House-Building Blues

Growing up my parents always rented.  I have never lived in a home that either my family or myself have actually owned.  I think when you grow up in a lower income setting home ownership means more than having a huge material possession.  It means, I've succeeded in doing something for myself (and children) that my parents weren't able to provide.  When my husband and I decided that our first home buying experience would be building it wasn't scary at all because my husband has built homes for a living.  He no longer does so but we found a fantastic neighborhood and he felt the quality and upgrades the builder offered where above par.  

I was over the moon excited to build the home of my dreams.  Literally, a home of my own was only something dreams where made of until now.  The house we chose was amazing. It had every feature I had ever flagged in a magazine or pinned on Pinterest.  The neighborhood had a mature feel with mature gorgeous Carolina pines though it housed new construction.  It was a short walk from the small town's library, elementary school, and ball fields. Someone pinch me this dream come true is even better than the dream!

Flash forward....that dream was too good to be true. We signed a contract in March.  It's now September, the month we should have been closing on the house, and they just now cleared the lot.  There as been NO work done on the home.  We confirmed rumors that the builder is struggling and it's not looking good.  Homeowners that have already closed after a year of waiting for their homes are experiencing issues and cannot get the builder to fix them despite the 1 year warranty that comes with the homes.  Our dream home was becoming a nightmare and we decided to set emotions aside and do the smart thing and walk.  It sucks, it stings, and I'm very sad.  

We are walking away not only from drywall and concrete...we are walking away from the picture I had in my head of where we would put the Christmas tree, who would get what bedroom, how to set-up the playroom, the tree we picked out on the lot to build our kids a treehouse.  Needless to say, at this point, I'm crushed.

Our lease is still ending soon so we need to switch gears and we have decided to look at pre-existing construction.  We are in the process of terminating the contract, etc.  Soon we will start viewing homes.  I really hope that I don't compare each home to what our "dream home" would have had and I can find that excitement for home ownership again.  

So this is the ending of "Building of Our Love-Lee Home" and the beginning of "Searching for Our Love-Lee Home".