Building Our House

Kitchen Before and After:

Back in the summer of 2001, we went looking for land to build our dream home. What we found was 50+ acres and a house that someone else had started… then politely abandoned. It was just an insulated shell, but oddly enough, it looked suspiciously like the floor plan I had drawn up. Either it was divine intervention, or the original builder was a mind-reading squatter with a talent for blueprints.

People often ask, “What kind of house do you have?” I tell them it's an "except for" house. As in:

• The living room is finished… except for the trim.

• The kitchen is gorgeous… except for the fact that the countertops are still plywood.

• The second floor is cozy… except for the missing deck, but hey—falling out the door to nowhere builds character.

I’ve fully embraced the unfinished look as my official decorating style. It’s taken years to get this level of committing to not committing. I mean really, how many people can say they nailed a theme this hard? Martha Stewart would cry.

We’re currently in year 9 of our 5-year plan. Yes, you read that right. Somewhere around year 3, the calendar and the to-do list parted ways and stopped speaking. We’ve got all the major stuff done—framing, plumbing, electricity, walls (mostly). What’s left is just the fiddly finish work: trim, wide pine floors, stair treads that don’t feel like a barefoot obstacle course, and maybe a deck that doesn’t require a parachute. You know… things that matter, but don’t technically keep the roof from collapsing.

So here we are, living in a house that’s entirely livable, as long as you don’t mind the occasional draft from a door with no casing or the satisfying thud of your dinner plate hitting plywood—because nothing says ‘fine dining’ like unfinished lumber.

Let’s just say it has soul. And it’s ours.

My guess is the next person who owns this house will have to finish it. Not because we can’t—but because we’ve got barns to build, firewood to split, animals to wrangle, and a life that keeps moving forward whether the trim gets up or not.

Here are a few before-and-after photos so you can see the transformation—or at least admire how well we’ve managed to stretch “temporary” into two decades. I'll try to get some outdoor shots tomorrow, assuming the weather cooperates and I can keep the chickens from photobombing.

Great Room: