Autumn.4- Kitchen looks great! Love the floors. You said hand scraped hickory, right? Would love to see a pic of the kitchen island. I've loving all of the white cabinets I'm seeing on here. My husband refuses. I'm thinking the same as you with your husband on the drawer pulls. What? Really? Why do you even care?
Marji- That tile is beautiful! I love it!

Autumn4 - I asked about the soffit because it looked like it was a design feature, done on purpose, if that makes you feel any better. Instead of soffits, I wanted two huge wood beams over my cabinet runs to make up the space going to the ceiling but the cost was way out of our reach. There is still a possibility that we could put fake ones but I'm afraid it will look like an afterthought and be an obvious "they didn't know what to do with this space so they just threw that up there" type of thing. Yours looks good. And good call on bringing the floors from the LR into the kitchen, they look awesome. And in a kitchen design showroom somewhere, I remember seeing cup pulls with a notch cut out of the top so that you could grab it with a couple of fingers from the top side also. I have never seen them again but they are out there somewhere if you can find them, if a compromise becomes a must.

mlweaving - That is one big shower. The tiles look greenish gray on my computer monitor at work. I love the way it looks. I'm glad you were able to head off the disaster at the fabricators but sorry you had to deal with such sorry service. It amazes me the way that people just don't seem to care if they make their customers happy or whether or not they do a good job at all. Guess that makes me old fashioned.

On the insulation, it is slow going. DH has been stuck working a lot of overtime so between baseball games, baseball practices, homework, the usual household duties and family obligations, I have been putting it up a little bit at a time. I only have one side of the house done and that's just the straight ones with no plumbing or electrical in the way. It is a pain because I am a perfectionist, so it has to fit between the studs just so and any little gaps have to be filled in but not compressed too much, etc, etc, etc. And it is so humid here now and the long sleeves, face mask and safety glasses turn it into a much tougher job than it really is.

Hi Everyone! Excited to find this forum. My family ( husband, 3 kids) are building our forever house on the southeast side of Indianapolis, Indiana. We are going through a builder, Arbor Homes. We broke ground on April 17th. Our home will be 3608 sq feet with 5 beds. 4 upstairs, one down. I have linked the builders model, but we are getting the watered down version of course. So excited! At this point the concrete slab is poured and the framing is scheduled for May 1st, weather permitting. Hope to be closed by the end of June.

Here is a link that might be useful: Matterhorn 3608

Those are some pretty cool shower tiles!

I talked to a couple of recommended flooring places about finishing the oak I installed + refinishing another room that has the typical 1950s white oak that looks orange.

#1
- About $650 more than the other proposal and didn't ask many details.
- Can start about 5 days sooner
- Used the dreaded "pickled" word once. Pickled oak is scary - do NOT want pickled oak. Light in color, yes.

#2
- About $650 less.
- Would like to come by in a week b/c he is going out of town today. Asked more details about finishing and layout
- Did not mention "pickled"

I'm leaning towards waiting on company #2 even if it means waiting 5 days. The $650 isn't really that big a deal, mostly I'm afraid of ending up with flooring that's even the slightest bit pickled. A very light yellow would compliment the lighter tones in the walnut cabinets and that's what we want.

JHester, I looked, and it looks as if you're getting some good advice on your floorplan. Have you posted the kitchen plan yet in the Kitchens Forum? I did way back a bazillion years ago, but since IlliniGirl did before me, and hers is very similar to mine, I actually heeded a lot of advice from feedback on her kitchen. And I was Very impressed with her planning for what went in each cabinet. Made me think a lot about how I use my kitchen. The comments about bumping butts totally misses the point that no one can be working at the sink when the oven door is open if they are directly opposite. Just something to think about.
Jae, thanks. I ended up choosing two remnants of completely different stones since they didn't transfer my Sea Pearl slab from the stone yard to the fabricators, and we are starting on time crunch time. If there had been time I would have told this granite place to pound sand and would have started over somewhere else. So the two remnants I chose for the master bath are unrelated remnants also, but have so much drama in them that I think it's ok that they aren't from the same slab. The new stone is Blue Tides. Is anyone familiar with it? Downright gorgeous! But 1/3 again as expensive. Went from $80/sf to $120/sf. I told them that we're only paying what we contracted for for the Sea Pearl. And I pitched enough of a fit, and held up two workers for over an hour, that I think they'll give it to me for that price just to have me out of their hair. I am prepared to make their lives even more miserable if they try to charge me $120/sf for it.


