busymombuilder, I felt the same way. I was just sure I'd be able to post that we had broken ground. No such luck. Our closing has been moved to Friday. However, the builder is already pulling permits and doing the tree survey, so hopefully, he'll be ready to go right after that.

We've moved in! We moved in May 1, and I'm finally getting around to posting some pics. There are still lots of things to do- some touch up painting, exterior trim paint, no mirrors in the bathrooms, etc. It's all coming along. Grass was planted 10 days ago and is coming in (pics were taken before). I plan to take some detailed pics eventually and post separately. I've found so many posts helpful in the past, even if it was just one pic in a thread that gave an idea. I'll post details later. I know that when I searched GW multiple times, I was always glad to find someones pics and experience with a product or style.
As for some of the specs:
Owner-builder for 3350 sq feet + basement, prefinished hardieplank, mahogany and azek trim front porch, fiberglass columns, Eldorado limestone York cultured stone, maple hardwood (custom stain), Kraftmaid cabinets in kitchen, "tropical brown" granite.

We broke ground end of March. Things have been moving along at a great pace. This picture was taken last week. Brick started going up today.

Paketa wins for most progress in time period! WOW! I know that all kinds of contruction methods, materials, locations, permit processes, etc are described here, so I won't cry myself to sleep tonight. However, I AM ENVIOUS!

Wow Fish-- looks great! I have lots of questions about floor, paint color and trim but will wait for your details post.

Hope you are enjoying your beautiful new home :)

Work is continuing on the outside & all of the sheetrock was delivered yesterday. My kids were amazed watching the cranes lift it up into the house.

So much more work to do & lots of decisions to be made but we are getting excited.
Hope the warm weather brings quick progress to everyone!

House Exterior:

Back View of House- Lots of dirt to be moved yet & retaining walls to built. The basement will be a walk out & there will be a tiered patio/terace across the DR & Kitchen french doors:

View of the Basement from the Walk Out Slider:

Wow, everyone is making great progress. I'm green with envy.

Paketa, I love what I see so far. I hope you keep posting pictures.

Fish, that's an amazing entry you've got there.

Kristinva, what a nice classic farmhouse design.

We've got a little progress to report. The wood floors and in and stained:

There's tile in the mudroom:

And the front door is in- not stained yet. It's covered in plastic so not the greatest pic.

Hoping I can post in July but the date keeps moving out there. We are still working on the contract and specs with the GC. Contract is now with our lawyer for review. Hoping that the work we are putting in upfront will benefit us during the build. We do have a building permit and a dirt pad to build on. Our home is much smaller 2,300 sq ft so I'm hoping it will go up quicker.

KristinVA - Great stately countryside home!

Ace of Diamonds - We're in SW Texas so it looks like we will both be starting our build in the Texas heat.

Kayak Boy - Our architect travelled some and it slowed down our plans but looking back we were glad we had the extra time for our plans to steep.

Pamelah - Wow! And you like us are just at the start of hurricane season.

Busy Mom Builder - Also, from the midwest but have lived 34 years in SW Texas and it really is hot here today

Fish 7577 - I too feel like I discovered a treasure trove in GW. Lovely home - anxious to see all the details.

Paketa - Yours is really moving on.

Crescent50 - Like your column on the front porch and exterior colors

PPS7 - Wood floor looks gorgeous

My first post!! I've been following others' progress for many months, and enjoying seeing these beautiful homes take shape.

Like others here, we are building a 2900' ranch in a small village in the midwest. We are empty nesters, in our 60s. We are taking a chance and starting the process before our current home is sold, although we have a very serious candidate. I'm a bit nervous, but DH (and the bank) insist it is ok. We met with the builder just yesterday, so have no idea what the eventual cost will be. Here are a couple pics of our lot. Just on the edge of town, and walking distance to golf course, club house, pool, etc. Grandkids will love it!

Our property on the left.

Our property on the right.

Golf cart path on our property line.

