If you’ve seen any home-centered television or magazines in the last decade or so, the mass marketing of Do It Yourself home remodeling is ever present. In some instances, the costs of remodeling, depending on scale and ability, can be on par with the cost to build new. It also takes experience with a variety of aspects of home building. Some homeowners want to forego the remodeling and shiplapping of America in favor of starting from scratch and building a home to meet their specific needs and it’s not just for experienced homebuyers anymore.
Mark and Tracy Agrimson are a young Rushford couple just starting their family. They met at their church youth group and began dating while in high school at Rushford-Peterson in their junior and sophomore years. They married in December 2003. The couple lived in Zumbrota for a year before making the decision to return home after the birth of their first child, daughter Alexis, in 2016.
“We were looking for a house to buy in town and didn’t feel that anything on the market fit our needs,” says Tracy. “After house hunting for about five months, we decided it would be best to build in order to get what we needed for our family.” Longtime friend Mark Rasmussen, owner of Rasmussen Custom Home Builders, mentioned the possibility of building to the couple, noting he had land on which to build the home if they were interested.
“Neither of us have any experience remodeling and by the time we put the money into getting a house the way we want, we may have spent close to what it would cost to build our own home,” adds Mark. “Nothing really held me back other than the unknown of the building process,” says Mark. “
“Our hesitation to build was because of time,” adds Tracy. “We really wanted to get into our own house as soon as possible, but ended up living with family longer than anticipated because the building process usually takes longer than the buying process.”
In January 2017, the couple formally decided to go ahead with building and purchased a lot in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Rushford, on Burr Oak Street. After purchasing the lot, the details of design, layouts, and the subsequent blueprints occupied their time. “We had to go to various places to get bids so that we knew how much everything would cost; flooring, cabinets, countertops, appliances, lighting, and more in order to get our construction loan set up,” says Mark, who works as loan officer for Marine Credit Union.
“We typically agreed on most of our decisions, such as colors,” adds Tracy, who works a preschool teacher in St. Charles. “It was most stressful to have to go into a store and pick out what we wanted when there are so many choices. You really don’t realize how many choices there are when it comes to home items until you have to pick something!”
“The biggest challenge was building a home before ever owning a home. We had to get advice from others to make most of our decisions,” adds Mark. “The Rasmussens (Mark, Josh, and Justin) helped us through every step of the building process,” he adds. “They were great to work with.”
“Our layout is pretty basic, we didn’t add anything out of the ordinary. We wanted our home to be as open as possible so that we could entertain.” The home was designed with an open concept, modern appeal. Other features to the four bedroom, two bath home that the couple felt needed inclusion were a double-sink bathroom off the master bedroom, roomy walk-in closets, and a large kitchen pantry.
The stresses of building weren’t enough to deter the optimistic couple. “We tried to focus on the fact that we would soon be in a brand new home and it would all be worth it,” says Tracy.
When it comes to what to say to others considering building instead of buying, the Agrimsons have some sage advice. “There are a lot more decisions to make than you would think,” says Mark.
“Plan to spend a little more than what you budget for,” adds Tracy.
Their home was completed in September 2017 and the couple moved in as soon as they were given the green light from the builder. Four months later they welcomed son Keegan to the family. “We love our new home,” enthuses Tracy. “It’s all we’d hoped for.”
“Everything is new, so we have little maintenance,” adds Mark, who is already planning the addition of a two-car garage, as well as a deck and landscaping this spring and summer. “It’s fun to have people over to our home because we are proud of it.”
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