Our cabinet sample and tile are sitting on top of the first pic.

Welcome Prospect3! Your forever house? Makes me smile. In 1984 we bought our "forever" house in Grosse Pointe. 5 Bedrooms, gorgeous center entrance colonial. Life has a way of happening. That was 3 moves ago and two states away.
Re the white cabinets, the last house dh and I built in 2002 he adamantly refused white cabinets. I've wanted a white kitchen since that house in GP. Well, guess what, in this house we're building now I'm getting my white kitchen, and dh has totally forgotten he once hated them.
I looked at your plans. How open are you to altering a bit? How amenable is the builder to making custom changes? I ask because your kitchen would really benefit from some input on the kitchen forum, but if you can't make any changes then it's best not to even go there. I will note that in our last build I had a big kitchen. Sink under window like yours, my cooktop was in my island and my double ovens were across kitchen, equivalent to where your stove is. The walk between the sink and the ovens was Way Too Far! I don't know about you, but I find that I'm constantly moving hot pans between sink and cooktop, and constantly moving pans with water from sink to cooktop. Think about that stove across the kitchen, about how you cook, about carrying water filled pots of boiling pasta around the island to the sink.... If it were me I'd rearrange that kitchen before they bury your electrical and plumbing lines in the slab. Sorry to immediately rain on your plans. Maybe better to know now. Especially if you're going to really be in this house 30 years.

mlweaving, good tips about taking one decision at a time. And thanks for the tip on the plantation shutters....that's one luxury item I just can't justify....so my windows shall remain naked for now. :) I love that tile in your shower. Will the outside walls be glass? What happened with your granite? Did you get the slab you wanted in the long run?

I've been spending some time looking at kitchen cabinets, etc. After looking at a few, I found a KD that carries Shiloh after reading all the glowing reviews here. I went today to take a look....and I fell in love. I can see what the hype is about. The KD I spoke with also raved about them....she said their painted finishes are some of the best in the business, and I could see why after I "petted" them. :) I love the polar white color with the darker gray. But, the best part of the visit was discovering LG Quartz. Oh my goodness....their Rococo product is TO DIE FOR. Looks exactly like marble, but wears beautifully. Has anyone heard any negatives associated with this product? I'm a diehard granite fan, but this baby might sneak its way into at least some bathrooms, if not my kitchen island!

Here is a link that might be useful: LG Quartz Rococo

A little teaser of the floors.

Michelle, we cross posted. The original choice for my kitchen island was LG Viatera Everest. Gorgeous stuff. But, this same fabricator neglected to obtain the slab needed last November, when it was still available here. Snafu on their part. We accommodated them by visiting their supply yards, 2 of them, to find an acceptable alternative. We did, in fact for our kitchen at this point I like it better than the original LG quartz, But... they screwed up. In any case, I've really liked the LG quartz I've seen.

Shicksal, I think I'd wait the extra week too.

Hi Marji!! Thanks for the tips!! I never considered making changes to the kitchen until I read your post. I do not believe I can at this point... OMG... that is true about stove and its relation to the sink. The under ground plumbing and electrical is already poured over. I guess I will get use to it. Oh, and we are not getting the builders standard island... still shopping for one, so yes maybe from that standpoint I could benefit from the Kitchen Forum. Thanks for the suggestion!

Hello everyone!!

Welcome to our new builders! So excited for you guys!

pors - Your floors are lovely! I can't wait to see more pics from you!

mlweaving - Your shower tile looks like our backsplash in the kitchen! I LOVE it!!

Here's our progress report…. They poured the garage concrete yesterday. They poured the front and back porch concrete today. They are finishing up the main floor framing and will start 2nd floor framing this week. If we continue to go this fast then we will be looking at trusses next week or the following! We will be moving out there in just 4 weeks! SOOOO crazy!! I am in the processes of finalizing my front door. I decided to go with one door with sidelights instead of two doors. It suits our family better.

