Finding the perfect house is an impossible task. Finding the almost perfect house is absolutely attainable.

While shopping for our new home, we saw many houses that were almost perfect and chose the one that was the most almost perfect for us.

However, almost perfect meant there were projects to complete that would make the house even better for us. Since we purchased a newly built house, we had options that we wouldn’t have had with other homes and within a couple weeks of moving in, we were getting bids on completing three projects.

Project #1 – Flex Room – We looked at several new houses with flex rooms. With so many working from home now, hubby included, many new homes have a flex room. That room can be easily used as an office, dining room, extra bedroom, craft room, etc. The owner of the home can choose what they want to do with that space. There was no choice for us as hubby needs office space for his job and that project needed to be completed asap.

Our flex room had two open doorways. One entry was from the foyer and the other from the living room.

For our office project, we needed to close off a doorway and put in French doors. Closing off the opening from the living room and adding insulation made the most sense to keep the room as quiet as possible.

The end result?

With the doorways closed off, hubby now has a very workable office space.

Project #2 – The Basement

Every new built home we looked at had a basement, which is very common here in the Midwest. However, none of the new built homes we looked at had finished basements.

We were fortunate in that the contractor did frame the exterior walls in the basement in preparation for a basement remodel. He also had plans for the remodel which included a bedroom, bathroom and family room. Those plans also left a ton of space for storage.

This is a 4-bedroom house. With four kids, a wide age gap and different genders, we knew that we would need to add bedroom space in the basement. However, with plenty of additional basement space, we decided to add two bedrooms. This meant giving up some basement storage space, but we felt the sixth bedroom was a must for us and we will still have some good storage space in the basement even with the extra bedroom.

We started with this.

The end result?

I didn’t get a photo of the second bedroom we added, but this is a great space for our family. The basement added over 1000 sq ft of living area to our home. Plenty of space for our family and spapce to entertain friends and family in the future.

Project #3 – Back Yard

Kids and dogs need space to run and play. Having a big yard with space for kids, dogs, gardening and outdoor living was very important to us. It was another reason we chose this house.

Having a basement means you want the yard to slope away from the house. This is a preventative measure to avoid a flooded basement during heavy rains.

Our yard sloped nicely away from the house but then had a significant slope further out. The problem with too much slope meant putting up a privacy fence wouldn’t truly give us privacy. So, upon the suggestion from one of the fence companies that came out to give us an estimate, we worked with a landscaper to add dirt and a retaining wall to fill in the low areas and create a higher yard that would allow us to actually have a privacy fence that gave us privacy.

We started with this.

The end result?

Have we finally created the perfect house?

Not quite, but we’re close. We have a few outdoor projects in our future, but for now we’re going to finish unpacking, settle in and enjoy our new home.