We are still coming along, but right now seems pretty boring. Plus, I hate that is dark out so early, which limits the quality pictures.

Finalized most of our lighting this past weekend with several trips to the lighting showroom, Menards, and Home Depot. After staying up 3 nights in a row past midnight, I think I have the final list.

Insulation was done over the weekend and sheet rocking is starting tomorrow...so that is exciting. They also poured our front porch and the front door finally arrived. Ya!!

zone4-Yipee! I am sure that is such a great feeling. I can't wait to see all finished and we are here pics. :) I am thinking we will have the same thing in the spring when we hopefully move - what to do with spring mud, 2 boys and a dog with a NEW house. :(

nightshades-you have gotten a lot accomplished! Very nice ceiling and windows. We don't have any feature ceilings and every time I see one like this I wonder if we shouldn't have done that! I can't imagine how difficult building from a different location would be. Kudos to you!

rb-same thing here, if I don't get out there right after the bus drops off it gets dark before we can get there. The 'lovely' gray sky isn't a great back drop either. Congrats on the lighting. I keep snipping pics of pendants (online browsing at it's best) that I like but I really need them to tie into the dining room light also...time for me to call the interior decorator I think. Have you chosen paint also?

So we have a partial roof! I'll take it:

It feels so much better to see the front porch built out. I was worried that the entrance was going to be lost but with it framed in up there it now looks how I pictured it.

Garage is supposed to be poured today and more trusses to be set. :)

Road block #1: Had our financing all lined out with a local hometown bank. Then right before we signed, they decided (even though we have awesome credit) that we needed to put up more cash or more collateral. We were already over 20% for a down payment. We have been doing business with this bank for over 20 years. So, we spoke to another bank who is excited to have our business. They have a lower interest rate and do not need anything to secure the loan. They said our down payment is enough as long as the appraisal is ok. So we are starting the paperwork process all over again. This sets us back a few weeks and our builder is ready to get started so we are hoping this gets done before he takes on another job. Funny thing is, I was expecting something like this to happen, so it hasn't even bothered me. It must be from reading this forum everyday.

Jdez-don't get me started on banks. We also had a very large down payment, went to the bank that has had our money since we got married in 98 and every single time I go in there they have yet another paper that we need to sign. We closed in AUGUST! Get it together people, is this your first build mortgage or what! They also said we couldn't owner build so more hoops for us. The last time I had to go in for draw 1, she said well if you would have owner built blah blah blah. We specifically asked and she said they didn't do them. When I questioned her after that comment she said well you have to have a large down payment....which you have....trailed off to awkward silence. I was fuming....

Glad you weren't thrown off by the PITA and you secured a better rate, BONUS!

Rbat, keep your list of lights handy.
I picked out all of our lighting in July, have changed the kitchen pendants twice now, changed the upstairs bath to a more budget wise fixture since I went OTT on kitchen pendants, and have added sconces.

Yesterday we went back to cabinet place and changed the finishes on the master bath vanity and added a glaze to the living room built ins. And I think today I'm going to change our kitchen cabinet from bright white to marshmallow.

Now we're finding out that maple flooring doesn't take stain well, so we're likely going to have to change our floor selection. We want a stained wood floor, finished in place.

I'm not sure if having all our decisions made early is a benefit or a detriment.
I'm thinking now if I'd worked with a designer up front some of these issues might have been avoided.

Pam, saw your house pics on Houzz. Beautiful.

Happy for all of you who are all framed in.

Autumn, The roof does make the it seem more like a house. The entrance is going to look good. Glad that it is one less thing to worry. Its getting pretty dark here by 5:00 ish so we don't get a chance to go after work. We are trying to go in the morning when feasible if not over the weekend.

rb24, Glad you are done with the light fixtures. looks like you are knocking down the selections one by one :)

Marji, I think you making the selections before hand is good because atleast you have the cabinet maker and other selected. Now if you change a minor finish her eand there it is easier than doing teh whole design as you go. We are also doing wood and site finsinshed. I hear both red oak and white oak take stain well. So you may want to consider that.

Zone4, Missed your post about moving in the last thread. Congratulations. It must be so exciting :) Post pictures once you are settled in.