I am very envious of all the progress, though I hope to be a contributing poster next month, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

PPS7 --- I am in LOVE with your wood floors --- what are they, width, etc? They are gorgeous!

crescent: it's so beautiful! your stone is looking wonderful but i can't see enough of it! i want a bigger, closer shot. so if you're not too busy... (i know, you're busy!)

pps7: LOVING your floors! they're beautiful. can't wait to see more!

as for me, i'm ordering $100,000,000.01 worth of lighting. oh, and the laundry room cabinets came in today. hoooooooooooooo-ray.

First build post!

Grade beams are in. Voids are set. Plumbing is roughed in. Time will tell if the suspended structural foundation was the way to go.

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I don't have my latest pics on the computer yet, so won't post any today. BUT, we broke ground in mid-April and they finished decking the roof today. Windows and shingles were also delivered today. We're supposed to be in the dry by the middle of next week. Woohoo!!

Our builder expects to be done by August 1 (although he did say to give him a couple of weeks wiggle room when locking in for our mortgage). This sounds way faster than most--he's only got 2 houses going right now, so I guess maybe that's the reason.

Vonda

We love the floors too! It's our big splurge for the house.

They are carlisle eastern pine in 8-12" width in the sturbridge brown stain with satin tung oil.

I hope everyone is well and progressing with your builds. We're well into our tenth month and hope to be done before too long.

We now have a front door(not the one we ordered but it will do). We've also had our gutters installed. More tile work in bathrooms and beams in the great room are mostly installed. A lot of trim installed and some paint base coat. Working on sprinkler system and wing walls for the drive entrances. Garage doors are scheduled for tomorrow and kitchen cabinets and some other built-ins due next week.

The wide angle lens kind of squashes the rooms and the tile is really hard to get a good photo of what it really looks like.

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i thought i had walked into someone else's house today because magically ...most of the first floor flooring went down! and i remembered why the 27 new homes i looked at before deciding to build wouldn't cut it. the floors are magnificent. i can't wait to see them finished! and if that weren't enough, they delivered and installed our front door, the service entry door and the side door. to add to the excitement: while the side door was being installed a baby bird decided to take flight from the nest housed directly overhead ...and fell right onto the concrete. not knowing what to do, the installer just stood there. all of a sudden he just got up and flew away!

today felt different. dare i say it? i think we're rolling!

Ramor, Looking fantastic.. Congrats on the great progress. You can see that light at the end of that long tunnel I bet! Love the lake /pond view

Everyone's progress is looking great. Fish, a very gorgeous looking house! pps7 I must agree with all, great looking floors.

Good progress until about two weeks ago...now sloooooow. Its so funny how subs magically disappear when they get paid. Cabinet guy was johnny on the spot getting those cabinets built and set, GC paid him, and now he's almost fallen off the earth (we need him to fix a few things). Sigh.

Brick turned out nice

Kitchen and our many arches

Entertainment center

Kitchen cabinets

Painting ceiling and trim today, hopefully staining cabinets soon. Picking out granite tomorrow.

Waiting on plan approval from the city. We met with the builder today to start exterior product choices. We have picked out the stone and grout, exterior light fixtures, front door, windows and garage doors. We now brought home samples of stucco and exterior paint. Oh, the agony of choosing colors! It was hard enough choosing what color to paint our existing home to sell. Our builder jokingly offered me a job to make material choices on some of their other builds. Evidentally, they have never had someone do as much research on choices before. Thank you garden web - you have blossomed out my natural tendencies!

Almost finished with brick... still have to brick along bottom over exposed concrete and around garage. Sheetrock is being delivered on Monday.

We are 16 months into our build here in Northern Calif and I am hopefully a few weeks from moving in...finally. I am trying to stay patient, but am so tired of details, dealing with difficult people and living with my mom, that I am at the point where I may need to be medicated for the last few days. I shudder to think of the 10 huge containers that were stored away 16 months ago and will be delivered and opened, and all our junk will come pouring out--if we didn't need it these past 16 months, don't you think it's probably junk? :)

We took down a rancher house to the foundation and rebuilt everything, including expanding by 1,000 sf, for a total of 3,700.

twolabs and paketa-brick looks good.

firsthouse- your home is beautiful!!! I love your kitchen and fireplaces.

