Thanks Joyce, your house is looking great too, and congrats on the occupancy.... that is HUGE! I keep wanting to ask the builder if we could move any of our stuff into a locked storage room in the basement, but am not sure if the inspector would frown on that, or the builder, but it would be SO nice to slowly get some of our stuff over there that we don't need for a while in either house. We are trying to de-clutter our current house to get it sold, but the "stuff" has to go somewhere! Anybody else with advice / experience on that aspect?

Mythreesons, we're getting our house on the market in the next six weeks and have to de-clutter (big time!). Unfortunately for us, our only option (they've barely started framing) is a storage unit. It isn't what we wanted to do, but we had no other choice.

Under other circumstances we would have stored things in my brother's basement, but they have cats and DH is allergic. Can't risk our stuff getting "contaminated." Is there a family member (or members) who might put some of your items in their garage or basement for a couple of weeks?

Mythreesons - Thank you. Wow, your house is stunning..so my taste..the homes on here sure are incredible!

Joyce- thank you! Wow, that poor person who lost all those family members. We had a local family perish..a family of 4..the one son had a baby who was with his Mom at another location so she survived. Another woman lost her son, Mother, Grandma and cousin. It is awful. We are in Ringgold, Georgia. We drive through the devastation daily to reach our new house..it is humbling. I can't believe it although I see it everyday and I have not even seen the worst hit area. The people here are amazing though..so giving and supportive..the community bond is strong so I know the town will come back stronger than ever. I know I can do without the excitement for a looooooooooooooong time. Our builder who lives 2 houses from ours said he saw the tornado.

Today we had some tinted primer going up:

and I just have to post how incredible the sky was today

Mythreesons - LOVE your island! That is exactly what I am planning on doing (walnut island, white cabs) except our perimeter will be white marble I think. So beautiful!!!

They are pouring the slab next week and then the framing will start. I can't wait to see the house go up on the lot! It is so much easier to visualize even with the footers and basement poured than it was.

deb - prayers from Athens to you folks in Ringold! I have been shocked by the devastation and can't imagine living there and seeing it every day. Both my husband and I went to school in Tuscaloosa so that has also been particularly difficult to watch and hear about. Such terrible storms!

The wiring was all finished yesterday... and was stolen last night. What a bunch of crooks running around out there .........

Lezli

Wow Lezli - that is awful!

OMG what a nightmare, Lezli!

Oh, Lezli! My heart goes out to you. Even though insurance will probably cover the expense, it's such a set back.

Deb, I can relate on a smaller scale. We had a wee tornado here in Buckhead two days before the massive super cells hit. Our next door neighbor lost 11 large oak trees -- all of which fell directly towards us! Happily, although we lost 3 or 4 trees, nothing hit our house. It's a big mess all around our neighborhood, so I can only imagine what your area must look like. Your house is looking fabulous!

Everybody's progress looks so great! I can't believe that some of you who broke ground about the time that we did are about to move in. How exciting! Constantinople (Istanbul/Constantinople... can't get the song out of my head) just wow! You must be so thrilled. I love how your cove molding echoes the curves in your ceilings.

We have sheetrock complete (except for the band room which is getting special treatment) and doors and trim beginning this week. We finally got the brick arches finished in the carport/party pavilion.

Here's the front

From the corner as you go down the drive to the back:

The lower drive to the garage and carports:

The back with the newly completed arches:

and the inside of the carport/party pavilion:

Here's the kitchen/family room with doors going out the the screen porch. I find that our rooms are very hard to photograph and don't look like much, so I won't bore you with any others.

Thanks for the sympathy, folks. Although I'm still so irritated with those lousy crooks, I guess I'm over it enough now to post pictures of our progress. First, I have to say, everyone's homes are beautiful!

All framed and roofed last week:

And the back:

Great Room - from the kitchen - before the fireplace:

Entry and side of great room after fireplace framed in and installed:
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They just started brick!

And now to take out the pieces of wiring the thieves left behind, re-wire the house, and get the drywall up before they come back!!!

Lezli

Deb- I wondered if you were close to me when you first mentioned the F4 tornado. And yes - we are close. I live in Hixson, TN north of Chatt. We had a tornado touch down just outside our current neighborhood. The devastation in the south has been terrible.

About your home - it looks great!!! I love the brick and stone. Do you mind sharing who you purchased from? Did you go to the home show in the Chatt trade center a couple of months ago?

Mythreesons - I love the walnut top too! I will be doing that on a hutch in our kitchen eating area.

I am enjoying everyone's progress photos. We hope to break ground in 2 weeks and maybe one day I'll have photos to share.

