Dream House Plans: Build It With this Notebook

Dream House Plans: I’m so excited to chat with you about this!

When we bought our semi-fixer upper in Kansas four years ago, I had so many plans but so little money. Ha! (We were not intending on buying a home in Kansas, so we weren’t quite as financially prepared as we would have liked to have been! We owned a rental property at the time as well – eek.)

I was determined to make our home as welcoming, comfortable, and “presentable” as I could though without spending money we potentially didn’t have, so I grabbed a spare notebook one day and spontaneously created a “Dream Home Book”. Each page was dedicated to a different area of our home, and when I’d come across something I wanted for the space, I’d jot it down in my dream home book instead of spontaneously ordering it online. This allowed me to keep track of my visions and keep an eye out for deals that I couldn’t pass up. It was so, so fun through the years to finish a project or buy something new and cross off things little by little.

There’s something about living in a new home that makes me want to buy ALL THE THINGS and make it perfect as quickly as I can, but realistically that’s not super feasible.

We still need to eat, dress ourselves, and have a little fun too, so all of our hard-earned moolah can’t go into the house at this time. 😉 Darn! For that reason, I went ahead and created another “Dream Home Book”, and it’s been especially handy this week with online sales out the ying yang that have bombarded the internet, and for good reason! The sales were gooooood (holy 55% off everything at RugsUSA – OMG). But have you ever heard the quote that not buying something means you’ve saved more money than what you “saved” on sale? Makes so much sense, right?

Dream House Plans

I literally grabbed the one empty notebook I could find and got right to work with jotting down ideas!

So here’s a quick look into my new “Dream House Plans Dream Home Book”. We’ve lived in our home for just over three months now, but we haven’t bought a whole lot of new stuff because A.) we honestly didn’t need much of anything since we down-sized and B.) we weren’t quite sure how our finances were going to shake out once all was said and done with Jamie’s transition out of the military.

I have a filled-up dream house book though with lots of grand plans for how to make this home a place we love love love to be, so here’s a peak at my chicken scratch that fills a few pages.

I don’t know what brings me more joy: finding a good deal or crossing something off my list in this book. 🙂

I have a page in this “dream house plans” notebook for every space inside and outside our home, including our backyard. Lofty, long-term goals here, but it’s fun to keep track of them.

Some pages contain realistic goals…

… and some pages realistically don’t need a whole lot of updating! Sadie’s room is in good shape, but she is hurting for a new hamper, plus I’ve been dying to overhaul her closet after seeing my friend Chelsea’s closet makeover!

I told you that every inch of this home has a page, including the hallway that leads to our garage and laundry room. I need a runner, but it’s not anywhere near the top of our priority list though. My eyes will be continually peeled though, knowing that it’s something I’d eventually love to cross off in this book.

I am dying (!) for new living room furniture because everything we have is so, so mismatched, but right now all of our moolah just went to Teddy’s surgery and plane tickets for a fall vacation, sooooo my dream sectional from Bassett will have to wait. 😉 Teddy and vacation are better than a couch, right? Right??? (Each to their own, for sure!)

And some rooms simply involve a little bit of DIYing, such as our guest bath, which is totally finished but could use a frame around the mirror at some point.

And that’s it! This books helps me be more mindful of being content and grateful for what I have, as well as gives me a more long-term vision that I’ll eventually be able to get to making each space more “complete” little by little in its own time.

Let’s chat!

What home projects/decoring are you working on right now?! What room takes priority for you?

A few cute notebooks, if you’re interested…