We have finally got moving on our house. It took so long to get started it made us think that we would never get finished. However, in the last three weeks we have had most of the house framed and should have our windowns installed next week.

The room we are going to enjoy the most is our screened in back porch. The porch is 30 x 15. The best part is that our lot is very private and from our back porch we will not see any other houses. I've got a picture from the keeping room looking out into the back porch.

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polkadots -- the dimensions of my closet are 7 1/2 feet wide by 4 1/2 feet deep, approximately. Thanks for the compliments -- I'm anxious to use that closet and get out of this apartment with no mudroom whatsoever! :)

Hope all you mom's had a Great Mother's Day! It's almost surreal posting pics of our progress. I've watched everyone's progress on this site for a very long time. They poured footings for wrap around porch Fri.
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PPs7
Your trees in the back look great - Japanese maple - Hemlocks.
They are framed with the great brick job.

Love all the progress. Hawkgt, I love all the colors. We move in this Friday! Yay! The house still has a few things that won't be complete, but we're pushing the schedule and anxious to get in the house. I'll post pictures in a few days.

Congrats gobruno!! Can't wait to see pics.

gobruno - Woohoo! I can't wait to see the pix.

Our neighbor hasn't sent us any pictures, this week. So sad. We go there in two weeks, so we'll be able to see for ourselves.

Jo Ann

Hawk
Beautiful!!!

What can you tell me about
Your dining room furniture
and
your fireplace- material for stone?

Front of house on Friday (05-07-10)

Front of house, today (05-13-10):

Jo Ann

Looking forward to sharing this process with everyone. We were supposed to dig our footers tomorrow, but got rained out tonight. Our first delay. Hopefully, only one of few!

Oh my, Drjoann! What a beautiful house that's going to be! I bet you can't wait to get up there.

Here are a couple of pictures we took last week:

Nicki, your house is beautiful! What bricks are those? We're deciding this week and that is the color variation we're after and have a couple of choices and wondered if yours might be one of them.

Jo Ann- The house is coming along great! It must be exciting to see the three dimensional shape springing from the drawings. It sure looks different in a mirror image.

Jumab - Thank you very much! The brick is Adrian by Glen-Gery. It is queen size. These pictures were taken during the bricking process. They cleaned the brick/stone this week and it looks even better!

Hawkgt--

Your home is beautiful and I love the color of your living area! We have to decide on paint colors within the next couple weeks and I am having a really difficult time. I am wanting something that is tan/goldish for our main living area. Could you tell me what color you used and where you got it? Thanks so much!

We broke ground in January and if the weather cooperates we should be in by mid June. I don't post that often but I've been a faithful follower of GW for years. You have all been so helpful to me during this process. It's been stressful sometimes and exciting most of the time but this forum has kept me sane all the time. Thank you all.

I'd love to post more pics but I'm having problems uploading images.

Here is a link that might be useful: front elevation

sidney4--Your house looks great! I'm picking out stone right now and would love to know the name of yours--I really like it. Thanks!

Thanks Marmoreus. The stone facade is Dove Gray Snapped but my builder also referred to it as Heather Gray Snapped. We are using the same stone on our fireplace mantle and hearth. It goes in this week. I can't wait!

Here is a link that might be useful: Dove Gray Stone

I was finally able to embed some pics. Here is the latest:

Front facade

Raynor Accufinish garage door

Great room view from kitchen.

Kitchen view from great room

Screened porch off of kitchen

Fireplace stone and hearth to be installed this week.

Good looking house sidney4. Really good progress for a January start.

Wow sidney4- your house is coming along quickly & looks great. Would you mind sharing the details for your outdoor ceiling fan & the great room light? I really like the finish.
Thanks so much- looking forward to seeing the fireplace stone & hearth. The built-ins look awesome!

Thanks Crescent50. I ordered all my light fixtures online. I ordered from several different sites depending on who was offering the best promotional deals at the time. It saved me lots of time and money. The outdoor ceiling fan was a 52" Casa Vieja® Rustic Indoor/ Outdoor Ceiling Fan from Lamps Plus. The great room chandelier is Golden Lighting - 8063-CN9 BUS - Heartwood 36.75" x 30.5" Nine Light Chandelier in Burnt Sienna from CSN Lighting. If you don't like the prices just keep checking all the various lighting sites. They all run sales on a pretty regular basis.