Buckhead - wow, what an incredible home you have there. I am in awe on this thread every month! Sorry to hear your community saw some damage. There is one neighborhood like 2 minutes from ours where nearly every house has damage..all you see around here is a sea of blue tarps.

Lezli - love the great room and your setting looks so peaceful.

Downsy - wow, you are close! Thanks for the compliments on the house. Dennis King is building it. Nope, missed the home show. I didn't even know it was happening.

So Sorry about the wiring Lezli... how frustrating, but the house is looking great!

Buckhead, your house doesn't have an ugly or boring angle, so the more pics, the better! They are so fun to see! Your landscaping and setting too are amazing. Can't believe some of the big trees near you that went down. How scary.

Downsy, looking forward to seeing your pics next month!

Not sure how often I should post here during one month, but it looks like May is going to be fun. :)

Framing started this week and this is where we are as of today!

Front view (black blobs added to obscure address):

Again, I found it hard to get an overall view, but it's very cool to see things changing. I couldn't help the big grin on my face, which got some teasing from family members who were with us.

It looks like they have several more walls put together on the floor, but not "up" yet. Pardon my giggle...tee hee! I just get a big kick out of seeing the house "appear" especially considering we did the design/layout ourselves and have never seen it in a real life model before.

ImaCurvyGrrl, I don't see how you can resist posting again. Framing is so exciting!

I have one more shot I meant to post just for beaglesdoitbetter.

Our beagle accompanies me on our daily inspections. By the way, beagles, your fireplaces are stunning!

buckheadhillbilly Your house is absolutely beautiful but I have to say, that dog makes the room! She/he is beautiful! I love the pretty ears! My Molly looks a lot like your pup. And I love that the tail is blurry in the picture, probably because it was wagging, right?! Looks like that smart pup likes the new home!

Mine come on inspections too!

Sweet!! Love all the beagle pictures!!
Mythreesons...what is the thickness and edge treatment of your island? I just ordered a black walnut top with 1 5/8 inches thick with an ogee edge...and I wondered if that was what yours was! Did you do a mineral oil finish or waterlox?

Athensmom...I am doing a white marble perimeter as well! Sounds like we have similar taste! I just made my decision to do honed, even though the stoneyard kept trying to sell me the polished marble.

I am trying to wait til they put up the d@mn front door before I post more pictures...but I might go over there and take a pic of my covered terrace...they just finished the herringbone pattern in the brick over the firebox...so pretty!

OMG cute pups all around! :)

Nini, our walnut top started out as 2" thick walnut, so I am guessing the finished piece is probably similar to yours. It has an ogee edge as well. I can't believe it, but it doesn't look *that* thick to me, but it is really pretty. It is finished with waterlox on all sides. The cabinet guys did something like 7 coats.

Can't wait to see yours! The combo sounds beautiful!

I couldn't resist posting a picture of my old dog too, accompanying me on the inspections. She gets exhausted going from room to room looking at everything. She just gets comfortable in a room and I move on to the next. On this particular visit she gave up following me and found a nice spot on the porch to keep an eye on everything. Love all of the dog pictures! Have you all done anything "special" in the house for your pups? I haven't specifically, but I know she'll love some window seats and other areas that were not created for her, but she'll enjoy them too.

What a sweet dog mythreesonsnc. Looks like she is enjoying her view! I bet she'll love that fireplace too (I know I do).

We've done or are planning a lot of dog-specific features. Aside from having a first floor master bedroom with deck, putting in radiant heat flooring and window seats that my fiance is convinced I wanted only for the dog (he's mostly right!) we've also got a "dog" room with built-in dog crates, a grooming tub and beagle knobs on all the cabinets! (Yes, crazy dog lady here)

Grooming tub (the back is going to be tiled over with pictures of my dogs and my cabinet maker is making cabinets to go underneath it that have two pull-out steps, creating a staircase going up to it for them. I'd highly recommend the company if anyone is interested- they are called Groomer's Best. The tub is a 36 inch and it was a 'custom' order w/o the metal steps and ramp that usually come with when sold to commercial groomers.

The dog crates are on the other side of the room. They are represented by the little boxes since for some reason, by cabinet maker's software did not have a dog crate option!:

Beagle knobs emtek- and they have lots of breeds, in case anyone is interested:

Loving all the sweet doggies!

