What plans do you have to tie down during the build before you make the move –  i.e. jobs, selling your current home, interim housing, etc.?

We sold our previous home back in September so we could have money to put towards the build. We have been living in an apartment and have plans to move to Greenfield in early March. We will be looking for short term housing in the area and have already begun reaching out to some places. We originally planned on moving in early June, but both Heather and Holly have jobs/job offers already so we decided to head up early. I’m a teacher, so I’ll be reaching out to schools soon to hopefully be hired for the upcoming school year.

We actually sold our home here in Florida back in September. The market was just so hot and we wanted a good idea of how much we would really be able to put down for a down payment so we sold early and are currently just renting an apartment. We have all either been awarded our licenses in Indiana or in my case, I’m still waiting for my licensing process to be completed, but Heather has accepted a job at a dental office.  April and I are continuing to interview. Our goal is to have at least two of the three of us having accepted a job prior to starting the build. 

How did you handle your design appointment? Was it remote, or did you travel here? Do you all just get along well, and agree on things like colors, features, etc. …. or were there arm-wrestling matches to see who wins? Flip a coin and call heads or tails? ???? 

We flew to Indiana to do our design appointment in person. Heather and I are twins, so we’ve always had very similar tastes. Holly likes to explore a little bit more so she had that freedom when designing the master bathroom.  I designed the downstairs hall bathroom since my room is across from it and Heather designed the upstairs bathroom since that will be the ones she will use the most. In the common areas, like the kitchen, we pretty much agreed on things. In a situation where we didn’t agree, it was basically a majority vote. Emily also helped in those situations and we valued her input very much!

For the most part we agreed on the design aspect of things.  In our own spaces, we let each other do pretty much what we wanted. The bigger discussion was making sure that we would all like it no matter who ends up keeping this house in the long run. Eventually, we all hope to get married and have a family, so that came into consideration when designing the home.  Whoever doesn’t keep this home will just have to build another Joyner Home with our future spouses. 🙂

We did fly up back to Indiana to complete our design appointment. That was the thing that we were the most excited to do, so we decided that we were absolutely going to do it in person! Prior to the design meeting, we all got some inspiration from Pinterest. We had already decided after we chose the floor plan, who would be in each room,  so we had an idea of who was going to have to design which room. Luckily, we all have similar enough taste and have decorated enough homes to generally agree on things like flooring and wall colors, trim design, etc. I don’t think there were too many things that we went back-and-forth about. This is not our first build and we have made many mistakes before and we’ve all learned from those.

I’m eager to learn more about the sibling aspect of building a home together.

April and Heather are twins so they were pretty much born as best friends. I am 4 1/2 years younger than April and Heather and we weren’t necessarily super close growing up until I was about 14 or 15. At that point, our relationship just continued to grow, and we have been living together since I was a senior in college! We’ve lived in different apartments and we’ve built two homes together here in Florida. Building and selling homes has unintentionally become an investing experience for us! We are so lucky and so so grateful to be able to build with Joyner in our late 20s and early 30s. Especially because we get to build pretty much our dream home. That has been challenging and there have been a lot of really big decisions to make, but, because we’re sisters, we can have really open, honest, and raw conversations about these big decisions. We still love each other just as much afterward! We’ve had our whole lives to adapt to the others living styles. 😉 

What are you most looking forward to about Indiana?

I’m looking forward to living in an area where we get to experience all seasons. I’m so much happier when the weather is cooler and my hair and makeup look good!! You walk outside in Florida and start sweating within minutes. I also can’t wait to meet new people and make strong lasting relationships.

Absolutely the weather (yes, even the snow)! Looking forward to outdoor activities and maybe even some basketball games! 

The weather!! Florida is great, and I’m sure we’ll find ourselves hiding from the snow at some point— but I would rather have to bundle up than put up with the humidity and heat. I can’t wait to hang out with our dog in the backyard with friends and not feel like I’m having a heat stroke!