No visible progress here. Most of the HVAC done. A lot of electrical done. Almost NO plumbing! Our plumber (my dad) has disappeared on us --- but he does work for cheap (ie. free!) We were hoping to be in by Christmas, but now I'm hoping for Easter! I can't wait to get all this stress behind us and just enjoy the house. Anyone else feel that way?

Buckheadhillbilly, did you price out both Geothermal and traditional forced hot air? if so how significant is the price difference?

We've been looking into Geothermal but am not sure of the cost.

buildinnj, the cost of geothermal is more than twice the cost of traditional before the tax credits. After the tax credits, it is 30-40% more. I don't think we would have done it purely on the cost basis. We just feel like it is the sensible thing to both because it is environmentally friendly and because energy prices are sure to rise in the future.

Another consideration was that we couldn't figure out a good place to put the condenser units for a conventional system where they wouldn't be an eyesore or a noise problem.

We did the geothermal and with the tax credit there was little difference in the cost(maybe 5 percent). When the units are running they also heat our hot water.

buckhead and ramor, how far down do they have to drill? we're on a hillside...

Buckhead, I'm STILL awed at your foundation! I thought ours was bad, had to be engineered for earthquakes, but yours is just incredible! And is that the elevator pit I see?

We're still framing, hopefully 2 more weeks for the roof to go on. I asked them about Bora Care with mold care for my framing, and they said if I buy it, they'll spray it on. I'm worried since it's already rained twice on the framing. More rain projected this weekend. Sigh.

juniork, good luck with the rain and framing. I didn't know that could be a problem.

Around here they drill 200 ft for the geothermal wells. One well per ton of HVAC.

I'm pretty awed by our foundation and the *expense* of it. The engineer who drew the footings and wall specs must have known we have 4 teenagers and wanted to make it bomb proof. Once it was permitted, we had to build it the way it was designed, so... At least it will be solid and stable! Yes, that is an elevator pit. We won't install an elevator, but wanted to have the capability. We will have stacked closets in the space until the need arises. The pit, of course, is difficult to add later.

buildinnj - we researched geothermal and it is about $9K more with the tax credit, so we estimated the ROI at around 7-9 years at today's energy rates. But prices vary by installer, system, region of the country, etc. Here is a link to a good site I found (probably from someone on this board)

Here is a link that might be useful: geothermal

I FINALLY have progress to report! Stone and brick have begun. Hard wood floors are in. Brick pavers for brick floors have been delivered and should be installed in the next week or so. In addition, we got our septic system installed and geothermal up and running. This should be a really productive month if the weather holds up!
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i am so frustrated and angry at this point i could scream. i can't go into it, but after two years i THINK we'll be in by the new year. i can't say for sure though. i'd rather not talk about the problems, but focus on what's done. i know it's been a while but i've not been in a "good place". just taking it day by day...

finally, a pic of our eldorado stone with nichiha siding:
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this is the dining room, and the foyer beyond:
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the mudroom cubbies. i'm loving them, except the trim carpenter didn't make the seat bench as wide as i specified. there were so many other things to do, i just kept it. amazingly enough, i can still sit comfortably. i'm ordering doors and drawers via an internet site.
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this is the gallery. we'll have bookshelves that line the walls (someday) and a small reading area at the rear of the fireplace along with a balcony.
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my soon-to-be amazing closet. i will share with no one! it's 24' long and the built-ins line one side only, since it's 6' wide when you first walk in ...it opens up to 11' wide to form a small sitting area (w/nice windows) and then narrows to 6' again.
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the bottom of this unit will be all drawers. the center will have doors and also will be lined in cedar. tons of open shelves at the sides.
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space for double hanging and full hanging at the end. we're having a large recessed nook carved into the wall opposite this unit for my shoes.
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a close up of my troca shell tile, which i had imported from the philllipines. don't try this. it was a nightmare:
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and lastly, the kitchen is coming along nicely.
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please wish me luck. it hasn't been easy and i'm not expecting things to go any smoother! everyone else is making amazing progress. i truly wish you continued success!