Love your house, Sidney4. I have put your photos in my inspiration folder!

I wonder if you would share a little more. What roofing and siding did you use - it all goes together so beautifully. Also, I just love the garage lights - do you remember what make they are please?

elizabethtonbuild, Thanks so much.

The siding is Certainteed Cedar Impression Rustic Blend ( a different Certainteed product than the one that is getting negative reviews on the forum lately. The garage lights are Kenroy Vidalia Medium Wall Lanterns With A Camel Finish 70271CML. The prices on the web right now are pretty pricey but I bought my lights last winter as part of a year end clearance sale and was able to get them for about 75% off. If you aren't in any hurry you may be able to get a price break as well. I'm not sure what roofing we used. The builder just recommended something he often uses with the clay color sidings. I can check with him and let you know.

wow! there's so much progress ...and it's great to finally see your house, drjoann! i may be biased, but i love it! my kitchen was supposed to be installed today ...and sadly, it was not. i don't want to go into how much i loathe my GC at this point so i'll just focus on what (little) progress we do have.

working on trim/ceiling in dining room:
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my master bath floor; tile was laid today with wood spacers, to be changed out with american black walnut (waterlox). i'm loving it so far!:
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guest room calacatta look-alike tile. love the tile, not sure if i love how it's laid out:
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and finally the mudroom tile. i originally bought travertine and then switched it out for this porcelain at the last minute because i am prone to change my mind and will do so just as long as there is air in my lungs and gas in my SUV (someone has to lug this stuff back and forth!):
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thanks sidney4 for the info-- i hadn't heard of golden lighting before!

kate-- looking good- love the dr ceiling & i need to know the name of the mudroom tile :)- I think it would be perfect for my basement bath.

Great to see everyone's progress- hopefully I will have siding & stone pictures to post this week.

Due to a TON of rain in the last few weeks we FINALLY got our walls poured for the basement today. It felt SO good to watch it. I go onsite and bring them goodies every day. I'm going to be so fat by the end of this build!

I need to find a place to rent a couple of skid loaders so we can do the grading. Oh fun :)

Kate, I love your master bath floors. They are going to be gorgeous! I thought we were the only ones with a ton of windows in our master bath. It's been a challenge coming up with ways to dress the windows without blocking out the light.
Jo Ann, love how quickly your house is coming along.
We moved in on Friday. It was a pretty crazy week for several reasons. We are thrilled and relieved to be in the house. There are still a lot of outside things that need to be finished. They are pouring the driveway tomorrow, and I don't have the energy to deal with landscaping, but we need to get it in in 45 days. I wish our landscaper would call me back! Anyway, I will post some pictures once the house doesn't look like a moving truck drove up and dumped its contents all over the place. I'm definitely going to need some design ideas for some rooms. At least our kids rooms are in pretty good shape. Hopefully, by the end of this weekend we'll be in good shape.

Well, we're coming up on Memorial weekend when we are hopefully moving in. I say that because our apartment lease is up then! If nothing else, hopefully we can move stuff into the garage and stay with friends for a short time more.

As I type this concrete is getting poured on the main level which means the drywallers will be coming in on Friday so that means lots of activity this week.

View from back yard

Living/Dining area--radiant tubes for below concrete and view of backyard :)

These pictures are from this past weekend. The one I didn't include was the picture of the coyote that we saw scooting back into the woods! Now, we live in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota so to see this was quite shocking and exciting!

Heather J in MN

thanks everyone! crescent: i have to check the boxes in the garage (when i remember!) to get the name of the tile. i'll tell you though, it looks really great in person AND it was (cough) "affordable" too! got it from our local BEST dealer AND it was on sale. there's nothing wrong with that!

HeatherJ - looks good! Good to see some progress, I'm sure! Your radiant heat will be fantastic!

Kate, your house is coming along! I too, love your entry tile! I feel so bad for you with all of your GC issues... focus on the postive, focus on the positive. :) At least that's what I tell myself when things don't go or look quite as I thought they would!

