scone it sounds as if you shouldn't get attached to any plan of action that you come up with because your situation keeps morphing! But what a nice development to be on the financial receiving end of a corporate power struggle!!

Just lovely, treehuggergirl - I'm not jealous that you are almost done. Really. I'm not. Well maybe just a little. ;-)

cp - you, the hubs and the woofer are welcome to wait it out with us but I can't promise that we'll have a completed house by then the way things are going!!

@DLM2000 You know, you're absolutely right. I should just relax and enjoy the ride. We don't need to sell the current house to build the new one, so the worst thing that could happen is I end up with two properties. Our current house is very rentable. And we don't need the profit from the current house to retire, either.

Hmmmm, I just realized something based on what you said-- I've been building/remodeling/flipping for so long, I'm having trouble letting go of my "job." It's not really about the money, it's about retirement ambivalence. I didn't even get that I was afraid to stop working and be "put out to pasture." Somewhere along the way, I became a workaholic. Huh.

Thanks! :)

Things are happening here. Framing should start today or tomorrow and exteriors have been chosen. Now let's get it done! I know, I know, it's gonna be awhile.

ooooh, Kimberly - can't wait to see this take shape! I don't remember your house plans (total brain fog due to our build) or if you've shared them - what type of house are you doing?

Walked through our now fully framed rooms for the first time today and can't remember when I've had so much fun! Everything is scaled, placed and relates to other spaces exactly as I'd hoped - with one exception. The coat/boot/shoe closet in our mudroom is smaller than I'd hoped because we bumped our master shower into it a bit to make that larger for that stupid aging in place thing! ;-) The closet won't be a problem for just the two of us but we are thinking ahead a bit to a future owner with kids - oh, well - not my problem! Oh! And our screen porch fireplace is started - full masonry, same brick as the house

That reminds me of an odd 'first' I had a month or so ago. Although I had been 'living' in the house for a couple years, the floors didn't get finished until October 2015. The sub-floor was rough and nasty, so I never went barefoot. Once the floors were done, it was cold, so I didn't go barefoot in our new house until about March or April of this year. I never wear shoes indoors, so I'm finally back to 'normal'!

To be honest I don't think I've shared the plans before. It will be a walk out ranch facing east -west. The back of the house will have a view of the Sandhills prairie. Without unobstructed sunsets over the river valley. We can't wait.! This will be just outside of city limits of a 24,000 pop city. Which is huge for us we currently live in a town of 1200.

Nice plan Kimberly!

DLM...even though it's smaller than you had planned, I would love to see the plan of your shoe, boot, coat closet. Mine will be in my laundry room but I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do it yet and I need ideas. I wanted mine behind closed doors.

ILoveRed you make me laugh! Plan of my closet?? We are so flying by the seat of our pants on things like that.

I stood in there last night and tried to imagine how we'd utilize it. At our old house we had a small mud room, roughly 5'5" x 8' but that also had the W/D, 2 vacuums, broom and laundry baskets in it, too. We had double deck hooks for our coats and the kids coats, totes for off season things like boots and gloves and a floor to ceiling shoe tower DH built that could hold 2 - 4 pairs per shelf depending on whose shoes.

The new closet is much smaller 3.5' x 4.5' and will be just a closet but I still like shoe/boot storage right there - always kick off my shoes and put on flip flops or slippers. I'm thinking maybe horizontal shoe storage this time around and hooks again for our jackets with possibly a small section for things that need hangers. But that's as far as I've gotten

Thanks for explaining it. It still sounds like something where you can close the door on the mess ...the best solution for me. I want to hide everything in the laundry room and shut the door on the mess. So tired of looking at shoes everywhere.

Week 7. Should have built an Ark instead of a house. Hope the Sun can dry it out this week.

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Wayland Kramer - we've had a lot of rain also at critical points in our build - it's frustrating and a worry for future mold. If possible, get in there with a big push broom and sweep water out where you can and spread it out where you can't. Dedicate one extension cord to a box fan and get the air moving on the interior to help dry it out. BTDT.

We had texturing last week, unfortunately they didn't cover all the can lighting, so frustrated as we have been asking about this for weeks, I wanted to do it myself but DH said not to worry it would get taken care of.

The weather in the mountains of Colorado has finally turned and we were able to break ground. So thrilled to finally start moving dirt. https://stanleyridge.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/we-have-finally-broken-ground/

Midwestgal...I can't tell what I'm looking at. Did they damage the lights with the texturing paint? Will the lights cover it?

I found the following online about paint getting in the lights. Our electrician said it voids the warranty and my guess is that it has something to do with fire hazard since it is in the code.