We will be getting cabinets on Thursday..excited for that..paint is still in progress. They had the trim and doors painted yesterday. I am a bit distraught about one of the paint colors (dining room) not coming out the way I wanted but it is a tinted primer so I hope it will improve or I see some repainting in my husband's future

Our house site is still too treacherous to take our 11 1/2 year old "pup". And like Mythreesons' dog, ours is at that age where a patch of sunshine is way more interesting than walking around some dirty old plot of land. :)

Amusingly, only picture I have online of my Princess:

We haven't done too much specifically for her, but we're pretty sure she'll claim several of the rooms with big windows, like the sunroom and the library. :) She's a sucker for that sunshine!

wow, those are some really nice homes. we're waiting on our appraisal this week, but having spoken to the appraiser to clarify directions to the house lot, the likely value is going to be far under (>75K) true cost to build. Cheers to the great continued housing market...NOT! My wife says "we'll just build next year". I told her it'll be years before the market improves such that we can build. By then cost to build will have risen too. Seems like no way to win unless you have lots of cash laying around.

It's really too soon for me to join the other builders on here, but we are moving forward. I have a crew thinning the woods, and we should start the slab for the barn within a month. After that, I'll be on-site full-time, building our little homestead. Compared to what I see on here, our little place will be modest indeed, but it will be our own design, construction, and best of all, it will be paid for. I'll put the idea out there right now that I won't be able to 'host' this thread much longer, as I may be away from internet service for long periods. Someone will step up and take over.

Meanwhile, here's a pic of the progress. The barn will go about where the pick-up truck is, and the house will be on the extreme left, down the hill past the tree with the birdhouse.

Wow, beagles, your grooming sink is amazing. I asked for space for dog crates. We did have two pups, but my beloved 12 year old mutt passed away a few months ago. I get to share office space with the 1st floor laundry and the dog crates.

late to the party, as usual, and it's only the 9th of the month! Love the progress, and the beagle theme (Beagles and buckhead!). ;)

Joyce, what is the color of your siding? Stained, or painted? We are also doing Craftsman, and I'm having a huge time trying to figure it out! It's not like paint where you can buy little $5 cans...you have to buy the $30 can for each color! It looks beautiful, whatever it is!

3 sons, absolutely love the island! Have you posted it in kitchens? They'd go crazy over it!

Lezli, can't believe that happened to you! I'm so sorry! Best of luck with the removal/rewiring!

Deb and Downsy, that's too funny! I grew up in Hixson! My parents still live there, except they're away right now, and hopefully their house didn't suffer too much damage. They're out of the country till end of May. I'm in CA now, but I brought the kids back a year or two ago, and they had the best time! Have you guys checked out Dalton, GA for flooring/carpeting? I'm thinking of sending my mother out there, to pick up better deals, but I don't know if it's really worth it. Any thoughts?

Meeting with builder tomorow, will try to snap some photos! Buckhead, I'm so jealous...I think you're pulling ahead of me! When are you going to be done? We're supposed to be in by beginning of July, but I'm beginning to doubt it...

Junior: The siding is Certainteed Impression, and the color is Cedar Blend. No paint involved. Lifetime guarantee against fading, so hope we never have to paint. Was interesting watching them install. Each piece has a temperature gauge, and that determines how each piece is overlapped. I'm pretty ignorant on most things related to the build, but found that interesting.

I guess our house is a little bit Craftsman, and a little bit country! :-)It's quite modest. We put most of the money into geothermal, and quite a bit recovering from the water problem. Took a couple pics last night.

Joyce, omg, gorgeous staircase! Will have to steal that as well! My window trim/casing looks very similar, so I'm happy that I'm on the right track...the builder did a little experimenting, and I chose it, after imput from friends and family. I would have loved geothermal, but with building on a slope, and all the excavation we already did, I didn't want another potential headache. Beautiful home, Joyce!

Juniork - Wow - its hard to belive that 2 webbers are in (or from) my neck of the woods. Your parents home is probably fine - only a few areas in Hixson were hit by tornadoes. I will probably look at flooring in Dalton to compare prices. My builder uses a place in Rossville or Ringgold called Hanks - so I'll check them out.

We're building a french country/european style home with some craftsman influences!

I completely understand the paint color dilemma. I take my camera with me when we drive around and take photos of house colors we like. Then I hold the paint deck up next to the photo trying to get a close match!

I'm way ahead of the game - planning out everything and we don't even close on our construction loan till next Monday!

Downsy, that sounds beautiful! Please definitely post if you find out that Dalton prices beat what you can find locally. Since they're the carpet/flooring capital of the country, I'm betting that they'll be ok shipping to other places, and that their prices would be significantly better. You really ARE ahead of the game!

Juniork - wow, cool..another person from near here. I haven't heard much about Hixson as far as tornado damage, so hopefully all is well. My builder also uses Hank's Carpet in Tunnel Hill near Dalton, so that is what we went with..they had some good deals I think. I know my Mother-in-Law actually had carpet ordered from Dalton from out of state once just to find some specialty carpet.

joyce - your home looks gorgeous

It's the usual ups and downs here. Somethings are finally getting moving towards complete (well soon, septic soon, siding soon), it seems like so many things have been stalled for so long at 50-75%.

