@ILoveRed, yeah we're NW of Chicago and an asbestos test is a requirement for a Demo permit.

Knight, nice looking windows (the 4 across pic) what are they ?

Midwest_Dave - West central Illinois with buried downspouts. Just remember to cap them with material that allows water to flow out so critters don't climb into the outlet pipes. Your house design description reads like mine. Two rooms deep, long rectangle with southern exposure. Best of luck.

Yeah I'd throw one of these on there. I plan to paint them a khaki color so they blend in during most seasons.

http://www.rainbird.com/images/products/turf/drainage/DG4RFB.jpg

Well, I have not read this thread in some time.

We listened to CP's comments about the posts and decided the entire house was "off balance". We met with the builder last week and are expecting to have the entire house demolished and start over.

My wife is not keen on the idea, but CP was right, the posts were way off and we just could not live with it.

Okay, just kidding. Nothing to see, the rain has kept us from proceeding..

lol!

We did get the vanities in. Let's see.. I can post photos, I guess. The builder installs the same cabinets in the bathrooms as you get in the kitchen, just stained etc... right? Those would have been shaker doors etc....the problem was, the "standard" was whatever tile you picked for the bathroom, went onto the counters, and I am just not a fan of tile counters, so we asked to change out the vanities and we actually saved money.

So, here are the vanities we go:

For the upstairs guest bathroom :

And the master gets this one:

And the kid's bathroom gets this one:

I really like the Kid's one, wish we had found that one in a 60" one.. heh with 2 sinks.

I asked them, when they told me the master vanity had arrived, what it looked like, they replied, "Looks a lot like cardboard".. lol ;)

R

Russ, would you mind sharing the source for your vanities? I like!

I do not mind at all!

The 1st and 3rd are Lowes.com and the 2nd is....well, you can get it form Home Depot, may have come from Lowes, not sure where they sourced it, but the name is Virtu... here, let me link them all:

You can google all of them and probably find better prices for at least the master. We are going to locate or make 22" wide tall (96") cabinets for "his and her" cabinets on each side, to go with that.

#1 Vanity
#2 Vanity

#3 Vanity

Well Russ let me know when they rebuild the house with the new columns. ;) LOL

Those vanities are gorgeous! I'm partial to the first one.

I'll email ya CP! ;)

Yea, I picked that one. I really liked it too.I think we ended up with better than what we would have had. I know what we would have gotten would have been custom and solid/well built, but I think this is more "homey" and lived in.

They may not be perfect, but they are pretty darn cool looking AND.. easier to swap out than built-ins if we just hate them later.. lol

I am also jelly of ya'lls nice windows. SO many homes with such large beautiful windows! I had to lose some to make my kitchen and I am sure I will miss them.

I will live vicariously through you guys... you know.. while I drool over my stove.. ok, maybe not drool....but you get the idea ;)

R

Russ - "you pays your money and you take your choice'' - we all do, and none of us get everything we want in every category, I'm sure. I got windows but will have a far more plebeian stove than yours - the universe always balances out!!

yes it does.. so I shall cook a nice pie and we shall all gather at your window and eat it as we watch out the view.. or maybe just a picture of the window.. lol

R

Making tiny bits of progress here. We are flipping the house so the driveway is on the north, although that may involve some engineered fill, but OTOH we may get lucky in having less excavation overall. Putting this house in amongst the existing rocks has been a real head scratcher. Just to give an idea, here is a house on the market near our land:

scone - love the entrance.

^ And that's not even the biggest rock on that property. My builder says Kennebunkport might as well be one vast slab of granite! They do look great when they are landscaped as rock gardens, I'm looking forward to that.

Can't ask for a better and more stable place to build though!

R

Appraisal came in tonight north of cost! On to permits!... Now looking to break ground in October.

^ Yes. It reminded me of this:

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."

Builder just told us that the village told him months ago we would need a passive radon reduction system. It should have been done at the same time as rough plumbing and could have all been done within interior walls. Now everything is drywalled and a pipe will have to run on outside wall. And this is after we had to put an active radon reduction system in the OLD HOUSE for the sale. Grrrrr. BTW, blog celebrating 100th edition,links to our building progress and some other stuff.

Um... where do you live?

Breathe.. in the end, you will love the house so no worries. Tell the builder, "You dropped the ball. That is okay, nothing we can do about it now. Just do something else nice for us so each time we look at this, or remember it, or tell folks about it, we can change the mindset with, 'but.. we were able to get THIS, so it all worked out fine".

All about changing your mindset each time you see an issue you had happen.

They get to save face, you get to have more peace of mind.

R

Still working on floorplans so we can get our new septic design, but I have a video of our 900' driveway! 100% owned and maintained by my fiance ;)

https://www.facebook.com/WildernestMA/videos/1071891416220349/

Backsplash going up. I love it but I think my husband hates it. Thoughts?

Count me in the love category!

Greenwood, that backsplash is fabulous. He'll learn to love it. Who's tile is it?

