A hunting we will go..

I originally started this post (but obviously didn't finish it) about 2 months ago, when Brian and I first got in touch with our realtor in Chicago.  We'd given her a criteria of what kind of house we were looking for, and the areas in the Chicagoland area that we considered living.  Over a few weekends, Brian and the realtor went out to look at some properties.  A lot of the houses were fairly old (15-30 years) and needed a bunch of work and/or upgrades.  There was one house in particular that we liked (Brian saw it twice, but since I wasn't there, I only saw it through photos :P), but we didn't quite pull the trigger on it. In my heart of hearts, I had reservations about buying an older home.  Maybe I'd watched too many episodes of Holmes on Homes.  I was super worried about 'hidden' issues in a home that would potentially cost us thousands of dollars to fix.
With this scaredy-cat feeling in my gut, I decided to look into the option of building.

Areas are pretty well developed out there, so any new developments are a fair distance out and away from the actual city of Chicago.  The further out you go, the newer the houses and the cheaper they are.
There was one area being built that I had been keeping my eye on for a while, but I wasn't sure if the location was going to be too far from the in-law's house in Wheeling.  Turned out, it's only about a 15-20 minute drive.

I urged Brian to talk to the realtor about getting more info on the development, but it took a while to get the ball rolling on it. Finally, the builders got back to us, but there were only 2 sites left (eek!)

I spent a lot of time doing research on the area, the builders, the floor plans, the...everything.  I searched the building company on the BBB, I read reviews, property tax info, etc.
So by the time Brian actually got to meet with the builders for an initial appointment, we were pretty well prepared.

After plenty of conversations, number crunching and more conversations, Brian and I decided that building was the way to go :) *TRIGGER PULLED*

Property sold!....TO US!

So it's official -- we're building a house in Mundelein, Illinois.  Located in Lake County, it is quite a distance from the city of Chicago -- around a 50 minute drive.  So anyone coming to visit will have to endure quite a commute into the city (or you can pay to stay in a hotel, ha!).

This is what the exterior of the home will look like:

"American Farmhouse" Elevation -- WOOHOO! A PORCH! (the 'senior citizen' in me is jumping for joy)

As anyone can imagine, the process of building a house is extremely stressful (try doing it from a different country!).  There are a lot of things to consider -- cost being the biggest factor.  We want to build it right (from the start) but don't want to be house-poor either.  So the biggest challenge is being sensible and realistic about the options that we need and recognizing which options we can do without.  It's tough.  Really, reeeeally tough.

At the same time, this process is very rewarding -- I'm building a home with the love of my life, for us and OUR family.  What can be better than that?  We are extremely fortunate for this opportunity - I'm so excited for the amazing life we will build together in our new home.

Stay tuned for updates on the building process, vision boards, product posts, etc.!