We have also designed our builtins around the fire place and eagerly waiting to hear on the cost of all the cabinets in the kitchen/buitlins in the greatroom. We want this room to be finshed and look good so this is where we are spending all our money on :)

I made many of our selections for flooring, cabinets, paint colors, etc months ago...and I think that has made me less stressed. I've been able to go back and tweak my choices a few times as we go.

I did pick paint colors and have a real draw towards the many shades of gray. The colors are all fairly neutral and I will accent with accessories. Just hoping it all pulls together. I feel like lights were the most overwhelming, but I really tried to stick to a budget on that to lessen the impact of our other overages.

Autumn4- it's fun once to roof goes up. Makes it much more real!

I think I will need to get some more pics on the weekend. I'm really anxious for the siding to start so we can see some color.

mlweaving - I actually chose soft white for the kitchen and was just wavering to go back to polar which is more of a bright white. Just this morning dh wondered if we should revisit our shingle color just to be sure. I don't even want to go there. At this rate we'll never get anywhere. ;)

akshars-even though they are making good progress every day it also seems like you can't really tell from the pictures I take. So even though we are out there nearly every day (sometimes after dark) I don't always take a picture.

Picking up cabinet door samples today. I am very excited to get a move on that! One hasn't shown up yet though and it's one I really need to see but I will take what I can get at this point. We had settled on alder but with all of the softness/easily dinged talk I am starting to get nervous about it. The sample I am waiting on is in cherry which I know is much harder. I am stopping at a cabinet hardware store also to get a feel for that. I found one at Menards yesterday but it was more expensive than I anticipated - for Menards.

rb-I lean toward gray also...even in my wardrobe I have to make a conscious effort to add variety! I need a decorator for that. Really I do. Thankfully I found one that is incredibly reasonable so we can afford to do that. I can't remember-is your plan open? So is the kitchen/dining visible from the living room? I found some pendants I really like but I'm not sure what kind of dining room light to pair with it and ours is open. Enter a decorator for that too! I agree on the lighting feeling overwhelming. In the beginning I thought it would be quite simple. Siding - that will be so exciting to see. Every step more like a home every day.

niteshade, LOVE your ceiling!!!!

I'm also glad we had things picked out months ago. However, I agree about things that come up that have made me second guess what we picked out. Or how we've had to re-do something because things just didn't work out the way we thought they would. It's never-ending! So, I'm thankful we had a large spec document with all our choices before we started since the majority of things have remained the same.

We've had a busy week down at the house. Here's a pic of the finished roof at the end of Friday.

DH and I marked all our cabinets/appliances/sinks on the floor boards Saturday and Sunday. That was a lot of work but had to be done. Plumbers and HVAC guys arrived Monday morning. The plumbers finished up on Wednesday. Here's the hub of most of the plumbing. The inside is the laundry room, the other side is the utility area in the garage.

Tub enclosure installed in the spare bath

The HVAC guys did a walk-thru with DH and then put down pieces of aluminum where they thought vents should go.

We ended up moving a lot of them because of where furniture was going. I was so glad I had placed furniture in my 3D software prior to building to know where to put the vents! I also had to check other GW threads about venting window seat areas. I always knew I wanted this look but I guess I had never shared that info with DH. :-)

The HVAC guys suggested to DH that we leave the whole toe kick open on the window seats and then we would have to reach back under the seat to adjust the vent. I did NOT want that look. DH agreed with me and likes the vented toe-kick look. We've printed out the photo so they know when they come back.

They were suppose to come back Weds. or Thurs. but we found out yesterday they will be here Monday.

We had a few small problems with several areas and the framer is coming back to fix those. We hope that is today as it is raining here. Our hall bath door was put in the wrong place and then the tub enclosure was 1-1/2 inches deeper than we thought it would be. We had made that hall bath as tight as we could so these two things really messed us up.

We had to re-design the bathroom cabinetry that would fit with the plumbing that was already roughed-in! Thank goodness we got it worked out. We had to go with 20 in depth cabinets instead of the 22 in. I had to double-check to make sure the sink we had ordered from the granite people would fit with a smaller depth vanity. It will. Whew! We have to go with a 2-in smaller door, too. And, the framer has to add another section for drywall to the adjoining linen closet to accommodate the deeper tub enclosure. It was a mess figuring everything out, but we think we have a compromise.

