The beginning of our build……it’s been a long journey for sure. But let’s start at our beginning. My husband and I just got married in January of 2021 yes during a pandemic, and yes it was weird but more so it was lovely and intimate and am beyond blessed.  My wonderful husband has had this piece of property for a number of years and went back and forth with what he wanted to do with it. We both decided that we shouldn’t sell lit, real estate and property in the Finger Lakes region where we live is getting bought up like hot cakes. So we made the leap and decided to build!

WE CHOSE A BUILDER

Choosing a builder/contractor/designer is a challenge, how to do you know who to choose? Well I think we got lucky. I came across this company called Barn Livin www.barnlivin.com a few years back and thought their business model and values were aligned with mine and loved the fact that they were all female owned. I did my research and all the reviews for these ladies and their contractors were all so positive. Their unique designs and owner personalization is just what we were looking for. I showed it to my husband and he was intrigued. We both scoured over their website, taking virtual tours (because yes it was in the winter during the pandemic) and began to get excited with the possibility of working with them. Finally we were able to get into see the Model Barn Home and fell in love with the design. We worked through the winter with the Barn Livin ladies and made the leap to go ahead and start the design phase of the project.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT PHASE

We are super excited now!!! Finally we get to begin this forever barn home journey. What all goes into the design development phase you ask? Well a whole lot more than I ever thought. There is the discussion with the designers, sharing visions, wish lists, expectations and sometimes miscommunications…. Yes that happens. The building designer takes all those and creates a home rendering. Was it perfect at first, oh heck no; however it was a learning process for me and my husband on how to effectively communicate our wants, needs and vision. The first rendering was not exactly what we were envisioning our home to be, it got us scared thinking… man did we miss the mark or what. However working with Sue made it easy, she took our criticisms listened to our concerns and immediately drew up another home rendering. The 2^nd revision was awesome! It was exactly what we were envisioning. Changes, revisions, tweaks and the like were inevitable. Me being an aspiring interior designer and a woman of course, my mind changes, visions and thoughts take turns and new ideas begin to emerge.  I spent way too much time on Pinterest late at night when the Emergency Department (where I work as a nurse) finally slowed down.  I think we went through numerous revisions, adding a shed dormer, changing the layout of the stairs, moving hallways, wood stoves, and not to mention the kitchen oh my.

It was a few months process of back and forth images being emailed, comments being replied and finally we signed off on the final revision. Or so we thought. Of course as soon as the building CD’s come out, here comes Stephanie with more changes.. yikes. We ended up having a few more revisions, changing the windows, removing some and resizing others. Sue and the Barn Livin team were super patient with us and walked us through every step of the process.

THINGS I’VE LEARNED AND TIPS FOR FUTURE HOME OWNERS PLANNING TO BUILD

1-Patience is a virtue, learn to wait and the reward will be great.

It’s funny but I have always been an impatient person. I used to have a sign on my piano “Lord grant me patience, but please hurry”. Learning to wait for the good stuff, learning from your mistakes is such an awesome experience. It has helped me grow as person and allowed me opportunities for change.

2-Communication is key.

Learning how to effectively communicate via email has always been a challenge for me. I am more of a face to face kinda gal. Luckily my husband is fluent in email and helped out a great deal in bridging the gap between what I said verses what I really wanted to say.

3-Accept and know your limitations.

The sky is not always the limit and sometimes reality is blaring. Accept what can be and move on. Dreaming is great but staying grounded is important.

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