Footings are poured, forms are up for crawl space walls and they are putting gravel in the foor of the crawl space.....getting started, but a long way to go.

gaonmymind-
Yes, I'm going to give Mitch a try. I am waiting on the structural engineers report to see if it's a go for a 1 or 2 story. I only spoke with him briefly, I mentioned you as a reference. I will contact him for details once the structural report is in. Thanks again for the info. I had been looking at his website but was reluctant as I thought it would be a larger portion of my budget.

houseofsticks - great to know...crossing fingers everything works out for you!

Nearing completion on outside. Floors, fixtures, paint, base cabs this week.
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I've been wrestling with photobucket the past few days so finally gave up!

We've had countertops installed, driveway paved, interior painting and lots of built-ins completed.

We are scheduled to move end of this month..yikes!

Here is a link that might be useful: more pics....

Andi K... Love your kitchen! I looked at your other pics, too, and your house is coming together. It will be stunning! I love the wood finish on your island. Could you share the wood/stain? I am thinking of a similar tone with. Grey cabinets, much like your mudroom cabinetry. Can you see them at the same time? Do they blend well? I see your tall cabinet in the kitchen that is grey, but I cannot tell if it is the same color. It looks darker. Thanks!

Momto3kiddos - thanks so much!! Here are the details...

kitchen island - Shiloh knotty alder cabinet with a walnut stain and black glaze

mudroom - actually is Shiloh's sage green - it's definitely green, not grey...but a soft sagey green. The mudroom island is the same knotty alder/walnut finish as the kitchen island

tall kitchen cabinet - British Traditions cabinet in their French Grey Level 4 finish (crackled, aged). And, it's actually more of a green/blue/grey color if there is such a thing. But, i love it with the walnut island

I will say I have another small cabinet from British Traditions that's slightly more grey and it looked amazing with the island color....But I love red even more, so I'm using the red version of that same cabinet as the spice cabinet next to the range for that reason (plus the grey kinda clashed with the tall kitchen cabinet color a bit). But, a definite yes that grey with the knotty alder/walnut is great!

HTH!

Andi K ... How do you like your Shiloh Cabinets? Thinking about remodeling my kitchen with them. Do you like the construction and finish on them? What finish do you do on the non island cabinets?

Thanks

AndI--love your blog and your trim carpenter!

aries61 - I love the Shiloh cabinets, I think they turned out great and we are very happy with them so far. I read a lot of reviews as well and couldn't find anything negative. My KD recommended them also, and she is extremely knowledgable, so that helped with our decision to go with Shiloh. I also loved how there weren't any upcharges for inset, glazed, etc. So, we felt like we had a lot of flexibility w/o being nickel/dimed for everything.

red_lover - thanks! :)

Andi K ... Thanks about comments on the Shiloh cabinets.

Can you tell me the finish on the non island kitchen cabinets and your master bathroom(saw them on your blog) cabinets?

Thanks

aries61 - Sure! The kitchen perimeter cabinets are Shiloh's maple cabinets in Soft White...no glaze or anything else added. They are the beaded inset, Square Flat door with matching drawer fronts. And, just fyi..I went with a matching trim color for crown/baseboards and built ins bc that was my preference (I know some people pick a "whiter" trim color which also looks great). But, in case you also want to match, we did our trim color in SW Ivory Lace which turned out perfect with Shiloh's Soft White.

The master bath is Shiloh's maple cabinets with Sable stain...no glaze or anything. These are beaded inset, Oxford Solid Raised Panel with the 5-piece flat panel drawer front. The legs are the TL-14 model.

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

Here is our house with the final bricks in place. That window with the diamond grid originally came in with the pattern going the wrong way. And we changed a few other windows. We picked out bathroom tile today and they are buy mudding the drywall.

Slowly but surely...we are still getting more rain than usual - what fun!

This is the north side showing the west part of house. They are working on the 2nd floor - the roof is going to be 8/12. The clouds are covering my beautiful mountains.

South side - east part of house. This shows the sliding door & window in the LR. Can you see the 2 waterfalls in the mountains? I love them - we'll be able to lay in bed & watch/listen to them :)

To the right will be a small greenhouse - the other end of that part will be stairs to the 2nd floor & stairs that lead to the crawl space. There will be an 8 x 32 space for crawl space access and hubby's workplace for his solar & heating/ventilation area.

August 13, 2013: Our first post in this thread opn our Kickoff Day.

Builder emailed us & said they brought down our first & only tree on the lot today.

LOL! I was mad he didn't tell me earlier, I would have gone to see that.

pbx2 - I am living vicariously through you until the one tree is removed from my lot this week. When will the agony end already! lol

We finally moved in on July 31st after a crazy couple of weeks trying to pass all our inspections. Everything went to literally the last possible minute... ugh!! I will post some pics soon and share more about the end process, but for now I posted a gallery on my blog if anyone wants to see them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Let's Build a Home Blog

@graceshan - love that door & color! Traditonal modern!

