The Best Journey Always Takes Us Home

**I'm really sorry that I didn't get this post up last Tuesday as originally planned... I was sobbing silently along with the rest of the women in America about Chip and Joanna Gaines' retirement from Fixer Upper...***

Break out the Belle Glos! We closed on the Rillridge House last Monday!! Paul and I can FINALLY check that off the list after MANY months of struggling to sell. Before we begin documenting the build, I thought I'd take the time to share with you some of the hardships and important lessons that we have learned so far (I did promise you that I wouldn't romanticize the process). And as an extra added bonus this week, my handsome husband has decided to join me at the keyboard to pen this blog!

P: Grab a beer or a bourbon...or both.

1. Buy vs. Build: Pt. 1

The Roney Farmhouse was almost the Roney Burbhouse. When we first decided that it was time to move, building wasn't even on the table. In fact, we didn't even think of it as an option. P: Essentially, the dream was to go the Gaines' way and find a true diamond in the rough and slowly turn it into our dream home over the years. So, we began our search of dilapidated homes north of the big city. We joke that our friends the Tippins are going to be building the farmhouse in Savannah and we are building the farmhouse north of the Macon-Dixon line (see what I did there?) P: Kori...(shakes head).

2. The Trinity Church House

Like all women with access to HGTV, I am a Fixer Upper fan (see above). Joanna Gaines can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. But the idea of a fixer upper was a bit hard for my non-experienced brain to wrap around. When we pulled up Trinity Church on Zillow, I saw it had the bones of a farmhouse, but couldn't envision our forever home (or really anything past the crumbling front porch to be honest). And that was where Paul's experience truly shined. P: Just from looking at the pictures, I was telling her we could blow out walls to make it more of an open concept, as long as we kept the load bearing supports or added big wooden beams. When he showed me where the new kitchen sink would go, I started to fall...

3. Don't fall in love

As an inexperienced first time home buyer, I knew little to nothing about purchasing a home. My husband on the other hand had a wealth of knowledge and personal experience to draw from. Here is where communication in a marriage is key. I didn't know anything about how loans work or how much of a down payment you needed. I certainly didn't know that when looking at houses that you should walk in with little to no emotion... Most importantly, you are not allowed to start falling in love with a home.

The problem with falling in love with a property at first sight is the blinders.

P: You envision all of the could be's and none of the "wait...that doesn't belong there". More importantly, there were the realistic issues to address, like things being up to code and dealing with reality vs HGTV expectations. And at the time I was crunching the numbers and realizing that we really needed to sell our house before we could even think about rehabing another. I knew that moving forward, the buying of any house would have to be contingent on the sale of ours.

Also, when you fall in love with a property, it hurts when you lose it. Like...crying in the shower hurts. P: It was hard for us because with every property, we were envisioning our futures. I had to teach Kori not to put so much heart into the process because I watched how hard it was losing Trinity Church. And some small part of me felt like he'd set me up with the excitement and the "we could blow this out and put this here", but really he was getting just as excited for the possibilities as I was. It's super important that you go into house buying/building knowing that this is a business deal and that you have to steel yourself for some disappointment.

4. The Thomas Road House

About the same time that we found Trinity Church, we found Thomas Road. We were already in the mindset that a fixer upper was in our future, so we were looking at some real dumps.

At first sight, Thomas Road seemed like it could be that perfect gem in need of some polishing. While looking at properties, we happened upon a garage sale sign. P: We're always on the hunt for something to bring back to life. Furniture mostly. When we pulled up and saw the same house from the Zillow website, we figured we had stumbled upon it for some reason. Among the family's wares, we eyed the decaying home. P: It was too much. From the porch falling off the house to the roof caving in on itself, it just wasn't structurally sound enough and I knew we'd blow our budget just trying to get the place livable.

5. Funds and Loans and Credit oh my!

Remember in college when you got your first credit card? Remember when you maxed it out buying Natty Light and funding your Spring Break trips? Remember when your parents sat you down and had the "good credit/bad credit talk"? Turns out bad credit can really affect the whole house buying dream. Even after you've grown up. When we first began looking at houses, my credit was "good". Not great, not terrible, just "good". But good doesn't necessarily translate to "lend me a bunch of money for a house." The hard part for me was feeling like I was letting Paul down. I kept hearing the jingle from the Geico commercials "So, I married my dream girl, I married my dream girl... but her credit was bad". P: That one was pretty catchy. I wanted to feel like I was contributing, but 2015 Kori's credit wasn't going to cut it. Eventually I had to come to terms with the thought that the house might only be in Paul's name. And for me, that was kind of crushing. P: Just because it's not in your name doesn't mean that it's any less your house, but I get where you're coming from. How can someone with no credit card debt have anything but stellar credit?!! Unfortunately folks, life gets in the way and sometimes your credit shows the ups and downs, the good and bad decisions through the years... Your credit score is literally the ex boyfriend that you can't get rid of.

But then you do.

I worked really hard on my credit score, opening a new credit card to build my credit. There are a few adult things that really bring me joy...and one of them is watching my credit score rise. I worked hard enough that both of our names will be on the house next year.

