build new home before baby or vise versa?

laurena117 · January 2012

My husband and I are ready to build a new home and start a new family but we arent sure if doing them both at the same time is a good idea or doing one before the other. Has anyone build a new home and had a baby all in the same year?? Does anyone have advice for which they think is the best senario of what to do 1st??

nsfw · January 2012

Pretty much everything is more complicated with a baby.

sratsey · January 2012

A baby, especially if it's your first, adds a lot to the mix.

The building process can be very overwhelming and stressful as it is. I wouldn't want to do both at the same time. We built our home and then had kids.

laurena117 · January 2012

so if you had to do it over again, "build your home then have kids" would you do it the same way?

sratsey · January 2012

laurena117:
so if you had to do it over again, "build your home then have kids" would you do it the same way?

Absolutely.

I'm building now and it's a lot. There's so much to think about as far as the finishes that you want to put into the home, which is overwhelming in itself and then after that there are all those rooms to decorate. My kids are 7 and 3 now. And I can attest to the fact that once the kids come into the picture, A LOT of money gets funneled in that direction. After my son was born, a lot of decorating came to a screeching halt, just because you really "do" become all about the baby. LOL. It's wonderful, but it was also fun to have a year where I was "all about the house"

laurena117 · January 2012

great advice thank-you so much! and best wishes with your new home, i hope you get everything exactly the way you imagine it!! Big Smile

d0ri · January 2012

I think it depends. If it's a custom home, then it will require a lot of work. But one way to avoid this is to hire a designer.

We're building right now and there's a lot for me to do. I may end up hiring an interior designer at some point to help me out when I finally run out of energy and creativity. lol.

MrsPM · January 2012

We have a 2 year old and one on the way. We started the process of building our home (not custom) before I got pregnant, but we were TTC.

I'm positive that any move would be easier without kids around, but this is working for us. We have a good support system who watched our 2 year old while we were going through all of the initial meetings with the builder and picking out our options. I think that would be key, so that you have the time to go over all of your selections without a kid needing to be entertained.

I agree with others that a custom home would probably be a LOT more time consuming.

lil_jen051708 · January 2012

I would say buying/building a house without kids would be easiest. Just make sure you budget for any time you'll be off work (without pay), medical expenses and most importantly - monthly daycare costs. You don't want to struggle to make a house payment and daycare do take that into account.

Ms.Wax · January 2012

I agree that everything is easier without kids. However, what you want/need changes when you have kids, sometimes more than you expect, and if you plan on this being your "forever home," it may be nice to have that insight beforehand.

Dragonfly08 · January 2012

We signed the contracts for our new construction home when I was 7-8 months PG with DD #1 and moved in when she was about 6 months old.

The only downside to that scenario was moving *out* of our old house, which we did when I was 4 months PG (we lived in a rented townhouse in the meanwhile; it was an out of state move and we didn't want to buy in the new location immediately because we weren't sure yet exactly where we wanted to be). DH had already moved to the new state and I was still home, packing and finishing up my contract at work, and that part was a major PITA.

cltk12 · January 2012

We are currently building right now and I am 6 months pregnant with our first child. We close/move on March 1st and baby comes end of March. We own a house now and knew what changes we'd make with a new build. I haven't found building a house stressful at all. Our friends our building custom and are due the same time we are and have had many hassles and their house is now delayed 2.5 months right when baby is due....that would be a little stressful.

sonrisa · January 2012

We moved into our "new to us" 1950s house less than a month before the baby was born. I would definitely say try to have the house built before the baby. However, you might consider less fancy options for some things that a toddler might wreck. (paint, carpet choices, etc.) The next version can be nicer.

We joke that the paint and the carpet in our house are here for the kids to color on. We'll renovate, expand and upgrade in about 10 years.

lindyanne · January 2012

Definitely build the home first. When we were pretty much out of the clear for any delays and anything to go wrong, that's when we started trying. I was about 10 weeks when we moved into our house.

LadyExtravaganza · January 2012

Ms.Wax:
I agree that everything is easier without kids. However, what you want/need changes when you have kids, sometimes more than you expect, and if you plan on this being your "forever home," it may be nice to have that insight beforehand.

Exactly this. Before LO, we would have wanted nothing but an open floorplan. House shopping post LO, one of requirements was separate rooms so they were easier to gate off. Our current open floorplan is such a headache with a toddler because it's impossible to keep him out of the kitchen and no matter where you are, you can see a toys and other kid stuff.

build new home before baby or vise versa?

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