Can I come over and lick your kitchen?? LOL it looks so creamy and that closet is something else. You will findyou have more than enough space to share with hubby. I love you praire grill windows, we have them too! That is the tallest fireplace I have ever seen on GW!!

What is the hold up? Although, taking 4 years for mine, I can understand the crawl exasperation...

Everyone's progress is wonderful. Hang in there Kate! At least you will end up with a beautiful home.

Thanks, bulkhead...hopefully some sun today after yesterday's deluge! We have an elevator pit also...doing exactly what you are doing! It's turning into a muddy greasy jacuzzi with all the rain!

Kate, just saw your pix in kitchens...do glad you posted pix of rest of house! Really beautiful! It's been slow, but what a finished product it'll be!

Sorry! Typo...I know you're Buckhead.... Darned autocorrect on ipad! Atlanta? I grew up in TN, just across the border.

Wow, I have some serious progress envy.... these are some beautiful homes and Kate.... you are looking much closer this month than last posting... that is great (and SO gorgeous too). Best of luck for a timely and smooth (or as smooth as it can be at this point) completion!

We've been in a holding pattern for years and have finally begun building, so now that we have begun, I am anxious about progress. So far, so good. At this point we are very happy with the builder and the experience, but I am waiting for those frustrating times ahead (we've had lots leading up to the breaking ground point already).

Anyway, much of the house is framed, though the dormers are not on and the roof is not complete at all. We will have some big grading to do to cover the foundation in front, but it looks like it will work out fine, I just would like to see the mess of concrete covered! The porches are panned and framed, the rooms are 80% framed, and the roof is partially framed. Hopefully next month it will be entirely under roof, which will be great.

Best of luck to all trying to finish before the end of the year, and those of you just beginning, I look forward to trading stories along the way!

thanks everyone, for the vote of confidence!

mythreesonsnc: i have to tell you that the lines and proportions of your home are so beautiful to me! i don't know if this makes sense, but it looks ...confident, almost proud and very clearly welcoming all at the same time. can't wait to see this one!

kateskouros, Wow! spectacular. Love the kitchen.

Mythreesonsnc, looking good so far;can't wait to see more.

Nutherokie, almost there!

mythreesonsnc- I love the design of your home and can't wait to see more!

nutherokie- Your stone is stunning! I love the look of your red windows. I've missed this information along the way, no doubt, but what is your stone?

buckhead- We're in the ATL area, too. Who did you go with for your geothermal?

kateskouros- Just beautiful! Love the closet and kitchen. I like your coffered ceiling. Was debating whether or not to do one.

mythreesonsnc- Nice! You are coming right along. I am not far from you.(building in Mint Hill) I have been following you- we hope to start in the near future. We are going thru some septic issues right now.

Young-gardener, we are using Premier. They were initially a bit more than the others, but they were open to negotiation. They have done so many more systems than anyone else that I was very comfortable with them. They have been great to work with.

Kateskouros- your spaces seem well so thought out. What a great house!

Nutherokie - Your house is so lovely. The stone is timeless.

Mythreeesonsnc- you house seems to sit so well on the lot. Can't wait to see it shape up!

Archson- I love your first photo. So dramatic. It would be fun to see your progress each month from that vantage point.

Thanks for the encouragement pps7, and the kind words young-gardener and buckheadbilly! I'm a hideous photographer, but I really love the stone. It's a locally-quarried sandstone. The stone yard calls it Tumbled Midway. And buckheadbilly, I too am in awe of your foundation. Can't wait to see the house!

Kateskouros, wow! I'm not sure which I envy more, your kitchen or that closet!

Mythreesons, that house is going to be spectacular.

Archson, lovely setting. So peaceful.

Busyhomebuilder. Love the custom window grills. You must be so excited to be getting in by Christmas. That was our original goal, but alas...!

Thanks for all of the kind words about our build, especially coming from some serious pros, it means a lot!

