Also, Happy New Year to all!

Got the flooring down.

Now walls going up

Some cool views from the air, in this one you can see where our spiral staircase will be

This is looking down on the great room

Front room is laundry, back room is kitchen and all the way in the back is the breakfast room

Front view

Another front view with the roof coming together.

I'm wayyyyyyyyyyyy behind on this post since we technically moved in the last weekend of October, but I was waiting of a few last things to get finished, and then the holiday's hit!
This is hubby's and my first house/home and we just got married this summer (June 18th) and then officially broke ground July 8th. We really jumped into this thing without doing near the research some of you do and if I had read this website before, I might have actually had second thoughts! But, I was college roommates with our builder's wife (so I've known them a little while and know they're good people) and my in laws have built 4 homes doing most of it themselves, so we were in good hands and somehow it all came together! There are lots of things I look at now in the house and think "glad that worked out or matched...because I didn't give it much or any thought..." That especially goes for the tile on our fireplace in the living room - I never thought about how it would go with the wall paint since it is right next to it (and we used a different paint in the bathrooms) but it matches perfectly!! Ok...here we go!!

Paint Colors (all sherwin williams)
Living room and Kitchen - Bittersweet Stem
Dining, half bath, laundry - Rain
Bathrooms - Creme
Granite: Giallo Napole
Faucets: Delta

Kitchen from living room



Breakfast Area

Half Bath

Laundry

2nd Full Bath


Master Bath

Congratulations Eyegirlie! I've been waiting to see your home. It's beautiful! It is very much my taste, and I love it!

Gooldude. I can't wait to see the color on your home. It looks lovely already!

Great progress Abdrury.

I have finally finished unpacking, and each room has been organized at least once. I still have to qo through again to add the final touches, and we are shopping around for window treatments. I thank God that we are finally past the building stage. I'm really enjoying our new home. We have contactors still coming in and out making finishing touches on things that we needed our GC to wait until after the holidays to complete. Our GC will return next week to do an after move walk through to see what details need attention since you don't know how you will actually fit into your home until you actually live in it, who knew! LOL!

I'll post finished photos later this week.

We are just a few things away from getting our final inspections it seems: Inside railing, back deck railing, glass shower doors, granite on main kitchen counters and some odds and ends.

Everything looks great and we can't wait to move in. We moved out of our temporary rental on 12/31 and moved most of our stuff into the garage. We got our garage door on Thursday so it was pretty touch and go!

Now we are patiently (not) waiting for more inspections and trying to stay out of our GC's way so he can finish without us making his job harder...

Still waiting on roofing...

Guest bath:

Chandeliers are all being hung-
Guest room Closet:

Guest room Bathroom:

Guest bedroom- I hope this one is not too small!

Other upstairs bedroom:

Other upstairs bedroom:

Upstairs laundry:

Backsplash in, faucets in, appliances moving in:

Pantry door painted:

Dog shower tiled:

I haven't posted in months but took a bunch of pictures last week. We are making progress! Our brick is going to be painted - a taupe color - and that is coming in the next few weeks. Inside, they are laying tile and hardwoods.

Paint colors look funky on the monitor but they look good in person - not pink like they seem here. Dining room is BM Bleeker Beige and the rest is BM Carrington Beige, with the exception of my oldest boys room which is BM Shaker Beige (do you get a theme here???).

So here we go!

Exterior

Friends porch copper overhang

Screened porch ceiling (will be painted)

Screened porch fireplace

View from front door through back of house

Kitchen and breakfast room

Kitchen window

Master bedroom

Master bath floor

Master bath tub

Mirrored french doors - master closets

Den fireplace (bookshelves on either side to come)

Dining room

Boy #1 bathroom

Boy #2 bathroom

Boy #3 bathroom (least favorite tile - although it looks better in person (it is not pink like it looks on my monitor). Hoping it will look better when we get the lights on in there - looks much better in full light!

Upstairs entrance hall

Back hall stairs

Basement (view from stairs)

Basement fireplace (wall will have shiplap and bookshelves)

Basement french doors (walk out basement0

And the best part - view from our upper terrace

WHEW - that is all!

sorry

remaining items left:
Landscaping, elec & gas fixtures installed, wood floors stained & finished, finish millwork (bookcases, fireplace mantel, stairs), final painting, install appliances

However, as a result, I didn't get a chance to take any of those pristine pictures of my finished but empty house, and for now, there's too much crap lying around for me to feel like I can compete with the other great pics here. If I ever get my act together, I will post. I still need advice about my kitchen back splash, window treatments, etc.

