Crazy or not, it is true. We are building a house here in Utah.
We just finished the long architectural planning stage where the challenge was to somehow make his drawings look like the ones in our heads.
We found a basic plan on the Internet, and then tweaked some areas. We took out walls, rearranged the master bathroom, multiple times. Our builder is very patient.
For a while the drawing he gave us was different from the one we envisioned. We couldn’t pinpoint what we disliked about the front elevation. Not being architects, we surmised through this process that it does, in fact, take a special person to be able to translate what a customer wants into a home plan to fit his needs.
I love our builder because he listens intently to both of us with quiet, calm, problem-solving skill. I spent time in the car looking at roof lines and arcs and stone on homes in our area. We tweaked some more and now we love the finished look.
We do not want a mansion.
We do not want to fund a mansion. In just five years we will be labeled ’empty nesters’. So, we must look down the road ‘a ways’…. a new endeavor for this former military family. So much could happen in five years. We may even be looking at a new journey called grandparenthood. It could happen.

Housing is expensive here, probably twice the price of Texas real estate, and sticker shock was a big hurdle initially. Now add in a view of the mountains and the bottom line increases even more.
We want to build memories here.
For twenty-five years we have been a family that embraces change.
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