Wowwww! Your house is soooo cute! I love everything about it!
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Wow!! I love all the little details and I canāt believe that you, and your family, did it yourself! Randomly, I also watched a video recently about how your fridge works so it was cool to see it in your pics.
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Congratulations! Your lovely project is Featured this week!
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This is amazing. Im so curious what percentage cheaper this house cost compared to those sold in your area. Not having a washer and dryer right away is also pretty normal for people buying their first house. I didnāt when we bought ours and it was back when houses were super cheap
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Giiirrrrlllll! Total love! The story, the journey, and the HOUSE! Love the front door opens to your crafting room and that itās biggest in the place. That is most excellent, good for you prioritizing yourself. Itās all so bright and impeccable, I looked through the pics 3 times, I like everything.
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I think Gen X & Millennials both have an aversion to browns for a very legit reasonā¦ Why did it seem like all houses were remodeled in the 70s and then we had to live in those dark browns, rust and goldenrod monstrosities for the next 20+ years?!
The house my parents bought to renovate for themselves (around the same time I acquired my property) for their retirement home was built in 1902 but last remodeled in the 70sā¦ very dark wood paneling everywhere, shag carpet, drop ceilings, weak lightingā¦ Not cozy at all, just depressing and icky. (But my dad just finished their place in the last couple weeks, looks great!)
Anyway, I personally think grey is a more neutral neutral; it can be cool or warm or exactly in between.
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@Immaculata @Edel Very true! I guess I consider it a splurge for the windows because I couldāve gotten good quality windows that were still very energy efficient for cheaper, but went with the ones that I will never have to repair or replace for the rest of my life. (Also, that they cost a good 15% of the entire cost of building the house.)
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@photojenn Thatās cool! Iām hoping I donāt have to learn how it works (no troubleshooting, fingers crossed)!
@Cindy Howās your fridge working out? My parents had a Galanz dorm-size (not retro one) for soda, water, etc for years and never had a problem so I felt like it was a decent brand to go for.
I wanted a vintage style fridge (and stove/oven) in my house forever. But back when I was first daydreaming and saving pins on pinterest for house ideas, there really was only like the Big Chill brand which was insanely expensive. I was so excited that Galanz did a series of retro appliances. I liked it better than the Unique retro fridge (the company that made my stove does a set of appliances)ā¦ it was too skinny and tall and looked weird. And was only like 7cu ft. The 12cu ft Galanz is perfect for me. (I do now have a hand-me-down small chest freezer in the cellar for my garden veg.)
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Thatās hard to estimateā¦ I live in a pretty impoverished region, but the housing market was insanely inflated like the rest of the US/World over the pandemic and ever since. The town just had everything reassessed for the first time in decades, and a lot of people went from having $35,000 assessments to well over $100,000 assessments.
The size of my house is also uncommon, even in our area. I know ānormalā sized new builds (2,000-3,000 sq ft) are running like $200,000 to $350,000 (insane - thatās at least 10x the average salary here, pre-tax).
Because Iām debt-free/no mortgage, I only have the town assessment to go offā¦ But it makes sense that itās 30% higher than how much money I put into the house (adjusting for the property value without house). Thatās about the proportion labor would cost. So I look at it as because my dad built it, I saved 30% or more on labor.
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2000-3000 sq feet in my city in Canada cost $750000+, and my city is cheaper then many others. I feel like if I built a house myself it would be 90% less then buying. Thatās why I was wondering.
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Yeah. If the inflated prices are from speculation/investment in the market and not just skyrocketing materials costs, then I imagine it would be cheaper to build yourself than to purchase overvalued properties.
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I guess it really depends on the market on whether itās much cheaper to build a home yourself, but of course youāre always saving labour costs.
Iām in Europe where homes are a different size (I think you can only find 3000 sq. ft. homes in that one street where all the multimillionaires live) but a few years ago we thoroughly renovated and extended our old house. We went from 700 to 850 sq. ft. and it was certainly much cheaper to do this, rather than buying a renovated bigger property. But we already owned this house bought right after the last recession when property was cheap. If we hadnāt already owned this house, the calculation might have had a different result.
Where I live, the value of a property is now mostly based on the value of the land it sits on (tiny country / lots of people). The cheapest empty lot currently for sale in my city is ā¬300.000 and the cheapest house is listed for ā¬325.000 - it has good bones but is a bit dirty. It can be made liveable with cleaning supplies and paint, but the house itself is basically free with the purchase of the lot.
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We lived in our tiny home (165 sq ft) for 15 months while we built our 900 sq ft house and used the retro fridge then, it worked great. When we got a larger fridge in the new house we used this for extra space, maybe not opening it for a couple weeks at a time with no issues. My brother has the large version as their spare fridge and loves it.
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This is awesome, 
good for you for saving for so long! Your house is awesome! Iām definitely jealous of your amazing sewing room!
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OMG, I love the outer colour, I love the bold scandi accents, I love your sewing room being the biggest room of the house, adorable and perfect!!
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Your house looks like such a cozy space and it has so much character!
It doesnāt sound like youāre spoiled at all. It sounds like you are well loved and well taken care of by the people who love you. All those personal touches like the quilt and the dresser definitely add to the warmth of your home. Oh and as for the windows, what a great way to let in the natural light! Looking at the house from the outside, it looks perfectly proportioned window-wise.
I love the blue exterior and those yellow doors add such a fun pop of color.
Thank you for sharing your house with us!
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Beautiful house! (And Iām always amazed at folks who can manage to not have clutter all over the place. 
)
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Oh, thereās quite a bit of clutter right now! (Iāve been rather burned out lately and picking up has not been priority/happening; also people giving me stuff I donāt want/have space for and then have to figure out how to get rid of it is beyond frustrating).
And itās stressing me out (a little clutter is fine, but I like to pick up/clean as a weekly reset and havenāt been able to/up to it).
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Where I am, older (abt 1200 sq ft) adobe houses with a lot of needed repairs are starting at $200k. A lot of these houses began life without grid utilities and were adapted later. It gets really interesting. Everything else is just wildly overpriced. Thatās how we ended up buying land and starting our own adobe house build (actually getting started this Spring finally).
I find the housing prices here weird because we have so much poverty in New Mexico. But people from other places buy vacation houses here and it raises the rates for everyone. Weāve been told that real old fashioned adobe causes a huge spike in your property taxes. Itās just mud bricks. Locally sourced. Lolā¦ So, waaaay cheaper than standard construction if we build it ourselves and then an enormous gain in resale value.
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