Building A Home in 2023

I never thought I’d build a house. I’ve owned three very different style homes that I loved, but nothing like what I would design for myself if given the chance. Flash forward to 2023, and my now husband and I get to talking about building our own house. The one we were living in was too big for the two of us. We dreamed of designing the features we would like our forever home to have and we decided to go for it. Neither of us have done it before or been in the position to consider it. Of course, we want to document the experience of building a home in 2023, and share it with you! Also to have this to look back on once we’re done. 😅

I’m going to be honest – I’ve NEVER heard anyone say building their home was a good experience. It’s usually ripe with a lot of stress and battles between the couple building, contractors, supply issues and so much more. When I say neither my husband or I were previously in the position to consider building a home before now, what I mean is that neither of us were in relationships that could weather the stress of that process! Who can relate? True story: my sister just earlier this year face-timed me while covered in plaster dust crying ‘Don’t do it’, regarding our upcoming plans to build.

We found ourselves some land and began the process of planning. Allow me to lay out the battlegrounds thus far.

Battle 1: What is the size of the house we want to build?

Here’s where the disagreement starts for us. You may know this about myself and Tyson already from social media, but we have different priorities when it comes to our living space. Tyson is a minimalist who is attached to nothing. At one point in his life, he lived out of the box of his truck while he worked pipelining in Alberta. I am a borderline hoarder who is attached to all her things and having space to keep said things in.

Left to his own devices, I think Tyson would build something that is probably 800 square feet. Like not quite Tiny House but just a step above. I, on the other hand, can’t imagine building less than 1500 square feet. We are still in negotiations on this subject but I feel like we’re settling close to 1500.

1300. – Tyson

Battle 2: Single floor or 1.5 story?

As I mentioned above, the plan is to build our forever home. I can understand Tyson wanting the house to be a single story so we don’t have to worry about stairs as we get older. My thought process is that we build a story and a half where that upstairs will have our primary bedroom, ensuite bath and my office area. The main floor will have the same and when it becomes necessary, we can relocate downstairs. The upstairs will then become the spare room space.

While I’m on the subject, I had to convince Tyson that we needed a spare room at all as he doesn’t believe in having unused space. He figured the spare room would be my office but I don’t want to not have my office when people come to visit as I use my office space daily. So you know, both of our families live outside of province, as do a lot of our friends. We have had many occasions to have a spare room.

-When we’re old upstairs will look like the forbidden wing in Beauty and the Beast – Tyson

The Resolution

With all this in mind, we are putting the house plans aside for now and just focusing on the garage first. We’ve decided to first build our garage which will house the Airstream trailer we currently live in for the winter. After enjoying a few years living mobile and mortgage free, we’ll work on building a house.

Deciding on the design and layout for this was MUCH easier. We know we need it to be long enough to store the 25-foot long trailer. I also want to be able to park my vehicle inside once we are no longer living inside the garage. We also decided we don’t want to have a basement in our new house so we will build on two rooms at the end of our garage. One will house Tyson’s tools as a workshop, and the other will be our gym and music room. Is this better than having more space in the actual house? You’ll have to ask him. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Yes, it is better. Tools are loud and messy. Drums are loud. – Tyson

Garage Battle 1: Choosing a siding style and color.

Again, as you can imagine if you know Tyson, his priorities for choosing a siding is that is good value, long lasting and low labour to put up. He doesn’t care whatsoever what it looks like. I VERY much care what it looks like. He would like to go with metal siding, which I’m ok with. However, choosing the profile of the metal siding and colour is taking me longer than he’d like. 😬

Durability and longevity are key. I want a low-maintenance solution. Set it and forget it. – Tyson

So this is the beginning of building a house in 2023 for us. We’ll update you as we begin the garage build and how the process is going for us. Have you gone through this process? I’d love to hear about it. Click here to share your experience and advice with me!