The Saintly Home Part 1

To premise this story I thought I would give a little background as to why this means so much to me and why I am sharing my journey.

I've wanted to own a home since I found out I was pregnant with Jameson mid way through 2015. However at the time in our lives the only asset I truly had was my car and some 401k savings that I started when I first landed my job as physical therapist after grad school the previous year. I hate to admit this but we were spending lavishly and not really saving. We were spending a ridiculous amount for our rent living the downtown millennial lifestyle (umm... 1500 for a 845 sq apartment anyone?? In Texas y'all that's expensive), eating like bottomless foodies, drinking out with friends. As much as this seemed reckless I don't regret it so much as I understand I will never be able to live that DINK lifestyle (obviously) so I'm glad I had my run and thankfully I can say I learned a lot from it and most importantly.....man was it fun!

cvv But when I got pregnant with Jamie things really changed for us. As many of you all have known I suffered through hyperemesis gravidarum during both of my pregnancies and I hit rock bottom during my entire pregnancy (both times). Depression, inability to work, everything. I was basically trying to survive. J had a lot to deal with - not just supporting our family entirely but also trying to be a rock. It was also a lot for him. It just wasn't time to buy a home. I couldn't even take care of myself. It's a complete understatement when I say that it was one of the most difficult two years of our lives. It also really shook us as a couple. You really don't know how much you love a person until you've been put through the wild fires. But thank God we made it out alive and better than ever.

I could go on and on, but the gist of all of this was that it truly set aside some of the goals we had - including our dream home. While I was pregnant with Jadine we had to once again set aside our dreams of owning a home. We had been saving diligently since Jameson, but I can't even begin to tell you how expensive it was to have HG. Multiple hospital admissions, medications, on top of regular prenatal care. But I told myself.... our family must have a home by next year. So we kept working, determined to keep saving, seek out a financial counselor, etc. Our goal was to start looking January 2018, weighing options of either building a home or buying used, so we can have a seamless move in July when our lease ends which would give us a 6 month time frame (enough in case we decided we'd build a home).

My true idea of a dream home. <3 This is completely unrealistic of course..... maybe for our next home a few decades from now of if we ever become millionaires haha!

In December we started looking at options. I am IN LOVE with old school house charm (umm Fixer Upper anyone?), but because J and I aren't experts at home renovation (and because we're restricted on budget cause...um kids.. -_-) it was hard for us to trust people to help us out in this process. More and more our hearts were leaning towards building from the ground up. We wanted our neighborhood to also have younger families like us. So mid-December we decided to look for a home builder. The only question was "where"?

I do home health and so I feel like I could be my own realtor (kinda...). It doesn't hurt that much of my small talk with my patients and their families are usually centered around their neighborhood/homes.  I have been around all of San Antonio and beyond at this point. Since December I've been doing my own research on different neighborhoods, developments, investments in certain areas of town. And we kept going back to either North Central (Boerne) or Northeast (towards New Braunfels).

Stone Oak was just not a good look for us. GREAT school district, but after driving around there for work I just feel annoyed by it, not as many diverse options (like eastern food, hip places to go etc.) around that area and lots of traffic whichever way you go, not to mention insane property taxes. We wanted to stay in a budget that if anything were to happen to one of us, the the other could afford. We could get more bang for our buck (and a more stylized home the way we wanted) away from the North Central area.

My idea of a dream kitchen - functional, lots of light, lots of white to open up.

We happened to have a bestie of ours who lived in a subdivision along i35 and when we toured it I just couldn't help but think that it was perfect. There was an elementary school (decent school district) right in the middle, a trail, and outdoor activities and poor area, a basketball court, big field for the kids. And it was so quiet despite being right next to the highway. It wasn't gated, but the entrance is inconspicuous and hard to see. We visited 5 different builders along that i35 area (on the highway and along both of our routes to work!) homes first week of January and when we visited Gehan Homes I just fell in love. I loved how open concept their model house was. This was exactly I would of imagined our home to be. It helped even more that Omar, the sales rep for Gehan, was so kind and patient with all of our questions and concerns. I kept going back to this model home and thought... this is it. I took J over there sans kids so he could really scope out the place, and he was sold on the dot.

J scoping out the kitchen... this was a beautiful kitchen. The picture doesn't even do it any justice.

Light and airy. I LOVED this home. High ceilings and open concept with the second floor overlooking front and back.

Y'all, I've been praying for this so much. <3 No all we have to do is see where our heart leads us.

Jacq