This is from Article 110 of the electrical code: (C) Integrity of Electrical Equipment and Connections. Internal parts of electrical equipment, including busbars, wiring terminals, insulators, and other surfaces, shall not be damaged or contaminated by foreign materials such as paint, plaster, cleaners, abrasives, or corrosive residues. There shall be no damaged parts that may adversely affect safe operation or mechanical strength of the equipment such as parts that are broken; bent; cut; or deteriorated by corrosion, chemical action, or overheating.

I will try a different picture

I've enjoyed watching everyone's progress on their build and have waited patiently for the day we would start. Foundation walls have been poured!! This is a picture of just before. Forms are being stripped today.

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Almost done framing the 2nd floor.

I went back up last weekend to see my build, and stain some more boards. They're putting up the ballusters for the porch railing. You know, thin logs! In the front, there is a growing collection of small flat rocks that will be cleaned up and used to make my stone region on the wall behind the future wood burning stove.

They're making progress fitting together the tongue and groove of the ceiling planks. It takes three people together to do this, and gets very thankless the closer they reach the apex of the cathedral ceiling. The black circles are electrical outlets (for ceiling fans and pendant lights.

The log office walls have now been stained -- two coats of the Natural Light (Lifeline), followed by a clear sealant coat. The trim has yet to be stained -- they'll get one coat followed by a clear sealant coat.

I've been "moving in" -- I've brought up most of my camping gear, a lot of the outdoor goodies, and a few other odd ends. Right now this is a back corner of my garage -- stuff eventually gets moved down to the basement. I figure I won't need most of this (especially the snow shovel) for awhile!

This is the view from my front door -- the house and barn across the street, and to the right, a little home on my side of the street -- they're grandfathered into a quarter acre. I have no visible neighbors on any of the other three sides -- well, yes, I can see the Nature Conservancy, but that's not exactly counting.

As you can tell, my front yard is Under Construction.

And this is the back yard, from the master bedroom. Finally, lots of spring green! There are high bush blueberries back there, too. Those rocks, though...

Heaven artemis!

We are 4 weeks away from completion. I say at least twice a day, "I'm over this build and ready to be done!" Paint and cabinets are finishing up this week, next week electricians and plumbers will be in for final work, the finish grade, then DONE!

We moved into our house early april, and still working on things, finally got storage unit emptied, no landscaping yet and I still have staining on windows and railings to do yet, but we got our CO permit in the mail yesterday, ha! Give me a week and I will have things company ready, and will post pictures..

Looking forward to it wrock99.

We got our mortgage approval today!

Midwestgal....that sucks. I would not be happy. Not because of the warranty issue. Most warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on. But, because of the fire risk if that is true. How many lights does this affect and what can be done?

Artemis...love that ceiling.

MsLindley, I'd like to know more about ductless heating and cooling. You can message me if you'd like. I'm interested because of our allergies and have been trying to find ways to eliminate as much ductwork as possible.

missouribound- We have ductless as well- two self-contained Mitsubishi HyperHeat units that do all of our heating cooling. Very quiet and efficient.

The shed dormer above the garage is going up.

We are 15 months in (seems like forever) and feel like we are finally in the home stretch.

Roper looks like you have the home!!! Looks great! Enjoy when all done. Very nice grand entrance of the home!

Ken

Well, we failed our final inspection yesterday. For two inches. The vendor of our fireplace says any compustible material must be at least 50" inches from the bottom of the unit. We are at 48"- something that should have been caught, but wasn't. I would have fired my GC yesterday, but I am married to him and I love him.

If anyone has an idea on how we can do this without ripping out the whole surround, I would appreciate it. We thought that maybe we could cut out the top part, increase the leg height (somehow), but until we talk to our tile guy, we don't know if the tile extends far enough underneath.

I had a pretty rough week. The attention to details seems to matter to no one but me. I think I will be caulking and repainting for the next 5 years lol- and now the fireplace..I think I'm going to start drinking.

Missouribound, I just saw your question. Like Mushcreek said, they are very quiet. We purchased ours from Ecomfort.com. We purchased the Mitsibushi M-Series. They have a buying guide that helps explain some. You will need the outdoor condenser heat pumps in addition to the wall mounted indoor units. Both are quieter than a traditional heating and cooling system.

Most HVAC companies will install these for you. We could not afford their quotes so my husband and his uncle installed them and had a HVAC tech come in and check everything. We also received a $2200 tax credit from our state. Our quotes were 15 to 18 thousand from local HVAC companies (comparable to a traditional ducted unit). With our tax credit factored in, it cost us around seven thousand.

