loribug....your builder is so very neat....everything is so straight! Lookin' good!

Autumn - compare the bids apples to apples..we ignored the custom cabinetry place here in town, but after I got a quote from the semi custom place, I realized they charged me for all the little extras that were included with the custom bid! So, in the end, it was worth an extra 1K to go custom and get everything we wanted and the cabinets would fit better...

Hot here...my gosh, 88 today! I sooo want rain because they are laying our grass today and tomorrow! Rain dance, please, ladies!!!

Pam

Kc--I am so sorry that happened to you. I hope your insurance covers the loss. I hope they are able to find out who did this. How discouraging.....

spotty - DANCE AWAY - you can have our rain. Perfect-you can grow your grass with it and we can frame without it! Is your granite bianco antico? I'm not sure you said but that is what it looks like and I love it! I am working on apples to apples - it's tough they all include something different as 'standard' and their upcharges don't match either. I will say after meeting with no less than 5 (embarrassed to say) KD's I have learned something different from each one of them. It helps to have fresh eyes and ideas.

We have been slowly unpacking and getting organized. Our hydoseed is being sprayed this weekend beginning of next as well! So nice to call it home, just ready to have grass so the outside stops getting so dirty!

I am also very glad that I will hopefully never have to build another retaining wall my self again. They look great but why do rocks have to be SO heavy?! Ha ha.

Everybodys homes are looking great, I still come and look a lot because I still love seeing all the progress!!

Some pictures are pre move in, during and after!

Lovely and glad you had a safe move!

Loribug, I hear ya about Indiana weather! :-)

Our framer had another delay. He said he would start Thursday. Can. Not. Wait!

degcds. Your house is to die for. It looks like a model home.

Wow! It's so exciting to see all the progress and I love seeing all the variety in home styles and locations. Beautiful!. We finally broke ground on our lot which required lots of blasting and excavating for driveway, utility and basement. We are trying to get it all done before the snow arrives and then the actual building of the house will start next April or May. Not quite complete, but here are some progress photos

harringk, what a beautiful location! I have to ask, where are you located? It looks a lot like the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

It's north of Durango, colorado and thanks, we love it there

degcds, Everything in the house has come together great.

Harringk. You location is beautiful.

Autumn4 and spotty, Met with a designer on Friday and gave her the scope of some of the things we want her help with. We have to see the pricing she comes back with.

Spotty, You are almost there jsut one more week :)

On our front we are doing the framing but moving a little slow with a crew of two. They are supposed to start framing the ceiling and roof next week.
Spent most of yesterday and today finalizing our faucets, shower heads and tubs for all three bathrooms and other plumbing supplies for the bathroom.

degcds - AMAZING, beautiful, gorgeous! LOVE it all! It is decorated like a model home! So well put together! Thanks for sharing...I am afraid to post mine next week...yours is so beautiful inside and out!!

Autumn - my granite is Alaska White Premium, but it isn't the typical grey/black/white like Alaska...so, I think it is really Delicatus. I will post more pictures if I can dig them out.

akshars - good job with the designer...even just a few hours of her time will "tie" it all together and you will feel more confident with decisions. Houzz is a good site too...you select photos and can sort of copy the look.

harringk - gorgeous, breathtaking location! We visited Durango a few summers ago...to go ziplining at Soaring! We loved Durango! Great foods, sites and people!

Pam

Wow, just read through this thread. First off, So Sorry Kc to hear of the theft. It's just sad and discouraging.
I could be writing Autumn's post about halfway down this thread right now. We broke ground this week, trenches went in and rebar is placed. They should begin pouring foundation then setting blocks next week. We're building in the low country so no basements, in fact we are elevating the house 3' off ground level.
So I walked around the trenches yesterday, and the place just looks so much smaller than I expected, yet it seems to be taking more of the lot than I expected.
And I set out to arrange furniture a couple of weeks ago using one of the online furniture planners, and realized I haven't given myself any walls for furniture placement. And I'm starting to second guess myself. Too late now!
We finally closed on the construction loan last week, but because the appraisal came in so much lower than actual construction costs we're ending up putting more cash into it...adn I'm afraid there goes much of my budget to furnish and accessorize after we're in.
So right now I'm having all the heebie jeebies that I expect most home builders experience. Last time we built it was in a development and we had very few actual decisions to make. This time it's a design and build, so I've been agonizing over every single decision.
I'm grateful to have found this forum. Someplace to at least have other people in the same place!
I've been posting on the kitchen forum and the home dec forum here for a couple of months - didn't even see the tab for new construction until now.