@gaonmymind - we might be schedule twins with our respective builds!
FYI - our tree was guestimated to be 70 feet & outr builder said it out up a fight oh the way down. LOL!

graceshan - Love, love, love the house! and of course it seems that Harry gets more adorable each month - if that's possible. A few questions ... where did you get the cute little light fixture in your laundry room? What is the brand/style of your door hardware? and where did you get your kitchen hardware? seems like you got if for a great price.
Thanks so much for sharing your home building journey. We are a few months behind you and I love seeing others choices and progress. It really helps.

Posted by Andi_K (My Page) on Tue, Aug 7, 12 at 7:37

Andi_K - can you tell me what ventilation hood you are using & how you are building it?

graceshan- I love your house! Could you please tell me what the rundown of your kitchen appliances are (and laundry room too if you could :) Thanks so much in advance!

Graceshan, can you share the details on the dark wood flooring you've chosen?

pbx2 - we went with the Best CP37I482SB hood/blower. My builder took the dimensions of it and had the trim carpenter frame for the hood to be inserted up & inside what you see in this pic. They just built it onsite using 2x4s and wood panels. Here's the first pic...

Then, they wrapped the top part with the crown molding...

To finish it, we put stucco on the panels.....

And, the bottom white trim you see in the pic above will actually be covered up with reclaimed wood. Total cost - $350...including the reclaimied wood which was $125 of the $350! Much cheaper then cabinetry and it fits our home style better...so it was a steal imo.

fyi...they also built it so that the hood was attached to this panel that slid right up underneath. So that if I ever need to get to the hood or replace it, the entire hood cover doesn't get destroyed.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

graceshan - the house looks GREAT!!! I can't believe how big Harry is getting either! :) I think I have that same rope light fixture hanging over my soon-to-be kitchen table right now, too. Quick question - how tall are your barn doors and what is the door handle hardware you put on them? We have one barn door and I'm searching for a door handle now. I like yours! :)

we are in the middle of framing right now. hope to have a roof by next week

Posted by Andi_K (My Page) on Wed, Aug 15, 12 at 8:29

pbx2 - we went with the Best CP37I482SB hood/blower. My builder took the dimensions of it and had the trim carpenter frame for the hood to be inserted up & inside what you see in this pic. They just built it onsite using 2x4s and wood panels. Here's the first pic...

Then, they wrapped the top part with the crown molding...

To finish it, we put stucco on the panels.....

And, the bottom white trim you see in the pic above will actually be covered up with reclaimed wood. Total cost - $350...including the reclaimied wood which was $125 of the $350! Much cheaper then cabinetry and it fits our home style better...so it was a steal imo.

fyi...they also built it so that the hood was attached to this panel that slid right up underneath. So that if I ever need to get to the hood or replace it, the entire hood cover doesn't get destroyed.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks Andi_K for the info!
Hope you don't mind, I will pass this info along to my builder to see if he could replicate.

I guess I am so used to seeing customized & painted metal hood that I never realized you could just build one around a hood vent!

pbx2 - I don't mind at all! Let me know if you have any questions when you talk to your builder, and I'm glad to answer/help if I can.

Wood siding complete!

Here is a link that might be useful: Build Blog

Posted by Andi_K (My Page) on Wed, Aug 15, 12 at 22:21
pbx2 - I don't mind at all! Let me know if you have any questions when you talk to your builder, and I'm glad to answer/help if I can.

One more question please: noticed the depth of the hood insert is about ~22+ inches; how do you deal with the recommendaton that says most ranges should have @ least 24" of hood depth?

Or am I misunderstanding some conventional wisdom with that advisory?

pbx2 - are you referring to the actual Best hood we went with for ventilation? I went with the recommendation from where we bought our appliances. I don't cook enough to really worry about it to any detailed level :). You may want to search/post that question in the appliance forum bc there are lots of people that know more about ventilation then I do. :)

Yes, I was referring to your hood dimension.

Thanks for the feedback again Andi_K!

Kitchen cabinets are set

Thanks everyone! To answer the questions:
laundry fixture: Shades of Light
brnd/style of door hardware: Weslock Impresa with Woodward Rosette (Build.com)
kitchen hardware: Pottery Barn polished nickel
appliances: Samsung fridge, GE Cafe range & DW, Maytag compactor, LG 2650 W/D (love them!).
wood floors: Vintage Timber Heritage Woodcraft reclamation plank floors from Simple floors. They are 3/4 solid stain oak, handscraped. LOVE them!!
how tall barn doors & door handle hardware? Bought handles and pulls from Build.com (Acorn iron spear door pull for $10 and Baldwin brass door pull $15) Doors are 80"tall

Our hardwood floors are almost ready to be installed. The sub-floors are in and the boards are being laid out now. 4" white oak. We're excited!

Hi all! Newbie, here! We just signed a purchase agreement with our builder and they should be breaking ground this month. I've been lurking for a while absorbing as much of your wisdom as possible, but now we are officially on the building track, I thought I should officially join the community! Looking forward to going through our build processes together!

A couple of months in most of the block is up and ready for stucco. Clay roofing goes up this week as well.

Back of home

wow Bave...I remember looking over your plans. Looks great!

