Montana - fantastic view! Lovely home - looking forward to seeing more as it completes. & ours was a mud-fest - just didn't post pics of that, or the vandalism when broken glass was everywhere tracked all through the house, even though it was just sub-flooring..... Can I join My3 & Buck to visit? I'll bring the Bubbly....

Alto - like your new neighbors! ;) Fawns are so cute - even though they grow up to be wild Hosta munchers like their parents.

Peyton great to hear. Hope to echo your sentiments this time next year!

Mythreesons, please kindly tell me the dimensions of your master vanity. It looks like what I want, but I can't quite explain it to DH. We have 60 inches total for the bottom cabs and I think I'd like 9" or 12" wall cabs on either side of the sink.

Everyone's progress looks fabulous. We've just had our footings poured, so nothing interesting to photograph.

function first : My parents have a similar setup in their bathroom (at least my mother does in her portion of the bathroom). Her vanity is 5 feet. She bumped the sink out a little and more importantly used much shallower cabinets on either side of her sink. It doesn't looked cramped but it does "feel" a little cramped according to her. I think using the shallower cabinets gives a little more room and makes it feel less boxed in. They are probably standard upper cabinet depth - just brought to the counter.

Here is a picture - hope that helps!

functionfirst ---the vanity cabinets are about 6' long and the ones on top are about 18" wide each, leaving about 36" in the center for the sink base. I would not like the set up if this was my only space, but I have a separate little "make-up" area to lay more stuff out. The other thing I would say about it...They put the base in and it was like that for so long before all of the countertops and other stuff went in that I got used to the nice long vanity. It was nice. The day they were putting the upper cabinets on, I considered having them keep them off. In the end, we put them on, and now I like it (given the extra little vanity space), but I am 50/50 about recommending it since I haven't used it yet. I do, however, really like that my mess on the sink can just be stored in the closed cabs instead of all over my sink... but, we'll see how it all works in real life!

Such beautiful houses! We're waiting for permits and then should start digging in a few weeks!

mcg1245: where are you located? I ask because you mentioned Schuemaker and Wayne who advertised heavily here in NE Ohio where we live.

We opted to go for a local custom builder, Charis Homes. We found them by visiting every open house in the area for several years. We were always impressed with their quality, and the three things that really won us over to them were:
1. the fact that they do 'dusty shoe open houses' where they open up the houses to potential buyers during construction so you can see HOW they build. the owner can see the house at any point in the construction (not all builders allow this). they only do a few houses a year, so there is lots of personal attention.

2. We wanted a house built with green and universal design choices, which they specialize in. We are going for LEED certification and they are happy to work toward that goal.

3. Most importantly, we talked to at least 10 owners and about that many vendors. NO ONE had a single complaint about them. That sold us.

Use the models and parades to find builders whose quality you admire. Ask for names and numbers of owners you can interview and ask questions like, 'Did you enjoy the process?' 'What would you do differently?' 'Would you build with them again?' Make a wish list of what you want in a home, and look for a builder who is excited about all the things that make it custom to you.

Here is a link that might be useful: de Jong Dream House

athens and mythreesons, thanks very much. I'm thinking of the same look that your mother has, athens, and mythree... I feel that 9" cabs on either side of the 60" vanity will provide enough space for for me for things like deod., makeup and my travel-sized hair dryer (why use anything bigger). The picture helped a lot, athens. It was very thoughtful of you to post it in the midst of your own build.

You are welcome. Not sure where my mom has her hairdryer? Maybe in one of the upper cabinets but also maybe in a lower drawer. Wherever it is there is a plug and she keeps her curling iron in there too . . . Glad it helped!!!