There are some gorgeous homes here!

mlweaving...welcome! Before you know it, your home will be finished...I found it went faster than I expected. Some stages are boring and other are very exciting...it's bittersweet for us...happy we get our new home, yet sad because we got to know so many great people who worked on our home! And, sad (I am very emotional) about leaving our home of 13 years!

Someone asked about my kitchen lights...here is the photo showing how it is 3 individual pendants...

Pam

Spotty, that was me -- thanks for the picture.

Thanks Autumn & Spotty... everything is nice & neat, well right now it looks like a maze of brace boards b/c they're working on the 2nd floor. He's very picky on detail, so I think we've got a good one! :)

degcds - I couldn't live in your house, it's too perfect!!! Absolutely beautiful!!

harringk awesome landscape!! I love mountains :)

Hoosierbred, I'm crossing my fingers for ya!

Beautiful ceiling Spotty! :)

akshar's-I hope it's a good fit with the designer you've sat with. It is so reassuring. I am also selecting sinks/faucets/flooring as we speak. That I am finding to not be too bad. It's when we get to paint that I will definitely need the designer.

herring-I love fall and those pics just make me want to stroll right down your driveway for a nice fall walk!

Autumn, Did you start the framing today?
You are ahead of me in the kitchen selection part. I have a general idea on what I want but need to finalize stuff. Have you selected your appliances already? I am debating between induction vs gas. I have not yet approached a KD/cabinet place yet. I need to do this in the next week or so. I know most places have a huge lead time and the selection here is going to have impact on other design choices.

I hope the designer works out to. She said she can do the kitchen design but most cabinet places do the design also so debating if we should pay the interior designer extra for something a lot of the places provide for free.

Spotty, are you finishing up the landscape also before you move in? We have not put much thought into landscaping other then the front yard where we will have grass and some roses/other plants.

loribug, Your framing is looking great.

Yahoo! We have wood! The floor joists (sp?) are done and they will start on the walls tomorrow. Today was a beautiful sunny day, although chilly. Tomorrow is supposed to be only in the low 50's, then Wednesday is supposed to be a cold rain. I don't want our wood to get wet!

Very nice ceiling Spotty!

akshars_mom, Spottythecat, Autumn.4, MFatt16, loribug26, red_lover, and mlweaving_Marji - Thank you so much for the kind comments, about our theft. It definitely was a setback, especially mentally, but we are moving forward and I ordered this entry system the other day. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Building Adventure

This post was edited by kcthatsme on Mon, Oct 21, 13 at 21:54

Kcthatsme - gorgeous doors!!! Keep those locked up!! What manufacturer?

Carol...nice wood!!! You sound like me about it getting wet...but it will and it will be ok!! I promise !

We are down to the final days...paint, cleaning, etc... The pool pebble finish was completed today... More pictures coming!

Degscds...are you totally enjoying your new home?

Yay Carol!!
I didn't want ours to get wet either, but such is life. I'd venture to guess there are more houses than not that have gotten plenty wet in the framing stage and survived.

Ours didn't have to though, we had the foundation done while we were still in a small drought here. But as all things go, the framing package didn't show up until after it started raining again. :/

Autumn, do you have wood?? :)

KC beautiful doors!

This post was edited by loribug26 on Tue, Oct 22, 13 at 10:01

kc - nice door!

Carol - I feel the same way and we have rain the forecase for the foreseeable future. I walked by a house the other morning that was just starting with framing and the floor had standing water on it. I mentioned it to my husband and he said it can take what water it may get on it before the roof is up. It's still not a comforting thing to see!

lori - no, no wood in sight. I am starting to think that my impressions of 'next week' meant Monday to me and maybe their take on that statement was Friday. So now if we just have ANYthing done by Friday I will be happy. I promise I will. That does buy me a little bit more time with figuring out the kitchen and I am using that to pacify myself. How are things with yours? The weather cooperating?

akshars-we are gcing ourselves and supplying all of the sinks/faucets/light fixtures/flooring (except carpet) to the subs so I have been online browsing for a while.

