GrandmaBarb, Just loved the pretty little birdhouse and the fantastic garden pointer. How clever you are!! Barb sent me a sign that she had made from an old piece of weathered board on which she had painted the prettiest yellow flowers on the left of the board. On the right of the board she had glued little tiny pointed pinecones in the shape of an arrow with blue jewels along the sides showing the way to the garden. On both the birdhouse and garden sign she had painted Ellens Joy. I am so happy that you were my Secret Santa as you nailed my personality to a tee. Thanks for the time you spent on my gift during this busy time of year. I love it. Ellen

Hi Konrad, Kinda sad to lose your RBNH nest... but this is nature at work I guess. Yes, we lost 1 bluebird egg to a HOWR 2 seasons ago. We saw him fly to and into the nest box, and come out with the pierced egg still impaled on his beak! We were waving our arms and shouting at him, as he dropped it on the ground and flew off. It all happened in 30 seconds or less. We discouraged him with a squirt gun for days and the parent blues dived bombed him mercilessly whenever he came near. He finally stopped coming around, and I'm happy to say the other 3 eggs hatched and fledged successfully. Hope your Nuthatches try again for you, Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: Latest Slideshow

There is some great progress being made by so many of you this month, thanks for sharing! @cpartist don't give up! It's taken us two years to get to where we are from when we first bought our land. City and environmental planning seemed like it would never end, then one day we actually got to break ground. Our home exterior is almost done, the final masonry for the entrance is going up today then we are ready for soffits and fascia. We finally found a good carpenter who fixed the old ones mistakes and passed our framing inspection with flying colours. Although it took ripping down and rebuilding some interior walls, which felt like moving backwards, we are now confident it's done right. HVAC is complete and we just got started on plumbing and electrical. The process has been a bit slower than we originally anticipated because hubby has went from general contracting the job to doing a lot of it himself. That's what happens when you are a perfectionist architect who wants to oversee your design/want to keep the borrowing to a minimum. We are looking forward to making more progress on the interior and hope we can move in by Christmas with our new baby. It has been good keeping track of progress on our blog and seeing how far we have come when things feel like things aren't progressing as fast as we want www.casadivillani.blogspot.com

All good feedback but if your heart is set on new then focus, learn and be prepared for mistakes. Personally I prefer older homes. I like the charm and character(aka flaws) an older home frequently offers. I am a commercial, high-rise demolition contractor and perform all of my renovations myself, so much as I can. I can't stand the residential contracting business. There's way too many "deadbeats" including an relative of mine. I haven't taken on the challenge your about to but I can offer some advise from a contractor's perspective. Many contractor's take on more than they can handle, It's the nature of the business. They rarely hit deadlines and will drag out your build while focusing on another project that is further behind schedule, or has a higher profit margin. Your best leverage is money. Negotiate into your contract(s) that you will not pay in advance for ANYTHING. If the contractor refuses to fund the purchase of materials then you should get the invoice from the supplier and issue a check to the supplier. You should be provided a Schedule of Values(SOV) upon selection of a contractor. This SOV is how you determine what is completed and how much the contractor is entitled to be paid. Be careful, many contractors will "front-load" the SOV to get most of their profit out in the 1st few tasks. For example, they will over-price the excavation, which is usually the easiest task so if the relationship sours, or you lose your financing, or whatever, he has made his money before anything happens. This is when ALL leverage is lost. It's also wise to negotiate that you will withhold "retainage". This is typically 10% of all progress payments and is intended to be your assurance that the work will get done properly, any damages will be fixed, all vendors will be paid and not lien your home. It will also give you time to see the little details that may be done poorly that need to be re-done. You WILL miss the little details from time to time. Upon 100% completion you will walk the entire home, flip every switch, test every outlet, flush each toilet, open & close each door and decide if you are satisfied. When satisfied and provided proper lien releases you can release the retainage. A "good" contractor will not be afraid to accept those terms. A "less than reliable" contractor likely will not. If you have little or no experience with contracting, building, etc. you would be wise to hire the architect or someone with the experience to manage this stuff for you or at least consult with you periodically to assist. Some contractors have mastered the art of the "change order". Fending this off is where someone with experience will help greatly. Things will come up that will cost the contractor additional money, you need to understand why it should cost YOU extra money before you agree to pay. For example, you choose a stove that requires 220 rather than 110 but the drawings show a 110 service in this location. This you pay for. While excavating they find bedrock that needs to be chopped out. This too you pay for unless the contractor was provided geotechnical reports showing the rock elevations. If the contractor has to reframe a floor to accommodate the toilet flange, this should not be your problem. Contractors will frequently use bully tactics to get their way. They will yell and berate unsuspecting homeowners to get paid when they are not entitled or to get the client to agree to pay for extra work which was really a result of their poor planning. Don't fall victim to these tactics. Your money is your money and not theirs. A friend used to just pay anytime a contractor claimed it was legit. After I yelled at him and explained he was being "taken" he let his wife handle it and they found that pushing back and not being accepting saved them thousands. Also remember, this is YOUR house and YOUR project, not theirs. If you don't like the way something is coming out, tell them to stop. Notify them in writing to stop, take pictures(MANY pictures) and document everything. If you tell them to stop installing the kitchen cabinets but they do so anyway, then when they request a change order for dismantling them and rehanging them you can reject it. It's YOUR house, it should be done to your satisfaction, not theirs. Moral of my long story... YOUR money is your only leverage. The more you hold back the more satisfaction your likely to get. Contractors can't be profitable if they cant get paid. Good luck.