Am I having fun yet? Why did I think building a house would be fun?????

Just checked in today and the herringbone wood floor in the foyer is in and they are working on the back hall - tumbled ivory travertine in a ashlar/versailles pattern. Both look great and the back hall looks super durable and a little rustic which I like - since we have 3 boys and a large dog. . .

Strange but he wants a bottom rail to protect the bottom exposed edge of 3/8" tempered glass interior railing panels. Our current setup captures glass panels with a top rail and slots in the newel posts...not sure where it is in code that a tempered glass edge needs to be covered, but it is what it is. There is a 3" gap between our floor and the glass that we really like. We are looking at putting on a metal U channel to meet the requirements.

Our plan is to move in tomorrow. Providing we get our natural gas hookup! We will post finished pictures just before we move in.

My hood is done!

The fridge is still waiting for its panel, but the freezer below has been paneled already- you can't tell it is there at all!

These middle drawers are actually a fridge and freezer drawer- you also can't tell at all, the paneling looks great!

Great room chandelier:

Library/conservatory chandelier hung

Foyer chandelier:

The dog's fridge/freezer is installed in the dog room (they are raw fed and we buy meat in bulk for them)

Outlet covers going up (I didn't want any of the plastic covers in the house)

The upcoming schedule looks like this:
This week - painters finish up
Thursday - cabinet maker makes final adjustments (resized a few cabinets after ordering appliances, etc.)
This weekend - move all the lights to the appropriate room for installation
Next week - flooring crew
Next Tuesday (24) - counters go in
Next Wednesday (25): appliances arrive
Next weekend: confirm all fixtures (door levers, faucets, towel holders, TP holders, grab bars for ADA bathroom, etc.)

After that, other that plumbing, I think we're getting really, really close!

Kitchen: Custom Amish made maple cabinets in Shaker style. All soft close and full extension.

Fireplace trim is completed and concrete hearth finished.

Espresso Stair rail and fireplace

Best oops ever. We had a decorative and couldn't figure out what to do with it, especially since we couldn't find a bench narrow enough to fit. So, we extended the niche down and turned it into a bench. LOVE IT!

SW Pure White trimwork throughout. Love the deep ICF sills.

We did low-E windows throughout the house (2 stories). We just. our December bill. Taking into consideration that the new house is about 50% larger, which is not yet completely sealed, has doors open all day with construction crews, and our bill was almost 50% less than last December in our old house. Granted we aren't cooking, but we're still thrilled.

Our 3 year old's room with SW Scanda and SW Solaria closet. (He LOVES yellow).

Our son's bathroom

4th Bedroom: SW Dovetail

Laundry Room: SW Oyster Bay

7' x 11' Tornado shelter: check!

Here are a few pictures:

The kitchen is going in in the next day or two - can't wait to see it. We had a great cabinetmaker but I was the designer of the cabinets (he could build anything but short on ideas!) so I hope I got it right ;)

Master vanity

Other master vanity

Tub front

Mudroom lockers (this room is TINY - like 5 x 8 - but five nice sized lockers fit perfectly and there is plenty of floor space so it doesn't feel cramped)

Laundry room - washing machine wall. There is room for the washer and dryer on the left, then a sink with hanging area, and finally a pull out trash can.

Opposite laundry wall. This has two deep broom closets (like 32 inches deep), and the area in between will have a standard freezer. We selected the freezer we wanted to use and built stiles around it and a cabinet above so it would feel more built in.

They also installed my pocket office which I love! Forgot to take a picture though. . . will add it when I add the kitchen and rest of the baths. . .

Here are some photos from our Friday Move-In. We have several projects to finish and a some bugs to still work out.

Good luck to everyone else on here, and thanks for the help along the way!

The only vanity that is not velvet white is in our guest bath, which has a white venatino marble floor. We used simply white in there - slightly less cream but not a stark white. It is a great color too.

The Velvet white is a fair amount lighter than linen white but darker than simply white and has no funny undertones. It just looks like an "old white", but still reads as white not cream.

Finished exterior

Kitchen ceiling

Kitchen hardwood floors

Masterbath tile floor

Master shower floor tile

graded back yard

I said earlier that I would be back to post pics, and I have just found the time to do that! I still have a ton to do, but I am working on it very slowly, but surely. We are still waiting to purchase new furniture because we want to take our time and find pieces that we absolutely love this time. Landscaping to be completed in April.