The well guy came yesterday and trenched the area from the well to the house and laid the piping. We also got our well pump installed in the utility area.

HVAC has to come first thing Monday morning to do some outside stuff because our siding is being installed on Monday. Electric was supposed to have come the end of this week, but now will probably come after siding.

The fireplace was supposed to be installed yesterday but they delayed it until after Thanksgiving. The same thing about our front door. It's pre-finished and they haven't completed it yet.

I think we decided on glossy colored ceramic subway tiles for the backsplash. I fell in love with a weaved glass tile pattern but it was competing with the granite we are using for the island. It was way too busy having both. I think the subway tiles will look better.

I want to use the interior designer my daughter used when they built their home three years ago. She's on a mission trip now but hope she would be willing to help me with paint colors and buying new furniture for the family room and furniture placement in that room. I'm nervous about making electrical outlet decisions in the family room floor without having furniture decisions first!

Hang in there everyone! One day we will be posting we are moving in!!!

Its finally here - MOVE IN Weekend! We didn't get everything done (backsplash is next week) but we are moving in anyway! Here are just a few pictures from last night - had some furniture delivered and finally hung my reclaimed barn wood beam!

Hoosier, You are making great progress. I think you were smart to have done majority of the selections before hand to eliminate doing everything right now.

rb24, Any tips one finding lighting fixtures?

Autumn, We are having very slow progress with the electrical and plumbing. I think they will pick up speed after thanks giving. Glad you got your sample doors. I was also initially going to go with alder but we have now changed to cherry because of the hardness issues. We have now upgraded to cherry , changed the door style and added on a few things our kitchen budget is way over what we expected.

mjwkr, Great news. Your house is looking great. Please do share more pictures when you can.

A question to everyone in regards to water heater. Are you using tankl ess or tank water heater. If tank less are you just doing one or two?

Ashkars_mom,
Yep thats what the finished ceiling should look like. I'd love to see the sheetrockers finishing it over, tho they might be cursing the homeowners when they do it O.o

We're going tankless, just one. Hadn't really considered needing 2 as we're a small family, just hubby and I and the occasional guests

I can so relate to those who commented on how hard/stressful it was making the many, many decisions necessary (we don't have all our decisions done yet either, and was sad to read choosing light fixtures was hard as we have not begun on that yet).

As per paint colours, I found an e-book online that has helped (book highlights favourite SW colours). I am happy with my colour choices as a result of following the suggestions in the book, but of course they are not painted on the walls yet, so I will reserve judgement until then. We did order large sample sheets to see the colours in larger format. It is so much easier to imagine colours that way.

Carol

Hoosier- love the picture with the placed window seats. Should look great when it's complete!

Mjwkr- I also love seeing the white kitchen and the fireplace is gorgeous.

Autumn4 - yes, our floor plan is open and I chose SW Dovetail Gray for that entire area. Alternated some rooms with SW Foggy Day, SW Sea Salt, SW Mindful Gray, and much of the basement will be SW Accessible Beige.

Akshars- I shared the 2 lights one the other string that I chose for Dining and above the island from West Elm - that was my starting point. We also have canned lights in the living room and kitchen. I found a fixture with matching glass for the entry, so everything in the great room should be matching glass and metal. I picked some fun semi-flushed lights for the office, mudroom, and master since they are all on the main floor. And a cute chandelier for my daughter. Every other room I just picked a standard flush mount with all matching finishes. And lots of canned lights in the basement. I tweaked each day last week, but now that I've sent the list to our GC, I'm not even looking back. I figured if I change my mind on something later on, lights are a relatively inexpensive fix. Haha.

Autumn and hoosier, looking good. And mjwkr, your kitchen is beautiful! I enjoy reading about everyone's plans and progress.

Here's a photo of the back of our house facing the beach and lake. Weather hasn't been great with lots of rain and high winds over the past month, so we're a couple weeks behind where we hoped to be at this time. Hopefully they'll start shingles right after Thanksgiving weekend.

This is our veranda, which is probably the single feature I'm most excited about in our entire house.

I think it's helpful to lurkers to see how our projects are shaping up in comparison to the plans on paper ...

mjwkr, I thought I was looking at an inspiration pic at first. Your kitchen is gorgeous!
Hoosier, you're really coming along.
I guess I know that I'm grateful I picked all our selections early. it gives me time for reflection and that's good. I truly do think lighting is one of the most challenging things we've had to select, and this is my second build, and I have 5 renovations behind me before this.