Firsthouse -- love your home. Your kitchen is gorgeous with all that natural light and beautiful cabinetry. Nice job so far! We have a ton in storage too and I also shudder to think of finding homes for all that stuff!

We are progressing, albeit slowly! Doesn't seem like much has happened in the last month. Kitchen counters will go in this week and driveway should be completed as well as back patio started. More interior painting will be done and some interior stone should be started. We've had a hiccup with our interior doors so our projected move-in date is mid-July. We started on November 1. We are in southeast South Dakota. This is a 3100 sq foot ranch with walkout.

Family room fireplace (will be stone)

Kitchen:
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Dining room:

Pocket office:

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DH's study:

Master Bath:

Basement kitchenette/wet bar:

Basement bathroom:

Kitchen backsplash sneak peek:

Exterior nichiha shakes and elderado stone:

First house - Love the white kitchen the sliding doors.

Paketa - Exterior with brick looks great.

Shelly K - Eldorado stone looks fantastic with the grey shakes. Anxious to see the fireplace with stone on it. Like the cabinets being the same style thruout.

Everyone's progress looks great. Backyard photos below:

shelly! everything looks phenomenal! ...is that olive grove you have paired with your nichiha? looks greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!

Thanks, Kate... Yes! That is olive grove!

sweet! thanks so much for posting! now i know for SURE mine will look good! ...i kind of knew the whole time, but you know how it goes. there's always this nagging doubt! waiting for our kitchen cabs to be delivered today, along with more flooring...

Shelly, could you please tell me what your floor are in your basement bath. Are they stained concrete? Just wondering bc we have stained concrete in our basement, and I'm kind of wondering about how they were finished.

Thanks!

Gobruno -- the floor is stained concrete. I believe it is that common stain called "cola". The sealer right now is the glossy, but I think I will have him do the satin sealer as a final finish. I feel like the glossy coat will really show dust and dirt more and hopefully the satin won't have as much sheen.

Let me know if you have any other questions...

Kate --we got the colors from you! :) Glad you can now see them up close!

Shelly, I love everything- gray shakes, stone, dark wood cabinets. My interior doors are in-they are very similar to yours, I love them! Trim is going in today. Can't wait for the cabinets. When are you scheduled to move in? You seem a couple of weeks ahead of us.

Is your entire basement stained or just the bath? We are staining the entire basement and back patio. I love the cola color but worry it will be too dark. Especially in the basement. I wonder if they can do "cola light" :)

Shelly, thanks for the information. So, sorry to bug you for more detail, but is the sealer an acrylic sealer? Do you know how it was applied? Our color is a custom blend, and we really like it. It was sealed with acrylic, and we've noticed that it is prone to scuffing. I'm wondering if there would have been a better way to finish it. There is a coffee shop by our house that we go to that has a stained concrete floor, and the finish of it is glossy (kind of looks like your picture). Anyway, the finish looks like it is part of the concrete, if that makes sense. Our finish looks more like it is there, as if it is a coat of clear acrylic. I can basically tell that there is a coat of something on the floor. Is that how your is? Just wondering. Does yours scuff?

Thanks!

Everyone's homes are looking great. Can't wait to get started on ours. Have to sell the current one first.

first house,

Love your fireplaces! I've planned something similar in stained concrete. I also really like the darker floor inset in the sunken area. However, I really love the sliding doors. Could you share more info on them?

pps -- we have two small bathrooms in the basement that have concrete floors and then also the kitchenette area and behind the barstools a little bit. And also the walkout area where we come in from the outside.

We are doing concrete in our mudroom upstairs as well, although it is not acid stained. Not exactly sure what it is, but more of a dyed base color and then other colors are added on top -- there is more control over what happens with this process than the acid staining.

Gobruno -- I am not sure what our sealer is, but it does seem to be part of the floor and not something that is on top of the concrete. It doesn't look like it will scuff, but it's mostly been covered since it's been done so I can't say for sure.