1Ryan (I have 1 Ryan too :-) --- funny that you have septic issues (well really not funny, but coincidental) because that was our hold up for years --- sewer / septic issues. I have to say I have learned quite a bit about it in these last couple of years, and if your problem is that your lot does not "perk" for the size you need, there is a company very near you that does all kinds of septics -- we ended up resolving our problem without going to this length, but if you need it, I wanted to pass along their info --- Alternative Septic Solutions (get the acronym, thought that was pretty funny)! Anyway, hope you get your problem resolved soon. I'd be happy to share any other builder, vendor or other info with you if you need anything (you can always private mail me).

Buckhead, I am dying to see your plans --- Your walls look amazing --- my neighbors where we are building were calling our retaining walls "the bunker," we have a curved wall too, much like yours. Is your curved one retaining wall, or part of the house foundation? I remember quite a while ago you posted a bunch of pictures of retaining walls with brick, stone, etc. They went into my inspiration folder, and I have used some of them a bunch of times to show builders, etc. Thanks! Will you be covering the retaining walls like in some of your pics, or will they remain as-is? Looking forward to more!

Looking forward to December progress.....

After months and years of planning and hoping, we sold our townhouse and will be building the house we will raise our family in....soon hopefully. The lot split has been a nightmare with a lot of $$$ spent and a lot of hoops to jump through.

The loan process hasn't been any easier, you would think that the people we have been dealing with (city, bank, title) that this was there first time (which it isn't).

I linked our house plans from another thread/post. Just a pile of dirt now, but will be sure to post pictures as the house goes up. Being in MN, I am worried about winter right around the corner and hoping the builder can get it "Dried in" before christmas. He said it will be a 3-month build. We are living with the inlaws so the sooner the better. Luckily we are building right next door to them, which will be good to see the progress on a day to day basis.

archson - Love the window sizes and the views from your lot

kateskouros - I love your Mudroom Cubbies!

nutherokie - Love the stone work!

mythreesonsnc - Agree that your house looks proud and confident, awesome!

Here is a link that might be useful: House Plans

Things are flying along for us this month. We are trying to get the outside of the house closed up before the weather gets too bad, brick, stone and siding will be up next, then we can move to the inside for winter work. We have had a builder getting us to this point (although we have done a lot ourselves)and then we will do most of the inside work ourselves.

This is the front of the house.

I'm a newbie to GardenWeb, but after I saw all these beautiful homes, I just had to post here. Amazing!!!! We are in the process of starting to build.

We're in Washington state, and are most definitely chasing winter. We're getting there though. Here's a picture of our site and footings--more to come. We're building with SIPS, so the hope is we'll be dried in by early December.

New to the forum and I may get the photo-posting wrong, but if you're interested you can visit our blog, too. http://meadowhouse.wordpress.com

[IMG]http://i52.tinypic.com/i4e684.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i54.tinypic.com/98t3ef.jpg[/IMG]

After not seeing the house since July, I got to go up there, last week & have a bunch of pictures. There isn't much less left to do, but there are lots of things on a "pre-punch list" that we found when we are there, so we probably won't finish until mid-December.

Front of house with 1st phase of landscaping (will do more, later):

Side of house with stonework under screened porch that isn't done:

Back of house:

Back around to front entrance and stone terrace:

Front door looking through to back deck:

Looking back thr other direction from great room with dining room on left:

Great room fireplace (not finished):

Dining Room:

Barrel arch between kitchen and great room:

Kitchen looking toward banquette:

One of the glass knobs:

Kitchen from banquette:

Pocket office off keeping room:

From keeping room toward great room:

Knob for door to Dog (Mud) Room:

View from master suite down hallway leading to kitchen (niche at end):

Master bath with clerestory windows over vanity (lights upside down):

It's great to be this close & to see everyone else's progress.

flgargoyle - I can't believe you drove by the house & didn't go in. Well, you will have no excuse when we are moved in and we're neighbors.

Best of luck to everyone - Jo Ann

Joann, I LOVE the progress! What color paint did you use in your dining room? We used a similar color, but I feel like I kind of "missed" on the color, and the color you have looks more like what I had in mind! It's the one paint color I'm not over the moon about. Anyway, your house is beautiful! Can't wait to see the finished product.

gobruno - thanks for the complements.

