Can you believe it’s been over seven months since my last official new build update post? I’ve shared updates here and there on our Weekend Recap posts, but never a consolidated post with more details or any specifics. Now that our future home is mostly buttoned up from the elements and the more fun parts of the build start, I figured it was time for a post with the progress so far, and more details on the home we’re building!
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A Little Background Information
If you’re new here, we decided to move from Omaha, Nebraska to the 30A area of the Florida panhandle early last spring. You can read more about that decision in this post, but the biggest factor for our decision really came down to weather. The older we’ve gotten, the less we want to deal with Midwest winters. We are summer people and beach people at heart, and although the decision to move was far from easy, we’re still very happy with the move and have really been enjoying all the additional time outside since our move in October.
After we made the decision to move, we went under contract on a lot for our new build. But, knowing that the new build wouldn’t be ready until mid-2023 (and it was early 2022 at the time), we decided to purchase this home to live in in the interim. You can see how it’s all decorated so far in this home tour. Once our new build is finished, we’ll likely keep this home and add it to our long-term rental portfolio, since long-term rentals are much-needed in the area. Most of the homes along 30A are short-term rentals, like Hola Beaches, because this is such a popular tourist destination. But, the house we’re in now is in the same neighborhood as the new build, and restricts short-term rentals! It’s great if you want actual neighbors, and not a weekly change of tourists coming through (which could also be fun, but not what we were looking for).
As of right now, there’s a good chance our house will be ready by the end of July or August!
Florida New Build General Details
Although I shared a lot of general details about the new build in this post, I’m going to elaborate on a few of the points here before getting into more of the specifics.
- This is not a custom home, nor is it our “dream” home. It’s essentially a spec home where we were allowed to make a few changes and a few selections, but there are quite a few limitations on what we can’t change. There were only a few lots in the neighborhood where we knew we wanted to live, and this was the only house style they allowed on the lot we liked best. The home and building market down here are still booming, so the reality is, it’s kind of a take it or leave it market or someone else will. Ha! It actually worked out perfectly for us because after making the decision to move, I don’t think either of us had the energy to build a house from scratch. We are really excited about this house for us and are so happy about the thought of moving there later this year!
- We purposely chose this neighborhood because it’s more of a “locals” neighborhood. As mentioned above, they don’t allow short-term rentals here, so most homeowners are snowbirds or permanent residents. It’s not on 30A (although only a few minute drive away), so it will help alleviate some of the traffic frustrations that come with prime tourist season.
- Being only about two miles from the beach, lots are a premium here since there is only so much coastline! With that, houses tend to be smaller and are built much more closely together, and although most homes have a pool, they are very small compared to what we’re used to. And we’re okay with all of that for everything else we’ll be gaining with the weather! Both will be an adjustment for us, but we feel the year-round outdoor lifestyle (and access to so many other larger pools as well as the beach) make it more than worth it. We won’t likely ever be seeing snow down here!
- I know this question will come up since the economic environment has changed so much in the last year, so wanted to answer any questions there. With this house, we were able to lock in at 2021 building prices. Although products were still very expensive across the country at that time, we were also able to lock in at a price that is much lower than what the market is demanding now in this area. Kurtis was also able to (thankfully) find an 18-month rate lock for our mortgage right before interest rates went crazy!
Standard Finishes And Selections
I’ve shared some of this before, but I know it can be helpful to see again. Here’s what comes standard with our new build, as well as some of the selections and changes we were able to make!
A few favorite features that come standard with this floorplan:
- 12′ ceilings throughout the first floor (this definitely makes the smaller rooms feel larger)
- White oak hardwood floors throughout the home
- Shiplap in all common areas
- Gas lanterns on the porch (!!!)
- Pool, spa, and outdoor shower
- All landscaping
A few things that we get to choose:
- Lighting (we are given a dollar allowance for the entire home & carriage house, and then offered trade pricing through the builder and a local lighting shop)
- Select granite/quartz/stone for counters. We choose one for the kitchen and then one for all the bathrooms/laundry room/carriage house kitchen/bath.