Here's a pic of the front porch concrete!! We decided not to go with stamped concrete. My builder prefers the concrete with the border in my neck of the woods. He has done it on his Parade of Homes houses and they look lovely. Plus, I will be saving a chunk of change! YAY US!!

I hope you are all having fun with this process! It sure is an emotional roller coaster!

Prospect3, I don't mean to make you feel bad, but you really really need to talk to the builder about the prospect of moving your stove. At this stage it's still doable, although it will cost $. Someone on the kitchen forum awhile ago said that it's much more cost effective to rip open some concrete and install lines at this stage than it is to do a total kitchen remodel in 5 years and have to still rip open concrete. It will be very very challenging to cook in that kitchen the way it's designed. And in 5 years you'll be ready for a kitchen remodel if you let them build it this way.

Pors, your floors look great. What wood and what stain?

Robyn, they are flying! So exciting that you'll be there soon.

I agree with this ^^^^. It is hard to fix now but it will be many times worse later on. Get what you want, you are not the first person to change your mind during a build....nor will you be the last. :)

robynstamps You bring up an excellent topic that I've been debating - what to do for a front porch (and back for that matter). We see everything where I'm from but we had regular poured concrete trimmed in brick at our last house and never could get some of the stains to come out (we have lots of red clay dirt here). I'm contemplating exposed aggregate or stamped concrete. Does anyone know how they compare by price? Any other alternatives? We'll have a fairly large area in the back that will need something. I'm certain we can't afford stone. I'm attaching a link to a version of our house plan.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to pic of home we're building

Flooring Dilemma: Porcelain wood look alike or Wood floor???
For guy is pushing engineered wood flooring when originally I wanted porcelain dark hand scraped flooring. I feel like I've been blind folded then spun around and now wondering about aimlessly. . PLEASE HELP.

Me too, over different issues. I love the wood tile. I did solid wood floors because I am cold all the time and couldn't budget in radiant floor heat. I also wanted something a tad softer than tile in the main areas of my home as I have kids that drop things all the time and fall quite a bit. The tile will look better overtime in my opinion, it really wears well.

RD - If I had my choice, I would pick engineered wood. Although the porcelain could probably live through more abuse, the wood would have no grout and would be easier on the feet. But, I've never had either product so I'm just guessing.

Robyn - They are getting a lot done. I hope you can concentrate on packing. It looks like you'll be moving at just the right time.

Rhett- We are going with Porcelain Wood Tile in the kitchen. I'm so excited!

Good luck!
Robyn

Concrete for garage comes tomorrow. I used a plate compactor and filled with gravel today.

Framers got I joist's and lvl's in today. Ready for inspection tomorrow then we finally start on walls! The wife already says it looks small! We need walls!

Joallen - Great progress. Your walls will be finished in no time. Tell the wife not to worry, everybody feels that way.

I had found a countertop that I really loved. Alas, it is not to be for the price tag and my wallet will not agree. Lol, anywho, it is not something I've seen on here so I'm sure this is a case of my very different tastes rearing its ugly head. It is recycled glass and concrete. I thought it was so pretty, though....oh well...

Mlweaving- I had forgotten our plans had similarities......how did yours turn out? Do you have a plan you can post?

Schicksal, have you seen any of this very light oak you're envisioning that has aged? I've seen oak that is freshly sanded that's a nice light yellow colour, but it's usually completely different once it's got a sealer on it. And darker over time. Anything that's really light, I'm pretty sure has been pickled. But oak is not one of my favorite woods, so I am by no means an expert on it.

Hi all. Welcome to the new comers! :)

Okay, more pics. Island is in and ready for template, not sure if that will be this week or next. Formica for the baths and pantry are going in tomorrow? That is an unexpected surprise! So tired, will catch up to individuals tomorrow. Sorry for just posting pics.

Oh but quickly - sweet irony......my new job is at a place of business that does flooring, tile, wood, carpet, cabinets, counters, the WORKS - and I could have gotten all that stuff for cost and yes you've got it, the only thing we have left are backsplashes. Doh! Waaahhhh!