The dining room (& powder room) are SW Peacock Blue which is from the "Jazz Age" collection. It's not even in the consumer fandeck, so I'm glad the "paint lady" thought of it. It has something about it - a velvetiness? - that makes it very rich & yummy.

I think it would work for you since you have those golden walls nearby, right? The colors of the great room and hallways are off in the pictures, but the great room is a deep camel (custom from a flannel pillow case we like) and then the halls are at 1/4 of the great room saturation.

Good luck with finding your dining room color. I know what it is like when a color is just "off".

Jo Ann

Here is a link that might be useful: SW Peacock Blue

Drjoann, I love the house!! Do you have a close up picture of the ceiling over your banquette area? Our bedroom is octagonal shaped and I was thinking of doing something similiar in there.

I also think the knob to the dog (mud) room is so cute, my sister is a real dog lover and I would love to get her something like that, can you say where you got it?

Thanks

jojofitz - below is about the best I have:

The dog knob is from Emtek in ORB. They do it as a "living finish" with a copper underlayment so that as it wears, more copper is exposed. I got it at homehardware4less.com (see below to go right to the page). They were very nice to work with and provided virtually all of the door hardware for the house. No one locally (SC) could come close for price.

If you have a Ferguson's near you, you might check there so you don't have to pay shipping for one item. The Ferguson's in Houston has Emtek, but the one in Greenville, SC doesn't, so it depends on where you live. OTOH, our local Ferguson's has shipped lights to us & to SC for free so you might be able to call one in a larger city & get it shipped.

HTH - Jo Ann

Here is a link that might be useful: Emtek Dog Knob

Thanks drjoann, my sister will love that! Also thanks for the picture of the ceiling, I just saw a similiar picture of a ceiling like that in House Beautiful Magazine and I cut it out to show DH, I will put yours with that as well.

Jojo

Everyone's homes are beautiful! We got started a few weeks ago, and I have finally have a little bit of measurable progress to post, although I'm not anywhere near as far along as the rest of you guys.... They are supposed to be pouring the footer tomorrow, so we'll see.

This is what we started with:

And this is where we are now. Check out how long the driveway is to see the slope.

I'm excited to hopefully have a foundation soon!

BTW, drjoann, I love that dog knob and the stonework on your house!

Everyone's progress is amazing! Joann - I remember you changing from the more European look to that fabulous shingle house what seems like not very long ago and you are almost done!!! All of your thought and hard work show - your house is fabulous!

And to think it was done mostly long distance . . . amazing results!

Since your door knobs are installed, I have a question for you :). I have heard someone say that the Emtek knobs are hard to turn and that is why they went with levers. Do you find that to be the case? There is a 28 degree Emtek option but I can't imagine the regular knobs are too difficult . . . would love your thoughts. Part of what I liked about Emtek is the sturdiness of it! And we are doing a mixture of glass knobs and standard knobs as well. . . We don't have a dog room per se but if we did that dog door knob is a hoot!

athensmom - I'm glad we made the change; it just feels so right for us. Thanks for the complements.

I didn't have any issue with the Emtek door knobs. All of them seemed to turn easily & had a really nice feel. You might want to look at the Emtek keypad entry that comes either in the brass or the bronze finishes. It is the kind that has a mode that automatically locks and one that you need to do so manually. The description of the function sounds just like the equivalent Schlage, but you get Emtek looks and it costs less. Not all Emtek dealers know about it.

I'm probably going to try to get the coating off of the rosettes of the polished brass. I know that Emtek will do it for a fee, but we were a bit rushed at that point, so I just ordered the knobs the way they come.

BTW - if you have any pocket doors, definitely get the pulls that have the little thing that pops out on the side (see link). They are so easy to use. You can see them installed on the pocket doors to the pocket office. I'm so glad we spent the extra money for those pocket doors. Even bi-fold doors would have taken up too much space in that small area. For the most part, the doors will be open. If we get unexpected company, I can just give a quick tug on either side and hide away the clutter.

