What are we going to do with this family farmhouse??
Well to answer that question, let’s talk briefly about what we looked into for options… (Heads up this post could be a little long, it was a really big long drawn out decision)
Let’s preface this whole conversation that when we started this, looking at budget numbers, where rates were at (4-5%), economy, etc. we were confident in going down this path to figure out SOMETHING to move forward with.
Option 1 – Mobile Home
I was really NOT excited to go look at mobile homes… it took some convincing. Mostly because I have been in the real estate industry for over 10 years now and I see the resale value and really wanted to make the wisest decision for our investment into the farm. (I think stereotype was a lot too, if i’m being really honest) BUT we went to look anyways! We actually stopped at a few vendors, toured their model homes and low and behold I actually REALLY liked one! WHAT!!
I think we really thought this would be the cheapest option but by the time we started pricing out the actual triple wide manufactured home, all of the prep work, etc. it was about the same price as building a Hi-Line or Adair… so we moved on to research that option!
Option 2 – New Construction
I believe we knew going down this path that it wasn’t probably going to be the most advantageous but I did want to look into Hi-Line and Adair homes. My parents had looked into them quite a bit and I loved some of their floor plans and knew that resale would be way better on a new construction and building wealth through the property. We did go visit both and really loved the simplicity of this option but ultimately it was just outside of our budget.
Option 3 – Remodel
I remember one day Josh throwing out the idea “what if we just remodeled the farmhouse?” I really wasn’t opposed but just had no idea what that would look like and the questions started flooding in… Which direction do we go? How many bedrooms do we add? How do we make it more open and spacious? Do we go up or out? Do we keep part of what’s here and add on a master suite?
Soooo I looked into a FREE online design software and ended up playing with Floorplanner to just sketch out our current floor plan so we could having a starting point to start moving walls and playing around. I’m really not joking when I say we spend HUNDREDS of hours playing, designing, re-designing, dreaming, looking at other floor plans for inspiration, etc. No joke I bet we came up with 5-10 main designs and then we would tweak them, readjust them and give ourselves a bit to think about it.
We knew eventually would we need some professional design help who could really architecturally design what we were looking for. A friend of ours in the construction business had come to look at our project a few times and talk through options so we decided to hire them to work with us on designing a floor plan we would love and that would fit within our budget. After LOTS of late nights, back and forth, moving this, adjusting this, etc. we FINALLY have a floor plan that we are excited about!!
Enjoy!
