To say this is a long process… would be an understatement. We’re finding that building a fully custom home is different than building a home in a planned community.

Starting off from the last point… our architect, as always, got back our changes pretty quickly. If anyone is hoping to work with Frusterio, I HIGHLY recommend them. We have had an absolutely fabulous experience with them. We worked with Adam and he was super knowledgeable. He gave us his opinion, while also keeping in mind our opinions. It hasn’t been an easy road given the town we’re moving to and all of their stipulations (as well as my own with the studio), but they were always understanding and gracious.

Before the completed plans were submitted back to the town, they had to be “stamped” by the engineer, from what I understand. This was originally said to be “quick”, but then said it would be 10 days., This was pretty infuriating that they wouldn’t expedite it, given that they – engineers- held us up two weeks at the beginning of this process.

We finally got somewhat of an updated timeline from the builder, after pressing, and he estimated that between the engineer + town and county approvals, we wouldn’t break ground until the end of June, beginning of July.

Y’ALL. We were supposed to break ground, we thought, at the end of March. This was based off conversations we had with our builder. Now, there were lots of hold ups from the town. The engineer delayed us two weeks and then 10 days. We couldn’t get a hold of the builder for a bit, and we made some changes on top of what the town required. He also said we likely won’t meet our contracted completion date of March 15, 2023. Apparently, they usually build in delays, however, we had already used up all of those delays before we had even broken ground!

Thank goodness, the newly predicated timeline of breaking ground in June/July was somewhat correct. We broke ground on July 20th.

Windows and appliances have officially been ordered. We have talked tile, doors and carpet, but none of those selections of have been solidified yet. Hopefully we will be having another design appointment in the next couple of weeks to nail down those details.

The most exciting thing that has happened during this time period, aside from seeing dirt moved, is we met with Fawn Renae Deisgns to discuss our landscape design!

We love spending time outdoors, and after building multiple new homes, we knew it was going to require some skill to make it feel lived-in and cozy. We are THRILLED to be working with Fawn and her team and just love what they’ve created for us. We got to see some initial designs a few weeks ago and are waiting to finalize things once some more of the house is in place and we have solidified a pool design. Here is a little sneak peek… eeeeee!

The masons are supposed to be done building the crawl space later this week, and then we have to get it inspected, prep and waterproof the crawl space and backfill. THEN we will start framing and it will start to look like a house!

I will take any progress at this point. The smallest amount is still something!