We also used a pocket door between the kitchen and the dog room. I wanted that area to be mostly hidden from the kitchen, but still needed for the dogs to be able to get from the kitchen to the dog room so they can use their doggie door to the outside. One of our senior citizens is blind, so we thought she could better navigate through an opening with a pocket door rather than having to find her way around a partially closed conventional door. We'll see how well she adapts.

Jo Ann

Here is a link that might be useful: Door Pulls

Thanks for all the help Jo Ann and the tips on where to purchase. We will have a couple of pocket doors - one on a pocket office in our back hall and a pair on a bar in our den. I was hoping to avoid them in the den but I think the double doors will interfere too much with furniture placement. One of those compromises I had to make to get everything in that I wanted!

I know you are excited to move in!

Oh and as far as the combination lock by Emtek, we were already planning on using it if we go with Emtek. We are going to put one on the door from the garage to the house so the boys can get in through the garage without a key if needed in the future . . .

We've got some beautiful homes going up this month! Congratulations on all of the progress!

Jo Ann- The house is coming along great! I was worried, since we hadn't heard from you in a while, and I know you had some 'issues' with the build. Looks like it's all finally coming together. I'm looking forward to seeing it in person some day. Of course, you folks will have to see our build, too, but prepare to be under-whelmed; It's going to be pretty small and basic by comparison.

jo ann: it's sooooooo BEAUTIFUL!!! i'm so excited for you. really nice work and great paint colors. i can't wait for you to get in there and take more pics!

flgargoyle - sorry that I dropped off the face of the earth, but it was hard to post when I hadn't been there in months & didn't have much for pictures.

Not to go into too much "psycho-babble", but I think I was almost embarrassed because there were things going on which I would never have allowed to happen in my professional life. I know how to run a project & everything I do is a one off just like a custom house. I was just so naive that I didn't realize when we did walkthroughs that it was almost all verbal and I wouldn't have sketches or plans or even "minutes" to approve before the work was started. I was told "that is the way we always do it & you are the only people who have ever had a problem". I find that hard to believe & wonder how other people deal with it. If our builder thinks it difficult to deal with two engineers, I hope he never builds for someone who is retired or active military. They would have his guts for garters for some of the BS. phew! that felt good to get out.

Jay, your house is going to be wonderful because it is yours. It doesn't matter about the size or accoutrements because it will come from your heart and be a labor of love for you & your wife. (P.S. I think you may be able to get some help from DH as long as you run a safe worksite. When he retired, he worked on some Habitat for Humanity homes, but finally had to give up when they were not following the organization's own guidelines for safety. He wanted to help & it was fun, but he had no intention of getting hurt.)

Kate - love seeing the Nichiha with your stone. We Jersey Girls (former for me) & Nichiha lovers need to stick together. LOL! It's neat to see your Capital range in place. Mine is only 36" and still sitting in the garage, but at least I have it given the long delays to get the Culinarian. What are your paint colors going to be like?

Love seeing all the progress - Jo Ann

We officially broke ground on 11-5-10 with stump removal. Basement walls are already poured, drain pipe installed along with a gazillion yards of stone and sand, waterproofed, and here we are. Nothing going on this week except getting the temporary power turned on. Framing to start on 11-29-10 while my wife and I are out of the country for our first vacation in 5 years. So far we're exceedingly happy with our builder. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Anyway, we have about 10 yards north to south before one heck of a drop to the existing grade. That is going to require some additional grading and retaining walls that we were hoping to minimize. Ah well.

When excavating the basement there was a seam of clay and a major spring about 4 feet down which we knew about before we started digging so we had plenty of room in the budget for that. We have drain pipe all along the exterior walls and in the interior as well that drain to daylight and about 6-8 inches of stone on top. If this basement gets wet despite all of this, I don't really know what I'll think. Thanks for looking!

