Closeup of the Calacatta Quartzite on the island.

This post was edited by musicgal on Wed, Jun 25, 14 at 13:55

Shower tile... ceramic marble look alike. See how the paint reads baby blue in there? Yech! That will be changed for sure.

Back hallway counter finished with a manmade quartz. Bulletproof drop zone with solatube daylighting illuminating a potentially cavelike passage.

Hmmmn- where, oh where is the secret door?

Virginia Mist on the perimeter. Indestructible soapstone alternative.

This post was edited by musicgal on Wed, Jun 25, 14 at 14:17

Oh my gosh, look at the progress!!!

I have been MIA, we had a big blow out with the electrician and then our water district decided to change its mind 3 times on what we needed for meters so our site has been on slow motion. We are nearly done insulating though and now onto drywall :) I will try to be more active, my pouting streak is over....I hope.

Everyone's progress is looking great! It's been hard to keep up with it all due to the craziness of school end and diving right into travel swim meets, multiple swim team practices as well as the busyness of building a home! I have been going crazy designing all the cabinetry for the build and met with our Amish cabinet maker today. Hoping all will come in within our allowance. It was a crazy meeting with no lighting or air conditioning. Their copier was powered by a battery! Definately a different way of life but they do beautiful work. Here is a peak at our progress....

From the front

And from the back...

Looks awesome HAPPYVALLEY! I can't wait to see what your cabinet maker does for you.

MUSICGAL- I love your countertop choices. What are your cabinets made out of? Looks great together. Really nice photos.

BLUEMOON- Only 2 1/2 months out is great. Things will definitely speed up after painting, that was my experience at least. Like light speed, lol.

NIGHTSHADE- I totally hear you on the second guessing. oh man did I ever. Glad you continue to love your choices....sometimes you have to wait for it all to come together at the end for it all to make sense again.

JDEZ- great colors! Getting the paint on really starts to give the house it's personality :)

on my end, well, it really feels like we are winding down. The wood floors got stained and first two coats of finish down. Last coat is next Thursday. Appliances are next Monday. Carpet is mostly down. Still waiting on some light fixtures. T-3 weeks until move in. I may have a false sense of security but I'm feeling rather under control with the packing. Can't be. But I KNOW there's so much that can't be done until the day of or close to it. Would be nice to get the hanging clothes moved over early in wardrobe boxes.

Here's a pic of the floors:
[img]

Everyone is coming along so beautifully!

We received our first draft of construction drawings. We're currently going over them with a fine toothed comb. Want to make sure we don't miss anything. I'm feeling a great deal of anxiety....and feelings of unsure ness. Anyone else feel this way?

The developer is helping us prep the lot and took down about 20 trees today. Progress!

illini- your house is looking great. Almost to the finish line now. To answer your question, the cabs are knotty alder. All the stained wood in the house is alder; my carpenter had a field day:)

Michelle- Plan, plan, plan all you can- and then fasten your seat belt and hang on for the ride. Start taking a good nutritional supplement and try to get a little exercise in. It will help with the stress.

Michelle-yeah what Musicgal said. I was nauseous when we finalized. Just remember there is NO perfect house. It will be great but there are always things that you think hmm over analyzed this and hmmm should have thought that through more.... It's all good! Can't wait to see your plans.

Music-very cool driveway! Love your finishes too.

Illini-oh I knew those floors were going to be fantastic and they are!. Cool, go with being organized and in control. I think that is great!

Happyvalley-good to see you and your build. I think we all can relate to your frazzled busyness. :)

So here is a pic of our dining room ligt. We did find a used table that works better (size and have and color and style) but we don't have it yet - so here is the lovely golden oak. :D

illingirl- LOVE the built-ins, fireplace and floors. I'll be showing this pic to our cabinet maker b/c it is EXACTLY what I want. Can you tell me the width of each built-in? Also, what are your floors and stain color?

another framing pic

and here is the view out my 8-foot wide kitchen window:

carson- that pond is pretty much filled up now:) Hope your guys make good progress, and you can climb stairs soon!

