I'm not out of love but I feel it might be in my best interest to NOT go into the house for a while. We are in the final stretch and we have about 4-5 weeks left.

Everything they are doing now is so detailed and I can feel myself picking it apart. I find myself worrying over every single inch of the house. I would say most of these things won't even be noticed when it is finished. And if they are noticed I can always have them fixed with my punch list.

I imagine it is really hard for you to know nothing will be done for months. I'd go crazy. Good Luck! :)

Yes, I have. Still haven't quite gotten the feeling back, and the carpet goes in tomorrow. I think it happened because the tile guy really took advantage of our naivete and left with our money without finishing the work, which delayed things a lot and the fireplace had to be torn out and redone. About the same time I realized we're really way over budget, the house we're in now and trying to sell has only had 3 lookers in 3 months (we're in a rural area) and because DH and I compromised with each other on granite and tile it's not as exciting a look as I had hoped, kind of blah. The granite and tile don't really do much for each other.

I know I'll get "that feeling" back. I think I'm just tired. The view is still wonderful!

So, fairytalebaby, you'll get excited again, is my guess. Good luck!

I think what you are feeling is completely normal. We started at the end of August last year and we still have 3-4 months left on our build. We've had so much ice and snow, and now rain, that everything has gone so slowly. Then our builder had brain surgery (after us prodding him to go get that taken care of.) Right now, they are putting up trim and every evening I go over to look at what they have done. After about 10 minutes, I am ready to go home. My son is coming this weekend and he hasn't seen it since Christmas, so it will be so exciting to take him over there. Sometimes, though it is just hard to imagine that it will ever be done. I keep imagining what next summer will be like.

I would suggest stop thinking of it a "build" and think of it as your home.

I think of it as "unsold inventory". :-)

Either you're not a crazy lady or we're both crazy ladies because I can sure relate.

Didn't you ever go through the same feelings with another project or hobby or even--horrors!--a person? I sure have. Initial obsession/can't get enough/endless fascination and energy for it. Then it levels off; that level of energy or emotion can't be sustained continually for anything. Or, something happens, not your doing, and you are disappointed in it or turned off by it. Or, nothing changes, and you become bored with it.

And periodically something new and challenging or otherwise attention-getting revs you up again. Endless cycle. Waves of ups and downs, some higher/lower than the others.

I like the analogy that I first heard applied to being a commercial airline pilot: hours of boredom interspersed with moments of sheer terror!

We've been planning and finding land, then finding an architect, designing, finding a builder, researching, etc. since October of 2005. I've already been through so many moods with it. Maybe it's more like a very seasoned marriage and you thought that for the next 50 years you could maintain the honeymoon energy 24/7. Wrong!

I like what mightyanvil said: it's our home already.
And a twist on what worthy said: ours will be personal "unpaid for inventory".

Yep, pretty normal. There were times we'd go to the house and I just wanted to look at one specific thing and leave. We close on Friday and just got back from walking through with the builder. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning, except I know what's under the tree!

Yes, yes, yes, I have certainly fallen out of love with the build process (but, at the same time am really falling in love with what's finally starting to look like a home). Our tile install is taking forever -- we're on week 9 I think, and I'm only having three and a half baths and a laundry room tiled. I admit that the glass tile in the master bath isn't easy to install, but they just started that this week. I have no idea why the subway and octogon & dot tile took so long in the upstairs baths. I picked it because I thought it would be easy. It absolutely wore me out to visit the house and see mess up after mess up on the tile, or worse, to see no progress at all.

The trim guy/cabinet maker is at the house too now, and he's working super fast and doing beautiful work. It's now fun again to track his progress nightly.

I got so worn out on the build, that I've stepped out of the build process and am taking a "vacation" from it. For the next 8 weeks, DH is in charge of communicating with builder and subs. I just get to visit the house and tell DH what I like or dislike.

We broke ground in October, were supposed to move in in May, and the most optimistic completion date is now early October.

Owners adopting contractor terms and attitudes is a little like hostages identifying with their captors. I don't use contractor buzzwords like "build", "dried-in", "trim package" or even "blueprints" (cyanotype died long ago). To the owner the project should always feel like the design and construction of their home. Leave the dark side to the pros.

All well and good except when you yourself are the owner, designer, general contractor, quality control, fund control and chief ditch digger. Then being able to walk the walk and talk the talk is an asset.

Sweat is my coin in this build. Unfortunately, being hands on doesn't make me immune to burn-out. Sometimes I wish I had the luxury of handing all the responsibility over to someone else. But then I would miss out on the lasting satisfaction of being able to say I made this home.

Every prize has its price.

OMG yes! I'm super exhausted w/ the whole process! Builder originally stated the he'd be done & we'd close by 8-31..... (We started in May) It's moving so rather slow now that I don't know if we'll make it. Maybe..... I just can't imagine what it's like to be going through this process for almost a year or more like a lot of posters! We're so ready to get out of this apt. & that's a great source of stress...... I have no motivation whatsoever for this apartment living anymore! And I know that's because of the build. It's just gotten like that in the past month.

I honestly must admit it's been an easy build so far - no major issues. Our builder is very easy to work with. We're still in the rough in phase w/ the electrical, plumbing & central vac. mostly done.... Roof shingles are on, they've started some insulation (just around the pipes though):( We live less than a mile away & we go there everyday & sometimes twice a day..... Wish we could stop going by, but we can't! We just want to see the daily progress.

House building ain't no joke & I honestly don't think we'll ever do it again. I'm so drained!

This, too, shall pass...

It's inevitable that we hit the occasional 'down' in the course of having a home built, and I've noticed they usually coincide with periods when things are either moving slowly, or not moving at all.

It's biology, in part: the manic highs of seeing the first load of concrete poured and the roof going up becomes the depressive lows of realizing your closets are too small and the kitchen is narrower than you expected.

Add in the stress of trying to make everything 'perfect', budget and schedule concerns, etc., it's not so much a surprise that we 'crash' on occasion, its actually surprising that we are able to enjoy it at all!

fairytalebaby, I saw your unfinished exterior on another thread and I love your brick. Do you mind sharing your brick color? Have you posted a picture of your finished exterior? I would love to see it.

You aren't crazy and you aren't alone. Everyone (well nearly everyone) goes through something similar.

It's a little like marriage. At first you are infatuated - this is going to be the perfect house. Your life will be perfect when it's finally finished. You will be estactic.

Reality sets in. It's not going to be perfect. You are tired, exhausted, sometimes sick of the process.

Eventually you realize that even though it isn't perfect, it's actually pretty good, and will be (nearly) perfect for you and your lifestyle. It will become your home and you will love living there.

RE: Anyone else fall out of love with their build?

yep, my belly has gotten way to round.

Hey "mom2tnt",

Here's a link to the brick manufacturer--although our picture looks different from theirs.
http://www.boralbricks.com/productcatalog/productdetails.aspx?prdid=421
It's got A LOT of variation to it...it can be used with gray tones, as we did...or brown/taupe colors. In person it has pieces of white, black, and almost blue tones.

In case the link doesn't work--it's called "Old Natchez" by Boral Bricks

Here is a link that might be useful: Boral Brick--Old Natchez