Have you ever lived in a place where you just knew “This is where I was meant to be”?
That’s how it feels every day for me in our “new” home. I just know I was meant to live where we are.
Fifteen years ago, my husband and I found the perfect country property where we have made our home. With that first walk through the densely populated woods, alongside a country dirt road, out in the middle of nowhere – I knew I was “home”.
We moved in to our home fourteen years ago today. It’s a “Split Rock” Anniversary for us today!!!
The Beginning
After a year of clearing trees and building our house, we moved in fourteen years ago today.
Before we found land to build on, my husband and I spent several years designing our home – down to every nook and cranny. Literally.
I feel like I lived and breathed our house before it was even built. I’d lay in bed at night and imagine myself living in the house. Which door would I use to bring in groceries? Where would I store my purse and keys? How convenient would the large pantry be to the kitchen? How would I move about the kitchen space, and where would we store everything? Which bedrooms would each of our kids use, and where would they play and entertain their friends?
The design of our house was a painstaking love affair. We had already built one house when we were first married (our first home), so we wanted to make sure we thought of “everything” in the design of what we plan to be our “forever home”.
- Windows? Absolutely! BIG windows. More windows than wall space. And NO window coverings – I would never want to obstruct the view we have!
- Open floor plan, yet plenty of private places in the main living area? We got it.
- As book lovers, a library was essential. One with lots of big windows overlooking the woods and wildlife, and built-in floor to ceiling bookcases on every wall – filled with books.
- A music room was also needed – one for the piano and all the instruments our kids like to play. That room doubles as another space to watch movies and with windows on multiple walls, it’s a perfect place to sit with a glass of wine and watch the sun set through the woods.
- A corner office in the west wing of the house was critical. Again, an office with lots of big windows on two walls so we didn’t feel cooped up while working. I’ll have to tell you the story one day of the bears that climbed the trees outside that office window to look in at me (the first bears I’d ever seen in the wild).
- Multiple laundry rooms? Yes, please – with the main laundry on the third floor where all our bedrooms are. So convenient.
- We love to entertain, so a huge kitchen and pantry were essential – one that shares space with the dining room and overlooks the great room. A perfect party place!
- Short, direct access from car to pantry and kitchen was a MUST! If you’ve ever dragged armfuls of groceries through a formal entry with wet, snowy, muddy shoes, down hallways or through doorways to get to the kitchen, you know exactly how important this feature is.
- Speaking of snow and mud, no carpet in our home. Hardwood, tile, and some linoleum provide care-free flooring. Area rugs provide decorative style, sound deadening, and comfort where needed.
- Maintenance-free was my husband’s mantra for the exterior. Stucco, seamless steel siding, vinyl windows and clad trim mean no painting or staining = more fishing time!
- Since the kitchen is the “heart of the home”, a huge wall of floor to ceiling cabinets would make up our “command center” – a place to store home school supplies, pay bills, house computers, home audio, and more. I love our huge command center!
- Of course, with a family of five and the entertaining we enjoy – we needed plenty of bathrooms for both family (private bathrooms) and for guests.
- Bedrooms set apart from one another for ultimate privacy, and closets large enough to be rooms on their own was important.
- The closets in our kids’ rooms double as places to hold their clothes, as well as their collections, toys (when they were younger) and even provided secret hiding places for them when they were little.
- Storage? As much space as possible! A dedicated room for just holiday decor, as well as spaces for workshops and hobbies. There’s even a very large space for my home business inventory, and now a separate space for the cats we rescue on our property until they find their forever homes.
- Of course a garage large enough to hold recreational vehicles, as well as our cars and trucks was needed. With super high ceilings and a loft space, there’s plenty of storage space there!
- A bonus room with extra large dormers (and a hidden room) was the dream for a playroom when our kids were young, a recreation room now that they are teens, and a home theater room for our family and guests.
- Even details like a mud room, and mud room bathroom for kids and adults to clean up when you come in from working outside was detailed in our plans.
We thought about everything – right down to where we would store every day items. I can say that after all these years of living here, there are very few things (if any) that I would change in our home design. Sure, someday that solar atrium off the back of the house with a small wood-burning stove will be awesome, but we even planned for the building of that at some point!
With every detail thought out, documented, and blueprints drawn, we were ready to start building! And OH! how exciting the building process was! Here’s a glimpse of the progress…
Moving In
It was a cold, snowy day that January 9th – our Move In Day. The movers were busy going in and out of all the doors all day. Our three young kids were having a blast running through the house, while I directed the movers to the appropriate rooms inside, and my husband helped the movers outside. It was a busy, hectic, and very exciting day!
With boxes of belongings all over the house, it was exciting to get started putting things away. During the building of our house, we visited every day to check on the progress. We even camped inside the house with a tent and port-a-potty before we had windows. But the day we moved in, our house finally felt like “our home”. It’s so hard to believe 14 years have already passed by. Move In Day really feels like it was just yesterday!
The Name
During the time we were building our house, we knew we wanted to give our new home a name. While all the excavating and building was going on, our kids kept finding rocks that had been perfectly split in half – finding both halves. Everyone in our family really appreciates the characteristics of rocks, so we started collecting all those split rocks. It only seemed appropriate to name our home Split Rock Estate.
Living Here Today
While we’ve lived here for 14 years now, I still have the “new house excitement” about our home. We still look out the windows every day and feel so fortunate to live where we do and have the views we have.
During the first year we lived in our home, we landscaped the entire yard and around the house. We added boulder walls, planters, patios and sidewalks. We built an in-ground pool and a pool house. Over time, we’ve built and landscaped a firepit area, built a three-story playfort for the kids (now the teen hang out place) and added a commercial swingset and climbing wall. Dug the pond to turn it into a little lake for the paddle boat, built a storage shed, a Reflection Pond, Butterfly Garden, Bird Garden, Three Tees Garden, and mini fruit orchard. We’ve been busy! I find immense joy in making this space, our space.
We are planning on creating a mile walking trail that winds through our woods, making sure the trail goes past all the unique trees in the dense woods and winds along the creek – with plenty of places to just sit and enjoy the woods along the way. We’d also love to build a large deck off the back of the house with a screened room below and maybe even a solar atrium off the dining room. Future plans, for sure.
We’re very comfortable where we live, and are so thankful to have as much property as we do. It makes every day seem like an adventure around here! We share our space with the animals that were here before us – plenty of deer, pheasants, turkeys, eagles, hawks, owls, osprey, song birds, raccoons, skunks, opossums, fox, coyotes, muskrats, otters, geese, ducks, swans, herons, cranes, turtles, snakes, frogs, toads, salamanders, bears, the rare wolf, and more! There’s never a dull moment out in our “wild kingdom” of a yard and woods, and we love every moment that we get to see the wildlife in our yard.
Here’s a quick glimpse at the yard behind our house. The photos were taken one day last April. Three inches of snow in the morning, and it had all melted by the afternoon. Only in Minnesota…
I was meant to live here.
It’s definitely our home sweet home. We’ve already made countless memories here – memories we will treasure forever. I know there are many more memories waiting to happen, and I will cherish them all.
Welcome to Split Rock Estate. 14 years… and counting…
