Diane Knox discusses house building in Florida and the highs and lows that come with it
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If you’ve followed along with my column for a while, you’ll know that last year was a big one for me: engagement, wedding, selling a house and building a house.
The first three are all very happy memories of 2021, but the house build is very much the centre point of 2022 so far. And will continue to be…
The prospect of building a home in 2021 seemed like an unimaginably huge task – the industry was going haywire post-lockdown here in the States, the price of timber was soaring, contractors were catching up with their hefty backlogs and, for whatever reasons, finding people who wanted to work was challenging to say the least.
Plus, Florida was, and still is, seen as one of the “better” states to live in due to our Governor and his relatively relaxed view on Covid-related mandates. An influx of northerners were migrating down to Jacksonville to take advantage of a restriction-free life, cheaper cost of living and, let’s be honest, the weather is hardly disgusting.
But that meant that the property market was booming. Great when, like us, you take advantage of this sellers’ market, but not so attractive when you need to find a new place to dwell.
We decided to build our own home for many reasons, but mainly because we wanted to design and build something that we loved and could envisage ourselves living in for a long time. I’ve told Garrett, after moving twice last year, that this is it! Plus, due to the crazy market and those rich aforementioned northerners, sellers were snapping up cash offers over the asking price just days after listing their house.
This way, we knew what we were getting into, could work to our budget and didn’t have to rely on winning the Florida Lottery to buy our home.
We paid our deposit and picked our lot back in July, and after months of driving by to admire our patch of dirt, we finally have a house! Well, we have wooden walls and a roof, but our dream is turning into a tangible reality.
It feels very surreal to walk around our home, knowing what’s to come: moving in, decorating, watching the dogs run wild, hosting our families and friends.
We know we’re going to live our happiest days here, and it’s been really special to take it all in throughout the various stages of construction.
Houses are expensive; you know there’s always going to be unexpected costs that spring up out of nowhere. You save and save, and put more money away, but you know that bank account is going to be drained once that closing date nears.
So I have a plan, much to husband’s amusement. There’s an ever-expanding pile in one corner of the garage, and this is my attempt to spread the cost – if I see things we need for the house on sale, I buy them. Maybe this is my way of scratching that itch but we’re already fully stocked up on crockery, vases, some cushions, a few rugs and even a fake plant.
And I’m getting used to Garrett’s eye-roll when he catches me skulking around the garage with rustling plastic bags.
So for the next five months, our Friday night date-night will be a visit to the house. With, no doubt, a few more vases purchased along the way.