Autumn, very classic and cool fixture.

yup -- looking forward to climbing stairs! Also, any time you want to swing by BCS let me know. I'll be happy to take you on a shopping excursion and show you 'round my build site!

And now, off to order my windows :)

I spent time reading back over the building logs for the past 2 years and it was so fun to see the progress of all the homes from start to finish. Am a reader by nature so often lurk but don't post. I enjoyed so much seeing the progression of the builds from start to finish that I want mine to be a part, too! Find it interesting that a lot of us building custom home have kids around the 8-11 age, with first our first kiddos heading to middle school in the fall...must be a stage of life thing:-)

Autumn - dining light looks great!
Michelle - I think anxiety and second guessing just comes with the territory when building a home... it is so hard to commit to something that seems so expensive and permanent and all you have is paper to go by. We are at framing and I am still second guessing my choices! From all I have read here you are in good company and it seems like a supportive group.

Illini - I hope my cabinetry will come out as beautiful as yours! My kitchen style and layout is extremely similar to yours and I hope the end product will be as nice.

Musicgal - your knotty alder is beautiful...it looks like your home will be warm and inviting

Carson - looks like we are just a bit ahead of you...it will be fun to follow along on this crazy ride!

Jdez - paint looks really nice. I would live with the rooms you are not sure about for a bit...once furnishings are in paint looks so different

Bluemoon - floors look great...can't wait to see what stain you come up with

Hoping our second story is finished up today so that they can place the roof trusses early next week. We got over an inch of rain yesterday afternoon and when we went to walk through in the evening there was standing water on all the floors:-(. Can't wait for that roof to go on!

We've hit a major delay. Our province has now instituted a mandatory new home warranty program. Claiming to be about consumer protection, but really about big builder protection and a new revenue stream for insurance companies. Anyone building a house now has to pay upwards of $14k to an insurance company as a warranty guarantee. As an owner builder, the warranty is useless because if the homeowner (me) makes a claim, it's up to the builder (me) to fix it. The warranty only exists for builders who turn around and sell it to a 3rd party. Those buyers have recourse if the builder refuses to fix something.

The provision in the law for owner-builders allows us to apply for an exemption. We have to sign an affidavit in front of a notary promising that we intend to live there, and can't have been an owner-builder in the last 3 years. And pay $1000 to the province and wait a month while they inspect our background to ensure we aren't "backyard builders" hoping to turn out a piece of crap, sell it and run. Fine, we'll do that.

But then apparently the law says that if you get an exemption, you are not allowed to sell the house for 10 years. I'm sure it's supposed to be that if you build a house without going through the process, then you can't sell the house. We have to have the warranty (or exemption) in place before we can even apply for a building permit. But I'm sure that isn't true in every county in the province, or wasn't at the time the law was written. But, it's being interpreted as if we get the exemption, we can't sell the house for 10 years. And if we can't sell the house, we can't get a mortgage.

And the contracts with the insurance companies are written for big builders. There's all kinds of clauses in there that shouldn't apply to us, such as annual renewal fees which will go up over time without notice, and if we go bankrupt, we are no longer in the warranty program. I interpret that as the only way the bank can get our house is if we go bankrupt, at which point, there's no warranty, so the bank can't sell the house. I think it's intended as if a builder goes bankrupt, he can't build more houses and have them covered by this warranty. But that's not how it's written. So we need to hire a lawyer to help negotiate the contract.

However, while the province claims we have a choice of 5 insurance companies to deal with, only one will sell a policy to owner builders. So we're limited in how much negotiating we can do.

This law has only been in effect for a few months, and apparently we're the first owner builders to encounter it. Or we're the first to actually read contracts.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/paint/msg0618562230635.html?2

xpost from paint. Take a look and let me know what suggestions for exterior paint.

Autumn- great dining fixture

Hester- My built ins are 68" wall to wall on each side of the fireplace, the cabinets though are each 32" if that makes sense. Here's the page from the drawing set:
[img]

The floors are site finished 3/4" 4"wide plank character grade walnut stained with mix of 50% Provincial and 50% natural (clear). We are using all Bona products on the floor.