At this point I'm spending more time over on the Home Decorating board, as I'm trying to work out interior colors with furnishings.
We went back to cabinet shop yesterday, and found out that a custom color upcharge isn't that drastic. I'm in 7th heaven. The blue wall of cabinet built-ins I'd had my heart set on was way too dark in their stock color. I was struggling with ways to make it work. When our KD told us what the cost would be to just do a custom color we jumped at it.
I've spent a good amount of time online drawing room elevations. This was the stock color available from Fieldstone

This is painted in with the custom color. I'm playing with different pieces of artwork too on these drawings. The James Brandess pieces are original works we already own. The Josef Kote paintings are some we are considering. According to our art consultant in St Augustine, he's got some new paintings being released soon. So what I'm putting in is only representative of what may go above the FP

The next picture is using the custom color we decided on. And a Josef Kote painting above the FP

mlweaving,

I love the custom colour blue you have chosen. That is going to be one nice room! Can you tell us what program you are using to draw the room elevations?

Thanks,

Carol

Autumn - partial roof is exciting!!! You will start to get a feel for the sizes of the rooms!!

Mlweaving - thx for peeking at Houzz. I wanted bright white cabs and the designer suggested a softer color of white and I am so happy with them! My sink is bright white and I am glad everything isn't so stark! Some of my light fixtures were discontinued and I must say, I was glad they were! The back up lights are much prettier. Get some of the wood and stain it yourself...try to determine the color and how many coats are needed. I literally did that to get the right color beams I wanted for my ceilings. The painters wanted the easy way out. Don't settle and try yourself.

Hoosier- you are chugging along quickly... Pretty sky in that photo!

Well we have been here almost 2 weeks and have had our share of mishaps.... No washing machine for a week - the sand setiment from our well broke the inlet on machine. Lucky we still have our old house to go over to. My wolf oven door is warped... I can use it, but they are ordering a brand new door. And the smoke alarm that wouldn't turn off...all day!!! Electricians had to replace it.

We LOVE our Wolf steam oven - use it every day and the wolf range top with griddle. We really love our floor plan too...

Keep posting pictures! I still lurk to see ever ones progress!

Pam

Mjwkr - Ohhh!! Love it all! Post more pictures as you settle in!

Marji,
Love the color of your built-ins. The room is going to looks great.

rb24, Thanks for the info on the lights shopping. Based on how we are doing with budget this is some where we really need to be on budget or less than budget. And I agree lights are something that can be changed easily.

Jujubean, Your view is just priceless.

Slow moving here. Nothing much changed in the last few days :(

Hello all. Winter has arrived here in West MI. It's been cold but I think it's easier to work in the snow than the rain (easy for me to say). I was busy shoveling snow out of the dining room today. It's better than rain though at this point.

Best wishes for a blessed Thanksgiving holiday!

jujubean-are you getting hit with the lake effect snow? I love your dormer and your view is gorgeous with that varanda. Just keep those warm summer nights in mind sitting out there watching the water. I hope this blast of snow isn't the start of winter. I'd like to see a couple more weeks of dry weather before it's several months of frozen tundra!

mlweaving-what a pleasant surprise that custom paint wasn't that much of a budget buster so you can have it the way you want it. Paint can do so much in a room - nice to have the color and feeling you really want! Wishing you safe travels to you for the holiday.

akshars-are you into the inside stuff now and that's kind of dragging?

illini-what is your status? Walls poured? I was in GR the other day and no snow there. I hope you have been able to avoid it!

hoosiers-wow, wow, wow - you are really moving along! I love your inspiration pic with the window seats. :) We do have our tubs physically in the house and one of them looks identical to your spare bathroom.

spotty-I was going to ask how you liked your new front load w/d? Besides that are you having any issues? Do you like it?

mjwkr-congrats on your new home. Love the stone and that you carried it from the kitchen island through to the fireplace. :)

Here is a current picture from today. We are hoping to start shingling on Monday and hoping that either it's too cold for rain or it's dry to finally get that done! The garage was also poured and the gas line run so we can check those 2 things off of the list.