ICFgreen-
I commend you on your attempts to build an efficient house and live a sustainable life style. However I do question your desire for LEED certification. While every design I do I strive for the most efficient and sustainable building I can do, however I rarely push the client for LEED certification. My firm does have a LEED gold certified building, as well as a couple others in the works. However, especially for a home, I really do not understand why you would certify it. Getting your points can be costly, and often times, added things to the building the owner may not even need just for a point or 2. I always recommend you use the LEED guidelines to build your house too, but save the massive expense and time of actually certifying it. Trust me, it does cost you a lot more for nothing in return. The amount of time you and your architect will have to put in for paper work, commissioning, etc will astound you. I recommend using LEED as a reference, but skip the certification step. However if it is something you really want, then by all means!
Next is your ICF. I skimmed your blog, and you did a great job researching your products to use. However you discuss the efficiency of ICF construction. I would recommend more research on that area of ICF. Reading non-bias test results might surprise you (check out Building Science website for example). Most ICF makers will claim r ratings in the 40s up to 60s. True results, especially in heat dominated climates, will be half that. I am not knocking ICF at all, in fact my house will be ICF. ICF produces a super tight structure, very strong and quiet house. I am in tornado alley, yet want a tight structure (air infiltration is your enemy). Those are the reasons I am doing it. If I was after high R (say r30+, you can easily hit that with wood frame construction or better yet, SIPs and save a big chuck of change. Your ICF wall will never perform above an r-25-30 at best in your climate. However there are systems that allow for more EPS foam in the forms. I am using Hobbs forms. They are one of the highest r rated systems at around r-30, but also use 20-30% less concrete. In heat dominated areas, EPS is more your friend then concrete in a foam-mass-foam scenario.
Anyway, sorry to slightly derail the thread, but just wanted to throw some additional information for you to ponder and research. Best of luck on your new build, you will certainly enjoy the benefits of your type of construction.

The garage slab is now finished and about 90% of foundation (building on crawlspace)

Very excited to be posting on this thread! We are zipping along here . . . we broke ground March 24th and our builder is planning to have us in by Christmas! Lots of decisions to make very quickly! Thankfully we were held up a bit by appraisal issues so we had time to think things through a bit. It should come in handy!

We had to do more clearing than expected in the front to even out the artifical berm that was created when the road came in and had to cut down the front yard some so the house would be above street level. Thankfully, there were very few decent trees in the front yard - mostly scrub pines and dead wood. I think we had to take out an oak and a poplar and that was it . . . the upside is that we have a great football yard! Hopefully we can landscape to transition from the woods to the lawn so it looks more integrated into the landscape - at least that is the plan!

Here is the front - the long "windows" on the front and on the right side are actually french doors with 4 single lights on either side and a panel at the bottom. The garage and friends entrance are on the right.

Here is the garage.

Here is the right side. That blank area above the french doors will actually be a "false" window with shutters that are permanently closed to even out the facade. That is a bedroom with windows on one wall and we couldn't get a window on that wall without making it very off center in the room and throwing off the bed wall.

Standing on the front porch looking through to the rear of the house.

Den french doors.

View from den.

View from screened porch.

View from master bedroom.

View into den from kitchen. The fireplace header is crooked because they had to cut it to put in the steel support for the Isokern fireplace. They haven't reattached it!

Den french doors.

Hopefully next month we will have a roof and windows!

We have plumbing and HVAC going in! If you didn't see my other post, we also did the electrical walk-through, but I'm not sure they've started actually running electrical yet.

But exciting news, our stone is going up! (partial stone on front of our house.) And apparently our front door is in our garage. I didn't get to see it today (knee problems) but my husband and MIL went, and brought back pictures. So I had to share!

Front door (it's going to be painted black):

Stone:

I go to meet the builder on Tuesday for our weekly site meeting, so I'm looking forward to lots more progress. My parents house is getting 2nd floor framing this week. And finally, my Mom seemed excited when we walked through on Friday. I don't think it felt "real" until she got to see her ginormous kitchen and dining room with the framing up.

Does anyone else have weekly site meetings with their builder at this stage??

ICF, we are looking to build in the Northeast Columbus area and Schumacher and Wayne are all over the place. There are several other builders we have been looking into so I am sure we will find one that is very good. I will definately be asking for their recently built list to call some of the cusotmers. Thanks for the info.

So glad to see you all here! Athens, I didn't know you were so far along already! It looks great, and I remember from your elevations, just how beautiful it is going to be! Can't wait to follow!

This month is flying by... our floors are getting finished beginning tomorrow. Can't wait to see that as they have gotten so dirty and dusty over the past few unfinished months.

See you all next month!

Love seeing all the pretty new homes!

We closed on our house on 5/27. We've had a few things that needed fixing and are still waiting on a few things (we have no back light on our fan, etc), but moving has been a big pain with no family nearby to help and little ones to manage. Our garage is still full despite my constant efforts to clear it.

Wow Deb, it turned out great!!! Congratulations! Wishing you all the best with finishing up moving in!

Looks great everyone! Deb - do you remember the manufacturer/color of your roof? We are looking at shingles now and our architect recommended the Certainteed Independence which is very busy looking to me. I am thinking more along the lines of what you have - simple architectural shingle in a dark charcoal. It is so hard to tell from a tiny sample but I like yours!