I am at the point now that I have a spreadsheet with my choices on them and when I get the 'go' I will order them up. I think I am about 75% complete with firm decisions. I do have several things where I have a few that I like and need to make a firm choice but I have time yet.

I am in the same boat with appliances. I really want a slide in range and leaning towards gas. The bosch has such good reviews BUT it's a dual fuel which drives cost up having to run both electrical and gas lines. I think it's not a bad idea in case in the future induction comes down in price and I end up with one of those. Hubby thinks I am nuts to even consider dual fuel. I am also thinking that by the end of the build our appliance budget may not be as healthy so I am kind of waiting to see how things go. We will need to buy a washer and dryer as well. Our old (6 months old) ones stayed with our house when we sold it.

Our excavating was finished last night and I am thankful for that. I can check that off of the mental wondering list. I will be sure to post a picture when I see any sign of wood. I haven't seen the finished excavating so I am antsy to check it out after work tonight. I will try to snap a pic of that too even though it may be hard to tell much.

KC, the door/entry system looks great. Glad you are moving forward.

Autumn, We are doing something in between a full GC and GCing oursleves. The contractor takes care of finding all the subs and the material needed for the foundation/framing/windows/hvac and other stuff and we are responsible for providing all the finishing touches. Basically the GC takes care of the building shell and the labor for the finishng touches but we choose our own finishing stuff. The GC we use is very busy (currently he is working on 6 houses). We prefer it this way as we can choose what we what with out being stuck with the the GC's vendors.

I think it makes sense to wait on he appliances to see how the budget works. We thought we had a decent budget for some stuff but finding that we have to go above budget sometimes. So leaving appliances until later makes sense.

Autumn - weather is touch & go. It rained last night, but so far has been dry all day for the last few days. My BIG wall is going up today. He called this am and said he wanted me to see it, and decide on how many windows we can put in the end, b/c he thinks I can get more than I thought.

I sure hope you have wood soon! It gets really exciting :)

I have an appt with a local cabinet maker tomorrow evening. We live in a small town (1200ish) and there's one right in town. I've kinda looked around, and I think *hope* I can just stay local... It might cost me a little more, but in the long run I think I'll be happier.

I think I've picked my "red" you know the PUUUrple comercial, that's how I've felt. SW Sun Dried Tomato

I want red cabinets, with black island. Distressed finish to look old. Galvanized barn siding on the ceiling...country/rustic. I also want to use the same red color as my exterior accent. Garage doors, front door, shutters...

I'm pretty excited about talking to the cabinet lady tomorrow!!

akshars - we're pretty much doing the same thing. GC is a friend, and framer by trade, but does full builds also. He's pretty much letting me run with whatever, but I'm mostly staying with his people for now. He uses local merchants and knows what he likes.

I can't wait to see more progress pictures!! OH!! I have this of the 2nd floor up. And I'll post tomorrow of the big wall, I hope!!

loribug....looks soo nice!! (as usual...you have a very neat builder!)

Gals/guys...I am getting sad...my journey is just about over and you guys are just starting...I was there about 7 months ago! Glad I can live it all over again through you guys!!!

Send the rain here...I have new lawn!!!

Ok - a few more photos of the last few items!

My herringbone wood foyer....

My pool bath just got wallpaper!

The faux finisher just brought the summer kitchen doors...

Stepping stones make a path down to our dock...

spottythecat, nice house. Any other kitchen pictures?

Just finished kitchen backsplash above rangetop

aries...thank you! Kitchen ceiling...just stained....
I should have more tomorrow when they start cleaning up the house...

akshars - I just saw that GE has come out with a new slide in induction. Only issue (besides being at the top of budget) for me would be it's so new there haven't been any reviews yet. I've linked it below.

mlweaving-I highly doubt we'll have any 'finishing touches' budget left. Our excavating was over already. I hope that was the big 'thing' and the rest goes according to plan or at least close!

spotty - feel free to follow along and live vicariously - you will give us encouragement to carry on and focus on the end! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: AJ Madison New GE Induction

Spotty, everything is looking good. Your foyer is looking nice. Also like the kitchen and back splash you chose. Please do keep posting on the thread once you are done.

Autumn, Thanks for the link of the induction range. I had a Gad Ge profile slide in range in my old house and really liked it. This one looks good also but you are right having some reviews would be good.

