Ill jump in, we've made some progress and are getting going now.

Dense wooded lot, we are clearing a spot.

Now we just need to put an 800 foot lane back to the house site

Ok, lane is looking a little better and more solid.

Starting to dig foundation, uh oh we've hit massive rock!

Ok, lets blast it!

Now lets get back to digging.

We are accumulating a large dirt pile.

Ok, now we have a hole in the ground.

Time to form the footers

Now lets pour the footers

Foundation walls are now going up!

More pics to come, foundation will be complete today. Next weeks the framing starts!

I like your place. Where is it?

We close next week!Carpets in bedrooms on tomorrow, cleaning Sunday, sod on Monday, with lots left to do. There are about 50 people onsite right now.

My pics are really rough because I forgot to bring my camera with me 4 months ago when this process began, so it is in storage with the rest of our belongings. I am so ready to move out of this apartment! LOL!

Stamped walkway.

Stamped Front Porch

Front of house as of this morning.

Stone fireplace in family room

View from family room, dining room is SW Tigereye (orangish) on left. Foyer is SW Bamboo Shoot straight ahead

Views of family room and study from dining room

Study

The kitchen is coming together.

Master Bedroom with slate surround fireplace. The mantle should be in today.

Master Bath

Just got notice our demolition permits from the town are ready today, but we can't get them because... OOPS!... demo sub isn't licensed and bonded in this town. Sub has known the job was his for three weeks, so you'd think he would have made sure that stuff was in order. Contractor is sweating bullets. DH is ready to quit already.

Nice jobs, ssgumby and pcandlyte!

ssgumby - beautiful lot and very cute helpers you have!

pcandlyte - sooo close to being done. Looks awesome!

booksandpages - I feel for you! I'm sure you must be very anxious to get started. Took us f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get our permits. County had layoffs in the middle of our review and our project kept getting bumped from person to person, each of whom had their own new list of questions and corrections. Hopefully your sub gets his act together soon!

As for our progress, here is where we stand as of now:

Roof dried in-

Window install in process (view of back of house) -

checking straightness with plumb bob -

HVAC and tankless water heater in attic-

Greatroom fireplace-

Fire sprinklers in process-

And ALOT of dirt work going on. Here is the excavation for our garage turn around -

Last of the siding should be done today or tomorrow!!! Hopefully will get it all painted next week.

HVAC and electrical started going in, but no pictures yet, plumbers should be in at the end of this week to run the supply lines.

Getting excited at all of it coming together, but so stressed at the same time! Owner/Builder is ALOT of work!!

Kitchen cabinet layout

Hi bb19, we are a little ways outside of Baltimore

Pcandlyte I love your home the trim work and kitchen are stunning. What tile did you use for your backsplash? I am looking for something similar for our kitchen.

Finally, some progress pics!

Stairs are getting stained and getting their newels, balusters and railings:

We had to put the crystals on the chandeliers going over the kitchen island because no one is going to be able to reach once the granite is on. There are two of the chandeliers over the 13 foot long island. They're dusty already- anyone know how to clean crystal?:

The kitchen is really shaping up, I can't wait for the granite on the island to go in. Here's the slabs, they will be going on a 13 ft. long island:

The blue cabinets in the kitchen were color matched to the granite:

Dining room cabinet just needs the face on the warming drawer:

Dog room backplash is in:

Master bath is getting tile and it's sinks are here:

Master Bathtub (I can't wait for this to be done!)

This actually looks WAY better in person. It looks busy in pictures, but in person, the marble mosaics are calmer and really very pretty:

Bedroom fireplace got it's mantel:

Powder room got it's sink:

Thank you Mel.

I will have to find out and let you know. I do know that it is a tumbled tile. Unfortunately, my dream for our kitchen was more costly than our budget could handle, so my semi splurge on cabinets and stone cost me some other aspects. My interior designer suggested that backsplash. I secretly disliked it greatly until it was installed. I had a really hard time with backsplash and countertop selection. Neither were on my like list at all, but to save money, we went with it. The tile backsplash cost much more than I wanted to pay for something I didn't care for. However, I'm glad I trusted her enough to let the install go forth because I really like how the kitchen turned out.

BDIB- Beautiful! I'm loving blue more and more! I really like the master tub, that is stunning! The crystal chandelier is beautiful. Isn't there a spray you can use on the crystal that cleans it without ever having to touch it?

Sherrilea- Beautiful! I love 1 story homes, and your home is dreamy!

Great progress everyone! I have 2 inspections tomorrow and the final walkthrough on Thursday! I get to do all of this by myself because my husband is on a business trip this week. So, back to packing!

I'm in the slow detailing portion of my build. Everything is going slow but steady.

Here is the kitchen ceiling before stain.

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By bb19 at 2011-12-06

This is the back porch with 12x12 cedar columns.

Here are some pics of the upstairs playroom ceiling.

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By bb19 at 2011-12-06

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By bb19 at 2011-12-06

The Culbertson by Frank Betz with some changes

Click here to view these pictures larger

The next two weeks will be CRAZY! We have the remaining cabinets coming on Friday, driveway to be poured tomorrow, granite next week, carpet next week, electrical/plumbing and HVAC finishes next week, fireplace stone being installed next week, final grading and landscaping next week and deck the week after. Whew!

We closed today!

jamiecrok....what wood is your cabinets? And what stain...I like!!

We have a roof and windows!

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

jamiecrok did you get your quote from the cab maker on the big lazy susan? Are you doing it? Your house looks great! Are your floors hickory or... ?

We have had a lot of progress this month, and should be finished in about 7-10 days. They are putting in our hardwoods now, and still waiting on kitchen backsplash, hardware, carpet, and some lighting. Here are our latest pics:

Front:

Back:

Kitchen:

Master shower:

Family room:

Dining room:

beb - Beautiful house! What counter is that in your kitchen? Is it quartz?

jamie - what type of interior doors are you using? are they the masonite ones? love your paint colors and the window grilles!

New shutters went on Friday! And Monday, I think they are finally paving our looooong driveway!

Wow beagles -- your house is looking beautiful!

cottonpenny -- thanks! The countertops are ivory white granite.

The return of Vitt Hus

Garage is in process, here are a couple images:

Sold our house in the city, so now the new place is furnished. Photos at the link below - start at the last page and work backwards for new photos if you've already seen the older 'house-build' photos from last year.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Vitt Hus

Jolsongoude, your couple image is so nice and build progressing is to good. what's the place name where you live because it's looking lovely palace.

Here is a link that might be useful: flooring

jolsongoude,

How do you like living in your new home?

Jay - so glad to see you posting again...my favorite GW house of all time!

We have our foundation in and will commence with framing come Spring. I don't know if you saw the pic I put up a while ago...here it is again if you didn't. It was a cloudy day so you can't see the mountains as usual.

What interesting homes GWs build!

I love the bold colour choices, especially on pcandylte's home.

And the marble and granite detailing on beaglesdoitbetter's home, such as the custom(?) marble apron sink.

Here is a link that might be useful: Marble apron sink

Yes, worthy, the marble sink is custom. It was made by our granite fabricators out of the same slab that we used for the rest of the counters so everything would match. Our other sink in the island was custom too, out of concrete, to match the tannish streaks in the blue granite. We tried and tried to find sinks we liked off-the-rack and failed and after we ended up with a "non-returnable" sink we couldn't use, we just had them made :)

More kitchen/sink pics

Just got pictures of the finished staircase!

Thanks!

bb19 - It has far exceeded our extremely high expectations. We can hardly bear to leave!

melaska - Congrats on your foundation - it's going to be a looonngg winter for you, I'm sure! I look forward to watching your progress when you're somewhat thawed out.

Jay

Congrats Pcandlyte! What a great feeling it must be to complete that milestone!

jolsongoulde, your home looks spectacular! So warm and cozy with the snow. What state are you in? Do you ever see wildlife and does Otto go wild with all that land to roam!

Melaska, I can't wait to see out the windows to that mountain view! Fabulous!

peytonroad,

Thanks - we're in western Wisconsin.

We see plenty of wildlife: Fox, Coyote, Turkey, Pheasant, Badger and the ubiquitous Whitetail deer. Otto loves exploring the area - just don't ask about the 'Skunk Episode.'

Beautiful houses everyone! So much detail. Those of you so close to completion must be beyond excited!

We have finished framing and the Enviro-Dri has been applied. Stairs have been built and we're waiting for the shingles to be delivered. Here are the most recent pictures I've taken. Sorry they're so large. I tried to shrink them but they're still huge!

Beb--what is the color of your dining room please? It looks lovely on my monitor.

Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay. It is my favorite color in the house!

Thanks, Jay...we are literally buried in snow...we got it hard & fast along with periods of 100 mph winds. Ask me how I liked that when trying to get out of my car into the post office. If it weren't for someone coming up behind me I would've been like this gal in the video below.

Also, our #1 town for snow was featured here:

We are on page 7 which also includes a Google earth view of our town. Too bad it's not in winter but you can at least see it.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/13/9418014-americas-snowiest-places-weathercom-lists-them

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Free skating!'

It is moving along much better than Nov. We finally got our basement walls poured, floor poured, walls sealed, drain tile in place and now back filled two of the three walls.
Framer starts the week after Christmas! Woohoo! Ordered our windows yesterday. Got a great deal at Home Depot.

Beb, I'm so happy to hear that your dining room is Oyster Bay. I wondered about that, too, because I just chose it last week for my kitchen, dinette, pantry, in-law suite and laundry. It's so nice to see a real picture of it and still love it!

We are desperately behind here and on our blog, but we've been very busy. We sold our house and spent the ten days packing everything up and moving it all ourselves (hard to find help two weeks before Christmas!), plus celebrating our son's 3rd birthday, Sinterklaas (my hubby is Dutch), shopping for Christmas, finding a temp apartment and finalizing counters, paint and flooring for our new house. We closed on our house Monday, moved all day yesterday and today, and tonight we cleaned like crazy before settling into our apartment. We are WIPED!

We did get a little pick-me-up this afternoon as we stopped to see our new kitchen cabinets get installed.

View from the Great Room:

Outer Island: drawers, single bowl sink, raised dishwasher.

Outer side of prep island will house our dishes (it's across from the dishwasher) and recycling center.

Inside of prep island (across from cooktop). From left: touch controlled recycling center, adjustable shelf for my towels and wipes, prep sink with tip out shelves.

Our son checks out the baking center drawers. There will be an open lowered table to the left of it with a marble remnant we found. The rest of the counters will be Hanstone Specchio White quartz.

Cooktop with oil/wine cubbies and lazy susan to the right and drawers (including a bread drawer) to the left:

Stacked ovens with drawer underneath and rack above. There will be a microwave drawer to the right of it.

Future home of our frig:

Frosted glass cab:

Impeccable craftsmanship:

ICFGreen - Is that a raised dishwasher? And then dish drawers across the aisle from it? That is the same set-up we will have. Our cabinets go in in two weeks.

Yes it is, and yes they are. We are building with as much universal design as we can afford. There will also be a lowered open baking center to the left of the long drawers that will accommodate a wheelchair. We're using all pulls for our hardware, have 3' aisles, hallways and doors, all rocker switches, and extra lighting in the kitchen, and of course, all drawers.

ICF- been a while! How are you liking the ICF home now that its getting cold out?
Its great to see the dark cabinets. They are very pretty. A good change from the typical white you see everywhere these days. Did the Amish build these as well I assume? They look fantastic.

Yes, my health has been giving me grief. I live with a brain injury and have some pretty intense headaches. I'm just recovering from one that lasted from late July to early October, that took three days of infusion therapy (hooked up to an IV) to break it up. Of course, it happened when we needed to make all the final flooring, paint and counter decisions, so we got about a month behind. There hasn't been much going on inside since the trim was finished, so it was pretty excited to see things get moving again.

I'm loving the ICF walls! The thermostat is set at about 65 and it's so cozy in there, especially considering that it's been in the 20s at night! And it's nice and quiet, we don't hear anything outside, and we don't even have the floors in yet!

The cabinet maker is the brother-in-law of the foreman who framed our house. If we could, we would have had him do the entire house. Instead, we'll likely have him upgrade as we need it in the future.

Here are a few more pictures of the house progress. Hopefully we'll get caught up on the blog soon, too!

I LOVE the natural light in our new house. This is the foyer.

Fun picture of my son when we visited our cabinet maker a few weeks ago:

D and his friend B:

stamped concrete back porch:

Really like the colorful stone on the front.

nice to see everyones progress - looks like we will be posting in the January Build Progress thread afterall - we didn't get CO or a temporary permit as of yesterday, and our city is closed until January 3, 2012...

We have lots left to do - but today we started on Landscaping, we have some minor exterior drainage and lights to put up, our plumbing is being finalized, our counter-tops go in this weekend hopefully, Our electrical is done, heating needs to go in next week and final railings for upstairs and we should be close enough to get in...

Will post more pics next week. We finally have our courtyard poured, our cable railings done etc.

I look at this thread every month all month long, but never feel comfortable posting my build. Finally, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm so excited, I have to share! We are serving as our own GC, broke ground in August, and are hoping for a late January or early February completion.

July

Beginning of framing-late August

Framing completed-September

First week of December

This week our trim carpenter is finishing up, painter beginning to prime and my husband tiling the master bath (after we fired the tile guy).

On a lighter note, my child just asked me which color in the Crayola box was the closet to Oil Rubbed Bronze while coloring a Hello Kitty picture. Think all of our family time has been dedicated to this house for the past six months?

Hello, beautiful progress everyone!

Cabinets and most granite tops are in. Floors are being installed now...

Laundry room uppers:

Laundry room lowers with built-in pedestals for washer and dryer:

Kitchen:

It is difficult to see our granite because of the dust and mess, but it is tan brown, here is a sample:

Master bath hers vanity with glass/stone mosaic backsplash:

Granite day (part II). New granite island top and fireplace went in. The installers (Sinai Marble and Granite/ Big Brothers Marble and Granite in Baltimore) did an exquisite job!!!

Fireplace:

Close-up. The installers matched the vein on the hearth up the side of the fireplace!!

Island (13 ft. long)

Check out how perfect the seam on the island is!

Install took over 5 hrs!

We should be breaking ground next week. Our lot is 5 acres in semi-rural Kentucky, but a development which is nice. This is supposed to be our forever house. It's about 2,300 sf ranch, with a full walkout basement.

The Lot

The Plan

This is what we modeled it after

Finally, some progress to share

Getting closer on SL Sand Mountain (Modified)