Thanks!

And mythreesonsnc - yes we are zipping along! We broke ground March 24th. Grading took longer (and was more expensive) than expected because they hit lots of rock. In fact, our builder said it was a good thing the house was no closer to the street than it was because they would have been in "dynamite city." As it was, the loader patiently scraped away at the rock and they hauled lots of it off. We still have probably 75 rocks that we will use to transition from the woods to lawn in the back (they are behind the silt fence now and some are MASSIVE)!

Our build is absolutely FLYING right now. The builder seems to have caught the subs all at a good time...as of today, the trim and all of the built-ins are pretty much finished, the cabinets are installed, my marble in installed in kitchen and master, granite in the secondary baths and laundry, baths and laundry are all tiled, showers and tubs surrounds, tiled and hardwoods are down. The painters have primed my exterior brick...so I can get a little peek at how it will look when finished, and the interior is getting primed now. They are almost working too fast...our lease doesn't end until September and we may be in before that if this keeps up! They templated for my black walnut island top yesterday...I am sooo excited to see that!

nini804- would love to see pictures! We are painting our brick also (what color are you painting yours and what brick did you use?) and are doing marble with a walnut island . . . we must have similar tastes!

It sounds like you will be in before September at that rate! Might be nice not to have to scramble to move right at the end though . . .

Deb, your house looks gorgeous! Congratulations!

Deb, looks awesome. Two questions for you if you don't mind. I am assuming it is your dining room (6th pic). I love the paint color, mind sharing the name? Also, I love the look of the white raised panel in that room. Is that some type raised panel wainsocat? I have seen that before, but I don't know what they call it. I also love the subtle detail in the pic below it of the dog sleeping in its bed and the child watching the dog, looks right at home. Enjoy the home!

lzerarc, thanks for all the good info. The hubs is the ICF expert, so I'll pass your thoughts on to him. (He writes all the techy posts and I write the girly home-making ones). I live with a brain injury, so ICF was really the only choice for me. I need a QUIET home! :-) My hubby is from the Netherlands, and the idea of building a house with anything other than cement was out of the question for him. That we'll have a tigher, more enery efficient house is just icing on the cake!

As far as LEED, our builder has won several awards for green building, and since our city doesn't have a LEED certified home, they'd love to be the first. So if we proceed with it, they will be taking on the mounds of paperwork and funds. Either way, we are following as many recommendations that we can, just because it makes good sense. We are definitely having some conversations now about what we really need/want to do, and what really isn't going to give us most extra because of the other things we're doing.

Deb,
your home is just beautiful. I am insanely jealous that we haven't even dug that first shovel of dirt!

CurvvyGirl, I LOVE your door!!

We are seeing changes each day - the basement foundation was poured last Friday and they will start framing tomorrow. We finished an evening meeting with the builder to make sure he was aware of some changes I made in window sizes when I met with the supplier and a few other changes before framing starts. I will try to post photos when there is something more to see than concrete!

Deb - your house looks fantastic and I'm anxious to hear the roof color too. Also I remember you said the name and color of the brick and stone in another thread but would you mind mentioning it again. I like the Old Century style of stone, but your color is similar to what I want and your brick looks great with it.

I'm enjoying watching everyone's progress.

Hi Athensmom! We chose a Sherwin Williams color called "Eider White"...it is turning out a little whiter than we had thought, we were going for a taupey-grey white. I will post a pic when the paint is finished...it is just primer right now. It was such a hard decision! I can't remember the name of my brick...there is a pic of it on the March or April post before paint.

We must have similar taste! I love seeing your house, I remember you posting the renderings and how exciting to see the framing! It is going to be lovely, you must be so thrilled. My walnut will be installed in 3 weeks...I will definitely post a pic!

Deb-
I love the color of your cabinets! one of the few colors we are also tossing around. I also like the red and the white in the dining room. people can be so affraid to use color...that just looks great. Nice ceiling detail in the master too. You should have added some LED...ahum....."mood"......lighting up there though ;)
bet it feels great to be in finally.

Hey Everyone, We are almost finished with our house plan. We hired a designer and took a home from FrankBetz and change several areas to make it our own.

We submitted the grading plan to the county for review so we can start working on getting the drainfield designed and a well drilled. Once we get the final plans, we will submit to contractors for prices. We got preliminary prices...so it may be a go ahead.

I am going to try and set up a blog...so that I can share our new home building!!!

