Custom New House Build

Today I am going to share with you the long awaited custom new house build tour. This post is a long time in the making, and I thank you all for being so patient with me over the past months as we finished our build! Eventually, I will take you on a tour of the exterior spaces; But for now, let’s step inside and look at the interior.

OUR CUSTOM NEW HOUSE BUILD

Time has literally flown over the past months. I think the last time I wrote an actual blog post (other than the quick Around Here variety) was in October! So sorry about that!

I was doing so well keeping you all updated at the beginning of our custom new house build. That is, until my husband and I started doing OUR portion of the work. At that point, we needed to focus all of our extra attention on getting the job done so that we could pass the inspections, and that the appraisal would go well.

We poured a lot of sweat equity into our new house, and I will definitely go back and share all those details with you. For now though, feel free to compare what you are about to see with the most recent building update I have provided: The Framed House Tour | Building Update No 6. It will help you appreciate how far we have come!

PHOTOS OF OUR CUSTOM NEW HOUSE BUILD

Let me take you on a tour via photos. Please keep in mind that we mostly just moved in furnishings and decor that we had from our previous space. We had a huge garage sale before we moved, and only brought into this house the things we love. That means many of the rooms are rather bare. It’s actually okay with us, since we prefer a more clean, minimalist vibe. But, they definitely aren’t polished and complete. That will come with time.

LIVING/DINING

You may remember the last minute design change I squeezed in WHILE the foundation was being poured. My goodness I gave my husband a scare with that one! Ultimately though, we are so pleased with the way the revision opens up the entire main floor in a beautiful way.

custom new house living room

One of the top priorities on our new house wish list was natural light. This space does not disappoint in that regard. The four large east facing windows bring in plenty of morning and early afternoon light, which is filtered by trees in the summer. The three southern facing windows are protected from direct rays by the porch. They too let in a ton of glorious daylight.

Both the dining table and the fireplace mantle are made of white oak, harvested from our property. A local miller was able to transport about six large tree trunks to his property. There he cut them into boards and kiln dried them.

He even constructed a table top for us, which we weren’t expecting! We love being able to have that bit of history here with us every day.

During the day, this is my absolute favorite space to be in! It is so cheerful and bright! In fact, we rarely need to turn the lights on in most of the rooms in this house until the evening hours. The red oak floors, which we installed, are beautiful and should hold up to our crazy crew’s wear and tear.

We absolutely love our dining room light fixture. Sources for this fixture, as well as the other light fixtures in our home can be found HERE.

KITCHEN

Just off of the open living/dining room is the kitchen. The opening is flanked by restored antique cabinets. We may eventually add the columns above, but we ran out of time and actually like the flow between the two spaces as it is right now.

You will remember from previous posts that we purchased all of our cabinetry through Cliq Studios. I owe you all an update on how the delivery and installation process went. But, until then, I can say that we are more than satisfied with the outcome.

We got our vintage Kohler sink installed, and it fits in perfectly! Choosing appliances was another adventure in and of itself. I fretted about whether or not I should make the switch to a gas range or not. I’m happy I took the chance, because I absolutely love using our KitchenAid appliances!

This room has a bit of unfinished business, in that we still need to install a tile backsplash. We also have plans for some big chunky open shelves on either side of the window. All in due time.

HALL/MUDROOM

One of the ways we were able to utilize every square inch of our floor plan was to make every single space useable. The small hall space that separates the more public areas of the main floor from the private spaces is a great example. First, we used a set of vintage french doors from the family farmhouse. It is another piece of history that we love having in our new home.

We were able to squeeze just a few square feet in the hall space for our upright piano. When someone is practicing, the french doors can be closed as a sound buffer.

To the left of the hall is the mudroom. This is a hardworking room, but I also wanted it to be beautiful. It features a luxury vinyl plank flooring from Coretec. This means I don’t need to get all worked up if the kids track in dirt from outside. The washer and dryer are conveniently located as well. And the large bank of cabinets and counter space functions perfectly as a drop zone and charging station.

