Hey! So, it's been a hot minute since my last post. Life has been crazy (in the best way possible). As a Momma of three littles, being self-employed, hubby a self-employed farmer/rancher,keeping up with the kids' activities, and being blessed with wonderful friends and families, life is hectic to say the least;)

Let me give you a little back story on myself and our house journey during these first 11 years of marriage. My number one favorite thing is design, decorating, vintage "treasures" (junk as my hubby likes to call it). Yep, it's my favorite, fashion is second. So, with that being said, our homes have always been important to us. 

When we got married 11 years ago and lived in Oklahoma, we bought the worst house in a sweet little neighborhood and completely revamped it in a few weeks time, with the help of my father-in-law. It was a great little 3 bedroom/2 bath home and we absolutely loved it. It was the home we started our marriage in and brought our Jack home from the hospital to and had so many of his "firsts" in. Funny story, I wanted his nursery just "perfect" so I repainted it 4 times before he was born. Cale would joke that the walls were closing in on us in there. We just loved that house and neighborhood. 

At that time, I stayed at home with Jack and Cale worked at a local bank and we always had a lot of extra time on our hands (evenings, weekends). We would take a family walk everyday when he got off work, along with our little Shih Tzu, Max. Off in the distance was our absolute "DREAM" home. I would comment every.single.day how much I loved that home. Well, low and behold, it was on the market as a foreclosure and we looked at it a few times with our agent, made a lowball offer, and it was somehow accepted. We were so excited and scared to take on such a HUGE project, but, it was our dream home, we were 26 years old at the time and had extra time and energy. I also went to work as a high school teacher during this time (to help pay for it all!). 

Cale started work on the house, that quickly became "the money pit". It was unsafe to move our little toddler into with all the stairs needed redone, balconies, a pond out front, etc., so we spent the next 9 months fixing it up, making it toddler-safe and trying to sale our other house. It was a daunting, exhausting process. The day we turned the water on, we had 8 huge leaks- including from our 22 foot greatroom ceiling! 

The day we moved in there, we also found out that we were expecting Baby #2! That house was so beautiful and special because of the memories, our hard work- literally blood sweat and tears we poured into it- and the fact that we brought Sam home from the hospital there. We loved that house, but also learned many lessons that we'd never do again- dark hardwood floors (I cleaned them every single day only to instantly look dirty again), tons of stairs (not family friendly), and definitely lower maintenance design and finishes. We worked on projects non-stop over the next two years while living there. On weekends, Cale also started running some cattle with his Dad, so he spent most weekends in Kansas. It was hard to keep up with a toddler, baby, being a high school teacher, husband working at the bank during the week and farm on the weekends, plus maintaining this huge home. At some point, we were at a crossroads like we can't go on like this, we have to make some decisions. Cale's dream was to become a partner on his Dad's operation, so in January 2012, we decided to make the move. I was obviously in the middle of the school year and I would continue to teach until May, but we needed to sell our home, buy a new one in KS (where there basically were no options at the time) and transition from the three times a month paychecks-yikes! We put our house on the market on February 13 and had a signed contract 14 hours later on Valentines Day. Our first house took several months to sell, so we thought this one would too- not just 14 hours!.. So, we ended up moving in with my parents in Buffalo for 8 weeks in April until I finished the school year and Cale and I commuted back and forth.

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law had decided that they were going to build a house in KS and they offered to sell their house to us. We bought it and used those 8 weeks to make some changes to work for us and we've called it home for the past (almost) 6 years. It's been a great house for us, but is 3/2 and we added Claire to the mix 2.5 years ago. The boys have shared a room ever since and we've just outgrown the space. My Mom and I also ended up buying the little cute house next door as our rental property, so I know two cute houses that will be for sale in the near future. ;)

So, this FINALLY bring us to the new house. We have waited, prayed, dreamed of a bigger space for our family for many years. It is hard to entertain in our current home (in all honesty a "small" gathering of our friends can range from 25-50+ people easily) and our boys definitely crave their own spaces.  Why a metal building/barndomium/shed house? I know it might seem bizarre, but the ones I've seen can be awesome. My parents did one as a shop, guest space/holiday room and it has been such a blessing. Cale's big thing is the fact that he's so busy he doesn't have the time to maintain ONE more thing. With an all steel exterior, it's virtually zero maintenance. I chose a white exterior with a light grey roof, so I figure I'll need to power wash it twice a year or so, but that's about it. We also are just going to do polished concrete flooring throughout, again as low maintenance as possible. We also love the idea of being able to customize the floorplan and make it anything you want. Another big bonus is how quickly the exterior will be go and ready to be finished out. We plan to do much of the interior finish work ourselves (if you know my husband, BUDGET is his middle name). He told me this is our final house, as he wants to just enjoy it and watch our kiddos grow up in this "forever" house. So, there will definitely be some compromises made during the process. We love that metal buildings are also very energy efficient- we will be using double the standard insulation since our location will be on top of a hill and currently has zero trees around it (definitely not ideal but it was the ONLY location we could both agree on). We are excited to share this journey. 

Since we've lived in KS, Cale and I have bought some farm ground of our own and basically we are related to nearly everyone who lives out by it, so it only makes perfect sense build our new home out there. My boys are so excited to be neighbors with cousins and ride the bus to school.

So, a bit about my vision/decorating taste. I'll start off by saying it's eclectic- modern farmhouse, with a touch of rustic, glam and Boho. I love vintage and repurposed pieces and also classic elements. You can see my taste on my Pinterest board- The Forever Farmhouse. It's kind of all over the place. I mostly love unique, one of a kind pieces and big chandeliers- lighting will be one of my biggest focuses and splurges in the house!

Also, I have to give a HUGE plug to Lauri Hughes. We had picked out a generic two-story plan and at the last minute, I decided I didn't love it. I contacted Lauri  (Interior Designer) and said I need your help! We had a one-hour meeting later that week. The next day, she had a general floorplan, I loved every single thing about it and it was EXACTLY what I envisioned but just couldn't come up with on my own, and the next week we had professional drawings of our floorplan. I can't thank Lauri enough for making my vision come to life (it is the attached floorplan). Honestly, I did not have to change one single thing- shejust got me! She also helped me pick and be confident in my exterior choices! 

 If you have any questions about metal building homes, please feel free to ask. I'm sharing this journey as a way to document the process for our family and friends, but also because when I was researching them, there just aren't very many resources out there, so I hope this can be helpful to someone. :) Rachel