A piece of land ridden with tall grass, overgrown bushes and unruly trees didn’t stop Eli and Sarah Wambeke from building the house of their dreams. 

But the first priority was the barn.

“We built our barn within the first year,” Wambeke said. “We were indecisive about what kind of house we wanted to build, and we needed a barn for our animals.” 

The barn is a crowd favorite, according to their son, Pratt. It is a 1,200-square-foot enclosure with a built-in wash rack, sound system and heat for all their livestock projects. 

After finalizing the barn, the Wambekes nailed down the final plans for their home and began cracking down on construction. 

“We looked at lots of different houses, and different house plans for a couple of years, then we kind of took all those ideas and drew our own,” Eli said.

The Wambekes moved to the property just outside of Garland in 2021 with two of their children, Abby and Pratt. 

The 45-acre property has a small, older home, built in 1932, which they’ve been living in for the last few years while building their new quarters. 

The dream house, currently under construction, is 2,100 square feet with a 900-square-foot garage and large covered front and back porches. 

It is a compilation of many things the couple has wanted for many years. 

The house has 10-foot ceilings, with the exception of the living room where there’s a 16-foot-tall fireplace. The kitchen will contain a rather large refrigerator and a decorative backsplash. 

Wambeke explains the business office as a rather unique form of architecture. The room appears as a simple space, but it has many interesting
features including a filing system built into the wall; this way, it will not take up space in the room. The room is composed of two custom-made, sliding barn doors, which are rather chic. When closed, the two doors will meet at a 90-degree angle.

With the help of several businesses, Eli serves as the general contractor for the project, which helps make this project a construction plan of their dreams. They're able to pick and choose what the couple desires for their forever home. 

While Eli has never built a home for himself, he has been around construction for decades through his flooring company SMP (Sarah
May Petersen). 

“I’ve been doing all kinds of floors for over 30 years now,” Wambeke said. “One winter, a guy in town was offering a job to carpet hotels. So I went with him and learned how … then I started my own business.” 

Wambeke has used many of these skills to help construct his new home, which has been under construction for a year and is expected to be finished in the next three to six months. After the completion of their new home, the family has plans to keep the older home as a guest house for their many friends and family. 

In the meantime, the family loves their property, which even provided a beautiful venue for their son Tyler’s wedding.