The far door in this room leads out to our attached garage. I’m convinced that this is not a luxury in Minnesota, it’s a necessity. We have never had an attached garage before this though, and we feel pretty spoiled!

The other door leads into the powder room/half bath, which gets a lot of action from the kids. It features the restored 1930s cast iron sink, which is holding up beautifully.

MASTER BEDROOM

To the right of the hall is the master bedroom. It is really not a large space at all, but it fits all our needs. Funny enough, since these photos (and video) were taken we changed the orientation of the bed. We decided we liked the layout better with the head of the bed on the east wall, in front of the tall window.

Although it is almost standard in custom new house build to have a large walk in closet, we opted instead for two smaller closets.

The left closet, plus the dresser, holds all of the clothes my husband and I own. And the right closet is used to store the vacuum, broom, and other misc. items.

MASTER BATH

Our master bathroom is also not very large. It is, however, very functional. We put in quite a lot of effort in this room. My husband actually built the vanity, based on a design I had drawn up. It features one drawer, which holds all of our toiletries. The shelf below is large enough to hold two baskets, one for dirty clothes and the other for clothes that we plan to wear again.

My husband and I worked together to tile the shower space and floor. This was our first time doing any sort of tile work, and we are very happy with how it turned out!

UPSTAIRS LANDING

The upstairs of our house is very simple. There is a small landing area with a bathroom, and one bedroom on either side.

There is a small nook area in the landing, where we have a shelf that holds children’s books. I try to rotate them out often, for interest.

UPSTAIRS BATHROOM

This bathroom is mainly used by the kids in the morning and evening hours. We love the round mirror and the subway tile tub surround.

The sliding barn door is another fun feature of the bathroom!

GIRL’S BEDROOM

Our two daughters share this bedroom. There is still quite a bit of decorating that needs to happen in their room, but it will be a really fun space!

They currently sleep in their small toddler beds; However, my husband has been working on restoring two matching cast iron bed frames, which I hope to share with you all soon!

BOY’S BEDROOM

The boy’s bedroom is also a work in progress. Their room is unique in that each boy has their own private sleeping nook. Granted, right now their mattresses are on the floor, but we have plans for custom platform beds.

One unique feature in their space is the barnwood accent walls at each of their headboards. This wood is from the summer kitchen that was taken down from my in-laws house.

Each boy has a small reading light that they can use in the evening hours without disturbing the sleep of one another.

FAMILY ROOM

Because of how our site slopes, it made sense for our house to have a full sized, walk out basement. The largest room in the basement is the family room space. It is also the room where we currently spend the bulk of our time.

We love the large sectional couch we were able to purchase with proceeds from the garage sale we had before our move.

MAN LAND/ OFFICE

The other room in the basement that gets plenty of use is my husband’s office, aka ‘man land’. Because we were able to utilize the space under the stairs, this room ended up being larger than we expected.

He has his desk, bookshelf, and a couch in the room. It was great to have this dedicated office space during the quarantine, when he was working from home and the kids were schooling from home!

OTHER LOWER LEVEL SPACES

Between the family room and the office is another fun space, which we are calling the Rec Room. It is technically a fourth bedroom in the house, but it is unlikely we will use it as such. To make it qualify as bedroom status, it has a small closet as well as large sliding barn doors.

Since this photo was taken, we have added a nice ping pong table to the room. It is the variety that can be folded up easily and stored along a wall. This allows the space to be fully open and available for a variety of activities, such as lifting weights, home workouts, or even as a guest room.

The lower level of the house also features a small 3/4 bathroom. Both the mirror and the vanity were found for ridiculously low prices at our local Habitat ReStore.

As you can see, we opted for more bathrooms that were smaller in size rather than fewer large bathrooms. It is great to have one on each level of the house, that is, unless it is cleaning day!

The mechanical room is the final space of the house. Everything is efficiently laid out and easily accessed. There is even a little space where we can build shelves for extra supply storage if needed.