Thanks. We ended up with changes to the plan and several after great advice here.

pbx2, our hood was built the same way as AndiK's so I thought I'd show you this slideshow that shows more of the steps.

Love seeing everyone's homes coming along - even though we moved in our home almost 7 years ago, I keep coming back to the BAH forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: vent hood construction

Hi! I'm new here and have been lurking for a few weeks. It seems every time I do a Google searching regarding home building, it points to this site! A great wealth of valuable information.

We have been planning to build for a long time. We have owned our property for almost 10 years. We finally sold our house in March and closed on that in May. The very next week, we went to our bank that we have been with for 20 years to apply for a construction loan. They wouldn't do it. We then were referred to Farm Credit which said they would do 85% LTV on appraised value. The appraisal came in low, but we adjusted some costs (gave ourselves credit for our sweat equity) and got the cost down. Then they changed it to 80% LTV which would be another $15,000!! We finally found a bank that would do the loan and got a more accurate appraisal done. Closed on it on August 8.

We have not broke ground yet though. We have set up our accounts for electric and water. The builder has talked with the brick person and is working on getting the dirtwork done hopefully this week!!

Glad to finally be able to post on "How is your build progressing". ;)

Kim

You're welcome, pbx2. I received your email but thought it was a comment (and I had checked box to receive posts).

The pictures don't show the plywood panel put on the front. Front was off while waiting for HVAC company to install the pipe to the top of fan. They also measured, cut and installed the copper panels.

The trim (top/bottom) was made locally from old wood (same guys that installed the English made kitchen and made a few things for me/the house since).

As AndiK said above, it is a really inexpensive route to go and the end result can be an attractive alternative to ready made. Plus you can make it your own, which is always nice. Not everyone will have one just like it.

Congrats, Kim, and good luck on your build.

Been a SLOW August, but we are finally making progress. Sheet rock and brick are getting started today as they were delivered and set yesterday. Hardie install is suppose to continue today, but we've had A LOT of trouble getting them back after they started.
Here's some pics...
Siding is Mountain Sage with the wood texture, shakes are chestnut brown (I think) and Trim is Sail Cloth.

Love the pics from everyone! Hoping to be close to the end soon too!

I've been a long-time lurker and occassional poster. I can't believe I can FINALLY post under this thread! We are so excited that 5 years after purchasing our lot, we are finally building our dream home. I drew our plans, so after "walking through" our house in my head for so long, it has been absolutely surreal to walk through the actual thing. And it is coming together just as I had hoped!

What we looked at for 5 years:

Finally getting started:

The slab was poured July 6:

Framing:

Blacked in:

We have shingles!!!

Brick and sheetrock start this week - can't believe it!

We are in the final 60 days and things feel like they've really slowed down. In August the walls were all primed (color tinted primer), the hardwood went down, some of our tile work was completed, we have railings on our stairs, beadboard went up in the mudroom. Electrical was completed as well as our heating/cooling stuff, fireplace was installed. The last week of the month is focused on built-ins and more tile work happening inside and siding, trim board and gable vents outside.

September is going to be a big month with lots of fun stuff like built-ins and lighting and plumbing fixtures. I can't wait to get to the next stage and start seeing our selections come to life.

stone up on exterior
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siding starting to go up!
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laundry room primed
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first floor primed and ready for hardwoods (which have since gone down)
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our master bath ready for plumbing installations and tile
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Dash3108 - Welcome to the neighborhood. I visit this website all the time and was a little surprised to see a picture of my house in your first photo. It's funny because I was telling my wife yesterday how much I love your shingles! Hopefully we make it through Isaac without much damage.

Our driveway, sidewalk and walkway were all poured on Friday.

Sorry the image is blurry, I downloaded the picture from my phone.

Whallyden, I love the look of your house! We're building a similar shaped house, and I had written off prairie style, but your house has me rethinking that! Did you have any other houses for inspiration? Please keep the photos coming!

I'm messing around with adding pics....but here is one of the front of my house. It still lacks paint and gutters.

Here is the hardwood installed in our family room and kitchen.

Here is our game room and media room. These are the windows we had to replace from 5' to 7'....what a disaster that was!

byrd746b - What a small world! So exicted to finally be building, but yes, a little nervous about Isaac. My husband met the contractor out there very early this morning - hopefully everything is well secured. I just had a baby 2 days ago - I don't need this stress!!!! :)

Love seeing the progress! We finally broke ground late Monday evening...only to be told Tuesday that all digging has stopped because there seemed to be nothing but clay on our lot so a soil test has been ordered.

BIG disappointment as all other homes in this subdivision have not had this problem. The builder himself lives two houses down on the same side of the road.

There was some rocky material on the very far edge of our lot where there is a big slope down and then back up. So that doesn't help much.

With Isaac about barrel down on us (Southwest Arkansas) it may be a good thing. Even though wet is good for the dirt in prep for a concrete slab, if we get hammered it may have just washed away.

Builder expects the soil test will take 3-4 days. So maybe next week we will have a solution to our problem and actually make some progress!!

Kim