Nice view Carson! Framing coming along great.

Mfatt - glad to see you back. Hope you came to a mutually agreeable conclusion on your electrical. Our revised estimate (post installation, ha!) was 25% more than the original estimate. Yes there was sticker shock, but we know why (we added a LOT) and we really like our electrician. He's very honest and had a very detailed breakdown. He said he'd work with us on getting the price down and we all agreed my dh would trim out as many light fixtures as we could to help save money. I felt happy with that.

I am also having an issue selecting 1 additional exterior color so I'm sorry, I'm no help there.

We did sort of work it out. The blame was partially on the GC so he worked it out and came to a middle ground that didn't include us paying for anything but the changes we made. It boiled down that our contract with GC was different than the electricians with the GC as far as what was included in the original bid.

The paint is killing me. Maybe I will post in Decorating.

OMG Amberm what a mess. That's insane. And ridiculous even for non-owner builders. Are they trying to discourage new home building for some reason?

They're trying to force people to only build through large builders. Companies that have a standing agreement with the insurance companies, so they've put down a $100k security, spread over 1000 homes, and the premiums are transferred to the homeowner.

And my neighbour is getting a new roof (on her 25 yr old house) and her crew doesn't look anything like JDez's crew. It's like I can't get a break at all. :D

Illini - Your kitchen and LR built-ins are gorgeous. I am drooling over your floors too...lol.

Carson - Awesome Texas view. So good to see that things are happening for you.

MFatt - Glad you got everything worked out. Nice to "see" you again.

HappyValley - Amazing progress. I hope you are happily shopping because you've got a lot of decisions coming.

Autumn - Beautiful light fixture. I wish we were closer. I would be glad to take the oak table off your hands. Our current table is too big for our space. Bummer indeed. As we are about to tackle the trim, I took a close look at your window trim and Wow! Very detailed and very nice.

Amberm - Things are just crazy where you are. I hope your lawyer can get it all straightened out.

Music - We will have knotty alder cabs also. I like your stain color. I still haven't picked that out yet.

Michelle - Take a deep breath and a have a stiff drink. All is good...lol.

Bluemoon - Nice to "see" you again also. Ok, drooling again. Nice wood floors.

Hoosier - Any digging?

LadyBrown - Still MIA?

Ok, took some pics of the paint with my good camera. All of the paint looks really good now that has completely dried. I am very happy with all of our choices. We also put some wood up on the walls. I had planned to paint that the same color as the kitchen but now I just don't know if I can. I was just afraid the house would look too dark if I left it natural. But....it is soooo pretty. I also included a closer pic of our brick and exterior siding. Here ya go:

Thanks. We just finally adjusted the fixture. Heavy on the 'we'. ;)

J-if you are ever near swing on over. It has 3 leaves so it does get pretty large if you want it to. Okay so....I think your brick is perfect, and your siding a great compliment. What a difference in intensity the 'real' camera makes. Love them all. Thanks for the compliment on the trim, I guess I never posted a pic of it...probably too busy painting at the time, lol! That wall of wood is a great accent.

Amber-what the heck! No way. That is so unreasonable. :( we can. I longer do owner build here but you can GC without too much trouble if you have a builder that partners with you. I hope you can find a loophole...

Happy-fellow reader and also too chatty as I am sure you realized. :D. Interesting that many are in similar seasons of life.

I cannot believe it's already Friday tomorrow and next week is the 4th. Yikes.

A silver fox came out of the woodwork!

Finally back from Alaska! The weather and wedding was amazing and the break from all of the decisions on this house was helpful. I'm ready to get back to it and am enjoying it again. Talking with the builder today and getting ready to submit the door order. Posted in home decorating about whether a black wrought iron lever on the interior doors would look good with pewter and nickel fixtures. While we don't need the knobs yet, have to know what color to order the hinges on the doors. So many knit picky decisions that have a consequence on other decisions.

It was helpful to see some new photos from our site. Can't believe how fast everything is going. We head up there at the end of July and I can't wait.

Music - You crack me up. Silver fox. That secret door is awesome.

