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Styling and Inspiration + Handcrafted Designs

Coffee with Cathy, Home & Home Decor

6 Month Update // What We’ve Learned As First Time Home Builders

What We've Learned As First Time Home Builders, What We Learned As First Time Home Buyers

6 Months Update

Can you even believe that it’s been 6 whole months since we moved into our new home? I seriously can’t. Y’all, I am not even fully unpacked yet. I don’t know where the time has went! It almost feels like it was yesterday that I was digging through boxes to find coffee mugs on Thanksgiving because we moved in the night before. While I’d never choose to move right before the holiday season ever again if I could help it, it sure did make for some funny moments trying to cook a make-shift Thanksgiving dinner not knowing where anything was at. (You know, the same make-shift dinner that I dropped all over the garage floor as I got leftovers out of the fridge for Rob the next day.)

Nevertheless, I absolutely love our new home and all of the wonderful memories that we’ve been able to make in it so far this year. We have had a dream to use our home to love and serve people well (hence how A Hosting Home came to be), and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We love hosting friends and family in our home from time to time. We’ve hosted holidays with friends whom would’ve otherwise been alone along with lots of Keto dinner parties full of laughs and twice baked mashed cauliflower.

READ ALSO: Introducing #AHostingHome + A Peak at Our Neutral Christmas Decor

While we have loved our home from the beginning, building (let alone buying!) a home is not exactly an easy feat. Other than if I am unpacked yet, the most common question I get asked is about what we learned from the building process. As first time home builders and buyers, we have learned a lot since starting this process about a year ago. So after six months of living in our home, what better way to celebrate than sharing with you all the top 5 things we learned! Grab a cup of coffee and a notepad. You’re not going to want to miss this!

What We've Learned As First Time Home Builders, What We Learned As First Time Home Buyers // First Time Home Buyer Tips, First Time Home Builder Tips

What We’ve Learned As First Time Home Builders

I would like to disclose that nothing said in this blog post is meant to shed a negative light on our home builder. As always, we wish to be authentic as we share about our life with you all. That being said, we wanted to share with you what we really learned!

1. Builders don’t take timelines as seriously as wedding planners.

As a certified wedding planner, timelines are essentially a way of life for me. I take timelines extremely seriously. I definitely create them to be followed in order to give my clients a seamless and stress-free wedding planning process. Meanwhile, a big thing I learned during the building process was that builders don’t necessarily take timelines as seriously as wedding planners.

Okay, that may have been a little bit of a loaded statement. They probably take their timelines seriously. But, I’ve found that construction never seems to go as planned. Not to mention, when things are behind, it seems like they’re often in their own little world about it all. With the weather and all of the little things that go into the building process, a lot of things can come up while the home is being built. (They all did for us!) We ended up closing on our house a couple months later than the builder originally predicted. As you can imagine, an extremely excited planner who was waiting on someone else’s inaccurate timeline didn’t make for the best combo.

2. Set your deadline way before you expect to move in.

As Rob perfectly put it, “And they just might get it!”

Like I mentioned, we actually closed on our house later than the builder originally predicted. Luckily, we planned to overlap our lease with our old house to give us a little extra time around the holidays. Turns out, we ended up needing all of that overlap! While you can’t always control the outcome of the construction process, we definitely learned that we should have set our deadline before we expected to close. It may have not helped at all – or it possibly could have helped move things along faster towards the end!

But also – trust God’s perfect timing!

Meanwhile, I also learned to not get my hopes up about our closing date and to trust God’s perfect timing. With us finally scheduled to move in the week before Thanksgiving, our closing date then got pushed back due to the holiday. You probably already know that there were some tears shed when there was a real possibility we would be spending the holiday surrounded by boxes rather than moving into our new home. While these first two points tested my faith and proved that only God is in control, I learned to lean on God and be content in his perfect timing. We moved into our home the day before Thanksgiving, and it couldn’t have been more perfect! While we are fast to make our own plans, it’s important to remember that God knows what he’s doing.

3. You really need to go by the house every day.

One of the first things I was told when we first started building our home was that we need to go by it often to keep on top of the progress. As they get going with the construction, you really need to go by every day. I don’t say that to say that you should distrust your builder. But rather, there’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to building a home. Mistakes can easily be made with miscommunication. Not to mention, it’s a lot easier to get those mistakes fixed sooner rather than later when the house is complete and it’s too late.

