If you think you can’t build a house, guess what?! You can.

I was in the heart of building my national area, but we knew we needed to move. We wanted our kids to go to LCA because our kids needed good role models at school. We just felt like that was the place to be for us.

This is just the first part of the series talking about how we got the property and how we designed our main level!

We looked for a little while, and we quickly found the best 6.1 acres of land, so let’s build! My own father got to pass on his legacy by building us a home. We did buy building plans to take out a bit of the guess work, although he did change some things. We ended up having a 6 bedroom and 4.5 bath house with a two car garage in Forest, Virginia.

One thing I thought was really important when building this house was to allow for a lot of natural light to come in at all times of the day. I have huge windows everywhere in the house, even the basement is a walk out basement and gives us a lot of light from the sliding door. As you can see in my kitchen, I have some clear glass transoms above the cabinets and I also have these in my foyer above the door openings. I love this feature because it lets even more natural light through and it makes the rooms appear bigger and taller! These transoms along with other built ins and custom crown molding really make the house one of a kind.

The Main Level

The one thing I knew I wanted for my house was an open floor plan. As a mom, its great to be able to cook in my kitchen and to be able to see where all of my kids are at the same time! Also, you may be able to tell in some of these pictures, I don’t like anything to be a square, I really like everything to be at an angle. My island is angled, the mudroom has 6 separate walls, and my office opening is cut at an angle. This just makes the floor plan interesting and allows for a lot of visibility. I’m featuring a few of my favorite rooms. Overall, the main level has 2 offices, the kitchen/pantry, the mudroom, the bathroom, the dining/living space, a front sitting room, plus two closets. It sounds like a lot, but we have a lot of things.

Kitchen

I am in this kitchen way too often! But, let’s talk about some of my favorite features. (Read my pantry tour.)

One is my stainless steel farmhouse sink. This thing is massive and helps with doing so many dishes!

My dishwasher (from Fisher & Paykel) is also the next best thing, it is two in one so if I just have a few dishes to run, I can run the bottom by itself and not waste all the water! It’s pricier, but its amazing and we get so much use out of it!

The 6 burner gas-stove with a griddle is a must for anyone with a big family! This one has a split oven which again, is great for cooking at two different temperatures.

Are you noticing a trend? Its all about the appliances to keep efficiency in the kitchen! Other than those, my custom cabinets & granite is to die for!

Mudroom

As mentioned earlier, my mudroom has 6 walls! The door to the garage is to the right in this picture and both doors to the bathroom and closet are behind the photographer. (I highly recommend putting the downstairs bathroom tucked away like this.) This mudroom normally is filled with jackets and shoes, but it is great that there is a separate closet to put this all in because it is still a place that people walk through.

Office

I love this office, even though I technically have two offices in my house! This is the one in the front of the house that has this amazing desk in it. This is where I do my facials and keep a lot of my paperwork. This is also a place where the kids do not hang out, which is nice to have somewhere that they aren’t interesting in touching everything.

The Sitting Room 

When you walk in the front door, you see my office to the left and the sitting room to the right! I love this room because I wanted it to be glam! I added an amazing chandelier and this luxe wallpaper to bring a subtle pop. I am currently getting new custom chairs built for this room because I have had a few different ones in here that just don’t seem to fit. Once again, see the angle of the door on this room? It just adds dimension in the right places! Plus, the transom lets the light transfer from room to room!

 

I love the experience because I feel so at home here. We built this house and it was not as complicated and crazy I thought it would be. Looking back, I am so happy that I got to personally design our bedrooms, bathrooms, and living spaces. It is a place that  our family will love to live for a long time!

Stay tuned for a more in depth look at our upstairs and basement levels!

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If you are interested in building your own home, you’re in luck! I purchased a piece of land that is ready to be built on to design for the perfect family! It is 4.6 acres and is technically 2 lots, so two people can buy to build or one family can buy for a larger more private property. I can sell it to you for no real estate fees. Please contact me if you are interested in visiting it!

 

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WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE FEATURES IN YOUR HOME?