Everyone's homes look so beautiful.

Wow, I wrote a huge post and my son fell right before I was finished and I thought I posted it but I guess I never did..ugh..

Thanks everyone for the house compliments! It was a stressful journey but worth it even though we have a few outstanding things..
AthensMom- Luckily I was anal about taking pics and have a pic of the stack of boxed roof shingles..so I can tell you it's Tamko Heritage 30 in Rustic Black.

Nini - glad your building is moving along so well. That is what ours did and it was hard to stay on top of them but we ended up visiting daily towards the ending.

JM - the color is Red Cent by Sherwin Williams..a mid-range terra cotta. It went on a bit orange during the tinted primer phase and I got nervous but it really toned down to a nice shade after 2 coats. I get the most compliments on that color despite my early reservations about it. On and the molding is called shadow box style..our builder uses a company who makes their own molding, but you can reproduce the same look yourself at Lowes etc..my hubby did all our molding in our old house in Maryland.

ICM- I was jealous for awhile on this thread myself!

Downsy - Our brick is Brentwood by Boral and our stone is Westchester by Horizon. I really love how they turned out. We had buff mortar on the brick. I was going for a warm look.

lzerarc- Funny about the mood lights..between having 3 kids, including 1 who often ends up in our bed and a hubby who goes to bed like 7:30-8pm and gets up at 3am, there isn't much need for mood lighting, although I wouldn't have minded a fourth baby ;) but DH won't go for that I'm afraid.

Jean - good idea about the blog

I think the brick is fully painted now...the color is called "Eider White." It turned out whiter than it looked on the card and on the samples we painted. We are fine with it, but wanted to warn Athensmom and others that may be painting brick. It will look lots better when the doors are stained and the shutters are on the house. We are doing fully operable, louvered shutters.

I am enjoying seeing everyone's homes! I go in mine several times a week...sometimes I just sit on the staircase and marvel! Today dh caught me fondling the hardware on my island! ;)

We are just getting our lot ready now, but footings are going in tomorrow! Very excited about this process!

nini - it looks beautiful! And the shutters will make it even prettier :) I LOVE a painted brick house and yours just confirms my decision.

We haven't started the color process yet but our windows are Kolbe Natural Cotton - very similar but slightly lighter than SW Wool Skein. One color that has been recommended to us is Relaxed Khaki which looks so dark and, um, khaki! If it lightens up on the house it might work. I am also thinking about pushing it towards a taupier color - I'll have to play around with it. Relaxed Khaki is as dark as I would go though . . .

ImaCurvyGirl,

I like the rock on your home. What is it called?

Everyone is making such great progress! Very exciting!!! Our foundation is now in and framing is underway...

Thanks, CCinTX! The stone is called Timber Ridge and is available in both building stone and thin stone. We were really unsure about what to choose because we wanted texture, but DH wanted "color". So we decided to "see" the color as a kind of texture, and so far are really happy. It's a little hard to see but it's a mix of reds, coppers, grays, tans, and blacks. We can't wait to see it with mortar, and then washed of all the dirt. Here are a couple of more pictures of the almost finished front!

DH went crazy when he saw the "wall" next to the front door. He almost couldn't contain his excitement over it!

It's really neat for us because we get to see all the work happening on our house, then three weeks later, on my parents' house. Then I get to come here and see all of yours! So much fun!!

Sorry to be so long in replying to everyone's responses - we took a much needed vacation to Montreal last week. Not that they don't have Internet in Canada but I really wanted to take a break from all things building related. Now I'm back, refreshed and ready to start again.

Yes, Buckhead Billy, Mythreesonsnc, Wwwonderwhiskers, Peytonroad and anyone too shy to ask -- you can come anytime you want, especially if you show up with champagne!

We drove from Washington to Montana today and arrived with enough light to visit the site tonight. While we were away, they finished the insulation - we can't walk through walls anymore! Next step: drywall!

Mydreamhome - stunning setting!

When does one start the landscaping plans? I am so involved in the inside of the house and the exterior elevation that I forgot about the landscaping!

Athensmomof3, I love the view through your front door. We are trying to achieve the same front to back view in our house plans and noticed your stairs go backwards towards the front door. Do these go straight up to a second floor landing or do they turn to go over the front door and then up to the second floor?

