coming already. WE'RE MOVING! Yay!! Golly, I'm so excited about the entire process that will be unfolding this year. We decided to move forward with building out the rest of the new addition. 

We love the idea of being back on the family farm that Taylor grew up on. We know it will be a great place to raise babies someday but we will have room to grow and explore. The flower garden that you guys have seen in the past is also at the new addition which makes my heart filled with joy. We both are so excited about this next step and to see the house transform throughout the next year. 

We plan to take renovations as we can. There's no deadline time or anything like that which makes it so great. Looking ahead, here at the end of March- beginning of April, we're having two dormers added on to the attic spaces to add more square footage to the home. I can't wait to share with you guys the design plans, the process and what it looks like inside! Right now, they're in the process of emptying the addition so we can start building.

I'll be blogging regular updates as they happen and very soon I'll be sharing a 3D walk-through of the design plan so you guys can get a better idea of the end vision. Right now, we plan to make it a french-country inspired farmhouse with rustic and clean touches. I absolutely adore the french, italian country-side style where as my husband is more of the rustic-cabin kind of guy. So mixing the two styles is something that excites me a lot. Check back for more on our journey soon! 

Hugs, Alyssa