@goosie836 -- My husband and I are at the same stage! We signed our papers on the 23rd and they will begin clearing a driveway and our homesite the first week of January.

I'm new to the site, but I've been lurking and gleaning for quite a while now. We recently bought about 28 acres of raw land and have been perfecting *our* perfect houseplan for years now. It will only be about 1800 square feet, but that is big compared to what I grew up with (I'm the oldest of 6 kids and we never lived in a house bigger than 1500 square feet).

We are so excited! We have been married almost five years (we are in our 20's) and have been working towards this goal since day 1. Pictured in this post is my favorite spot on the property. It is so peaceful!

Looking forward to be part of the group! :)

Don't let anyone kill your "building buzz" !
There are probably envious that they don't have the opportunity or indurrance
to jump into the "dreaded build a house" circus:)
We are neck deep into our new build and though there has been stress at times, it is just about the most exciting thing we have ever done. First new build and it will be our forever, retirement home. The basement and foundation were done in October, the electric and gas has been ran and we are waiting on the actual build to start. Our contractor is finishing work on another house but should start our actual build in the next few days. We knew this at the start so we are not concerned or in a hurry. The kitchen cabinets was my biggest decision, went to 4 KDs before I got the cabinets and layout I wanted. Whew!! Just about all decisions, except brick for front of house, have been made. Just a suggestion, start on the kitchen first, it will take the longest to get right.
Happy house build!!!

Goosie, don't let others rain on your parade. We aren't too far ahead. We poured our slab last week and are set to start framing next week, except now we are looking at rain all week. The weather will frustrate you, but it will get done.

Coie, beautiful property!

Here is our home - there will be a detached garage as well and we hope to be moving in by April sometime . Looking for ideas for a James Hardie siding . We are leaning towards a Tuscan Gold with charcoal shingle roof . Any suggestions are welcome !

Goosie - we are in MN and will be starting late winter/early spring. If November snd December were any indication, we may have an exceptionally warm winter ahead of us! About half the builders we spoke with in MN will break ground all winter long, but a couple of them did shut down for the two coldest months.

Just thought I'd pass that on, FWIW. Enjoy!

Goosie, I am not picky, I have high standards. :)

DH and I were running the network and television cables yesterday. Didn't get the speaker wire done before it got dark, and today it's way too cold to work in an unheated/uninsulated space.

Our siding guys have gone MIA. They were supposed to do our exterior insulation and tyvek, as well as strapping to hold on the siding. We are going to wait on the actual siding until spring. But we already purchased the siding due to miscommunication between DH, myself, our GC and the siding guys.

They've got the insulation up. The tyvek is up, but it's not taped and is falling off. The windows are half flashed. About half the strapping is up, but at least half that is in the wrong spots, and isn't screwed into studs on the interior. The Friday before Christmas, they charged my credit card for the final payment for the pre-siding stuff. The guys on site told DH they were going to work the weekend to get finished up by Christmas. They didn't show up over the weekend. Weather was gorgeous. They came on Monday, but didn't stay long and we can't see what they did. I called the boss on Monday, who lives in another city (which I wasn't aware of when I hired them). His phone is going to VM, and is too full to take messages. I sent him an email. No response. The crew hasn't shown up since Monday. I've been letting it go because it's Christmas. But I'll be getting Visa to reverse that charge this week.

I'm most annoyed that I'll need to find someone else to do the siding. GC can finish the tyvek and strapping. But I think we're stuck with the material we've purchased. I had wanted to buy different stuff, and I had a source for it, but nobody was willing to install anything they couldn't supply and add their markup on. So calling these people back and saying "uh, so we hired someone else, bought material through them, and now they've buggered off..." Now they're REALLY not going to want to supply material they didn't buy.

these are awesome replies and make me feel a LOT better!