To be honest, due to time, (and us not living there yet) I haven't read up on them yet - this was one of my husbands projects, so I don't know what kind of maintanance they require. I hope it's not more than keeping the outdoor condensers somewhat protected from the weather and cleaning filters in the indoor units.

We installed the larger 18000 BTU in the family living area, one 9000 btu on the other side of the home and two smaller 6000 units in the bedrooms on the other side of the house and I believe three outdoor units - one being a dual zone- whatever that means.

Personally, I think we over did it. I think my husband was just afraid that we all sleep with the doors closed, and that the bedrooms would get too hot or cold.

Mitsubishi also has some information on their website...and of course your hvac installer can probably help also..hope this helps some.

To continue the ductless discussion- As I said, we have two- a 12K BTU unit in the main part of the house, and a 9K in the master suite. I also did my own installation and Manual J calculations. The 9K is definitely overkill, but it was the smallest we could get at the time. Luckily, these units can run at very low levels and still be efficient. Our house is very small- 1444 square feet- and our cooling load in hot SC is only 9,000 BTU for the whole house, with the heating load being 12K. Our house is so well sealed and insulated (ICF construction) that the heating and cooling loads are way to low for a central system. As an example, the cost for A/C in July only adds about $20 to our electric bill.

Maintenance is very simple- Keep the outdoor coils clean, and clean the small filters in the indoor units periodically. I mounted our outdoor units up on the wall on brackets, about 3 feet off the ground. This keeps it up and away from dirt, leaves, and snow. After two years, there has been nothing to clean on the outdoor coils. Like any HVAC system, an annual check of refrigerant levels is usually a good idea, but there is no ductwork to inspect and clean, so the annual check-up should be cheaper than a central system.

There are few caveats. I don't think that they are as effective for rapidly cooling or heating an area, as they don't move as much air as a central system. I suspect that they might struggle with a leaky old farmhouse. They are so efficient that it is more cost-effective to let them run continuously during high heating or cooling seasons as opposed to changing the thermostat constantly based on occupancy. I had to change my old habit of pushing the thermostat up or down while we were gone for the day.

Whatever HVAC system you ultimately use, make SURE that your contractor does a comprehensive assessment and calculation of your heating and cooling loads. I had one contractor insist that we needed 2-1/2 tons (30,000 BTU) in a ducted system! That system would have been woefully inefficient, and would have done a poor job of dehumidification due to being so big. At least if you overshoot with the ductless units, you can shut some of them off, and they can run at very low levels efficiently.

Sorry for the short novel, but it might be useful information for others as well.

MsLindley, I don't have any suggestions but I feel for you and hope everything gets resolved. You'll appreciate your attention to detail for years to come in your beautiful home!

That's really a shame, MsLindley and I can only imagine your disappointment. You idea for a solution sounds reasonable to me and hopefully the tile person can accommodate that. You'd have to add more detail to the 'legs', probably with the same molding piece (or ideally a smaller version) that separates them from the top portion but I think it could be done and look nice.

Thank you for your kind words Omelet and DLM2000. I'm sure we will be able to come up with something, and if this is the only thing keeping us from a certificate of occupancy, I guess it could be worse.

Thanks for the information on the ductless. Besides the allergy benefits, what are the main pros and cons? Another reason I wanted them is because I HAVE to sleep in a cool room, and it seems silly to make the whole house 70 at night. And both my dds are cold-natured and want the temperature at least 5 degrees warmer than me.

Are the units cooling only, or heat and cool? We plan on having a vented propane "fireplace" heater in the main living area.

Like mushcreek, our house is going to be small, around 1250 on the ground floor and an attic space to be finished later.

It's funny you mentioned that you have yours mounted on the wall because that's what I want to do too, more to keep fire ants out than anything else. With our current big unit, fire ants have gotten in and fried stuff twice.

MsLindley, is your clearance issue just on the top/mantel area? If so, can you just take off the top part and put in a row of tile?

MsLindley, since you can't fire the builder, I hope you figure out something that works. I'm sure you will and it will be great.

Red,

We have about 18 can lights that have been sprayed with texture, primer and paint. There is a heat sensor in all the cans that shuts off the light if there is a problem, this sensor doesn't work when it is painted. Theralso can't be paint in the socket where you twist in the light bulb due to fire safety. My DH contacted the light manufacturer to ask when there should be concerns and they told us the above two reasons. He is planning on emailing them a picture when the electrician comes back out. I don't know how this will get fixed, the attic has already had the insulation blown in so replacing them will be difficult.

Me.Lindley

I am so frustrated right now, why can't we be proactive and deal with the issues that come up instead of fixing them later when it is much more difficult. Thank goodness your DH saving you builder fee's and hopefully your fireplace can be remedied easily.

Our latest issue is you can clearly see the drywall seams in our kitchen and great room ceilings. From what I read this is probably a primer issue. Our builder is blaming humidity, ugh, we will be dealing with this on Tuesday to try and fix when the flooring and finish carpenters are trying to come in and do their work. Seriously why didn't they listen to me last week and it get it fixed then!

Saturday, May 28th!

The guest bedroom has been painted! (First coat only). I love it, and it works well with the ceiling paint I chose!

This photo is the most color-accurate of the lot. Wall color: Sherwin Williams Whole Wheat. Ceiling: Sherwin Williams Canvas Tan, a warm white to be used throughout the house. View is out through the hallway (also Canvas Tan) into the master.

And here you see the wall color - a little less accurately -- with the future floorboard sample:

In other news, I brought up the lights for the kitchen (a set over the prep area, and another set over the main sink). I'll have them hang down from the cathedral ceiling to a level of 7.5 feet above floor. I still need to pick out ceiling fans with lights. Arrgghh, decisions!! Going through the brochure, most are pretty pug-ugly, and I also wonder how I'll be changing bulbs from the ground. Most are encased in glass enclosures, so the ole stick the elongaged lightbulb changer up there isn't going to help.

I planted the garden. Well, I put in my cannas tubers and calla lily bulbs, behind the garage next to the dining area. The GC has to finish grading the area, but he's got space to work with without disturbing the plants. I also left plenty of room -- even more than he said he needed -- so he can finish off the outside of the house. The bamboo (and other) stakes are marking off parameters. I amended the soil with organic topsoil and compost - did you know a lot of purchased topsoil comes from disturbed regions of the country, disturbed by events such as hurricanes, which indiscriminately mix up who knows what? As the very front of the plot will eventually be given to cooking herbs, I care about this!

Here, the topsoil/compost mixture has been added.

Here, the plants have been placed, and more defining stakes have been added. And the ground watered -- I have running water, if only from a hose! The outer edges define this eventual relatively-flat garden space. Those two little stakes are the line for the calla lilies, and the cannas tubers are behind.

I went home that evening, and missed out on some friends who'd driven up from New York to surprise me -- I guess that surprised them!

Anyhow, Sunday: I started staining some units for my closets. After checking out the closet planner on Easy Closets and getting some great ideas, I decided I could save a ton of money by doing my own useful shelving. Two tall narrow shelves I'd just purchased, and a pre-existing dresser my father left with me back about twelve years ago got called into service, and stained. Unfortunately, even outside, the oil based stain I used on the tall shelves got to me -- hot day, the air not moving -- so I went back and bought a water based one for the dresser. I'll be putting them in different closets, so the color change doesn't matter.

There are two of these, and they will go to the edges of a four-foot deep closet.

The dresser drawers -- the body was hard to move so I stained that inside my garage -- will go into a similar closet. Unfortunately, before I took the drawers inside yesterday evening, a rude bird had decided to drop a little doot on one of the drawers. I'll see how I can fix that today, when it stops raining.

Week 8. Environmental and wiring has begun. Hoping for pre-drywall inspection in 2 weeks or less.

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MsLindley, regarding the fireplace. I don;t think there is any easy fix that is going to look right. The only idea I can come up with that doesn't required modifying the actual surround other then removing it is to add little 2" bases to each side on the hearth and to trim them out. You will have to then redo the tile above the fire place.

Midwest gal...it sounds like those 18 lights will need replaced. I'm so sorry this happened. Someone's liability insurance should pay for it I would think. The question is...who? The person who sprayed the lights without covering them, or the person that should have covered them before the painters came?

This is the kind of thing that takes the fun out of building.

We were painting over the weekend and I am wondering what type of paint finish everyone uses? Sounds like the builder standard is flat to make touch ups easier. I chose flat because it is easier to work with but over in the paint forum they really discourage flat paint.

I always use an Eggshell finish on walls and Flat on ceilings

Beautiful home

Midwest Gal I also use eggshell on walls and flat on the ceiling. I believe we used semi-gloss or maybe they call it satin? On all trim, doors and interior closets.

Thank you Matthew. We had it removed today and had tile added. We're either going to add bases to the bottom to add height or buy new "legs".

Sorry, I just realized I'm commenting on Mays post and we are in June! Sorry!

@maven19 What is your paint color? It's lovely.