Island support in case anyone cares:

Lowers pulled forward (again in case anyone has similar stuff going on):

Front:

Back (trim pieces and molding not finished yet)-it's looking greenish but it is gray:

Rhett, what room/area are you considering wood look tile for?

I am putting it in my bathroom. I was against it at first, because I was afraid of having "wood" in the bathroom next to actual wood outside in the bedroom. But I saw a showhome that put in "wood" tiles in the entry way in a herringbone pattern, and it was so nice, even with real wood all around it.

I will never put tile in the kitchen again, though. Real wood, or something else (vinyl, cork or marmoleum). In the rest of the house, we're doing wood floors. I live in a cold climate, though, and tile floors tend to be very cold. It's fine in the bathroom, though, because we'll be adding in-floor heat there. We also can't justify it throughout the house.

Love it autumn. *I* care about the island supports! We were just noticing the notches in our island today that look like they will hold supports just like yours. So thanks! All your cabs are looking gorgeous.

amberm145 - A couple of times... with oak it seems to depend more upon UV exposure and the type of finish used than anything else. The formal living room faces northeast and the original 1959 color shows minimal change, but the family room is to the southwest so windows there will get UV film. Also the finish to be applied will be water based so yellowing over time should be less than oil.

The builder across the street went with person #1 for his house but both do a lot of work for him and the finish that #2 uses is supposed to hold up better to dogs and children. Hopefully his visit next week will be good. Cabinets are on track to go in as soon as the floor is ready. Once those are in I can start working on what color the paneling on the ceiling should be. I'm thinking ceiling white because a stain would be introducing a 4th type of wood finish to the area (floor+cabinets+doors already).

Also the LED light order will be placed tomorrow. Environmental Lights was SO helpful with figuring out what type of lighting would be best for all of our different applications. I'd recommend them to anybody here.

Autumn - I like seeing the island supports. How it's done pics help all of us who DIY.

joallen001 - I joists! Jealous...

robyn - cool webcams. It must be hard to get things done at work when there are pictures of people building your place to watch.

RhettDrive - maybe tile + heating? I'm sitting on the floor while typing this and was thinking that it would probably be a lot colder here if the floor was made of porcelain.

We just decided on similar supports too! I didn't want anything under the counter to bang knees on LOL. I actually pictured something much longer so its nice to see how unobtrusive they really are.

Question? How many of you went with full particle board boxes? Or did you choose MDF? I have 12 hours to save $2k on my cabinets before the order is finalized.

Lisa, they look great!! Whoo hoo. Doing any happy dances yet?

MFatt, we went with full plywood boxes in kitchen, MDF in Laundry. Which is less expensive, particle board or MDF? I thought they were the same thing.

Illini, I have this that I can post. have been using it as underlay on furniture planning site. Don't have arch drawings of kitchen. But at this point I have installed cabinets and holes where the appliances go!! Somewhere I have our KD drawings, but we changed a bit from those. I remember your drawings with the yellow and the info written all over about what went where.

I think particleboard and MDF are the same. My cabinet guy and GC tried to talk me out of the plywood to be able to reassign funds to countertop material. I was just wondering what others are doing. Cutting down in the laundry room is smart. Maybe I will do that and the powder room.

JHester - We were looking into different materials but due to the weather in Utah our builder strongly suggests the regular concrete. He does something special to it so it doesn’t look super plain. He had said that because you have to seal the stamped concrete it gets really slick when wet. Umm, we don’t need that with 5 kids and about 50 cousins that live in the area. Nope!

joallen - AWESOME! They just poured our garage concrete yesterday. They did it after the garage walls were up, though. It’s fun to see the different ways all the builders do it! Completely different order with the same end results! P.S. Your house looks like a great size!

JDez - I saw the same type of countertop when I was visiting the slab yards in Utah. It was SOOOOOOOOOO expensive but soooo beautiful!!

Autumn - I love how everything is turning out! I can’t wait to see the end result!

We have been in our new home since Thursday, it's so so very nice. Still several things left to fix or do on the house, but we are in! :) I'll post a move-in thread shortly once everything is more settled and in place. I tore a muscle in my calf during the move and it has slowed the unpacking progress a ton. At times I can barely walk. Ouch! Everyone's homes are looking great and I love seeing the progress. :) Happy building everyone!