Coie, my DH and I are also 20s, married about a year less than you, mostly lurker looking at about 2100 (unfinished basement not counted) and only 1 acre.....but I feel like we are in a similar place! I also grew up in smaller homes with several kids. Having more than one bathroom feels so luxurious!! That picture of your acreage is beautiful! Will you be able to keep that spot as is and surround yourself with those trees?

zorrowslw, I've heard a lot of "bad" about building but when I actually talk to people who have done instead of those who have "heard" about it, they say how it's a lot of work, but a lot of fun and worth it in the end. I hope we feel the same when it's all said and done!

ford08, your home already looks majestic! That's the first word that pops into my mind with that picture!

aleleux, I'm probably more worried about rain delaying things as we hit late Feb/Mar/Apr at this point than the freezing anyway. Hopefully we'll be onto indoors only by the time that hits.

shiltsy, I am certainly hoping that it will remain MUCH warmer than last winter! We are just a bit south of you and I know our builder did at least one house over last winter, but said that was the worst they had dealt with. I know water pipes 12 feet down were bursting last winter. Hopefully, hopefully, that is literally impossible to happen three weeks out at this point!

amberm145, I like your "high standards" idea. I'm going to go with that! We never, ever thought we'd be the people who built, but here we are! I did get a comment about how I must be a control freak, which is somewhat true in some situations (Type A) but I feel I'm being pretty chill in this. I hope you are able to get things sorted out with your siding people.

Welcome Goosie! Don't let the haters rain on your parade. This is our first build, and it's been pretty great so far. We weren't in a huge rush to move and 5 months since breaking ground it really feels like it has gone by in the blink of eye.

It made more sense to build for us, any existing homes we viewed needed kitchen/bathroom/flooring/painting revamped in order for me to be happy with it. Add those things together and building ended up being about the same cost, except with building we don't have to live amidst the mess of renovation.

Best of luck to you!

Goosie , thanks for the comment ! Currently the carpenters are on break till after the new year . The winter build is going well so far however the weather did turn very cold . The temperature right now is approx -31 with a severe windchill rating of close to -40 to -45 .
Sincerely,
Ford08

Goosie , thanks for the comment ! Currently the carpenters are on break till after the new year . The winter build is going well so far however the weather did turn very cold . The temperature right now is approx -31 with a severe windchill rating of close to -40 to -45 .
Sincerely,
Ford08

MrsB1227, that's about how things went for us. Pretty much no homes were built between 2007-2010 up here, so we were mostly looking at 10-15 year old homes that were going to need a new roof, furnace, carpet/flooring, etc. very soon. When we reluctantly looked at building, we found that for the same price, we could have a completely new main floor but we would not get a finished basement. Well that works for us as we don't yet have kids and I had actually been worried about going from maintaining an apartment to maintaining that much house. This feels like a much more manageable "step up". Then down the road when we feel we need the additional finished space, we have that option. Plus we could pick a floor plan and finishes that we liked. Not to mention that when we walked into two different houses of the builder's, I immediately fell in love. I would have put in offers if they didn't already have owners/occupants! Just loved the floor plan - felt like "our" home - not someone else's that we were just walking through.

my goodness, Ford, is that C or F?! It turned cold here yesterday as well. Had been in the 40s(F) the last couple weeks and now down to low 20s. I knew it was too much to hope for it to stay warm until they got the hole dug and foundation in in a few weeks! I'm going to hold out hope that the long-range forecast comes through and we spend most of January in the 20s and 30s as opposed to last year's January that had a - in front of those numbers! Be amazing to not get stuck with a large heating cost for the construction.

For us, we wanted to move closer to downtown, but DH wanted a big garage. The inner city areas in our city have either small homes built in the 40s-50s on large lots, or these old homes are being torn down and replaced with new by developers for resale. The new homes are either massive McMansions on the full lot, or the lots are being severed and 2 houses are filling up the space. Even the massive houses still don't have big enough garages because builders sell by the sq footage, and the garage doesn't count. So they make the garages small, and add in a bunch of rooms we'd never use. We didn't want to buy property where space is at a premium, and then waste most of it.

The smaller houses the builders are putting up everywhere are still mostly wasted space. Someone got it in their head that there NEEDS to be a formal living room and a casual living room. When the main floor of the house is less than 1000sq feet, and it includes a large foyer, a huge kitchen, a back entrance and a powder room, putting in 2 living rooms makes both of them too small to really be usable.

Most of these new houses are being built for resale to imaginary buyers. So they are built pretty much a formula for what "everyone" wants. The design is meant to be impressive to visitors, without much thought to how people really live. We wanted a house that is meant to be lived in. So we are building our own.

We found a lot where the previous owner had already torn down the old house, and severed the lot. He had built a house on the smaller piece, and the other piece didn't suit the typical house that the builders are cranking out. It's twice as wide at the back as the front, and it's got a back alley, so the garage goes in back. It's perfect for a smaller house (by today's standards) and large garage.

goosie -- that's so cool that we've got that much in common! :)

We will be building just outside of the area pictured so that it stays untouched (other than cleaning it up some) and we can view it from the front of the house.

I got stairs today! No more climbing ladders for me!

Coie, awesome that that little spot will be left there! It looks so peaceful. Great spot to watch for wildlife or take a little stroll.

We are out of town, but hubby's BFF/our future neighbor said the driveway is almost ready to be poured.

We are also meeting with builder this week to discuss some overages. I totally get that estimates can be off to begin with. We lessened the amount of stone to be used to on the front of the house yet were $500 over on material and were over $1,400 on brick/sand/cement and brick labor. We changed our back door to a plain one instead of a door with blinds inside the windows, and chose a nice craftsman front door that was $500 less than what I really wanted, but were still over $550 there.

I don't like being over on things. I know it happens when building because there are things you can't predict. Like we went about $2,000 over on the slab because it required more concrete. Can't help that! Between the slab and those other overages, we are about $5,000 over and still have about 6 weeks to go so I know that number will go up

There are some areas I know we will come under budget. Hardware because I found good deals online and fencing because our neighbors on either side have their fences up already. We have already purchased several light fixtures with our own money and we want to continue to buy things with our own money when we can.

We should be meeting with our loan officer this week to lock in our interest rate and need to go to Ferguson to pick a few more things out.

Cheers!

Wow everyone is coming along nicely!

We have been waiting patiently to have framing begin on our front. Our slab was poured December 11th and framing was supposed to start the following week but the framers he booked were on another job that wasn't finished. So we wait. I ask everyday when are we framing. Finally yesterday builder says lumber will be delivered today and Framing will begin Monday. We just got blasted with an arctic air mass and it is only going to be 18 today with a 5 wind chill. Hopefully next week it will be a tad warmer for them to get rolling. Builder said the framing crew will be there 2-3 weeks and once the roof is on he will have the windows and his other crew will install them. He is trying to get us back on budget track.

aimless07 - I understand about overages, we had to pay $1550 for an elevation cert and stake out that builder estimated to be $350, building permit was $425 over estimate, we had to do waterproofing on a retaining wall that wasn't in the bid $225, foundation work went over $2300, gravel went $1500 over and he said the flatwork guy went over but I haven't seen that invoice yet. So far about $5650 over. I sure hope framing is under.

Looks like several of us are at the same stage. Cement slab was finally poured last week. Lumber for framing should be delivered today or tomorrow-so excited to see that start. Frustrated as I fractured my ankle right after thanksgiving and can't get up onto the site(have a walking boot, but we're building on such a slope that it isn't safe for me-or should I say that I'm uncoordinated enough that it isn't safe for me). My husband is taking lots of photos though so I can "see" it. Both of our grownup kids were here at the rental for Christmas and got to see what was happening at the house-grateful for all of it. Hoping things will move a bit faster now. Rain seems to have stopped for a bit-hoping for more once framing is done.

Renee0829

I am really surprised that you are being charged for gravel and foundation overages. That should have been figured in the house build contract price I would think. Our contractor gave us a house build price and if he goes over his estimate, he will have to pay for it not us. Did you have some other arragenent?

Renee, I'm right there with you! Our slab was poured Dec 16. We were supposed to start framing yesterday, but we got rain all weekend and we can't get any delivery trucks in for framing materials. :(. They are going to try to get them in tomorrow. If not, we have more rain coming again, through the weekend. Next week will be beautiful weather but it does no good if we don't have materials. We need at least a few days for it to try to dry up each time it rains. At least for any heavy trucks to get in.

I have a house build contract price but because it is a custom build some things were written as allowances. My foundation was one of the things we wrote as an allowance because of the engineered slab. We were over on sand loads by $2000.

Framing should be part of your contract price. Unless you are referring to changes which will always cost you money!

Double post

This post was edited by mattypies on Wed, Dec 31, 14 at 7:15

zorrowslw, we have the same arrangement as you. Our allowances are for things like cabinetry, light fixtures, etc. They said they should know what excavation/foundation/things like that should cost and we shouldn't be expected to, so if they go over, that's on them and not us.