Nice to have the roof on.... now if it would only get warmer than 15 degrees and stop snowing randomly, we could put on the shingles. It has been fun walking through the rooms.

Hi guys!!

Crazy busy lately, sick kiddo, tons of work, house stuff...

I don't even know where to start. I don't have any new pictures, inside stuff is kinda boring lol

Lets see...
Ordered all my door handles, faucets, most of the light fixtures, appliances, idk what else.

HVAC rough is almost done. They have to move a couple things to keep my builder happy. We have huge attic space over the garage and he's trying to keep it so we (or someone else) could finish it later on.

Talked to him last night for a bit. I'm over on my selections on some things of course. Light fixtures mostly. I used to sell lighting I refuse to buy what's on sale at the big box stores. Sorry, not happening. I laughed at the "allowance" he gave me. $1750. Wow...
I figure I'll just have to try to make it up somewhere else... Like flooring.

We are so hard on floors, I'm not putting anything expensive in, so we can destroy it. Dogs, cats, kids, husband, me, horses...granted the horses don't come in, lol, but their dirt does. And we farm. It's just not pretty. :)

I've found a vinyl sheet that I LOVE, looks like wood, it's textured like wood. Cheap enough if we have to replace in 10 years, we can.

Plumbing rough started over the weekend (BIL is doing it)
Electric rough started Monday. (Friend doing it, but he's probably going to want to kill me before it's over.)

I'm off on Friday, so hoping to spend some time there and make sure we're all on the same page.

So exciting to see everyones' progress!!

I'm already planning to have cookout for all of the contractors/friends that help us along the way, after we're in. I can't wait!!
TTYS....

Wow Snow in lot of places. We don't get snow here so I always like to see pictures with Snow.

Autumn, I think the GC is over committed so we have very few people working or sometimes they work in the morning and not in the afternoon and so on. The roof and exterior stuff is not yet done but they are currently working on plumbing. Next week windows and front door are schedules to be delivered so excited about that.

We finally ordered our kitchen cabinets. We are still working on the cabinets for the built-in around the fireplace but we hope to order that on Monday.

Lori, Wow lot of selections done. That is Great. Since you seem to have expertise in lighting any tips or stores you recommend?

I more have manufacturers that I prefer.
Kichler, Emerson fans, Minka Lavery, Lithonia fluorescents. I always had good luck with their sales reps and customer service.

remember that fluorescents put off a white or true light, and incandescent put out a yellow/warm light. I always put fluorescents in my closets, so you can actually tell navy blue from black.

I've purchased a lot from build.com. So far I'm very pleased.

Thanks Lori. Will keep the tip about different type of lighting when we place the order.

kellithee-very nice! Where abouts are you at with your snow?

Lori and akshars - I am currently being tortured by bath sink/faucet selection. Do you every feel like honestly you just don't care anymore? I have spent way too much time surfing for this stuff and still haven't finalized everything. Ugh!

akshars-last year we didn't get snow until January - was hoping for a repeat but not to be. Today it's blazing sunshine (but very cold) yet about 10 miles from here closer to the lake it's white out conditions. Crazy. Congrats on moving on from the cabinets. Dh wants to go over the built in framing this weekend. Not sure I really feel like it since I really am not sure that either of us know what we are doing or what we need to do to make it look how we want it to look. We have a rough idea but... Oy. Are you doing custom or ordering something stock to fit? I am toying with just ordering upper cabs as they are more shallow, build them up a little to accommodate base trim and then put the TV on top on one side and then shelves on the other. Still trying to incorporate the arch....

lori-I am so envious that you have all of that picked out, truly I am! I hope your kiddo feels better soon.

So before bed at night Dh and I scroll through to see all of the pics and how far everyone has gotten and who has what weather delays and whatnot, lol. So romantic!

I hope December really pics up for everyone!

Lisa

Autumn, Tell me about all the selections haunting you. I had the weirdest dream last night about countertops. I have a phobia about snakes and in the dream the counterops were installed and some how the movement on the countertop looks just like a snake with fangs and all :). I got up from my sleep. My DH was laughing out loud when I told him.

For the builtins we are just going with Kitchen cabinet place. I know it is going to be more expensive in this route but we are running out if time to find other ways of make the cabinets in builtins look like Kitchen cabinets. The kitchen and builtin are all open to each other . Never realized having open concept could cause issues like this.

