I am just so happy to be here 😭

My husband and I, 26 years old, just moved into our brand new custom home and I am so proud of this house, but what I'm most proud of is the financial situation and decisions that we made when building this house because we put ourselves in the position to never be house poor. We never fight about how we were gonna pay the mortgage. We made it to where we could truly afford this house while also affording to live life. We did something that I see no one else talk about, so I want to explain it. When we met with our builder to go over the house, the finishes, all the things, I had him price it as cheap as humanly possible. I said, I want you to build this house, build it great. The reason is is that I knew that that would get us in this house with as little of a monthly payment as possible. As you can see, we do not have builder grade things. I put myself in a corner, I said, if I want to have the nicer things, then I'm going to pay for those out of pocket along the way because one, if you pay cash, your price is always going to be cheaper. Number two, I paid for them along the way, so it wasn't like I was paying a lump sum. It was paying small things over time. Number three, it got me everything I wanted without having to sacrifice my sanity. Another thing to who I did is I saved so much money. I only did 9-foot ceilings, no matter how bad I wanted to do 10, but I have the feel of having higher ceilings because I did a trace ceiling in the dining room and the living room and I did cathedral ceilings in our bedroom. For example, in the kitchen, I have four-foot steeling cabinets and I only had to do it to 9-foot. So not only did I save money on the framing on the drywall on all the things, I also saved money on the cabinets because I didn't have that extra foot. I'm going on a tangent at this point, but I'm just so freaking thankful to be here. Another thing to who I did is I saved so much money. I only did 9-foot ceilings, no matter how bad I wanted to do 10, but I have the feel of having higher ceilings because I did a trace ceiling in the dining room and the living room and I did cathedral ceilings in our bedroom. For example, in the kitchen, I have four-foot steeling cabinets and I only had to do it to 9-foot. So not only did I save money on the framing on the drywall on all the things, I also saved money on the cabinets because I didn't have that extra foot. I'm going on a tangent at this point, but I'm just so freaking thankful to be here.