We went by the house every few days when they first started, and towards the end we ended up going every day to walk through and make sure everything looked as we planned. Even then, there were a few disappointing mistakes that were made. You may even remember the sink debacle on Instagram Stories. While our situation proves there’s obviously things you still can’t control (even when you go by every day!), hopefully being on top of the progress will allow you to easily fix any hiccups that may come up along the way.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. 

When it comes to building (and buying) a home, it’s important that you’re not afraid to ask for what you want. Speak up! You’re paying a lot of money for this next chapter of your life – you should be getting what you want and are paying for. Especially when it comes to some hiccups that may happen along the way, you have to find your voice. Meanwhile, it definitely helps when you have an amazing realtor like we did. She was so on top of everything, was able to speak on our behalf to help us get what we wanted, and made the entire process so much better!

5. Make it what you want. 

This is an exciting new chapter in your life’s journey. My absolute favorite part of the building our home was the design process and selecting all of our finishes. Rob’s favorite part was adding in his fancy new fridge and TV after we moved in. (Such a guy thing – HA!) Essentially, our favorite parts were making our home ours.

Meanwhile, just like the wedding planning process, I think it’s safe to say that everyone will have an opinion about you buying or building your first home. Don’t worry about what everyone else thinks! Whether good or bad, I’m sure their intentions are to mean well. Design your new home with intention, and do what’s best for you and what you want. You have to live there!

 

 

We definitely learned a lot during the process of building and buying our first home. I hope these top 5 things we learned help you as you embark on this journey of your own. What have you learned as a first time home buyer or builder? Leave a comment for us below!

May 25, 2018

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Comments

  1. Candy says

    May 25, 2018 at 3:05 pm

    Be prep for delays and changes. Rememb they work for yoy.

    Reply
  2. Lane Patten says

    May 25, 2018 at 8:16 pm

    I’m glad it all worked out well for you! I’m too chicken to build!

    Reply
  3. Cecil says

    May 26, 2018 at 10:57 am

    Those are really great tips. It also helps to keep a checklist of everything, so when you visit the home it will help you remember where and what items you want and things you want to be addressed. it is such an exciting time which makes it easier to miss what we may consider small things, but end up being bigger issues later on.

    Reply
  4. Jazz says

    May 26, 2018 at 7:18 pm

    Congratulations in six months in your home! I think the advice about Asking for What you want can beapplied to any process.

    Reply
  5. Tami says

    May 26, 2018 at 7:36 pm

    I would love to have a home build just for my family. I am not sure I’d be bold enough to express my wishes, though.

    Reply
  6. Sharon says

    May 29, 2018 at 1:37 pm

    this is a great post about what to expect when expecting your home to be built! the idea of having expectations on a timeline is one that most people don’t think about.

    Reply
  7. Lee says

    May 29, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    All great tips! My father and husband are contractors so I know all to well about schedules and how the weather, delivery of items, and trades can cause a schedule to go off track. Not to mention passing inspections, this is the big one people forget about.

    Reply
  8. Ruthie Ridley says

    May 29, 2018 at 7:00 pm

    Wow!!! Congrats you guys!!! This is huge! I think going by the house everyday is really important as well!

    Reply
  9. Sheila Rhodes says

    May 30, 2018 at 3:47 am

    As we get ready to build our new home I’m thankful for this list and somebody I can ask questions when I feel like I’m losing my mind in the process 🙂 Congrats to you and your family on Your new home!

    Reply
  10. Amber Battishill says

    May 30, 2018 at 5:52 pm

    Great tips! Definitely need to plan for a lot of extra time when it comes to moving into or building a new home. I feel like timelines always fall behind…lol.

    Reply

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Atlanta based Award Winning Interior and Event Designer and Home Blogger Cathy Nugent

Hi, friends! I'm Cathy, a nationally published award winning designer of spaces to gather and southern belle writer based out of a small(ish) town outside of Atlanta, Georgia. However, most people know me as the Monica Geller of my friend group – a coffee connoisseur and dog mom with a huge heart for hosting and an eye for design. The heart behind what I do is simple. I want to help you be intentional on creating spaces to gather and celebrating life's precious moments - whether that be weddings, parties, or something as simple as having loved ones in your home. Living Simply, Loving Generously, and Hosting with Heart.