Lori, Your red and black kitchen sounds very interesting and it will have lot of personality. I can't wait to see it when it done. I like Red's to in general. I also plan on starting with cabinets soon. Need to get in touch with the cabinet maker who did my previous kitchen. If he is not available I will need to start looking else where.

They have started the framing for the ceiling and roof. I am getting nervous about how the elevation will look. To be honest this is the one I have been most nervous about from the begining. We are trying to tie in with the old part of house we kept so that has caused some funky issues. Another thing is I like crafts man style and my husband does not so we changed it so another reason that is scaring me.

We have walls!

Loribug and Jujubean - Love your wood! We are just a bit behind you.... the subfloor is done and the walls just started. Supposed to be a cold rain tomorrow. I know that every house's wood gets wet at some point during construction, but it's freaking me out! Spotty, you can have the rain!

Spotty- I have never seen herringbone floors before. They are very nice. I wanna steal your view as well!

Thanks, Carol. It's very exciting to see the progress ... and we hope like heck the crew gets the house entirely closed in by early December.

During our last build 11 years ago, we unfortunately had a ton of rain before it was shelled in. I mean it sat and sat in so much water it was ridiculous. But then it got shelled in and dried out, and the only problem we had after moving in was one squeaky board which we were able to fix later.

jujubean-glad to hear that a squeaky board was the worst of it and that you were able to fix it. I hate to say it but at this point I think flurries would wereak less havoc than bucket loads of rain. That is an awesome view. :)

edit: I forgot to add - latest word is lumber being delivered tomorrow, skytrack Friday and actual start to framing will be Monday/Tuesday. Hurry up and wait - tap tap tap. :)

This post was edited by Autumn.4 on Wed, Oct 23, 13 at 12:12

Spotty! You must visit us often, even after you're done! :) How exciting!

beautiful views....

Autumn! I'm tap tap tapping with you!! I know your pain... lol

Spotty - All of it... Beautiful!

loribug & jujubean - Framing... Always exciting!

Autumn - We are doing the GCing ourselves also.

Carol - Yay for wood!

Everyone - So many BEAUTIFUL locations!

Finally, I have a picture of our hole. We started last week and the clearing and hole are already done! Can't wait to post purdier ones as interior and exterior begin to come together. For now, I am celebrating my hole :)

degcds, love all the trim work detail in your house.

mfatt-every step is a victory of sorts so take it! I say that and every bill that comes in on or under budget is also a victory to be celebrated. ;)

Quite a few of us gcing - that is comforting as well!

Went out to our build site today, and an alligator was sunning on the bank of the pond. I knew we had one, but I hadn't seen him yet. I'm from northern Michigan, so spanish moss and alligators are quite an adjustment.
We have concrete in our trenches now and they're getting ready to set the block on the rebar. I can't wait to see framing go up.
MFatt, I celebrate your hole with you!
Jujubean, gorgeous setting!

I admire all of you doing your own GCing. We have been living on a boat for 4 years, so we're not from this area, don't know the in's and out's and where to go to get stuff - for a variety of reasons I'm really more comfortable going with a builder. I'm really happy with the one we've chosen.
But being with a builder means that I've been obsessing over getting all my selections made since June, because he wanted almost everything decided on before he broke ground.
With very few exceptions everything is chosen and costed out.
We need to buy our appliances before the end of the year in order to take advantage of the promo dishwasher package.

So now I'm starting in on choosing and obsessing over the interior choices. Because we sold our house and moved to the boat 4 years ago, and have sailed +/- 8000 nm since then, we got rid of most of what we own. What we did keep is in storage, and all of the upholstery pieces I kept need reupholstering. I'm going from a very northern design sensibility with rich deep colors and patterns to a low country lighter palette.
I really look forward to watching everyone go through the process and choose all of your materials and appointments.

Autumn4, I'm hoping all goes smoothly and within budget from here on out. good luck

mfatt.... nice hole! I know how excited you must be.... I never thought I'd be so thrilled about a hole in the ground.
Autumn.... I know how excited you will be to see a pile of wood on your lot.
Ahhh.... the little things that thrill us!!

the little things keep us sane Carol! :)

Another delay with our framer. Now, he says next Tuesday. He is framing an 11,000 sq foot home right now. Apparently it's taken him longer than he estimated. Our 2200 sq ft should be a breeze! However, we have rain amd storms in the forecast for all next week.