Harringk - Nice progress. Sounds like you had a much needed break.

Just met with the crew to work out details for the fireplace wall. Then they asked what we wanted in the closets. So, I just designed all of the closets on the fly. Took me all of about 10 minutes of giving instructions. I really hope I didn't screw that up. Cabinets will be delivered at the end of next week. We will have to stain them so they won't be installed until the following week some time. Somewhere in there, we are supposed to put in some flooring. Hmmm, looks like I need to take more time off work. :)

So excited for everyone!!

It seems like the progress is going slow on our house but they are really doing soooo much!! We had 6 crews at my house this week working on the central house vac, electrical, plumbing, framing, heat & air, and also working on the sewage system from the road to our house!! They will be finished with all of it by next Thursday and then we will have the inspections. After that the real fun begins!! Can't believe they will be starting the outside, insulation and drywall within a couple of weeks!!!

I had chosen a quartzite a couple of weeks ago and just got a sample to test at home. It was Super White Supreme and failed all the tests!! It etched, scratched, and stained!!! I'm sure I would have been able to get the stains out but not sure if I could live with such a "needy" surface. I went back to the slab yard a couple of days ago and was going to go with granite when I walked in and saw the most beautiful quartzite EVER!! It is called Brazillian White but when I googled the name they only had pictures of the Super White that was labeled Brazillian White. This is totally different looking than the SW. I took home a sample and it passed ALL the tests! It is a true quartzite. It even scratched glass. Looks like this will be durable enough for my family. We are really rough on surfaces. The only problem is that now I have to pick a new backsplash because they don't go well together at all. I will probably just go with white subway, hexagon, or another pattern.

Here is the LOVELY….

P.S. They also have 99% of the light boxes where they will be going. Here is a pic of the Great Room ceiling. It will be coffered and the lights are between all of the beams.

Love the quartzite robynstamps!! I really wanted to do that too but so many other things went over budget we had to do it the cheap way, but I'm still pleased with the results. We did Glazier White granite and had them hone it for $300 and I love it.
I'd love to see your kitchen when your done though, that slab will definitely look beautiful!

Quick drawer LOVE!! Be back after baseball.

robyn- that is gorgeous!!!!!!!!!

Autumn - Just as I was about to criticize you for the absence of key spices, I spied that little bitty teeny weeny shaker of red pepper...lol. Good girl. That is a very nice setup you have there. I'm impressed by all your up-facing labels. Our ball game was postponed until the morning due to thunderstorms.

Autumn how are you liking working in your kitchen? I can't wait to break mine in!

Love your spice drawer..... I have so many spices that wouldn't be enough for me (lots of Indian cooking). I have two 18" wide uppers dedicated for spices and vinegars and oils! Oy!

Tulips, I really like your granite. Those are words I'd never I'd say, I'm not generally a fan of granite. :P

Autumn, I'm kind of jealous of your spice drawer, but I think I have significantly more. I have no idea how I'm going to store it in the new house. Right now it's in the cupboard, and I know almost exactly where everything is, so I can reach way into the back and pull out the dill. And then put it back without disturbing anything else. DH comes along, and pulls everything out to find what he's looking for. If I'm lucky, he leaves it all on the counter for me to put away. Otherwise, he puts it away randomly. Labels on the tops of lids might help.

amberm145 thanks! Yeah I was wanting something different than glossy granite and this was the cheapest way to do it so I'm happy

Tulips- I love your granite too :)

Amberm- Same situation here with the spices. I have a specific location for certain categories of spices and they are always getting messed up. It's like when a bunch of stuff gets taken out of the fridge at dinner time, then "someone" puts the eggs back where the milk goes and then there's no way to fit the milk in where the eggs were supposed to go. Short items on a tall shelf? come on!

Good find ROBYN- looks really pretty! Can't wait to see that ceiling- how tall is it?

robyn, your slab is drop dead gorgeous.

harringk, what a gorgeous blue sky over your home to be! Seeing it again with all the progress will be lots of fun.

Autumn, the universe is coming into alignment. At least one of us is getting her organizational groove on. Love the spice drawer.