Looking up from the lower level:

Looking from top to Southeast:

From top to Southwest:

From top to straight South:

Oh, my, such beautiful homes!! And such inspirations for the rest of us just getting started. Our home will be a modest ranch with finished basement (2600' on each floor). We are in the same stage as you, Billybaroo (love your view!). And we indeed had water problems too. 7" of rain in one day, and hitting a spring (which was a surprise). This is what our excavation looked like.

But after about $11,000 in overruns for the waterproofing and drainage fixes, we have this.

Well and septic are in, and geothermal was done last week. Would have loved to have pics, but unfortunately we couldn't be there that day. Things are on hold now -- it's deer hunting season here in N. Wisconsin.

Siding and windows are ordered. Trying to decide on what roof to get. We'd love to have a Metro steel roof, but it is an upgrade of $20,000, and at our age, not sure that is worth it. Decisions, decisions!

Beautiful houses everyone! It just kind of saddens me to see such big houses and money spent on interior and exterior finishes, yet the shell construction is extremely unefficient and top dollar will be spent on conditioning these houses! *sigh* oh well, to each their own.

My update, I think I may have finally found a lot. Been searching for about 8 months now. We are doing a direct gain passive solar house, so the perfect site was hard to come by. I wanted big natural trees to my north, and nice open southern exposure. I think this is the one. About 2 acres here for $25,000! (water/power is about 100 feet away, would need a septic)

Picture is looking north.

Lzerarc this site isn't a popularity contest on who builds a better house. People are happy and proud of their new homes, whether it's a 700 sqft condo or a 4000 sqft mansion. Some have been through hardships like fires and tornadoes and are rebuilding. They build a house but create a home.
Don't place your unsolicited comments like that to these people. Save it for the people that have the power to change the building codes.

I love to see every one's progress here. I am reading here for more than 6 years now. We bought our lot in March 2005 and started last week. The tree cutting started on Nov 18 and excavation was done yesterday. They are putting footings today and we will have our first inspection tomorrow.

It took us so much time to start and now it seems like it is running so fast. I hope we keep this speed going forwars.

Here are some pictures.

kbncan
I have no idea what you are talking about. It was a comment driven toward efficient construction. ANY of these house can look the exact same way they do, yet use 2x less energy. It falls back more on the designers and builders in their methods, not the home owners. Codes have nothing to do with anything. As I said "beautiful houses" as well as "to each their own".
And this tornado you speak of...I am one of them. EF5 through the Parkersburg, IA area 2 years ago, finally rebuilding.

We finally have started framing! We broke ground in September and were hoping to have the whole house framed by the end of October (according to the GC's schedule) but with some setbacks and then a lot of rain it just didn't happen. We're finally starting framing now about 6 weeks behind but they started the day before Thanksgiving and for that, I'm thankful.

First floor deck

View of the basement walkout

Backside of house with windows along basement

I'm so excited to see our house pop up. I'm not sure I believe my GC but he says it's only two weeks to dry-in. So hopefully in December I'll be posting a little farmhouse clad in Hardie Plank Boothbay blue. Fingers crossed.

I started last September, and designed, had it built and we moved in Oct 1. 13 months for this project is pretty good I think.
I don't know how to post individual pictures, but this is the link for our home from the time the trailer was on it to finish. If you have time I would appreciate the responses. It is 929 pictures, as I took pictures everytime they did something to it. It is 3360 sf, and it came out exactly how we wanted. As a bonus we were 1141.00 over budget. Unheard of from what I gather.just cut, and paste it in your browser.

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh86/bwxmas/House/?start=all

Here is a link that might be useful: Photobucket pictures

I forgot to mentiuon that I used this site for alot of info.. I did not post much, but read alot.
Thanks for the info.

lee1961, Thanks for sharing your pictures of your beautiful home.Can you tell me what stone you used for your fireplace? I'd appreciate it!

Its actually engineered stone..Made by coronado stone. I went by the store that was selling it, could not find what I wanted. They said look out back at our surplus cheap stone, and voila. They had a bunch of it out back that they were selling for 250.00 for a 100sf of stone.I bought all he had in 2 different colors. We mixed, and matched from the 2 colors..Hope it helps