We have our bathroom fixtures finalized and I don't even want to go back and look now :)

Have you placed the order for your cabinets

Sounds like we are all plodding along with winter. We don't have snow here but boy is it cold!

We got our plumbing and HVAC roughed in. We have a shingled roof. We have windows and two of the exterior doors. Our front door is supposed to be in next week. We ordered bathroom cabinets and window seats this week.

We were supposed to have started the siding installation (unfinished Hardie Board) yesterday. But when the installers came they realized that our security motion lights are supposed to be installed in the soffits. Yikes, the electrician hasn't been here yet! So, DH is trying to get the electrician scheduled ASAP. The siding installers did work several hours doing some prep work.

We have a walk-thru scheduled Tuesday with our trim, beams, and interior door supplier. The finish carpenter might also come, too. We have to get the stuff ordered. Painter needs heat so he can stain everything in the garage. So we are trying to get everything coordinated.

I'm a little puzzled with how the HVAC guys roughed in the venting for our chimney exhaust fan above my gas cooktop. They said they are venting down thru the walls, under the crawl then to outside. The wall vent looks weird and is way farther down then my fan. They said they didn't want to go up thru the attic and then cut a hole in the roof. I'm not sure I like or understand what they've done. We'll have to check on that.

DH took the day off from working on the cabinets because it's so cold. I'm so afraid he won't get them done with winter hitting. That has basically always been my concern. He was supposed to have completed them in February! Oh well.

Hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving.

Autumn- I'm in southwest Wisconsin. They just got the shingles on Wednesday. I think they had to scrape some snow off.

akshars-oh my! I hate snakes so really truly that would have woke me up in a cold sweat, lol! We haven't ordered, the one door we are waiting on is the one I really need to see! We have narrowed down the master bath stain and the laundry, kids bath. It's the door with the stain for the kitchen island that hasn't shown up yet! Yes - totally agree on the open concept being a can of worms, i.e. selection nightmare! I went to bed the other night thinking, okay, I am done now. I want to quit, I just don't have this sort of thing in me! I am a numbers girl, period. I am definitely not a color/flow/design type of person. It pains me! Once we have this stuff set and I have the doors I HOPE everything else will come a little easier. Having the kitchen place quote unfinished cabs as we are spraying our doors and trim so I think we could then do custom color to match.

hoosier-yay! So exciting to have more inspections behind you too. I am a little nervous about our venting too. We aren't that far but I'm not familiar with it so I'm hoping the HVAC sub IS! We have had some cold cold temps as well. Next week we are due to warm up again (please no rain). How satisfying will that be to have hubby make your cabs. You can smile extra big every time you see them. That is a fun project!

kellithee-a relief you got them on before too much winter is upon us. Our snow is melting off today. It's cold but the sun has peaked out.

The roofer is supposed to start shingling on Monday while the framers are finishing up the sheeting. Because of the angle it's taking longer and is a little tricky I guess. At least the shingles will be starting soon! Crossing fingers by next week Friday they are DONE!

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are all shopping from the comfort of your homes unless you enjoy the Black Friday madness.

Lisa

Autumn - wow....SNOW! I am not surprised as it was 39 wednesday morning with a windchill off the lake at 32! So, if FL is this cold....I can imagine snow up north!

I think working in snow is easier than rain too!

I love my front load w/d. We had granite built over the top of it so it is sort of "build in" and the countertop above it is perfect for folding etc...I keep a big wrought iron and burlap lined bin that has the word "laundry" stamped into the fabric and my boys know that if its in that bin, I wash it....so, no more dirty clothes all over their room floors. It is working out great and it looks cute in the room....

Good luck everyone with winter coming....lots of progress!!!

Pam

spotty - so do you mind sharing what brand you have? I am always 'livin in the 90's' so I'm kinda scared to make the jump to front load!

Brr - that is super cold for FL! We have been in the teens but we are warming back up this coming week. I am an early morning walker and it's amazing how much warmer 25 feels than 18!

Yay! I finally have a couple pictures to share!

We have trim! And a first coat of paint! Floor installation starts Monday (fingers crossed). This will be the dining room:

And we have started to receive some cabinets! Laundry/mud room: