My family’s new home, which we’re not even living in yet, will be open to the public Friday through Monday, June 3-6, during the Golden Sands Homebuilder’s Association’s (GSHBA) annual Parade of Homes.
Located at 2324 Falcons Cove in the Eagle Point subdivision on the north side of Stevens Point, the home was built by Heartland Custom Homes of Plover.
The main reason it’s on the tour is timing. The timing of our decision to build the home, and Heartland’s schedule in finishing it, coincided with the Parade of Homes. Since many GSHBA builders, such as Heartland, like to feature homes in the parade, it made perfect sense for the builder to feature our home.
When first asked if we would like to do so, my wife and I hesitated. We weren’t building a big fancy house, the kind we associated as with being in these events.
In fact, our house was pretty simple, in our opinion. The 1,660-square-foot ranch-style home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms compares well with the average home in that it’s large enough to suit our needs and not too big to be out of our means.
But Jason Jones and Brice Nelson, the Heartland representatives who have made the home-building process a breeze for us, told us Heartland would rather feature this type of home than a more lavish one that would be unaffordable for most people. Sure, they are nice to look at, but you don’t want to give people the impression you only cater to the rich, they said.
That made sense to us, so we agreed to be one of 19 houses from 15 different GSHBA builders on the Parade of Homes.
While this decision has delayed us moving into our home by several weeks – as we probably could have moved in last week already – it’s allowed us to take our time in making sure everything is ready for the move-in. In the last several weeks, my wife and I have moved everything over from a storage unit and our garage, as well as some of the things from our apartment we don’t use on an everyday basis.
We’ve hung window shades and curtains, finished touch-up painting, built a new desk and living room furniture (coffee table, end table and TV stand), organized the kitchen and completed the two bathrooms.
Most importantly, we finished our son Braden’s room. An Indiana Jones-themed room, it has three posters of the first three “Indiana Jones” films. The fourth one was not included because I refuse to accept its existence, although Braden likes it. It also has some archaeologist-type décor, such as a globe and an Egyptian Sphinx.
My wife and I both decided the room is cooler than anything we had growing up. Braden thinks so, too, and can’t wait to move in. We’re just hoping he can keep it cleaner than his current room.
We will be there for some of the Parade of Homes, mainly to tell people how smooth the building process was for us. Before we started, we heard from many people about how it can often hurt marriages because of disagreements about how things should be done.
But Heartland made everything so simple by clearly laying out our options. The only disagreement my wife and I ever had dealt with selecting a refrigerator, and that had nothing to do with Heartland. Ultimately, my wife won that one, and I’m glad she did, because it’s one of the coolest things – literally and metamorphically – about the house.
More information about GSHBA and the Parade of Homes, including a map of the parade homes, can be found under the “Parade of Homes” link online at www.gshba.org or by calling 715-341-3536.
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Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, June 3, 2011.
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