Bringing Ideas to Life

by Kassandra DeKoning

Thinking back to when we had our first meeting with Lester from Imagine Your Home, it must have been mid November. It was right after we took the kids out for Halloween in the community Brent grew up in. We have always enjoyed stopping in at Brent’s parents before we headed into town so they could see the boys all dressed up! Afterwards, we would make our tick or treat rounds knocking on our friends and friend’s parents homes. There’s just something different about a small town, something I tried to shy away from as a teenager, but now it’s a place I want our boys to grow up in… funny how that happens.As we reserved our lot, it was time to look into Architects around the area. Since we are going the custom build route instead of hiring a builder, we needed to find an Architect to plan and design our home. Neither Brent or I have ever worked with an Architect/ home designer nor really knew what to expect from one. We did a little research and the Houzz website seemed to be our best bet where we were able to “Find Professionals”, narrow them down and view by a specific location. We came acrossImagine Your Home, and to our surprise was located in the same area we were moving (obviously we needed to learn more about them!). From there, Imagine Your Home was our first choice and we set up an appointment to learn more about the house designing/planning process.A few weeks went by… I did a whole lotta pinning before we met with Imagine Your Home to give them the best vision of our future home, Brent and I eventually narrowed down on a house exterior we both loved (you can read more about that here), and created a “floor plan” that suited all of our wants/needs, not knowing if our floor plan was realistic by any means!Sidenote* Brent, myself and Imagine Your Home have designed our house from scratch, and by doing so (in a humorous way), we understand why people buy house plans online already thought through and planned accordingly in which tweaked to fit needs!! Thankfully I feel like I have a little familiarity and confidence within home design to go from scratch- but would I do it again!?… I will save that whole experience for another post!

FINALLY AFTER LOTS OF ANTICIPATION, THE DAY CAME WHEN WE SAT DOWN WITH LESTER THE VISIONARY OF IMAGINE YOUR HOME…Guys, it’s kind-of a big deal to give your dream home ideas that you’ve drawn up 100 times + imagined over and over in your head (for weeks or months or years) to a stranger, in hopes of them making these dreams realistic. We really had no idea what Imagine Your Home was capable of at this point but we had high hopes!THIS FLOOR PLAN BECAME THE STARTING POINT FOR US WHEN WE MET WITH IMAGINE YOUR HOME.This is one of many, MANY floor plans Brent and I drew up. (You guys should have seen the first one…)

AND LET’S NOT FORGET ABOUT JACK’S ADORABLE HOUSE PLAN!!So far though this whole experience, it’s been so much fun imagining with the boys and letting them “help” plan out our future home. One day I hope the boys can look back and remember how much of an impact they had on our home

After meeting Lester and Riley (who also helps Lester with the detailed floor plans) and showing them all of our house inspirations, starting from one area of the home and going onto the next, talking about interior finishes and contemporary farmhouse exteriors, Lester knew the interior style we were going for, which definitely is such an IMPORTANT feature when you are planning to build a home! Lester seem to hit the nail on the head, he knew were to source products that I loved but had no idea existed here in Canada, because you know, we usually just shop at Home Depot. He opened our eyes up to all of the possibilities we were unsure of while keeping our budget in mind, he showed us places we could save money and still have the same aesthetic look we loved (like in our staircase design!). He shared the “Imagine Your Home” process where we could potentially see 2D and 3D renderings of our home, which you may have seen a peek of on my IG stories! We had so much fun sharing our ideas with Lester, it was definitely one of our favourite parts of the process.

We could tell how passionate Lester was about house design and that he has had lots of experience within the building/designing industry. Right off the bat we felt like we could trust the Imagine Your Home team and that Lester knew exactly what our vision was for We also loved the idea of working with a local team especially when we were going to be calling this area home within the next year.

We also learned that Imagine Your Home offers general contracting on top of the house design/building plans… so from start to the finished, Imagine Your Home is there every step of the way making sure that your house stays the way you have envisioned! Since Brent’s dad is in the building industry, he will be general contracting our home which we are so grateful for throughout this whole process… plus he knows how to get a job done in record time

IF YOU ARE PLANING TO BUILD, I WOULD STRONGLY RECOMMEND CALLING IMAGINE YOUR HOME TO SEE WHERE YOUR VISIONS GO!Lastly, I just want to express how blessed I feel to be doing something like this that I absolutely love. Working closely with Imagine has really brought out my passion for the whole process of building a home, and yes decorations really dress up a home, but there’s so much thought that goes into the layout of a home, it’s definitely overlooked as it really defines the home you live in. And although it is a blessing to build a home, it isn’t about the house, the finishes or having all those dreamy things we think we need. It’s really about the memories we create within our homes, the people we share it with and a place where we feel comfort and love, always! So far this process has involved our whole little family; Jack and Max have been talking about their future home and all the things they have been looking forward too. I smile every time I picture the boys playing in our backyard, the kids they will grow up with and the humble community they’ll be surrounded by. Finding a place to plant our roots is what we have been looking for… it’s looking at the big picture and knowing where you see your family, where you’ll all feel happy and secure.http://www.littledekonings.com/bringing-ideas-life-thegreyhousebuild/