Our Nichiha weathered gray shingles and stone look good, I will try to post a pic next week when more of it is on!

We closed on the build in mid May.We will be moving in soon.I thank all garden web members for the invaluable info you had given to me through this forum.It truly made a difference.

Oops the pictures are missing.Second try.

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Get your own

Wow, sowmia181. Nice House!Would you share your color selections? Thanks so much.

Looking good everyone!

They started siding our house this week & are getting ready to start the stone too. All of the trim will eventually be painted white & the ugly door on the house is only temporary.
So far, we are really liking how it is turning out.

SIWMIA - Great house. Gorgeous window in the master bath. Our build has not started yet, just have the dirt pad. What tub do you have? I am so confused looking at jetted and air tubs and can't seem to make a decision.

crescent: sorry it took so long. if you're interested the mudroom is porcelain by ILVA. it is their oxide series in chrome. hope that helps!

May is almost gone, time is flying, but my build still seems to have slowed to a crawl. Can't wait to be done. Here are a few more pics of our progress, it is just so messy now. At least most of my driveway is in and we won't have to walk through dirt and mud.

Our front door is here but we haven't seen it yet. My builder ordered the wrong door and my wife is really upset about this. We're going to see it Monday and I hope it will work OK because I really don't want to buy another one.
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thanks kate-- just in time, i am meeting with the tile guy today & need all the help i can get. i am really having a hard time with choosing bathroom tiles- UGH!

ramor-i love your windows- things are looking great!

We finally got our footers poured...which had to then be redone on one side because someone measured wrong! foundation will be finished this week. I am feeling overwhelmed by all the choices that have to be made so quickly in the beginning. I didn't expect that for a little while....but still very excited to finally have begun!

Ramor i love that diff sized tile- what is that? Any more pics? What did you put in your foyer - tile??
Beautiful !

It's so exciting to see everyone's progress! Once we closed things have moved very fast. The day after closing dirt work began. The well guys are there, too. I was out of town for 3 days for work so when I got home last night it was quite a SHOCK to see everything. Almost overwhelming. Has anyone else had this happen? I'm still THRILLED though.

Here's when we began clearing ourselves. Still LOTS more to do.

Our sweet brown eyed boy - while we were working in the Texas heat!

AND.... dirt work! This was Friday morning and by Saturday it was smoothed out and the trash was cleaned up.

Hope everyone has a great week.
S~

suzienj,
The tile is Scabos Travertine Chiseled French Pattern. I can't get a good picture of it, seems kind of like granite in that it is hard to photograph. Once we get our cabinets and lighting in I'll post more pics, but you can google the description and find plenty of images.

sunnny,
I really like your lot with the big Oak. Things seem to go really fast at first. Don't worry, it will slow down soon enough.

stayn2busy....how far up is your fireplace set? Hall tall will your ledge be? It looks like ours and I am afraid it is too tall. We were told 17in to see the beauty and feel the heat. If we are going to change it, we don't have much time.

We started looking at houses in January 2009, broke ground December 2009, and moved in this week. We are very happy with how it turned out. Things we love: 1. Rustic Alder cabinets 2. Blanco Precis single bowl granite sink 3. Walkout basement 4. 10' ceilings 5. Big kitchen island. Initial things we would have changed: 1. bigger laundry/mudroom 2. coughed up the extra for bonus room above the garage. 3. We would have had them paint small exterior and interior sections before approving complete paint. Exterior turned out with pink tint.

Sorry, I've been AWOL for a while. Builder wanted us to be in SC next week for the MEP walkthrough, but the cabinetmaker hasn't gotten close enough to what I want in the kitchen, so we are delaying a week. Frustration on everyone's part, but we've spent so much time planning this house, I'm not going to be rushed into approving something for the kitchen that I am going to regret for years to come.

Good news is that we have windows & doors. Our neighbor sent us a picture taken this morning:

It really does seem strange to see it mirrored. I'm sure I'm going to get lost, because I've spent so much time mentally walking through it in the other orientation.

Jo Ann

This is the first time I have posted a pic. We should be finished in a few weeks.

Ramor - What a wonderful house. Love your windows!

Thanks trinitybay.