March 2025
Our family recently moved into a new home built by local builder Aaron Salvesen, owner of Salvesen Homes. We are overjoyed to be in our dream home and currently in the Punch List phase, where each day we welcome a subcontractor back into the house to tweak, finish or fix small items such as dimmer switches, additional fixtures, landscaping and even our driveway. Living in Bend, some of the exterior finishes like painting, landscaping and pouring concrete just can’t happen during the winter months.
While the process can sometimes be a long and stressful one, on balance, there is just nothing like designing and building the place where we are raising our children and that is made especially for us, and we feel very blessed. The process of going through construction while renting (and, in our case, doing it with young children) is not for the faint of heart, however. Here are some of the tips I have for anyone about to go through the construction process:
Have a great realtor.
We worked with Shelley Griffin to sell our first home in Bend, and she did that beautifully, guiding us through it emotionally, financially, and all with the skill and aplomb that we hoped for as we prepared for the long journey of moving into a rental and beginning the process of our build. Shelley, who understands the NWX area intimately and knew exactly where we wanted to build, and made sure that we were connected with the right builder as well. We sold our house in a matter of days.
Find a local lender.
Interest rates have not been great. One thing that would have made our lives in this regard a little easier would have been a lender that stayed with us the entire duration of our construction loan. With banks facing economic uncertainty, we found ourselves orphaned by our lender who was a victim of a large bank layoff, and getting random national 800 number folks on the line to answer questions was not ideal. Even at this bank’s local office, since we weren’t looking to refinance or get into a new loan, officers were helpful but not eager. One local bank with whom we had a great relationship throughout the construction loan duration would have been better.
Beware the landlord, don’t move twice, or, three times.
You know what they say about moving and it being one of life’s most stressful events, etc. We moved once, to a rental. Then we moved–again. Then we moved into our new house. That’s three moves in 20 months with three kids. Talk about stress. Without going into the long and short of it, our advice: have your attorney–ANY attorney–read the fine print of your rental agreement before moving into a rental property. What seems temporary and innocuous could be costly in ways you cannot imagine.
Vet your team, they keep you going through the tough times and major decisions.
Our team of architect Jason Todd, builder Aaron Salvesen and his team including Aaron Rodriguez and all of the incredible Salvesen Homes subcontractors and our interior designers at the Design Bar made our dreams come true, and that cannot be overstated. We understand the privilege in hiring a team like this. Without them, we would not live under the roof we do–they walked us patiently through each piece, guided us through the deep layers of our own ignorance, and thoughtfully considered details we would never have even thought of.
When the going gets tough, the tough get a marriage counselor.
Haha. Everyone jokes about this, but it really is hard to make so many choices and stay civil over many, many months of building. While I was handling the majority of the meetings and therefore did most of the decision making, we both made sure that what we both wanted throughout the house were things that were heard, seen and acknowledged and that was paramount to our success and happiness in the process.
Celebrate the milestones.
Every once in a while during the build, we would go up to the house and just sit on the lot or the precipice of the new deck and enjoy the view, the new room/wall/wallpaper, etc. especially with the kids (they got really tired of stopping by!) and take it all in. We even mixed cocktails in the “living room” with friends once when we were in framing. Those things really kept us going.
Owning a home you put your heart and soul into is an incredible thing. Worth the effort, the blood, sweat and tears. Now that we’re about three weeks into the new house, my husband will sometimes fearfully look into my eyes and ask me, “You don’t…want to do this again, do you?” I smile and say, “Not yet!”