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Shared a closer look on stories today! Shop via @shop.ltk ➡️ https://liketk.it/3Futt #liketkit #shopltk #ltkhome

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Building raised garden beds and planting with a to Building raised garden beds and planting with a toddler who just wanted to  dig and bury tools and throw dirt everywhere was as about as chaotic as you could imagine. (Forget wood for a second, have you seen how expensive DIRT is this year?! 🤦🏼‍♀️) Rob built me raised beds at our old house after Layne passed away and learning to garden became such a labor of love for me. We really missed having a garden last summer after we sold our old house and moved into the rental, so we were so excited to get started and plan another set of raised beds for this year for the new house. It’s a start — and we can’t wait to expand this little garden area even more as we go. 💛🪴 Are you excited for your garden this year? What are you growing?! #ahostinghome 

#raisedbeds #raisedgardenbeds #raisedbedgarden #raisedgarden #raisedbedgardening #gardening #backyardgarden #bhghome #mybhg #bhglivebetter
Can I just say that if you’ve been on the fence Can I just say that if you’ve been on the fence about a bold design decision… to just do it! After I shared the black living room wall, I had a few friends tell me they wanted to do the same in other spaces in their home and they chickened out. Especially when it comes to paint, I say just go for it! Paint is one of the easiest ways to completely transform the look and feel of your home. It’s only paint — and that’s the beauty of it! If you hate it you can always paint it back. So instead of asking what if you hate it, ask yourself what if you LOVE it?! 🖤👏🏼 #ahostinghome 

// shop via @shop.ltk ➡️ https://liketk.it/3EXef

// Color Details: Tricorn Black by @sherwinwilliams mixed in eggshell/satin in the Duration line // Walls are Extra White by #sherwinwilliamspaint 

#tricornblack #sherwinwilliams #sherwinwilliamstricornblack #sherwinwilliamsextrawhite #blackaccentwall #blackwall #accentwall #interiordesign #interiordesigner #interiordesignideas #homedecor #homedesign #homedesignideas #traditionalhome #traditionalhomedecor #transitionaldesign #homestyling #transitionaldecor #transitionalstyle #bhg #bhghome #bhgstyle #bhgstylemaker #bhglivebetter #mybhg #bhgcolor #swcolorlove
About the only thing I managed to get done this we About the only thing I managed to get done this weekend with a sick toddler was the little gallery wall in our dining room. I found these wireless battery operated gold gallery lights on Amazon and they are AMAZING. Comes in 3 colors, under $35, and super easy to install. I love how it just added a little something and made it look more high end. 😍👏🏼 #ahostinghome 

// shop via @shop.ltk here ➡️ https://liketk.it/3Ep2B

tags // #homedecor #homedesign #interiordesign #gallerywall #traditionalhome #traditionalhomedecor #transitionaldesign #transitionalstyle #transitionaldecor #diningroom #diningroomdecor #diningroomdesign #ltkhome #bhg #bhghome #bhgstyle #bhgstylemaker #bhglivebetter
My living room took a complete transformation this My living room took a complete transformation this evening — and I’m so in love! (You really didn’t think I’d part with these floral curtains did you?! 🤪) I always talk about the power of paint… but there’s also so much power in drapery, friends! I love how cozy they make our new home feel and how it just feels like “us” now with them up. ❤️ #ahostinghome
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✨ Progress ✨ I’m so excited to finally be at ✨ Progress ✨ I’m so excited to finally be at the point of unpacking that I can start decorating a little bit! What do you think of the vibe in here so far? Hoping to get the kitchen cabinet hardware on this weekend! #ahostinghome 

p.s. I’ve also got big plans to refinish these table and chairs soon! 😍

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After all the rain, we finally got the wire backin After all the rain, we finally got the wire backing, our gates done, and the fence finished this week! 😍 We had a fencing company local to us do it, and they did an amazing job. We had a fence like this at our old house, and we loved how open it made our back yard feel while still keeping the dogs in. With the dogs, the fence was project priority No. 1 after we moved in — and I must say, I’m so glad I won’t have to embarrass myself chasing a puppy around the house with a toddler on my hip in my slippers anymore! 🤪 Are you team privacy fence or team 5 row fence? 🏡 #ahostinghome
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It’s been a long time coming, y’all… We clo It’s been a long time coming, y’all… 
We closed on our new house last week! It has been a crazy past few days getting moved in and the essentials set up/ unpacked, but we are so excited for the new adventure! We’ve already got so many plans and ideas, and I can’t wait to completely transform this home! 😍 I hope you’re just as excited to follow along! #ahostinghome
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Exterior Paint Colors—
- Siding: Extra White by @sherwinwilliams 
- Shutters & Door: Iron Ore by #sherwinwilliams 
- Cedar wood columns

#newbuild #newbuildhome #newbuildjourney #newbuildprogress #newhomeconstruction #newhome #houseprogress #homeprogress #extrawhitesherwinwilliams #ironoresherwinwilliams

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