Sorry I have been MIA for most of this month. It has been crazy with the move and my parents and brother visiting during the time. We still have the punch list items and landscaping pending but landscaping was not part of the build contract so we will do it slowly.

Welcome to all the new comers.

Autumn, Your kitchen cabinets, floors and paint colors are all looking great.Can't wait to see your island. Did you start work this week? You got to build again to get all the material at cost :)

Jdez, Love the counter top you posted especially with the hints of blue and green in it. Sorry it is our of budget may you can find something similar in prefab counters? we found my son's vanity counter top that way.

Mlweaving, Did not follow all the discussion about window treatments but wish I had posted here before I did the window treatments. This was one of the biggest purchases I made with put much research. Now too late as they were installed today and I can already see my self doing some things differently. All your selections look great. Can't wait to see your pictures with the drapes.

Robyn, You are moving along fast.

Mfatt,
we went with particle board. we really wanted to plywood but the KD convinced us and after doing some reading on the Kitchens forum and one thing I noticed was all KD's said particle board was fine.

This post was edited by akshars_mom on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 1:45

illini-ugh I was struggling with wording so I just through the 'care' part in there and moved on. I'm glad you find it a good visual. I was stressing about those braces and they turned out perfect!

akshars-lol, NO WAY! But yikes, I'm sure I could have saved a bunch. So glad you are in and getting settled. We don't have landscaping in our build budget either, we'll be doing that all slowly ourselves as well. Frost laws are now off and we need some cement poured for an approach and our front porch. Sand, sand, everywhere there is sand! Yes I started on Monday. :)

mfatt-everything I have read is as what akshars said but my dh was adamant no MDF, so we upgraded to plywood. I really truly think MDF and frameless for that matter would be fine. He also said no frameless but I did get them in the bathroom since it's not as heavily used and it saved some $$. I wouldn't rule it out. On the braces, I followed the rule of 6 and 10. There is a few threads on GW about it. That is where I found the supplier for these braces. I think with 3cm stone anything over 10" needs to be supported. So ours will be 15" and those braces are 3.75 x 11.75 so should have great support!

jdez-aw, that made me smile - "soffit as a design element", since I freaked out when I realized where the beam went! I like that glass concrete sample. Someone on kitchens has glass like that but I can't remember who. They had quite a variety of color blends they were playing with before they finally made their selection and I had been following their thread. I cannot imagine being in the heat with all that get up on. As it was when we were spraying we had all of the windows covered in plastic so no ventilation and after a full day I was feeling pretty icky and we were wearing respirators....

xc60-congrats! Pics pics pics!

marjorie-I love your shower tile and I can see some of the blue green in there on my monitor. I love the subtle shading or whatever you call it. I guess I should be happy dancing - what was I thinking missing out on that! I think I am just stunned that finally they are in and in just like that. I wasn't expecting them until maybe next week so it's sort of unreal. :)

amberm-yes what you said about tile. We have it in the entry and all baths NOT heated and it gets cold here. I didn't want it in the kitchen again but man it IS bullet proof!

michelle-'petted them'. :) Yes they are pretty smooth. Overall very happy with them. Now on to blasted hardware! How are things coming?

Gotta scoot. Have a great day everyone.

MDF and particleboard are NOT the same. MDF is denser, harder, and heavier (and more expensive). I think any of them are fine for cabinets, but none of them should get wet, including the plywood used for cabinets.

Ah yes Mush Creek. This AM dh gave me a rather long dissertation on the differences between particle board and MDF. Your pics could have saved him a thousand words!

Morning! I've been following along but haven't been posting much because we have been in limbo.

Autumn, thanks for posting your island supports! I wanted to see that, too, since DH built our cabinets and island and we've talked about various supports for the granite. What are the supports made of?

MFatt, regarding your questions about going with plywood or mdf or particle board, DH used plywood on all of our kitchen and laundry cabinets. So, when it came time to order our bathroom vanities, bathroom storage cabinet, and window seats, he had tough time choosing what to order because of the cost difference. However, he made the decision to go with plywood for the bathroom vanities because of his experience of moisture with the other products if there was a problem. However, we didn't go all plywood with the window seats for the family room.