The well hole thawed at least... but also caved in. And seriously my clay can hold water like nobodies business.

Stalled upstairs bath

The tile is moving right along and we have at least one room floored.

Yellow pine, eventually to be sanded and painted white.

Granted I'm doing a lot of the interior work so that is going rather slowly. Window trims are being built, beams are just about ready to be hung. I couldn't resist a quick mockup of my kitchen beam with lights for over the sink.

joyce---OMG I love your foyer and great room!!! We are trying to come up with a rambler plan and I am having trouble with how open it is. I love the woodwork you have done before entering the great room, sort of seperating it and making it its own room. Wow--I will be watching to see all of your pics!!

Brickton - love your shower!

Love the beams and lights Brickton!

Everyone's looks so grand!

With my parent's modest house, the brick is almost done. Maybe a few more days at most. We are so relieved that the brick looks like what we wanted. We think our mason is doing an excellent job blending all the bricks and working with dark mortar.

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They are not happy with the way the dormers look, so next week will be experimenting with other ideas. They have thought about painting the sides the same color as the roof, changing the sides out to siding either running vertical or horizontal, etc.

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They are moving fast on our house..they had columns up yesterday..they aren't done though because we're going to have a base with stone around the bottom..they also had put up our exterior lights..not sure when I'll ever get our craftsman style door

We are hoping things start moving quickly! We have to be out of our rental by June 15th. It looks like we will probably be a couple of weeks short of finishing when we need to move, so we will probably have to store our junk. Our landlord is not being very cooperative!

They finished the exterior this week (traditional stucco).

They have started tiling.

Beautiful Homes everyone!!!
Our snail pace has picked up since the nice spring weather is co-operating. The lot is nice and dry again...no mud!
The basement stained concrete is poured. HVAC rough ins is completed. Plumbing rough ins almost done. Electrical... well is coming along. We have exterior pots wired. So we are ready for exterior finishing soon! Yay!
Now the basement framing is started too.

The big rock on the left of the picture was dug up from the front of the house. Its a little over seven feet tall.

The floor without sealer coats.

Wow...reading everyone's progress is such fun!
I really need to post pics...things are blazing along at our house. Our front doors are in, the hardwood floors have been laid (but not sanded or finished yet) and the tiler is working right now. Both of my children's baths are finished, and they are starting the laundry and master bath tomorrow. I am so excited! Oh, and we chose the paint color for our brick!! Eider white, by SW. I will post pics tomorrow.

Love all the new progress!
Our house was getting sod yesterday and the stone was put on our columns and fireplace..carpet going in as well. Our granite comes this afternoon..can't wait for that!

Deb1211,
I love your paint choices. Do you mind sharing?

Hi Yellowdog..thanks! We have Sherwin Williams colors.
Family room:Blonde
Dining: Red Cent
Foyer,halls: Whole Wheat
Upstairs playroom is Whole Wheat on top, Garden Sage on bottom. I also used Garden Sage for the guest room..it is gorgeous!
Girls room: Teaberry on top; Awesome Violet on bottom
Master: Latte (not sure I have a pic of that on here)
Master Bath: Rainwashed (another gorgeous color)

Thank you Deb. Your house is coming along so beautifully. (as are all the others!) It is time for me to dream about paint and your choices are warm and lovely. Thanks for your help!

Looks like May has come to a close. We are officially moved in, and the old house (which we refer to as "The Big House"), is all cleaned and keys turned over to new owner. :-) Need I say I'm exhausted!! But we are so very pleased with our new home and the location.

Now the job of putting everything away, and getting organized. We gave many rooms of furniture to the new owners of the Big House, but we're still finding it difficult to find a place for everything. Garage is a sea of boxes.

On a very positive note, the geothermal system is working great. It was 90 degrees with high humidity here yesterday, but it was cool and comfortable in the house. We have the thermostat set at 70 during the day, and 64 at night. Has no trouble keeping up with these stiffling temps and humidity. The unit is also extremely quiet.

The only issue still remaining is our front door. It's a mission style, 8 foot fiberglass door with mission glass. The stain color just seems off to me, and not consistent. I'm suspicious he used regular stain instead of gel stain. I've already had him refinish it once, and I'm reluctant to have him do it again. I've sent a note to the builder that I'm not too happy with the door. At the Big House, we had a stained fiberglass door at our back entrance that was perfect, so I know it can be done. Keeping my fingers crossed the builder comes up with a good solution.

Good luck to those of you still under construction.

Mrswaves this is the 2011 MAY progress thread... try posting in May 2018 thread.

I was wondering how come these pictures looked like my old home :)

Still waiting on plumbing rough in....

Wrong thread clfbmp. This one is from 2011.