I have a new obsession.

Yes, yes I know, I get these all the time (remember when I wanted to start a new career flipping houses? Or my whole scrapbook-every-day phase? Or when I started a crafting blog with only three posts on it so far? Yeah that.) but it’s been three weeks now and I’m STILL excited about it.

Here it is:

Band Geek and I are going to build a house!

Not with our own two hands. But we ARE going to build one!

We’ve got a five-year plan for saving up the down payment, we’ve visited the bank to talk about financing options, and (most telling of all, naturally) I’ve started a multitude of Pinterest boards. And, as we all know, having a Pinterest board means you’re really, definitely, super serious about something. Right?

At any rate, I’ve been doing my Googles. Like a madwoman. Like non-stop all the time. Looking up house plans, and ideas from kitchens to bathrooms to mud rooms to media rooms to bunk rooms and everything else in between. From what I can tell, building a new house you can get more house for your money than buying an already built home, and you can customize all the elements to be just what you want.

Up until recently, I was perfectly happy to rent. I have a reasonably responsible landlord, I don’t have to worry about property taxes, or fixing water leaks, or replacing the roof, or anything else that goes wrong with this house. But that also means I can’t paint, or get rid of the tacky tile backsplash in the kitchen, or replace the cabinets, or any number of things I would do if I owned this house.

So, I started looking around at houses in the area, and the kind of houses I want are all either older, or in one of those developments where you are literally looking out of your kitchen window into someone else’s living room.

Turns out, according to my Googles, that on average a typical home can be built for around $100-$125 per square foot of living space. This seems pretty reasonable to me, as long as we don’t go crazy with expensive materials and gourmet appliances. It’s worth checking out, anyway.

I’ve found several house plans we like. As you might imagine, I’m experiencing the paralysis of way too many choices. I feel like it’s right to start with the houseplan, so that we can find a plot of land where the house we want will fit, and we can then get a cost-to-build estimate that will help us know what we need to get financing for. I know I haven’t seen a fraction of the plans available throughout the internet, but I have looked at quite a few, which I’ve posted to my Houseplans Pinterest. I have two favorites so far.

First is this one, because I am in love with TURRETS. I want an office in a turret.

My other favorite is this one, because…can you say ROTUNDA? Whaaaaat? I’m worried it’s too big, but the site says I can have the plan modified.

I know I’m probably dreaming way over my head. I don’t know how much house I’ll even be able to afford yet, but I figured…go big, or go home. Or go big and go home if it works out!