The Petersens

Do not feel obligated to read this, just some thoughts on building a house.

We decided to build a "not so big" house. Our original plan was a lot roomier and when we turned the plans into the engineers we felt a little uneasy about it. We decided to go back to the drawing board and were able to cut out a lot of space and make the overall floorplan much more efficient. When we first started thinking about building a dream house I was sure that we were going to have a large laundry room, a spacious pantry and an awesome mudroom, you know, so that I could be so much more efficient at doing all my Mom duties. But its funny how your ideas change along the way. Those rooms were the first to go when we were creating a more efficient space, and to be honest, I didn't really want to pay to build the space, then pay to heat and cool the space, pay to maintain that space, and to have to always clean that space, so out they went. We ended up combining the laundry, mudroom and pantry into one room that shares walking space which allowed us to use more space in the rooms that we are actually going to be "living" in, like the kitchen, dining, and family rooms.

I will be honest, sometimes it sounds nice to have a giant house with giant rooms and giant storage, but is that really what I want? Do I really want to pay to build a giant house to store all of my junk that I spent so much money on that we worked so hard to earn? No. I would rather fill my house with children, memories, friends and family. Im not sure if this makes sense but when Im making a big decision I like to figure out exactly what I want if money, time and resources were not an issue, then I like to take into consideration what my needs are and try and fill all those needs with the minimum amount of those three resources. I usually end up with something totally different than I originally planned but somehow I always end up happier with the outcome. I mean doesn't it just feel good not to have everything you want, really. Since we have been married we have done this with every major purchase and decision and we always look back and are SO glad we went the conservative route. (I mean look at what car I drive, a white minivan, definitely not my dream car as far as looks go, but I would never want to drive anything else, and it has literally been a blessing to have that car.)

Oh my goodness, did that even make sense or do I just sound so materialistic and dumb?

I have really tried so hard to pay close attention to the spirit while making plans and decisions for this house. I pray every day that this house can be the perfect spot for us. When all is said and done I think our house is going to be just right for our little family and it is so exciting to see the progress.

We stopped by and saw them lifting the trusses with a crane, the kids thought it was cool. This first picture is the view from standing in the front doorway.