Speaking of overages, hold onto your hats ladies. If you are like us, we got the contractor, plain Jane build estimate. MMMM, maybe I want Cherry cabinets, I really want a screened in porch off the kitchen, a cherry fireplace would be lovely and oh yea, We REALLY need that $1200.00 door for our walkin shower and that neat looking $450.00 faucet for the kitchen. LOL
But, we kinda knew there would be overages and are really trying to keep it
As low as possible. This will be our forever home and felt if we didn't get those few things we really wanted we would regret it later. But I think we are done with anymore overages and are OK with what we decided.

Hellllo everyone. I've been absent from this thread for a while. I had a terrible situation with a contractor that I am going to need to sue. I won't go into the details as it is too exhausting, but they whole ordeal has delayed my project by a few months. sigh....

Anyhow, we are currently in the trim stage, and I have some new photos to share!

I'm so happy with my trim carpenters! They are beyond wonderful. They have a real sense of pride of workmanship, and after the debacle with the other crap contractor, I'm so happy to have them working on my home.

So, without further ado, here are a few trim photos:

This is the arch between family room and kitchen:

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This is my living room
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This is how they are trimming out my arches. Nice that they did that little thingy around the light switches instead of just using standard casing and having the switches butt right up against them.

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This is the bar (!!!!!)
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Cabinet being sized properly for my kitchen sink
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Kitchen island

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Another view of the island. this is looking into the kitchen from the family room

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Bathroom. freestanding tub will go in front of window
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We should be done with trim in about 2 more weeks, then painting will begin! YAY!!!!

I. Am. So. Ready. To. Be. DONE.....

Today we sat down with our builder and reviewed our overages. Most it it stemmed from the unevenness of the lot so we had to pour extra concrete for the slab and had to have extra brick and stone.

We also locked in our mortgage rate! Rates have been falling and we got our conventional rate of 3.95%. We were definitely hoping to get below 4% and we did! I wish we would have been able to avoid PMI, but eventually that $70 per month will go away.

Happy New Year fellow builders!

We hope to be in our new home sometime in the coming year as I am sure many of you will be, too.

It sure would be nice to have an end date on this home..... but it is still a work in progress. We need to get out of this rental by April. Hopefully, we will be able to stay longer if needbe.

We had our lot cleared in June. Concrete poured the end of August and the framing started in mid-Sept.

As of this week, we passed all our inspections for gas, electric, plumbing and anything else that is between the studs. We are currently getting foam insulation installed this week. And the masons are finishing up the stone and brick exterior work.

We are done with all the selections for appliances, cabinetry, tiling and electrical fixtures. Only need to decide on our wall paint colors and the stain color of our wood flooring now. Our landscaping plan has yet to be reviewed, though.

Can't wait to see the finishing part. Because the preparation seems to have taken quite some time now.

Welcome to the newbies who are just beginning.

Aimless I glad to hear you have locked in a lower mortgage rate and you have gone over your overages with your builder.

Carsonheim, your wood work is beautiful! Enjoy it!

It seems everytime we turn around we are paying overages on our allowances. We even started out with overages that we knew about (my Jason hydrotherapy tub and my husband's steam shower for starters). But sometimes your allowances aren't enough to cover what you really want. We definitely counted on having to spend extra on a number of items. So far we haven't gone too crazy, but it would be helpful if our builder would let us know BEFORE he buys something that we are over by a lot!

This post was edited by zoe52 on Wed, Dec 31, 14 at 19:42

Good luck with the build. I'm so glad I found this site. We(I) are a little crazier than most. I'm still in the design stage of our next new larger home (still living in NJ for 17 years) in Blaine WA, to be closer to our daughter who lives in Whistler BC. I'll be starting a build thread soon. It's a daunting task planning a move from NJ to WA in May 2015, we will rent for 12-18 months, the time it will take to build. Please pray for me.

Happy New Year to everyone

Happy New Year everyone. Hopefully 2015 will be many exciting and happy times :)

We are finally clearing our land for the new house. We have been living on our property for the last 2 years in a very very tiny house(we have 5 kids). This current home will be changed to an ADU (MIL) home that we will rent out.
It's taken us a little under two years of reports, studies, clearing, permits, designs etc. to get to this point. To say we are excited is an understatement! We will be owner building but subbing out a lot. This isn't our first time building a house and my DH works in the construction industry so I feel we are pretty well prepared for all those things that you can't prepare for when building! Hahaha!

I love this site and I used to lurk here back in 2006 when we built our last house. There are so many helpful people on here! Hopefully I'll figure out how to post pictures :)

A picture of our building site.

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