JDez, yes- that silver fox follows me around wherever I go now. I think he's looking for food:p

Another pic from the hacienda-

I lost my post!! Dang phone! Ah well waiting for ds's uniform to dry anyhow. We play again tomorrow, time and place TBD...momma is tired...

I measured what spices I had and added a little but for growth and that is how I came up with that insert. I knew I wanted my measuring stuff and baking things in there also. I still have salt and soda and that sort of stuff that I need to permanently locate. I *wish* I could just cook by taste with spices but I am hopeless! If it wasn't from a recipe I wouldn't know what to buy! I follow recipes to the tee and then maybe modify the next time. JDez that pepper is nearly FULL! ;). We can't handle the heat over here, lol!

Musicgal - yes, that is exactly how it feels, ahhhh!! Love your silver fox sneaking into the secret room. :D

Illini-we have that same fridge thing going on here too and it drives me nuts. have cooked very few meals yet due to the busyness, breakfast though yes.. :(. But, I can tell you most things have a good spot now. I love where the trash is. Chopping and peeling is awesome-water right there and trash for peelings convenient! I love having the drawer storage flanking the range. Perfect for pots, pans and 9x13's. It took me a week or so of instinctively moving in the wrong direction from old kitchen but I am in the groove now. Boys emptying dishwasher into hutch cabinet easy peasy. Yes! It's all good.

Tulips-love it! If iwe could have found the granite we liked leathered I would have jumped at it in a heartbeat. I love that is looks soft even though it's not. Besides the black leathered we have there weren't any others. Congrats! I like your faucet too. :)

JDez-sounds like you might need a good chunk of time off...then a vacation to recover! Rain moving in here. Yesterday and today were beautiful.
Double elimination, if we lose we are out if not we play every day through Monday...

Robyn-that is a gorgeous quartzite and woohoo it passed the test!! I can't wait to see that ceiling!!

Amber-I am liking the drawer spice storage but if you have that many....unless you have enough drawers you could still do it. Mine are not yet organized. I just had to try it before the mad dash to baseball.

I am officially pooped! Dryer just chimed so dealing with that and then off to bed!

Autumn, now that I'm on my laptop instead of my phone, I realize some of your jars are shorter. So I thought it was 1 jar when it's actually 2 or 3. DH bought me spice jars for Christmas (at my request). He got me 24 jars, thinking that would do me for the rest of my life. But about halfway through, he had to start getting selective about what got jars. Those jars take up 1 shelf in a 9" cabinets and I have 2 more shelves of other random sized containers. It's all from recipes.

Silver Fox is the name of the paint in my current family room (BM). Every time that comes up, I'm looking at the wall colour. :P

Our spice drawer will have to hold 50+ jars! We're going to use after-market jars, which will sit vertically in individual dividers. Each jar will have a label on top, and a label in its dedicated space, so when numerous jars are out (it happens!) it will be easy to put them back. We buy our spices in bulk bags, which we keep in the freezer and use to re-fill the jars. I've probably said before that I am a tool maker by trade, and 'tool' and supply storage has to be well organized so you don't waste time looking for things. Our kitchen will have 34 drawers- I expect it will take some time to organize them all!

Everyone is making great progress- there are just too many pics to comment on!

Robyn, what a gorgeous piece of quartzite!
And music, I love your exterior stone too.
Tulips, can't wait to see pics of your whole kitchen. Your island looks wonderful. That's a great stone slab.
Lisa, love your spice drawer. But agreed it would be a bit small for me. I had them take my upper cab to the left of the stove, probably a 24" cabinet?, and cut the interior shelves back by about 1/3, then mount spice racks on the inside of the two doors. I will put those round rotating discs inside the cabinet for spices and seasonings I use less often, and use the doors for what I reach for most often. The racks are adjustable height, so I expect it'll work out great.
I keep promising pics, but not getting them. ;`(

JDez, you are one ambitious woman. I agree with Lisa, you're going to need time off after your time off!

