How do you decide if you’re ready to build a custom home? For us, it wasn’t so much of a decision as a necessity. Not in the terms of something we were forced to do, but once we found a house plan (accidentally) we couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities. The dream and excitement of building a home, our home, from scratch was almost too big to contain. What made it even more difficult to deny was the fact that we know an incredible builder in East Tennessee who was looking to expand in the Knoxville real estate market. It seemed destined. Too good to be true and too amazing to pass up.
One day I was talking to Christy Hicks, with TR Hicks Construction about the lack of variety with the architecture in and around Knoxville. Christy had discovered a house plan from AD and just happened to stumble upon an account on Instagram of someone building the house in Idaho. Christy decided to build it in Anderson County, TN where she is developing a beautiful piece of land that overlooks Norris Lake. She ordered the plans and we watched as this other family got closer and closer to finishing their dream home in Idaho. Then it was their move-in day. My husband and I watched an Instagram story where the new owner did a video tour of their new farmhouse. We saw the kitchen, the exposed beams, the pantry and then the laundry room and we were hooked. And boom– sign us up.
My husband and I talked to Christy about the possibility of building a similar home in Knoxville. And, then once we really got into discussing details we knew this was the path we were destined to take. We had to first overcome the anxiety of selling our current house, packing, moving and worst of all… waiting. See that’s the tricky part of building, at least for us, we were so excited about the new house and the journey we were embarking on, but knew it would be months before we could actually move in. See it, feel it and live in it.
And then, we had to find a lot. This was a much more difficult task then we would have ever thought. Since there are strong opinions about this style of home (both in favor and extremely opposed, can you even imagine? ha!) we had to find a development that would approve our plans. Far more difficult than you would think it should be. So many neighborhoods in and around our area have such strict R&C that almost all wouldn’t allow a house that had board and batten. Of all things to be opposed of. Nuts!
Finally, we found it. We found the perfect place to build our home. Knew it the moment we pulled up. It checked all the boxes for us. And then, it was more waiting. Waiting on our house to close, waiting for it to stop raining long enough to start digging, waiting for permits, waiting for more rain until, it finally started…
