My husband and I have different definitions of 'financially responsible.' Building a house is forcing us to compromise.

My husband and I bought land, and are starting the process of building a house.

Lisa Leslie When it comes to money, I'm a big budgeter, and my husband prefers taking risks.

Now that we're building a house together, our differences are causing some disagreements.

We've learned to stay flexible and balance each other's approaches.

My husband and I have very different ideas about financial responsibility .

When we're feeling stressed about money, my instinct is to run the numbers and account for every financial what-if.

He's a big-picture dreamer who sees what something could become and is more willing to say, "We'll figure it out." His attitude has paid off before.

He had the vision for our first home, which we bought for under $100,000 and recently sold for a decent profit after 13 years of renovations.

I know some of the best things we've done together wouldn't have happened without my husband's willingness to take a chance, but our differences have still caused some friction over the years.

Now that we're building a new home together, we're trying to balance my need to plan for the unknown with his belief that we'll find a way forward.

After 13 years, we took a risk and sold our home We sold our home and bought land in a part of Maine we love.

Lisa Leslie For 13 years, we'd lived in the same place.

My husband had moved frequently as a child, and he wanted his two daughters to have a consistent place to call home.

Leaving this house behind was bittersweet, but my oldest stepdaughter had just bought her own house, and my younger one was heading off to college.