Home again: The sliders are custom done, each 5' wide. They were made a company called McFarlane Door, but I ordered them through my local door company. Originally, I had wanted them to both slide backwards and disappear into a pocket, but it proved to be too pricey. So they are just bypass sliders. I also have a screen door which is not currently installed yet that looks just like one of the doors with windows, but has screen instead of panes. They were $8,200 and a huge portion of my window budget, but they are the main artistic focus of my modern farmhouse theme.

Here are the inspiration pics:

pps7 -- we are hoping for July 15 move in, but our GC isn't committing to that. It really depends on how fast the painter is and he isn't fast. So it could be end of July. Our lease in our rental is up at end of July so we really hope it's before then!

Our trim is up and the basement trim and doors are painted, but they are just starting on painting the upstairs trim. The last of the granite comes in on Friday. So we have paint, interior stone, carpet and light left. It seems like alot to get done in 4 weeks... I'm so ready to be done!

When are you scheduled to be in?

Lots of progress this week:

Media Room

Media Ceiling inset with fiberoptic lights

front left (austin/oklahoma stone being added)

dining room

somewhere

Here's an exterior shot of our "Little House on the Prairie"

http://www.photojro.com/p1051112312/h33865dbc#h33865dbc

Will have interior shots of sheetrocked walls after this weekend.

Broke ground in January - hope to be moving in in August.

Link to photos of the process so far below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vit Hus photo blog

Taping has begun:

Here is a link that might be useful: The rest of today's photos start here

We're building a bungalow style house in Arlington, Virginia (near DC).

The builder is installing interior casework around windows and cased openings, with baseboard and other trim to begin soon. This is our dining room.

This will be our masterbath with a clawfoot tub. We put windows up high so we get the benefit of natural light without having to put coverings over them.

Bead board ceiling over our front porch. To stain or to paint? Hmmm?

We've broken ground and things are moving along nicely. Building a small ranch in the midwest. We're 15 days in.

This is a photo from the rear of the home looking out to the front.

Latest picture of our house exterior. We are waiting for some trim and have more work to do on the porch/terrace (rails, stairs).
We also have to decide on a stain/paint color for the front door.

Any opinions? The porch floor is mahogany & the door will get grills in the transoms but I am unsure how to finish it- maybe black or just stain it to match the floor??

Also, does anyone have any opinions on how to finish off the bottom of the porch? Builder says he could do stone or traditional trellis?

Crescent50 -- your home is beautiful!! I love the stone and the style of the exterior. I would do stone on the bottom of the porch.

Tooskinee - your house is so adorable from the outside. Love it.

Our neighbor loaned out her camera, but she found another one, so we got some new pix, yesterday.

This picture really shows the Dutch gable and how the shakes will flare over the stone:

Boy, are we happy with how the red dirt "complements" the shakes: (ggg)

This picture is from the neighbor's property. As it was going up, they were a little concerned that our house looked too large & close. They also weren't that sure about the white trim. She said that once the shakes started to go on, the house gives the appearance of disappearing into the trees. YAY!!!

Very happy, so far.

Jo Ann

Exterior:

Courtyard between garages:

Shelly, we liked your cabinet stain and curious to know what stain you used and were those custom or stock cabinetry?
Halfway up stairs looking into study:

Left Front:

Guest Bathroom:

Location of wineroom under stairs:

Baseboards:

Kids' Bathroom:

Kitchen:

Another guest bathroom:

Ravi -- our upstairs cabinets are Crestwood and they are semi-custom with an espresso stain. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the prompt reply. We love your dark rich stain on the cabinetry.

@firsthouse: What is the material that you have used to surface the fireplace with the flush hearth?
It appears that you may have used some type of stone tiles, but on the bottom I'm not sure, as it looks to be a solid piece? Polished concrete perhaps? Venetian plaster?
About to start building, and my wife has this idea that fireplace can be surfaced in polished concrete. I've told her she is crazy, but you may be proving me wrong.