Well, we have a trim carpenter! He is starting this afternoon. He and two other men on his crew think they will be done installing cabinets, interior doors, baseboards, trim, beams, and fireplace mantle by Sunday. Turns out this guy and his brother both worked for our original trim carpenter (we lost because of scheduling) for over 15 years. They both now work for a union contractor and are doing our house on the side. They will work W-Th-Fr from 3:30 until late in the evening and work all day Saturday and Sunday. He just finished building his own very large home up the road from us. He's welcomed us to come see it and see how he builds closet systems as we want him to do that.

Talk about looking closely at everything, I completely forgot we had chosen Plinth Block for our door bases. They were on our supply list of materials from the wood specialties place, but it had been so long ago when we saw the samples made up both DH and I had forgotten about them. It wasn't until I was printing out all the photos of how we wanted things trimmed out that I found the photos of our prototype door and window trim.

Here's our door trim sample:

Here's our window trim sample:

Can't wait to see them in our stained wood in real life later this week.

DH said he would install all the cabinets doors since he made them and could adjust them to his liking.

Our painter worked Monday and Tuesday all day long and exceeded our expectations of finishing everything that needed completion before the trim carpenters start. He will start painting the exterior next week, weather permitting. Dangling money in front of him motivated the long hours of work. Whatever it takes!

Oh, and if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, the paint on the one upper wall of the family room was the correct paint and it was an optical illusion with the light. He painted both walls with the correct paint and it was the same results. Crazy!

I have a question. Who installs your door handles/locks? One of the trim carpenters we interviewed said he did that. The one we are using said he could install them but only until the painter came back and did his final touch-ups. I'm really not sure what bearing the paint/stain touch-ups had on door handles? DH installed all of our daughter's door handles/locks when they built and he'd prefer not having to do that again.

Good Morning Everyone! Thanks for all the welcomes. All your projects look interesting!

I talked to DH about the kitchen layout, and he doesn't think it will be huge deal and he does most of the cooking. He did say maybe install a pot filler, but that doesn't solve the problem of hauling hot liquid back to the sink. I am calling my supervisor today to see what my options are.

Hoosierbred, love your trim. Our trim guy is putting on all our door knobs, and cabinet knobs and pulls. Of course he also put up all the trim and built all our cabinets. He's doing our screen porch too. We should prob just go ahead and adopt him.

Autumn, we dud put a soffit in our MBA to bring the lights over our sinks closer. We have 10' ceilings, and dropped to 9' over the sinks. I'll grab a pic next time I'm there.

Hardwood floors are installed. They'll be sanded and finished later in the process. Here's the herringbone we did in the foyer.

Thanks for all then input. We went plywood because my DH would never get over the nagging feeling we did it wrong. He gets to choose so little....

I love that door trim! I am actually gonna show my GC as it is basically exactly what I had been trying to explain.

Happy Wednesday!
MFatt-We had to save some $$ on cabinets too. this is what we did:-only added soft close drawers to the kitchen, use plank style drawers instead of shaker--like the cabinet doors, use plain glass not seeded or bevelled and didnt put backs on the cabinets unless they had glass fronts (I do need to go paint where they will be installed before because the interior painting is done by the builder after cabinet installation)-all these decisions saved us several thousand $$. But in the end I got the look I wanted :).

Rhette-we are doing both: hardwood through the hallway, sunroom and kitchen and ceramic "wood" tile in the bathrooms and kitchen/wet bar in the lower level-the harwood and ceramic are never "next" to each other but are similar in color. Love both!!

Our update: we have a shingled roof-happy because its super rainy here.
the electric company called and said they are going to connect the electricity and gas.
we hope the lower level cement is poured in the next week or so-they've delivered the lumber to rough that in. the tile rep said her schedule has installation mid June-so they better get a move on :)

Good point for others on cabinets. We too shaved down the budget with slab drawers! That saved $60/drawer. We didn't do glass, chose a shaker (cheaper) design and made out pretty well. I just wanted to get the extra savings to put towards counters but the hubby went out slab shopping today and was pleasantly surprised at the pricing flexibility. We had priced them out at our tile shop for allowance purposes and there are gorgeous options at half our allowance ($75/ft.) so I can probably pay $1500 or so over allowances to get the solid tops everywhere! I keep saying this but I will add pictures soon. My siding is 75% done but the last bit is on the front where the good pictures are :)

Prospect3 - Those floors are unfinished white oak 4.25 select and better grade. They are stained in ebony, that is only the first coat of stain. The second was applied yesterday, it is much darker now which is what I wanted.