We Have A Turnover Date!!! July 8. Finally. It's been a Long Time Coming.

marji- that's the same setup I have for my spices in the cupboard with the racks inside each door.
CONGRAGTS ON THE MOVE IN DATE! I am not too far behind you at July 18. Getting so excited (and a little anxious about getting the move done).

I found out I must have misunderstood the cleaning process. It's only one day long, not 2 weeks. I think they meant it happens two weeks before move in, lol. so I guess it's a large crew (15-20) who come out for the day. Then walk through, then they do the punch list, then another light cleaning at the end after the punch list, then move in. Can't wait!

Tulips - That actually was the granite I was going to choose when I went in to the slab yard that day! They call it River White around here and it is gorgeous. The slabs they had were a little too yellow, though. I was hoping for a RW with more gray in it. Yours looks AWESOME! I will definitely share the kitchen when they are finished. The cabinets and hardware were ordered yesterday!!! Yaaaay!!!! I went crazy and did a fun color in my laundry room. I think it's going to look FAB!

Music - I LOVE that stone!!!

illigrl - You are almost there!!! I also wondered how the cleaning process would work. Ours will be a big hot mess. I wonder if they will be able to clean all of my windows, too.

illigrl - The ceiling in the Great Room and Formal Living Room are both 20 feet tall. We did cans in both rooms. Actually, there are cans everywhere in this house! haha!

Marjorie-so close! Woohoo!

If you are visual like me-here are the details, the spice portion is 18" wide and there are 40 spices I have in there right now. I requested roughly 20" and then gave what I wanted for the other side as far as how many dividers and rough sizes. I think they will build whatever you want. I emailed them a sketch. So for those of you that can take up a whole drawer no problem, this drawer was actually considered two inserts. :)
In kitchens there is a thread on canisters with labeling on the top (for those that do the bulk thing). Can't find it right now in my phone but I will link it later.

Happy Saturday everyone!

It looks like we have a target move-in date, too! Finally!!!! We are aiming for July 12 weekend. Keeping our fingers crossed that we can get the contractors in to finish up. I made up the punch list this week and we're working off it.

We've shifted gears and I'm now doing the calling and scheduling. DH has his list to work from and he's staying focused with those things. We still don't have the septic laterals dug. Our DD made that phone call this week. We are supposed to get it done this coming week. He did grade the front walkway and back patio areas so we can get concrete poured this week.

The electrician has a long list. I was so frustrated. I spent so much time on where we wanted electrical switches and how I wanted them arranged. Before installation we put labels on the walls and I took pictures of those labels. When we were testing all the switches and outlets, we found we had a big mess with the switches. A lot of them are backwards in order. A couple of units are totally jumbled. Case in point, when you go into the garage from the house, I wanted the first switch you would reach to be the garage interior lights, the next one would be the exterior garage lights, and the third one would be the attic light. However, what we got is attic, ext., interior. Anyway, I've taken pictures of each of the rooms with the switches and marked which ones need to be moved to where.

The only thing left for plumbing in the house is the handheld shower. It's been on backorder. DH wasn't checking on this part and just accepting that same answer from them over and over again. Not me! I called twice last week. They said they'd call me back the first day, but didn't. So, I followed up the next day and by golly they are doing a rush shipment and will install it Monday. Geesh!

We got our backsplash installed yesterday and grouted today. Can't wait to see how it looks with the exhaust fan installed.

I'm looking for someone else to do the cleaning before we move in. I contacted the company who gave us a bid. I was not impressed. Their bid said windows inside and out, but when we talked he said I'd have to have someone else do them. Plus, he was asking me what I meant by post-construction cleaning.

Looks awesome Hoosier! Yay on the move in date!

Speaking of switches.... I noticed that some of my switches are uhm how do I put this ? Like backwards? So that not all the decora switches are 'down' when the lights are off. Some of them have to go down to turn on and some up to turn on. Does that make sense? Can they fix that?

Illini-are they 3 way maybe? That is all I can think of. Otherwise that is just nuts.

Hoosiers-hooray! Your backsplash and kitchen look fabulous! Way to go! How frustrating that you too the time to lay it all out and they disregarded it. :(