There are two landings - two stairs and a landing, a run up the stairs and then another landing and a couple or 3 more stairs before it hits the upstairs hall. I wasn't sure about it but I love it! The best part is that this allows you to put a window at the top of the stairs and it is SO nice to go up there and end at the window. Gives a really great feel. It also lets you make your foyer narrower and saves some square footage (which is why we did it). There is actually a closet under the stairs but that is not framed in yet as they have to install the real stairs first. . .

It is not installed yet but if you keep an open rail on the second floor it also gives a really great view over the rail to the first floor. I have a picture of this view from the top and will post it if I can find it - very sculptural looking as it goes around in a rectangle. You also have the benefit of a couple of longer "swoopy" rail pieces on the landings which I have always liked.

PS. They don't go over the front door, nor would I like that. They end upstairs even with where they start downstairs I think so you don't disturb the view from back to front.

This is how ours is designed but we have two stairs at the bottom and top instead of 3. Our front door is under the flat hallway.

Beautiful! Thank you athensmomof3. I will check with my architect to see if we can work in something similar.

We've got drywall. So exciting! :)

Conservatory:

Gathering room into sunroom:

Gathering room from sunroom:

Sunroom skylights 1:

Sunroom & skylights 2:

They also started to flatten out the uneven-ness in the back of our hilly lot:

And to widen our driveway:

Finally able to post pictures of my build. We are framing, about to start the 2nd floor.

beaglesdoitbetter, what a magnificent fireplace!!

imacurvygrrl, i am crazy for your stone!! can hardly wait to see that fab door with all that stonework!

mydreamhome, what a lovely setting - looking forward to watching your home go up!

All I have pics of right now is the exterior, where they've put in Driveway and sidewalk recently, gutters are up, and a lot of the siding & stonework completed. Haven't been inside much with a camera this week, but tomorrow can see this past week's progress - both hardwood floor is down, doors mostly are in, crown molding is mostly up, and everything being trimmed out.....
What I can share is a favorite thing - the back of the home - it's just about my fave! Porch on the end is open, while porch in the middle will be screened.

It's getting exciting! Almost a little fast to keep up with.......

Freshly paved....

Fave!

The stonemasons did a fantastic job with the stonework.....

My new neighbor just posted on my FB page. Our lot has been surveyed and the sticks are in!! Woo hoo! We may still be breaking ground in June!!

Wonderwhiskers - Our front door was delivered today and I realized its the same front door as yours. I'm curious will you be staining yours or painting it? Your home is beautiful! Ours will eventually have stone and board and batten siding. I need to get my photos on my photo bucket so I can post them.

Downsy, thanks! We're hoping the door will help allow the entrance feature to be less of a hobbit-hole, and more of a defined entrance :) Did you get any of the hardware to go with it? We're doing the strap hinges, but not the little "brad" looking things. In trying to define a light style for the exterior, that looked just a little too something.... but the garage doors will have strap hinges, and exterior lighting is textured black - so am hoping it will work.

Oh - we're staining. Their Mahogany, I think. Looked Cordovan to me - darkdark red cranberry colored, which is what I wanted. What are you doing with yours? Builder said he would hold off until all the messy work was done, closer to close, then put the stain on the door. Fine with me!
About 5 weeks out......... am adding "Shop for Wig" to my list - if I make it out of this with any of my own hair, and without gaining another 20 lbs, I'll be impressed.

- WW

No I didn't get any of the extras to go on the door. I seriously thought about it though. We didn't buy the stain from them either. I'm torn over painting or staining. Our shutters will be painted a dark brown and I want the door a walnut color. We're not near the painting stage yet. I'll be anxious to see photos of yours after its done. We are a little over 1 month into the build. The framing/windows/roof are done. I think from here on out it will go slower. I'm not sure at what point I'll have to decide on the paint or stain! UGH another decision!

downsy, we're visual & had to see them. So we went to the mfg website, looked up local distributors, then went there & looked at the doors. We saw all diff't ones - painted, and stained, but one which was stained in this style, and liked it. If that's not something you've done yet (and I'm sure you're bored by now, LOL) you may want to source & review. Have fun!!

Even though I'm a homebuilder by trade, it is great and truly inspiring to see all of these beautiful homes being built. Keep up the good work everyone!

We'd like to put our unfinished oak floor in before drywalling the house. We'll leave the floor unfinished, but cover it up so the dust/mud doesn't get in it. A few dents are fine because it is rustic. I've heard that there could be a moisture problem. I'm in the SF Bay area, and it has been raining for the past few weeks anyway - and is otherwise dry all year. Thoughts?