Love the brick Missy.

Cpartist it is from edgewater tile in Canada

Scone911 - we are starting our build in KPT too. We have 9 acres and it looks like they are going to start clearing trees this week. We have a lot of ledge too......a bit of blasting for us and I too am looking forward to doing some rock gardens next year. I have one very large rock that I keep telling the builder that I would really like to keep - I will find out this week it that is possible.

^ Wow! Small world. I hate the clearing and blasting part, and I'm dreading the rather terse emails I'm bound to get from the neighbors... ;)

greenwood and Missi - I really like the tile selections for both of you! Agree greenwood that once you have the kitchen in a more complete state, I bet he will love it!

rdy2retire - good luck! That's exciting.

we have hardwood and drywall in. They're working on septic now, and we got a quote for clearing some junk trees. Whew that's my biggest upgrade for sure.

Framing finally completed on our multi-style house! Next week is the plumbers and roofers turn. I'm so ready to be done with this!!!

Greenwood, count me as another in the love category for that backsplash. I think its great.

I have an update:) 3 weeks after we passed inspections, the drywall is hung. It only took them two days this week (those guys were fast!), it looks like they'll start finishing next week.

We are finally getting started after almost 2 years of planning

Thanks, everyone. Now that the rest of it is in and paint is done I think he's coming around. No grout yet.

My living room at the moment...

Week 20 & 21. Finally got power and AC is pumping. Added a deck and prepping the driveway. About a month away form move in!

New Home · More Info

This thread kind of makes me regret posting photos of my in-progress house.

This thread kind of makes me regret posting photos of my in-progress house.

Why?

Even though I may or may not personally respond, know that at least I find it fascinating and thrilling to see everyone's progress. Maybe some day I might actually get to post progress too.

Am_e I have ceiling envy! That is going to look amazing.

rmverb - feels like time we saw another pic from you! I like seeing the in progress.

wjkramer - congrats you guys are getting super close. That deck looks ready for a hot cup of coffee.

time11130 - I'd say you're well on your way.

cpartist - hoping for good news from you soon!

As for us, tile is going in while drywall is being finished. Sometimes the order of things make no sense to me, but I'm happy with the tile. We were supposed to have a bench and evidently someone forgot. In scheme of things, I think I will let this go and buy a teak one instead. So glad we expanded the shower in lieu of a tub. Even the 4x6 doesn't seem huge now.

Our visiting cat seems to have left the building.

I had a hard time at first posting pics of our plain little house compared to all of these beautiful homes, but it occurred to me that there might be someone else out there building on a small budget that could use the advice and encouragement. It takes all kinds, and folks on here have been very supportive. I enjoy looking at everyone's progress, big or small, simple or fancy.

I share mushcreek's sentiment. I love the pics more than anything.

Be proud of what you have as it's the experiences that make it a home not the belles and whistles.

What mushcreek said. It's not the size of a house that makes it special. It's the love and thought that goes into it to make it your own and that's why it's so wonderful to see everyone's homes and their choices.

rmverb I tried to message you but you don't have that option available in your profile. Care to message me? I think of us as porch with fireplace twins.

We had a great week with a meeting from our architect. We're on site for the crane lifting header beam into place and spent a lot of time discussing finite construction details and finish materials. So much fun

I honestly wish we could have built smaller. The house we loved best was the 1900-ish sq ft home we had 10 years ago, it was just in a horrible neighborhood. We only went bigger because we needed/wanted 4 rooms and the smaller we got, the more expensive it was to make those rooms.

So, we opted to go with the house we chose and then all hell broke loose when I felt it needed a "better" kitchen.. lol

R

Mushcreek...I'm glad you are posting pictures!!! I've seen MANY smaller and reasonably priced homes that are 10000000x nicer than huge expensive homes.

I love seeing all the photos. Thanks to everyone who is posting them!!

There is some great progress being made by so many of you this month, thanks for sharing! @cpartist don't give up! It's taken us two years to get to where we are from when we first bought our land. City and environmental planning seemed like it would never end, then one day we actually got to break ground.

Our home exterior is almost done, the final masonry for the entrance is going up today then we are ready for soffits and fascia.

We finally found a good carpenter who fixed the old ones mistakes and passed our framing inspection with flying colours. Although it took ripping down and rebuilding some interior walls, which felt like moving backwards, we are now confident it's done right.

HVAC is complete and we just got started on plumbing and electrical. The process has been a bit slower than we originally anticipated because hubby has went from general contracting the job to doing a lot of it himself. That's what happens when you are a perfectionist architect who wants to oversee your design/want to keep the borrowing to a minimum. We are looking forward to making more progress on the interior and hope we can move in by Christmas with our new baby. It has been good keeping track of progress on our blog and seeing how far we have come when things feel like things aren't progressing as fast as we want www.casadivillani.blogspot.com

Welcome April. This is the August thread and we start a new one each month. It would be terrific if you'd post this beautiful house of yours in the September thread here