I haven't posted updates in awhile so here are a few pics to start out the month. We are hoping to be moving in by the end of October but that might be a stretch. We're doing most of the finishing work ourselves like painting and staining; and a friend is laying our flooring which is all being done on nights and weekends....and contributes to things moving along slowly. We are excited for the progress no matter how slow and love how everything is turning out!
This is an old pic of the exterior. Not much has changed except for the porch posts that are now ivory and the weeds are much longer, lol. Still waiting on the stone to finish the exterior.

Fireplace is ready for stone

Laundry Room

Dining Room

Kitchen tile done

Half Bath tile- I'm in love with the slate!

Kids bathroom tile

Cabinets are here! Sorry no sneak peaks yet

I recently found this forum, so this is my first time posting pictures! I am so glad that I found this forum, it is such an amazing and supportive community, and I loved looking through all the old posts and watching all of the beautiful houses come together! We are building a mountain style home near a ski mountain, and we are general contracting it all ourselves. We are in the process of framing, and expect to be all buttoned up by winter.

We are almost buttoned up for the winter. Rain is stopping the roofing for now.

Here are the trusses going on:

Trusses completed. The 'wings' will continue down on both sides to the first floor level.

View from the south:

View from the north:

we hope to break ground in about 2 weeks. We close on the construction loan on the 14th, and then starting the next day. Looking forward to joining the picture threads!

Drywall is finished, hardwood floor should go in any day now. Siding and brick veneer should have went up last week, but the delivery is delayed. (Fortunately that shouldn't slow the rest of the build down at all.)

Still more good surprises than bad surprises along the way. :)

Some detail of our hardwood in the dining room.

Here is our patio

Next week we will do the trim and tiling will begin.

After endless delays our build is finally underway! We finally got the last of the old house & concrete removed and were left with a nice, smooth building site. It's a bit damp, though.

After a couple of dry days, we were finally able to dig the footers!

And then it rained some more...

Eventually, the concrete trucks were on their way and we had footers!

Soon lots and lots of blocks showed up and a super fast blocking crew followed. The foundation was complete in a day and a half.

A day I thought I would never see - lumber delivery!!!

We were going to start on the first floor walls this weekend but we are getting even more rain. It's not such a bad thing as I *still* haven't decided on the window arrangement in a couple of rooms and must make a decision by Tuesday so I can order windows and the framers can lay out the walls. :)

Framing, framing and more framing. Excited about the progress being made. As of today, the roof frame is just about finished.

These are very nice looking homes. I'm hoping to just button up a post frame steel building before winter(pole barn). Its nothing spectacular but I'm building the entire house without any loans. I'm hoping for a better year next year and maybe I can spray foam the inside so I can start laying out the floor plan. I've been dreaming of the first day I break ground for this house for almost 15 years. I'm a laid off electrician by trade and now self employeed making it more difficult for financing. I decided to go with post framing when I found it was easier and less cost to the conventional framing methods. I've seen some nice homes built out of barns. Are there any other low cost home projects going on that uses recycled and non conventional framing methods.

Here is a link that might be useful: More pics of construction

Trying to get finished up. Floors are almost complete, they turned out pretty good for my first attempt at acid staining.I still need to finishing cleaning the floors and put the sealer on. I've been the general contractor on our whole build and done alot of the work myself. We started right at the fist of Jan 2012.

goremr, I love the color you got with your acid staining! We've been looking for a look like this for our basement. Would you mind telling me what brand product and color stain you used? What type of sealer goes on next? Thanks in advance.

Broke ground last week, but then had to get soil tested.

Finally some progress being made...

Here's our post and beam style house. Different than most. The fascia is going up and they will start installing the roof any day now.
{{gwi:1495171}}
Master bedroom:
{{gwi:1495172}}
Kitchen (there is a floor above it):
{{gwi:1495173}}
Deck (those posts will be trimmed):
{{gwi:1495174}}

@ncmaggie, The brand of acid stain we used was Sedona. We applied the Malay Tan color and let it set overnight. The next day we spray the Walnut color right on top of the Tan to create the viening apperance. The sealer is a SS supreme high closs acrylic that can be applied with a paint roller, just like painting a wall. We stained around 2400 sq ft and had about $1000 in it. That includes the materials for tapping off the walls. I will attach another pic of our master bedroom. It's wild looking but we like it. Also, I'll post the link to the store where we bought all our products.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Stamp Store

nothing visual to show as of today however we have finalized our plans and they have are scheduled to be submitted to the city today.... now 4-6 weeks of waiting.

here are some photos of the lot. 1.25 acres.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/cobra5laddict/photo-2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/cobra5laddict/photo22.jpg[/IMG]

sorry for the double post

i think i have the photos figured out now

We're supposed to be done in about a month but I don't know... I've already given notice so I guess we'll be camping out : ). Hopefully the port-a-potty will still be there : D
I thought it would get calmer towards the end - with all the big decisions made. Ha, now I get asked about shelf spacing in closets, what kind of newell post I want and if I want painted or stained risers...after I receive an explanation about what exactly is a riser or a newell, I have to decide, immediately - not one of my strengths.
Here's a picture of the front and back of the house and some rooms I'm excited about - my DD's bedroom, the nicest bedroom in the house (I have an ensuite and southern exposure but yeah, her room is nicer), the kitchen (I cannot wait to really cook in this space) and a simply huge spider I found outside. I'm not excited about the spider, slightly worried, maybe.

melaska, if I had that scenery I'd never be inside my house.