- Interior and exterior paint colors (exterior must be approved by the HOA so there is enough variety)
- Cabinet colors (there are about a dozen factory finished colors to choose from and all cabinet styles for kitchen/bath/laundry are shaker style)
- Kitchen backsplash (we only have a choice of five different subway tiles and then the pattern to lay them, or we can leave it off entirely and install on our own)
- Porcelain tiles for all secondary bathrooms (it’s automatically Carrara marble in the primary bathroom & laundry room)
- Finish for plumbing fixtures (they dictate the brand/style, we only pick the finish)
- Tile for the pool and spa waterline
Optional builder upgrades we chose to add:
- 10′ ceilings on the second floor (standard is 9′, but with the smaller rooms, the ceiling height really opens things up!)
- A cabana out by the included pool/spa
- Extended garage 2′ in either direction
- A carriage house above the garage (essentially a studio apartment)
- Standard, this house had a ton of outdoor porch space in the front, back and side. We chose to enclose the side portion to carve out an office for Kurtis and add a small dining room.
- We’ll have an outdoor kitchen on the back screened-in porch
- Added a fireplace to the living room because we (and the cats) loved ours in Omaha so much and winters do get cold enough here to make it worthwhile.
- A 10’x16′ sliding door at the back of the house (essentially the whole wall of the living room)
- We chose to screen-in our back porch, because we absolutely have to have another “catio” after the cats loving our current one so much! It will also be wonderful to leave the big sliders open without worrying about bugs coming in the house!
Design elements we don’t love but can’t change:
The following items are things we can’t change and don’t necessarily love. Honestly none of it is that big of a deal at the end of the day, but figured they were worth mentioning.
- The overall exterior aesthetic. It feels a bit farmhouse-y for our taste and the winged shades over each window aren’t something we would have chosen. However, we’re excited that our house was approved for vertical board and batten instead of horizontal siding, so I think that will help give it more of a coastal vibe! We were told there are too many white houses on the street already (we were one of the last lots to close). But, we think they may let us do Sherwin Williams Greek Villa, a warm white, that’s different enough from the neighbors on either side of us!
- We’d really prefer an island in the kitchen instead of a peninsula, mostly for flow. But we are very excited about the size of it!
- The powder bath is under the upper part of the staircase and is so small it can only hold a pedestal sink. The layout isn’t great, as we’d obviously prefer a sink with some storage! I’m hoping this is something we can figure out down the road but the footprint limits things quite a bit.
- Not sure if this is just a Florida thing, but I have never seen so many asymmetrical windows in rooms as I do down here. Bedroom will just have one window in a corner and then one on another wall, centered. It drives me crazy! Like, where is one supposed to place a bed without it looking ridiculous?! We will have this issue in two of the bedrooms and in the carriage house so I’m going to try and get creative there.
- We would prefer to have a mud room, as we’ve quickly learned not having one down here is challenging. We don’t have a great spot to dump our shoes, and it can be challenging with cats. We’ll likely have to use a bathroom for their litter boxes, like we’re doing now in this house.
I’ll likely have to lock in most of our selections by the end of this week so I’ll keep you posted!
Unseen Florida New Build Progress Photos
We moved to Florida October 7th, and they started the foundation two weeks later on the new build. Although things seemed to stall a bit around the holidays, understandably, there has been a lot of great progress since!
The entryway is one of our favorite features of the home! They call it a lighthouse style, with three sides wrapped in wall-to-wall windows (very similar to ours in Omaha). With 12′ ceilings on main and 10′ ceilings upstairs (plus the vaulted ceiling here) it’s a really tall space! The front door is behind me off to the right-side of this photo.
Here you can see the space with a view of the front door on the side. The neighbor is rather close on this side, as you’ll see below, but we have very few rooms or windows on that side of the house otherwise, so it works out okay!
At the top of the stairs is a loft with a vaulted ceiling. We’ll set this up much like the den in our Omaha house, with our sectional and a TV. The upstairs bedrooms are then accessed on either side of that space.
Here is a back view of the house. You can see the one set of neighbors we’re closest to on the left. On the other side, two full driveway widths separate us from our other neighbors. This photo also shows the large hole for our 10’x16′ slider we’ll have in the living room!
Here is that door from the inside (I only have a screenshot from a video I made so it’s a little blurry). When we were over there this past weekend, we realized something extra exciting. We originally thought the sliding door would be four panels, two stationary on each end and then two that open in the middle. Turns out, they ordered one with one stationary at the end and then the other three panels can all slide to the very end over that stationary panel! So, essentially 12′ of the 16′ door will be able to open onto the screened in porch!
