Bless This Mess › Life on the Farm › Building Our Dream House

We finally started building our house! (January 2016)

By Melissa

on Jan 28, 2016, Updated Jun 27, 2024

This past weekend was a pretty big deal in our little family. We officially started building our house on the beautiful property that housed our garden and chickens last summer. I’ve been struggling with how to relay the impact, meaning, and depth of this small step in my sphere on the internet. Part of me feels like it’s bragging, or that people won’t care, or that people will think I’m making a big deal out of something small.

Friends, this is such a huge deal to me.

I’m naturally a nester, a settler, a homemaker, and a bloom-where-you-are-planted kind of girl. In the last 13 years I have moved well over 15 times, but I always worked at making my home, though temporary, my home. When I got married we still moved a lot, but I have longed for roots, structure, and a place to call ours for years. As I’ve had children that desire has grown. We finally moved “home” (where my husband grew up in Southern Utah) 3 years ago after working and going to school to get here. We bought our dream property 18 months ago, we had my mom design our house a year ago. and last week, January 23, 2016, we finally started building our house.

Our process of owning a home has been so very slow. I don’t know many people who have 5 kids and have waited over 10 years to get into a house. Heck, it’s going to take us two years to build it, so we’ll be married for 12 (TWELVE!) years before we have a house. But all the moving, waiting, wishing, planning, building, and living without will make that move-in day all the sweeter. We also feel like we kind of skipped the starter home stage which means we’ll have our “dream home” in the end. All this waiting and working won’t be without reward, that I know. Thomas is still getting the plans into AutoCad and when it’s done I’ll share them with you.

So finally starting this house, our dream house, is a pretty huge deal to me. This house is so much more than a house. It’s going to be our forever home. The house our kids remember and think of when they think “home”, the house I plan on filling with people, and celebration, and food. The house that has a basement apartment for friends, and family, and you to come and stay in. I can’t wait for you to come; you are definitely invited. Enjoy this house building process with me over the next few years because this kind of thing ends up being an endurance test and we can find the joy in the journey together.

I’m so glad you are here.

Thomas has been working on digging a trench from the power pole to our barn so that we can have power to the property. The trench is 4 feet deep and 220-something feet long and goes right down the middle of my garden and orchard. The power company came yesterday and got everything hooked up! Now we just need to do a little wiring inside the barn (which did have power in the past, so that won’t be a big deal) and we’ll be ready to roll!

Here’s a cute little story about my husband. He was digging the trench for the power. It’s very narrow and deep. In the bottom of the trench he noticed a fat, sleepy dormouse that he had disturbed. He said the mouse was super slow and couldn’t get out of the trench. So Thomas stopped the backhoe, got out, scooped up the mouse up, and tossed him into the grass. This my friends is the perfect example of who he is as a man. Even the smallest creatures are worth his time and attention. He’s good, through and through. Speaking of small creatures, the kids also love this project. They are going to have so many great memories of building the house. They talk about when we move in often and beg to go help dad work when he’s over there.

On Saturday we officially broke ground on the house part (which is way more exciting than the power trench). We had a ground breaking ceremony and everything, pictures courtesy of my seven-year-old niece who was over to play. After a few pictures, Thomas got in the backhoe and started digging! I can’t wait to show you the hole. IT’S SO BIG! And then there are the massive dirt piles out of the hole… world’s best playground.

I’ll share the hole and our progress again in a week! If you want more of a play by play, join me on Instagram and Snapchat (my username is BlessthismessM). I share lots of pictures there and use #blessthimessbuilds as a hashtag on them if you want to scroll through our house progress.

Thank you so much for letting me share this fun stage of our life with you. I’m looking forward to writing these posts and sharing this long but exciting journey. Some things are worth waiting years and years for, and this view/house is one of them.