I want to take you back to where my love of “home-stuff.” I’m taking you back to the beginning with Pierson-Gibbs, Homes.

My husband and I sold our first house in west Michigan in June of 2016. The real estate market in our area was insane. There were more buyers than sellers, by a LOT. When we listed our home, we had five offers on the first day. But selling is the easy part. When it was our turn, we just couldn’t win. We offered over asking price on multiple homes, and we were still losing. When you go into a home that is for sale, you’re supposed to imagine your furniture, your decor, your family and their laughter and love filling the rooms. So, when when the months were ticking by and we kept getting the call from our real estate agent that the sellers accepted another family’s offer, the heartbreak was adding up to be too much. It wasn’t worth it for us to keep looking.

So instead of looking at houses, we started looking at property. I lightly referred to it as shopping for trees.

Finding property still wasn’t easy. If we were going to build our own house, we wanted to do it on the right piece land. After another handful of months, we found what we were looking for. A dirt road, a creek within walking distance, and giant hundreds-of-years-old White Pines made this property score major points with us. My country soul was singing.

We knew building our own home was going to be a lot of work, especially with our three year old daughter, but I looked at it as an adventure. My family was full of builders. The first summer that I was old enough to work, I didn’t spend it babysitting. I spent it hanging siding, scraping shingles off of roofs, painting houses and learning to appreciate the art of finishing drywall.

Now, when I say we were going to build our own house, I’m not talking about giving someone the plans to build our house on our property. I’m talking about getting our hands dirty. I’m talking about run our own electrical lines, lay our own tile, cut down maple trees and build our own cabinets kind of “build our own house.”

I think it’s necessary to show my finished kitchen (minus the vent hood, because we didn’t get there yet) because whenever I say “I cut down trees to build my own kitchen cabinets” I feel like people cringe ever so slightly.

We wanted to be owner-builders and keep more money in our pockets. That’s when we found a company called Pierson-Gibbs, Homes.

They offered financing like no bank could, provided all of the materials (but didn’t force us to use the ones they provided) and held our hands through the entire process of being our own general contractor. It was stressful at times, just like any life-changing project has the potential to be, but it was so worth it. I think the emotions we felt when we finally traded in our work boots for slippers and sat down in the living room that was once just a dream sketched out on graph paper were more overwhelming than even the most difficult of times during our build.

I loved it.

Then, one of the owners came to our new house to do a recap. They visit all of the customers and all of the new homes just to see how everything came together. I told them how much his company had impacted our lives and how much I had truly loved my experience. He offered me a job that same day, and it felt like the universe opened it’s arms and showed me what I was meant to do. I’ve heard that you acquire success and meaning in your life when you find the intersection of talent, passion and opportunity.

I finally found it, that exact spot where those three things in my life connected. Now I happily travel around Michigan, meeting with people and helping them build their own homes through Pierson-Gibbs. I help them save money. I help them find a home that they actually want to stay in, not settle for. I help them make their dreams come true, and it makes my heart happy to be doing it.