Our kitchen will be nearly identical to the one shown below which is the same floorplan and there’s not much we can change. We will only be doing two pendant lights (and very likely some pretty massive ones that might freak some people out)! We also opted to extend the back of the 16′ peninsula another foot to accommodate cabinets on the back side (where you see the shiplap on the back of the peninsula below). It will be a great way to get some additional storage!
We also opted to do a panel ready fridge so it will blend in a bit more seamlessly with the cabinets. I don’t love the hardware selections we’ve been offered (what you see below or a squared off version of the same), so that may be something we add afterwards. I do love the subway tile they offer, but we will be doing warm white cabinets, and unfortunately none of the colors of subway tile look good against the cabinet color we’ll be doing. So, we’ll likely be choosing our own and having it installed after we move in. I think that will help add some color to the kitchen too, since the whole space is all white otherwise!
As mentioned previously, we can pick from a few factory finished colors of cabinets. I haven’t locked them in yet, but will likely be doing the light blue cabinets you see on the bottom left in the laundry room and two of the bathrooms (and possibly carriage house?). We’ll then do one bathroom cabinet the navy blue shown below. You can also see in this image the two colors of subway tile – they’re either too white or too warm for the cabinet color we’re doing (which is a close match to Sherwin Williams Alabaster).
The laundry room is to the left of the kitchen as you see it above (to the right when you walk in and just behind the powder bath). I don’t love that it’s right off the kitchen, but it’s definitely going to be the largest laundry room we’ve ever had! Especially since ours right now is a literal closet with zero floor space, so we’re really looking forward to the upgrade. This image is with the wide angle feature on my phone, so it looks larger than it is. But essentially the washer, dryer and a sink will be on the left. Then we’ll have another set of cabinets/countertops to the right. One cabinet will be a pantry style. Through the doorway back by the window, the HVAC will be in a closet to the left and then we’ll have a little open spot on the right. We thought that may be a nice spot to hang our stick vac, broom, etc. The electrical panel is on one wall there so it will limit any hanging cabinets.
Our house is more of a shotgun style, which means it isn’t very wide, but it’s pretty deep. You can see the back on the left, and then the side in the center with the grocery drop-off carport leading back to the garage and carriage house (where I was standing when I took the picture).
So happy with our decision to add a fireplace to this house! Although it’s gas, we opted to still have a chimney built on the exterior because we like the aesthetic of one.
From the inside, you can see where the chimney will go. It will still be a bump out style and they’ll wrap it with shiplap. It’s super hard to gauge scale right now, but as a reminder, the ceilings are 12′ tall here so the windows with the transoms go up to about the 10′ mark. We’ll likely have our two sofas flanking those windows, similar to our setup in both Omaha and now, with the TV above the fireplace. The kitchen is to the left of this photo and the large slider is to the right, with the dining nook and Kurtis’ office right behind me.
Now looking the opposite way. Here is where we carved out an office for Kurtis (on the left) and a small dining room (partially seen on the right), rather than having a large side porch which likely never would have been used. Since Kurtis is on so many video conferences, we chose to leave a window off the back wall of the space, and may eventually add built-ins there. We’ll likely have his desk peninsula off the window so he can look out to the pool. He’s in heaven knowing he’ll finally have a dedicated home office that doesn’t double as a guest bedroom! The room is only about 10’x10′ but should be plenty of space for everything he’ll need. Now I just need to figure out a way to camouflage his three monitors so I don’t have to see them from the living room 😉
The dining room is rather small too, but the alternative was to fit a table in between the kitchen and living room in the original floor plan. It would have been really tight. I’m happy we were able to free up the space for better flow between the kitchen and living room. We’ll be doing a simple cased opening, and since I’m not sure a buffet table or any extra furniture will fit, it will likely just be a table and chairs and a more casual breakfast nook vibe.
There’s a really good chance that we will be using the second floor bedroom shown below to sleep in, and using the intended primary bedroom on the main floor as my office. We love that this room has vaulted ceilings and since all the bedrooms have an en suite bathroom, it wouldn’t be that much different. It’s definitely smaller than the alternative, but we don’t love that the main floor bedroom is on the front of the house right off the entryway. I also prefer my office on the main floor!
If we make that change, that would allow Kurtis to add a second desk to my office, much like we had in Omaha. We’ve really missed our mornings together in a joint office before he heads to his other office for work. He’s on calls so much for his day job, he needs a dedicated office (to save my sanity), but we do enjoy those few hours together when we first wake up or on the weekend. It’s also helpful when we need to crank out work for our investment property business. This room that is intended as the primary bedroom (right off the entryway, and shown below) would then be my office. I love the views across the street to the pond! They won’t be building any houses on that side of the street past our house.