Jackson, my computer didn't load you picture the first time and I just saw the herringbone. I love it!!!

I kind of want to lay tile in herringbone but my husband cannot wrap his head around the idea. I am working on it.

note to self: don't allow hubby to unload the dishwasher....

Yup, I've got OCD. And control issues ;)

Hoosierbred Really like those samples of trim you have. Do you have specifics on the sizes? I am building a greek revival style home and considering the same type. We will have 9' ceilings throughout.

Autumn I will definitely make sure I have that style of island support. Most people here use some type of decorative piece.

Love all the suggestions for cost saving on cabinets!

Carson... Totally get that, been there!

Loving the tile, window trim choices, herringbone wood!

Stairs!! Moving along. Last big thing!

Jen

So ds#1 is still sick, going on day 12 now. 2 doc visits, 1 lab draw and finally a stool sample to find out what is wrong with this kid! :( Have to wait a couple days for results but he has not been to school only but 2 half days in the past 2 weeks. Ugh! Thankfully his teacher is sending work home so he can stay caught up.

Holy cow batman - the bathroom countertops are almost finished! They are all laminate plus a shelf in the pantry and a little desk spot for my youngest. They should be finished by tomorrow and I'll snag pics. Yay!

marjorie-so I finally stopped and READ the threads vs. the quick skim and oh my aching back I cannot believe the audacity of your quartz supplier. Grr! I hope they do give it to you for the other cost, that is totally ridiculous! I am doing exactly as you suggested, kitchen backsplash LATER. The bathrooms are the focus now but that shouldn't be too difficult...or maybe it will knowing me.

carsonheim-so when dh empty's the DW the skillets are stacked just like that, it is totally possible for the largest skillet to be balanced on my teeny tiny IKEA egg skillet. What's up with that?

jenny-eeeek, gorgeous! You go girl!

joallen-$800 bucks for 3 corbels or $160 for 6 support brackets that will be invisible (we installed 5 but they come in sets of 3). Woot woot on savings - but I spent the savings on upgraded drawer glides for the kitchen only.
This is what we bought: Counter Balance

jackson-wow that is awesome flooring! Kudos to you!

Ditto on slab drawer fronts for the bathroom. We actually used a different manufacturer for the laundry and kids baths to save some $. They are still actually very nice. I am very pleased with them so far.

Hope to be back with pics tomorrow. Still taping stairwell, I need to get that finished. It's totally hanging over my head, stressing me out and making me a little edgy, not unlike GROUTchy. ;)

Xc60, Congratulations on moving in. I missed your post yesterday. Please do post your pictures. I also hope to do it one of these days when I get time to take some pictures when the house is clean :)

Autumn, sorry about DS being sick hope they find what is happening.

Jackson, Love your flooring.

Jenny, staircase is looking good.

Carsonheim, too funny about your Dh unloading the dishwasher. My Dh would drive me nuts by asking where everything goes 10 times. So I end up doing this myself.

Hoosierbred, Trim looks great. In regards to the hardware on the door our trim carpenter installed it.

I love the herringbone floors. I was looking at a showhome the other day (I actually looked at about a dozen the other day :P). One of them had herringbone floors, but it was considered a starter home, so I figured it was not standard. I asked what the upgrade charge for herringbone was, and she said it was $8k!!! Yikes. I am considering doing herringbone pattern with wood look tile in the ensuite. It should only be an extra couple hundred given that it doesn't need to be cut special.

And my husband gets creative when he unloads the dishwasher. But mostly he just piles dishes on the counter until I unload it.

No progress on the build. The architect is supposed to be drawing some more.

jackson2348... Floors are outstanding. We are talking to our tile guy on Tuesday about incorporating a tile herringbone in the entryway. Our tile is a chestnut color porcelain wood product.