Home began late August 2010 and we closed on Dec 8, 2010.
Modified Cassidy plan from Frankbetz.com.
Total Sq ft= 2944 on 3.72 acres in a small subdivision.
4 bedrooms
3.5 baths
Bonus Room
Study
Formal Dining
2 Fireplaces

Colors:
Main paint: Bamboo Shoot SW 7733
Dining Room:Tigereye SW6363
Master Bed Walls:Chamois SW6131
Master Bed ceiling:Tigereye SW6362
Master Bath walls:Tigereye SW6362
Master Bath ceiling Chamois SW6131
Hall Bath & Up Bath walls Downing Sand SW2822
Boy's room: SW 0055 Light French Gray
Girl's room: SW SW6302 Innocence
Powder Room: 0055 SW Light French Gray

Front:

Stamped and sealed walkway and porch:

Back

Foyer with dining room on left and study on right:

Foyer to dining

dining to foyer

dining

Study

Family room

kitchen

Master bed and bath

Rope lighting

Daughter's room:

Son's Room:

Other baths:

Play rooms:

Screened Porch:

All of this is our backyard, up to the street, so no new construction will ever be behind us.

Pcandlyte, what a beautiful home! You must be so excited! The bamboo shoot is so pretty. It makes me wish I had gone a shade darker than our Oyster Bay. I also love your stamped concrete front porch! We did our back porch, but now that I see yours, I wish we would have done the front too. We also love the office built ins and that gorgeous stone in the kitchen and fireplace!

montel, ***drool*** What a gorgeous modern home. I love your kitchen, your finishes, your beautiful bathroom tile, the stunning quartz in the bathroom with the green vessel sink. Wow.

Our excitement continues. All the rooms are painted, and the tiling started yesterday. Appliances come today and countertops get installed tomorrow, and the lights will start going up this week, too!

Missing an island . . .

That weird white wall to the right is going to be a paneled jamb.

Close up of hood. It is missing the simple trim it was supposed to have around the bottom on the flat part - now scared to add it to mess it up. I think it needs the trim - too simple - but still pretty and afraid of messing it up!

Pocket office desk upper cabinets - shelves are adjustable

And lower - file drawers on right, pencil drawer above knee hole and pull out for shredder on the left.

And a more accurate picture of the lockers with my real camera

And a more accurate picture of the floor, which I love. This is in the back hall, mud bath, locker room, laundry and my office and looks bulletproof!

Pcandlyte: I really like how the openings in the tall walls reveal the color of the adjoining room. Very impressive. I also like how you repeated your stone in the kitchen peninsula.

ICF Green: I have enjoyed your blog. We are going to talk to a local ICF builder that my bil is doing HVAC for. He's done quite a bit of work for him. We are just considering it. What material are your sills made of? Do you think people will sit on them? Of course they'd be sturdy enough...they're cement!

athemsmom: I like your transom windows. I've been thinking of them too.

montel: Love the circular shower--very impressive. I like the rain forest shower but I wouldn't like to shower in it.

grace: Congratulations on your new baby. Sleep when the baby sleeps.

Pcandlyte, your home looks VERY well put together - great job!!

Exciting everyone else! The concrete home looks way cool.

Just lurking here quickly tonight after work. We moved in early September, and are just coming out of the throes of chaos - it will happen for us all.

The window sills themselves are framed with poplar wood and then painted with SW Pure White. They are quite deep, and will definitely be used as seats, especially in the great room. The dining room window is popular bench for now, but will be less accessible when the table is in there.

Some of the counters went in today, and the cork floor.

ICF, you are saving a lot of green! It is awesome to pay just over $100 for electricity in the winter! Actually to pay that anytime of the year for your square footage ia outstanding! Your home looks great! My last home was just about the same color as Oyster Bay, and I almost went with the same color in our new home, but changed colors for the whole house about 4 days before the painters arrived. When they were priming for the rich colors I've used, I thought I had made a mistake, and my husband was very concerned with my last minute selections. We love how it turned out though.

Athensmom, your home is beautiful! I love the lockers.

Mel, your wood floors and the shower floor are very pretty!

We have a fully wooded 3 acre lot with a creek in the bottom behind the house. The total sf is around 4000, the main level is about 2000 and the 2000 sf walk out basement is unfinished for now. My favorite features so far have to be the River White granite in the kitchen, real stone fireplace with the Napoleon NZ 6000 high efficiency wood burning fireplace(that sucker can put the heat out!) and the master bedroom walk out onto the back deck (we can see the downtown lights of the metro area in the distance at night!)

Everyones homes look great! I am so excited for those of you that are getting started and the new baby is adorable! I hope more of you post your favorite features as I found that helpful while we were planning.

We are SO close to the end but everything feels like is grinding to a halt... all progress hinges on 3 replacement cabinets arriving on site.