Let’s move out to the carriage house above the garage! You access the carriage house outside, with exterior stairs leading up to a private access. The space is about 650 square feet and much like a studio apartment. There will be a small living room, kitchenette, bedroom, and bathroom. This is one of the features that sold us on this house, because it means our friends and family can stay for longer periods and have some autonomy during their stay. The photo below is standing in the back side yard looking across to the carriage house. The cabana will essentially be located where I’m standing and the small pool will go in between.
The image below is before the roof was added, but you essentially walk into the living room, it will then wrap over to the kitchen, then wrap to the bedroom door, and then the bathroom.
Below are the French doors that open out to a Juliet balcony with a view of the woods behind. It’s going to be such a great little spot! Many others on the street had their balconies added to the front (the curb appeal is definitely cuter that way) but we thought the balcony would be much more enjoyable facing the back.
Well, that update took a lot more words (and photos) than expected so we’ll stop here for today! If you made it this far, thanks for bearing with me! But, now that this post is done, I’ll circle back soon with some of my design boards and selections soon so you can see the direction we’re taking everything. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and I can’t believe how quickly it feels like we’ll be moving in!
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Karen says
So exciting and it is looking soo good. Great idea to have the carriage house with separate living quarters for family. You guys are doing it right. Congrats to both of you!
Mary from Life at Bella Terra says
Love all the details about the move, the build and your desire to live in warmer weather. My husband and I are having the same conversations and it’s nice to know that one ending is a new beginning elsewhere. Thanks for sharing all the gorgeous details! It will be stunning.
Courtney says
When you figure out a solution to hiding the 3 monitors, please share! Great and exciting progress!
Carol H. says
Your plans look so nice and your lot is perfect, greenery across the street and behind the house. Good idea to add the extra height to the upstairs, not something that can be added later. Cat box again. Could you add a cat door between the laundry room and HVAC room and put the cat box back there?
Sue says
Hi Sarrah,
Whew, a lot has taken place and how excited you must be. Please keep your blog readers updated.
Living in Ohio I might not be a fan of posts about your nice winter weather, especially since we are expected to get between 4-7″ of snow starting late this evening/early tomorrow morning.
Brigid Steiner says
I’m so loving this journey! Can you share what neighborhood you are building in that’s in need of long-term rentals? It sounds like a great fit. Thank you!
Sarah says
I probably didn’t say that correctly. The entire area along 30A is much in need of long-term rentals, not just any specific neighborhood. As far as I know most neighborhoods allow them. Where the restrictions come into play is more as it relates to short-term rentals. Our neighborhood, and quite a few others, do not allow any form of short-term rentals. The challenge is most people can stand to make a lot more in income from a STR rather than a LTR, but then there isn’t anywhere for the locals to live!
DB says
I’m so excited for you and to see the progress. Love both blue colors for the cabinets. Can you share any info on hurricane-proofing or features? I would really be interested. I would’ve expected to see the house built higher off the ground, but maybe at 2 miles from the ocean as you mentioned it’s not necessary?
Sarah says
Great question! So, most of the houses even right by the water aren’t built up off the ground here. This area of the gulf has dune lakes along the water, so there is a natural sand barrier for many of the homes. Our elevation here (and even down at Hola Beaches which is only a few streets from the beach) is over 30 feet high, so there really isn’t much chance of a storm surge that high. The bigger issue is as it relates to wind mitigation, rather than water. So there are codes about roof-tie downs and things like that. We also have impact rated windows and doors. I hope that helps!
Sandra Romero says
Love the direction you are going with this property! Can’t wait to see more. Hopefully, we will be moving in our new build in February. We used BM Water’s Edge for the island. Don’t think you can go wrong with that.
Chloe Crabtree says
Ah, 30A, what a dreamy part of Florida! I love it! My husband flies almost every week for work, so we had to be where we were close to a major airport. So…we are in Celebration, Florida. When we were ready to buy, there were no new lots available, so we had to buy a ‘used’ home. We are slowly turning it into our dream home! It can be done! I look forward to more about your new home!
Sarah says
Sometimes those are the more fun homes to live in! You don’t feel as badly making the updates you want! 🙂