6. The NCIS House

No, this wasn't a murder house (that I know of...although we found many left footed shoes randomly strewn about the house and land). I call it this because it was located off of Gibbs Road and it reminded me of my father in law and his love for the CBS show. P: If you've never seen the show, Jethro Gibbs is the end all, be all bad ass character. And my father in law's personal hero.

This was one of those "Josh and I found a property" sort of deals that I had grown used to over the years. P: I didn't know there was a name for it... I found myself driving up the picturesque drive to another run down, ramshackle of a "house" on the prettiest piece of land I'd ever seen. P: But, before we could make a move, the developer decided a McMansion better suited the lot.

7. The Sexton Drive House

Once we decided to extend our search options to the Ball Ground area, we started finding some truly exceptional pieces of property. Horse country turned out to be where we were meant to plant our roots and the homes for sale were some of the most beautiful we looked into. As luck would have it, during my lunch break one day I came across this property in my search. Sitting on an impressive expanse of acreage in a horse community, this ranch seemed too good to be true. At the top of our budget, it came with plenty of extras (above ground pool that would need to go, ridiculous outdoor entertainment space, work shed, and a riding ring with stables). Let's be real folks, first thing that came to mind when I saw the riding ring was jousting duels on 4 wheelers...followed by all of the trips to the ER I saw myself making with various friends. P: Oh Lord. And the first thing I thought about when I saw the stables was that I could clean those out and make a really pretty event space. About halfway through typing these things to Paul, I got a text from him with the link to the same property--

P: Check out this one!

K: Was just texting you to look at it!

P: Get out of my head woman!

K: Nah, I think I'll stay and get comfortable in here.

P: This was one of my favorite properties. It had so many of the things on our checklist that we wanted in a house. We went to look at the property that weekend with our realtor. The house surprised us with the gorgeous master suite that pictures hadn't done justice, but the backyard really sold us. And so we found ourselves putting in our second offer. The sellers countered the same day that my brother texted me saying that he got a new job...

8. Don't sell to friends or family

I mean, you can. It just didn't work for us.

It started with my brother and his girlfriend who were looking to get out of apartment living. The problem with family is that no one wants to be the asshole. P: Long story short, this is a business decision. It affects everyone's lives in a big way. Trying to be nice when this big of a decision is on the line doesn't work. After a few beers, a little brother/sister fight, and a couple handshakes, we came to an agreement. Then... my brother got a promotion that would take him to Conyers...

Back to the drawing board.

P: Days before our house was to hit the market in May, our next door neighbor shocked us with an offer. Not to bore you with details, but after close to two months of holding our house for him, he backed out. Shit.

Alright, back to phase one.

After a lot... and I mean, A LOT of work, we got our house on the market. It sold after four days. (P: yeah, we're that bad ass... modest too).

9. Buy vs. Build: Pt 2

You know how there's that one place that you get your best thinking done? I have a couple such places scattered around like a special bench on the pier in St. Simons or the rooftop right outside of my childhood bedroom window. And then there is the back porch of the Rillridge House. It is on this porch that Paul and I have made some of our biggest life decisions over heavy glasses of rich amber bourbon. One such night recently, we were lamenting the loss of the Sexton Drive House, (P: God, I wanted that house) when I said "but it didn't have double ovens". We had added and subtracted so many different things to the property in our minds. P: Truthfully, all of the homes that we had interest in would have required thousands of dollars in renovations. And so, I asked..."You build dream houses all day long for clients...have you ever thought about building one for yourself?"

Two hours and half a bottle of bourbon later, we had a list of pros and cons, tired eyes, and this whole new option that we hadn't really explored. We went to sleep wondering if we could truly build something from the ground up of our very own...

As I was driving home from work the next day, Paul called me and said "Let's do it. Let's build our dream home."

**Important side note: We don't want our dear readers to think that deciding to build a house is "easy". As you will continue to read along in this blog, it has been anything but. However, we have been very lucky that Paul does this for a living. P: We will be calling in every favor that we have from all of my contacts in the business (as well as from friends and family that are steady with a paintbrush).

10. Our house knows we're leaving

...and it was PISSED.

I had seen this type of thing before when I sold my dying Maxima after I got my new car. "Onyx" as I lovingly named him had started truly acting out the days leading up to being sold for parts. I had taken great pains in having him detailed so he looked his handsomest, and still he decided to break down on the way to the dealership, after bucking me around like a bronco as means to a final farewell. Our house reacted similarly when the dishwasher crapped out. Then the upstairs guest bathroom sink and the kitchen faucet sprung leaks. Then my closet had a psychotic breakdown and ripped the cheap wire shelving from the walls. P: I think that was half your fault...too many clothes... No, it was the house revolting.

But it's all behind us now.

We can say that while this past year has been difficult, we are looking ahead and excited to begin the build. There are certain to be MANY more posts like this one detailing the not-so-fun aspects of a build. But the end result is worth it.

I hope that you found this post insightful and maybe a little uplifting in the wake of the final season of Fixer Upper news. Make sure you join me next week, I post new content every Tuesday (Wednesday...sometimes Sunday...)! And let me know if you want to see more of Paul in the blog as well! We had a good time with this collab and there will be plenty more to come!

Bye Y'all!

Paul and Kori