View from back door. Kitchen to right, dining to left, living room beyond. As you can see Kitchen is still quite unfinished. The island is waiting for the legs so it can be finished... 2nd Pantry cabinet is missing as is drawer base...

View from living room looking at back door. Stair is in progress...2nd step will wrap around and become a bench.

From landing looking down into living room. This was the first time I saw my floors finished (still needs final coat, to be done at bitter end).

Living room yesterday, floors covered up now. Finish carpenter was installing bookcases (large opening designed to hold our tv) which need to be painted.

Front entry, off of living room. Paint color is off... but that's just tinted primer.

3rd floor office/sewing/guest room, quite possibly my favorite room yet! It had great views to the neighborhood lake.

Landscaping was installed! Outside is almost complete (porch floor & railings need final paint)

Husband installed porch ceiling speakers last weekend while floors were off-limits. He also installed invisible dog fence too.

I am lucky and have family that owns a flooring store and they helped me greatly pick all the flooring out. I went to "look" and within 30 minutes, everything was decided, haha! If you need more info than that, I'm sure I can find out more for you.

Congratulations to everyone on the progress and completions!

Pcandlyte - I LOVE your house!! I all came together so beautifully!! I am drooling over all your trim work, haha!

Also, a question for shkish - are your wood floors site-finished or pre-finished? Lots of beautiful grain!

We also had the cabinet maker expose more of an edge for the shaker style. They are frameless cabinets and we used metal box sides for the drawers (they are really stout, easily handles the heavy pots and pans). I posted more pictures on the kitchen forum. The ceilings are 9ft and we added an extra inch between the counter and uppers so the uppers wouldn't to be too massive so the cabinet guy worked out the size of the uppers.

The drawer stack to side of the dishwasher will have a glass front and has a 2'' pocket that I can put decorations like candy corn at Halloween etc. Then have full functioning drawer behind.

We settled on our lot and construction loan today. We break ground next week. This is the first time we have ever built a house and are so excited to do so.

Everyone posts such great pictures, let me see what I can find...

My Backyard backs up to the creek.

Our floor guy had excess from a previous job, so we got an awesome deal for the WHOLE house. Originally we were only going to have the old school wood (thick & finished in place) on the 1st floor. But now we will have it on all 3 floors, well except for the full baths and laundry room on 2nd floor which are tile!

So far the build has been going really well -- both in terms of timeline and in terms of stress. Our builder has been awesome to work with. We hope to be finished by the end of February. Thanks again to all who have responded to my questions and calls for help along the way!

First, the floor plan. We've made a few changes during the build, but for the most part it's accurate.

First floor:

2nd floor:

Basement:

Front porch with newly installed cedar beams:

Blue stone going in for porch floor:

Front door:

Main stairs:

4-panel folding door from dining room out to soon-to-be screened porch:

Before folding door was in looking from dining into living:

Fireplace:

As floors are going in looking from living through dining into kitchen:

View of kitchen from dining:

View from kitchen through arch:

Small sitting area in kitchen:

Mudroom off of kitchen:

Heading into study from living:

Bath for guest room off of study:

Heading upstairs:

Master with most commented on fixture in the house!

One sink in master bath:

Girls' bath:

Girls' bath floor (we love how this turned out!):

View from upstairs screened porch:

Finally, one shot of basement playroom taken from basement office area:

I love your house! Can I ask the paint, countertop and tile you used in your girl's bath?

shkish, Thanks for posting those photos! It looks really great on the inside!! So pretty!!!

I guess I can post our progress. We're framing. They start putting boards up and some of the wrapping Friday. But I don't have photos yet. The kids' rooms are upstairs. But we have no stairs yet. DH and DS got to go up because they got to the house one day when the framers were there with the big huge ladder. Poor DD still hasn't gotten to see her room because we keep missing the framers!

We're in N.O. on a 50' wide lot...the standard here. We're doing a New Orleans style home with some twists to it...

As for the girls' bath: the counter is Silestone Bianco River, the paint is Benjamin Moore Luscious (#1379), and the tile is Daltile Keystone 1" hex. The white is the Arctic White (D617), and the "flowers" are the Suede Gray (D182). The tile guy did the whole floor white, and then came back to place the gray tiles so we could approve the placement of the flowers before putting them in.

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress!

We had a frustrating experience at our rental house this week. We realized that water has been seeping up through the concrete floor in the basement. Several rugs were so wet and moldy that they actually split. Three boxes of books had to be pitched, and the legs of some furniture was slightly damaged. I can't imagine what could have happened if we hadn't discovered it until later.