Hey y'all! Just going to do a little combo week situation over here because well...life is busy (but at least I remembered to awkwardley set up the timer and snap a pic in my office of this fast growing bump!) I can't believe I'm 18 weeks pregnant and thankfully still feeling great (minus sleep but we'll get there) Its so crazy because while I feel like time is flying, I also just 'forget' that I'm pregnant as silly as that sounds. I forget that I probably shouldn't be lugging 45 pound waterers for the chickens and bags of horse & dog feed and slinging my toddler around on my hip while dancing to K-Pop Demon Hunters but I do it anyway. (and I love it) Slowing down and asking for help is not my strong suit. Especially on a farm. However, Andi is the biggest help ever when Hubs isn't around and I am so thankful and so proud of that child. My Dad is pretty great too and even hauls the trash for us when he comes over. Andi insisted on carrying a bag of dog food out of tractor supply the other day and I felt like such a child labor activist weirdo walking beside her and simply carrying my car keys. I'm not exactly sure what I would do without that miracle child and I know God's spacing of these kiddos was totally on point. Not to be left out, Miss Crawford is one of my favorite comedians that walks this earth. She is so excited to be a big sister and she is so self-aware of herself. She's fierce, loves hard, emotional and so wise beyond her 4 years (and also insists that the baby be named Lavendar or Sprinkles Sunny Ginny Otey so there's that in case you were wondering about names) I would be lost without these girls and I'm OVERLY excited to see how little sister fits into the dynamic here.
On the home front, as mentioned in my last post, we have the finalized plans and I added closing in the kitchen walls opening by 5 feet on either side creating a 9 foot opening which is still pretty spaciaous. The whole open concept idea is foreign to me since we have predominitly (or really only) lived in historic homes and so I started to panic with how open that space would be to the living room. Closing the walls in and adding a transom on top of the cased opening will just make the space feel slightly more seprate. We are working with two builders to have 2 quotes presented to us and I'm literally just biting my nails in anticipation. Each has the plans and everything they need to price so it should be any day now. (Basically who can start tomorrow am I right?!) This is the not-so-fun part in the process that brings you back down (rather harshly and with a thud) from cloud 9...I'm so excited for the vision and direction I'm going with the design of this house and in true 'me' fashion, I have everything picked out and ready to go despite the fact that we haven't started digging footings for a foundation (cue the daydream music as I float off to la-la lake house vibe design land) I'll share a few inspiration pieces that grabbed me from the get-go when we first started to dream up this forever home 2 years ago. I'll also share the exact room that I basically designed this home around WHICH is such a neat 'meet-cute' story that I need to share (without making this post entirely too long. Can y'all tell I miss blogging?)
The windows and room that started it all ^
We looked at plans for years..100s...1000s of plans! We even staked off two separate sets of plans on the property just to pull up the flags and be like naaaa just kidding. If I never look at an online house plan again I will TOTALLY be fine. I randomly came across a design and architecture firm out of TN (I know, super random) and we were smitten with pretty much everything they touched. (we had felt this way before with a firm out of SC but got smacked with extremely unrealistic prices for drawing plans we basically had already designed. Their style though? On point.) One home in particular I kept coming back to and finally told Seth, you know what? I'm DIGGING DEEP (like private invesitigator deep) and I'm going to find the owners and basically plead and beg for a look at these plans. I searched and crossed google images, found related magazine articles and tagged design firms and photographers and finally tracked down the socials of the owner. (I know, I'm creepy) I have reached out to so many designers and lots of times don't get responses or they want a consult etc. which makes perfect sense so honestly I didn't expect much. But now, let me introduce you to the sweetest and most open person I could meet-cute on the internet. She willingly shared her dream and story of their home and how it had evolved a decade earlier on graph paper. She shared the tough parts, the exciting parts, her willingness to lean on the Lord in prayer and let His will be done when it felt like too much. She answered questions, we followed each other and then she did something I never expected. She shared their entire set of construction plans with me and I knew, deep down, that this was the foundation of our forever home. I was so drawn to what she had designed although we needed a slightly smaller space. Once Seth and I had a minute to sit down together, we got to work right away dreaming and drawing up what would eventually be a home that fit our current and future needs.
We found an affordable architect (affordable being the term of the year here. We essectially had the plans completed ourselves and we talked to architects that wanted to still charge over 10k to draw out. Whew!) to turn the plans into a legal, completed blueprint set. I shared these with the homeowner and it was so neat to see her opinion and praise for ideas and spaces we had altered to make our own. Its awkward sharing your blood, sweat and tears with a random person in VA (me haha) that could essentially just replicate your home in another state but she took a chance and definitely influenced my design process for the better. Its amazing what and who God can bring into your life to help write your own story. (My Mom keeps telling me to keep the family in the loop and then do a road trip home tour of each other's homes in the future!) Anyway, if you've made it this far, thank you again for reading my online diary of sorts! I hope each and every one of you has a fabulous week and cheers to the 'ber' months ahead - which are always the best! Xoxo Jessi
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