I’m done with DIY so we decided to build a home!

Not really done, but I’m definitely scaling back from big DIY projects.

Like many, the pandemic slowed me down and really made me take a hard look at a lot of things. We did some projects including Kennedy’s accent wall (which has become one of my most popular projects in most social media channels), our bedroom accent wall, etc. When my friends asked me to help them renovate their condo, I came to a very big realization, I’m not in love with big DIY projects anymore. Sure I’m in awe of how much the condo has transformed, but bigger DIY projects don’t excite me the way it use to. I know, it shocked me too.

Our home is done with big projects, why would we leave it?

There’s no denying that we have changed a lot of things from 2019 to 2020 in our current home. Heck, our home looks nothing like it did when we bought it in 2016.

For all intents and purposes, our home is truly done with the exception of a few cosmetic things. To be honest, we actually love this home very much.

We also absolutely LOVE our neighbors and really have a great location. Trust me, we talked about all of these things A LOT when we were making our decision. We also came to a few realizations during quarantine that made us take a look into the future.

Location

We love being so close to the beach, but when the shutdown happened, we were not permitted to be on the beach because we didn’t actually live on the island. (As a tax payer this is a sore subject and there’s a Facebook group dedicated to this issue… I digress.) We’ve always wanted to live closer to water, but the prices of homes actually on the island would have brought us a BIG fixer upper and a BIGGER price tag to go with it, as well as a home that would be smaller than our current home.

Courtney happened to stumble upon a builder in an area that we had never considered, yet is super close to where we currently live. When we drove out there, we were truly blown away. What impressed us was how far apart the homes were, which is unheard of where we are now. The other was that right in the middle of the development, was a huge natural lake. Even better was there was a lot that not only backed up to this lake, sat next to the woods at the end of the cul de sac, and was about 1/2 an acre.

Price

Interest rates are at a truly unbelievable low rate. We had considered refinancing our current home to take advantage and potentially lower our current payment. (Another reason that weighed into staying in our current home.) We also found that because the rates are so low, we could actually get a bigger home, with an unbelievable location, for almost the same amount that we are currently paying.

Space

In our current home I have reworked our space in ways that work more efficiently and make sense for our family. I have added storage to where we can, but I can’t add anymore rooms. The fact that we have been spending a lot of time at home over the past year, we decided we would love to have a little more space to stretch out.

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Included builder upgrades

I’ll definitely dive into this part a little deeper on another blog post because I have a lot of thoughts and prior experience tips to share. We didn’t go with a custom home builder mainly because of the location of this new home which knocked our socks off. When we sat down with the sales rep we were pleasantly surprised that a lot of things we want and consider upgrades, are already included. Making my “no more big DIY projects” heart happy. Follow along on my Pinterest for all of my inspiration for this new project.

How does this impact the girls and their school?

Kennedy will be a freshman in high school next year (I’m not crying, you’re crying) and even in our current home knew I would need to drive her back and forth. Kelsey, who will be in 8th grade, will most likely stick with the online school the girls are already attending and love, so she’ll be at home with me. After that they’ll both be attending the same high school that I would have to drive them anyway. Again another silver lining that came out of the pandemic was finding out that online school made sense for our family and we are so much happier as a result.

What happens next?

We’ve already signed the contract, had the design center meeting, and they have already broken ground. We’re hoping the weather cooperates so we can move early spring, but we shall see. As for our current home, we’re trying to sort that out. We haven’t decided if we will keep it and use it as an investment property or if we will list it. After all, we love this home immensely and we have a ton of memories. Not to mention, this is the last home my mom spent time and I can still see her sitting on the porch or hanging out in what is now Kennedy’s room.

What will happen with Cribbs Style?

I may be giving up the bigger DIY projects, but I’m not giving up all DIY. There are still a lot of smaller DIY projects that I will be excited to do, especially in the new house. I am also going to be focusing more on learning my scroll saw, my Cricut, and adding other content that matters to me. I’m not going anywhere, don’t worry.

Best,
Brooke