All your houses are coming along beautifully. I'm not building, did that a few years ago, but I still enjoy coming here to look at your homes. It's all so exciting no matter who is involved in a build.

greatgollymolly - thanks! Here's a pic today taken from the south looking north at what we call "Mickey Mouse Mountain" - the snow has already started! We even got our first avalanche alert in the email we subscribe to. We subscribe since we often travel 300 miles to Anchorage.

{{gwi:1495179}}

Here's one of our mountains to the south with the snow creeping down. Our views are to make up for all the snow trouble :) I zoomed on the mountain to give a better look.

{{gwi:1495180}}

Taken a couple days ago - south view
{{gwi:1495181}}

@goremr... Thanks for the information on your acid staining. We're planning to start finishing our basement and it helps to know a product someone else liked and see such a great color. Thanks!

So fun to see the progress pictures! I wish I had some to show. We are in the process of compiling bids and now going and trimming out items to reduce the price a bit. We're hoping to have that all completed next week to be able to go to the bank for the construction loan approval. If everything goes as planned, we should be breaking ground in a month or so.

I just broke ground a week ago, after a year of planning as well as going though the permit process. For those who were following my plan thread I eventually decided to knock the whole house down but I will leave the foundation as its solid. The first half of the house was knocked down and the second half will come down after the backfill inspection.

Love the moutain view!!!
We are slowly moving in. Not everything is complete, but we are getting close.

melaska, I love the views.

laurajane02, I've always loved mountain houses, it looks great.

We just closed on our loan and are waiting on our building permit. Hopefully will be breaking ground late next week/early the following week. I can't wait to get started and see what we have been working on for over a year now!

melaska - your land is positively breathtaking!

I keep re-visiting this thread just to see it again. :)

Thank you, kramerkel, karen & GrammyMyrna :) We are blessed with quite a view on all sides. It's to make up for our sometimes fierce winters. And a really bad, rainy summer - even for Valdez! We just got over a deluge of rain with flood warnings.

This isn't the best picture but I tried to get a photo of the sun shining at the same time it was raining. It was taken with my cell phone so not the best for this kind of photo. You can see the rain toward the bottom. Not sure what the red is. This is looking southwest.

Love all the photos of everyone's progress! We're going rather slow since we're building out of pocket. The sheathing is almost done then comes exterior windows & doors.

Except for a few tweaks, the majority of framing is complete -- took less than two weeks since the walls were pre-assembled.

It's official! Ground has broken today! We signed our Agreement of Sale in April, and it's taken this long to go to permitting and finally break ground.

We started about the third week of July. Roofers next week. Electrical, HVAC, and plumbing rough are about 90%. Columns will be beefier with gray rock. We don't have mountain views, but what we call "hill country views" in this part of Texas. This is essentially two homes, one for us and one for our son (upstairs floor); it will have some unfinished spaces.

We have footers now.

I have been having some computer problems lately so I have not updated recently.
These pictures are a little out-of-date, but we are finally making progress. It seemed like our roughin's took forever. They are now finishing up painting the exterior and finishing drywall on the inside.

Choosing colors - we didn't pick any of those, but round 2 went well.

Back Elevation.

The view from the family room into the kitchen.

Our front door - no glass yet.

We are now at the point of final decisions and no changes, but that means the next month should be exciting. I can't wait to see it all come together.

First time posting. I have learned so much from this forum.
Broke ground middle of June, estimated completion date sometime in Dec.

September has been the month for stone at our house. The exterior stone work is now complete and the interior stone work on the fireplace is almost complete.

Stone on the walkout

Fireplace- the colors of the stone really pop with photos but they are not that defined in person.

Sneaking in on the last day of the month. Paint!

Here is a link that might be useful: Build Blog

Whallyden: I love your house. I was wondering where you got the plans.

Finally making a lot of progress! Might still be finished by the end of October - but could be beginning of November.

Brick

Rear view

Front porch

Sheetrock!!!
View of breakfast bar between living room and kitchen

Living room

Dining room with wood beams in

Fireplace with brick surround complete

Trim work is almost finished! Ceiling in the master bedroom:

Kitchen cabinets going in - I WAS SO EXCITED THAT DAY!

My daughter is so excited about her new room!

Master bath cabinets installed

Lots more to post after this coming week! :)

Dash - beautiful master bath cabinet paint! I also love your brick, it has lots of character.

zyllah: Thank-you -- We used a local architect. If you're looking for a similar plan, the house is just a foursquare with an attached garage.

Whallyden: I know I just think you and the architect did a fantastic job. I keep looking at existing plans but you know...