Friends, I am SO EXCITED to share that I’m officially a homeowner!!! This process has been such a rollercoaster, but 100% worth it in the end. The housing market in Columbus is absolutely INSANE. It seemed like every house that I was interested in would be under contract the day it went on the market before I ever had a chance to go see it.

I’d been on the house hunt for a few months when I came across a spec home in the area of town that I was hoping to move. I figured, why not go take a look and at least entertain the idea of a new build, especially since it was still in my budget! It turns out that the builders were building this house as a spec home (a model home) because they didn’t have any model homes in the popular floorplan. For some reason, though, they decided to put it on the market to see if it would sell. That’s where I come in haha!

Their design team picked out all of the beautiful finishes, and when I went to talk to the sales team, they showed me pictures of the finishes, what it would look like, etc. As much as I would have loved to design my own home, I’m honestly glad that everything was already picked out for me because I wouldn’t have had time to pour over ever finish & decide which would look best. I trusted that their design team would design something great, so I decided to go for it and buy the house!

I bought the house as is, meaning that I couldn’t make any changes to the design. This was huge because at the time, my house was just a concrete hole in the ground. There was no framing, no walls, no floors, etc. for me to see. I never even walked through a spec model to see the floor plan because they didn’t have one available. Some people call it crazy, but honestly I didn’t have any doubts that it would be beautiful because I knew that it was the style of home that I wanted (and couldn’t reasonably find in other homes around the area).

Shortly after I went into contract on the home, the walls went up, the floors went in, and it looked different every time I saw it! I Especially once they started putting the finishing touches on it, it was like Christmas morning every time I visited because I’d never seen a lot of it before. I’d be like, “oh, that’s what the paint looks like! Or hmmm interesting floor choice” haha. I got to touch and feel the different elements in my home as they came together and it was so much fun!

My favorite part about the build process was going through and praying over each room in my home before the drywall went up. I chose specific verses for each room and wrote them on the foundation & framing of the house. Here’s a link to the specific verses that I wrote in case you’re curious but I thought I’d share some of my favorites with you below.

In the kitchen, I have Matthew 25: 35, 40 written on the floor beneath my kitchen table. 

In the living room I wrote Matthew 18:20.

And on the doorway to my office, I wrote Colossians 3:23.

Based on the quality of these pictures you’d never know that I was a photographer, but my phone was dying and I was just trying to document as much as I could before I had no more battery left! I don’t have pictures of the rest but they are all talked about in this video so I’d recommend checking it out.

Purchasing this home has seriously been so so good for me. I can say it was one of the best decisions I made in 2018 because it forced me to slow down and enjoy life. I created a personal Instagram called @ahomebuiltforjoy because I wanted to be able to document other parts of my life without flooding my professional IG. I’m not that great at posting to that page but I want to get better! So stay tuned for decor updates and following on my personal journey of owning a home.