Allison...your wood is beautiful. What is it?

Allison...your wood is beautiful. What is it?

Amy...just saw your Houzz message and messaged you back. I apologize.

Maybe I don't have to wait until next month. Called the excavation/foundation contractor on Friday to let them know our permit was approved to see about getting on their schedule. Well, they were out today to survey for excavation. Could start tomorrow!

But now it's raining cats and dogs and it must have rained most of the weekend (we were in Wisc for our annual family trip) b/c the pit was full of water when we were there today installing silt fencing.

I’m loving everyone’s progress!!

We are hopefully in the home stretch. Our tentative move date is September 10th. Just small finishing work left on the interior The landscaping is supposed to be started Thursday, and it is a big job. Our cabinet door and drawer fronts still need to go on as well......hopefully this week.

Kitchen

Great room

Foyer

Office

The marble is called sky blue or skyline. They are afraid to work with it now. So nope I have to find something else. https://www.gardenweb.com/user/peytonrose1015

ILoveRed - We are not empty nesters yet, but we are getting pretty close. We live about a mile away from where we are building in a rental while we wait for the house to be completed. My son rides the bus to high school everyday. Luckily, the school is very close to the bottom of the mountain and the county does a great job keeping the roads clear in the winter.

We tried to design the house to take us through our retirement years.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the web site - I hope it can serve as a good resource for others who are considering new home construction.

Learning quite a few things from watching this current custom build versus the last tract home...

First picture I initially had no idea what these were but many walls have this bracing both diagonally and added horizontally between studs. Seems like this "let it in bracing" is used in interior walls in my home to help with racking. And all walls, except outside walls have the horizontal blocking. Tract home had only vertical studs (insert joke here) with no additional bracing. Eventually had some issues with settling/cracking in sheet rock.

Second picture shows lots of strapping being used. Hard to describe using technical terms, but the builder is strapping each level together and roof down. OSB is glued and nailed on the exterior and bottom plates are glued and anchored to foundation. Tract home had lots of rows of nails missing studs and was pretty leaky. Could push out on the sheathing and feel it bow.

Third picture I think I am in love with the look of I joists. Floors feel solid compared to the tract home that had regular floor joists to code aka spread much further that were squeaky and bouncy. Tract home had one or two high spots that were hidden by carpet. Guess I should break out the level for this new place.

Last picture I find really humorous because it highlights the differences between builders' and owners' perspectives. Basement floor is the builder perspective, a tastefully designed (cheaper) two windows and French doors for your view. First floor is the owner's perspective, what about a big big big badass slider? :-)

Tenisha......LOVE!

Why do I have to learn mathematics? What use is it in the real world???

It helps when figuring a beautiful curve....

Claudia...I know exactly how you feel. as we approach the end of our build instead of giving our house a pretty name as some of us discussed on here a year or so ago I have decided to name my home “The Money Pit”.

“Summer Breeze” has a much nicer ring to it.

try to keep a sense of humor or you will lose your mind, lol.

Ah yes the death by a thousand dollars over and over again. Just a bit more than was expected but not enough to make you freak out until you add it all up again. Cannot wait till move in day! I just booked movers. Fingers crossed the date sticks.

Finally received my septic permit and zoning permit. Submitted everything for my building permit today. Contract will be signed tonight, go to the bank on Monday. In the meantime, my dad and I spent 6 hours rough cutting the driveway for the dozer. Still need to drop around 20 trees along the 800ft wooded section of the driveway and just as many yet to be removed around the home site.

Started putting the bluestone pavers on our back porch. These were the pavers we pulled from a multi million $ estate last year. The new owner was leveling the entire thing and there was over 5000 sq feet of beautiful bluestone all over the grounds. We got about 1500 sq ft for pennies on the dollar and they have been piled in our yard for over a year now. So excited to see them installed!

1st day of framing, lower level walk-out.

Concrete slab pour was delayed due to rain.

Slow progress with surface preparation, backer board and radiant heat work commenced in Kitchen, DW's office nook and Laundry room on Tuesday and Wednesday. They finally laid three of thirteen rows of amazing 24x24 straight tiles in the kitchen. We are not complaining, their work is perfection, they even went to Seattle on Thursday to pick up T-Lock leveling system and the installed T-Locks and 1/8" tile spacers look like dental surgery to the eye but the three rows of large format satin tiles in the kitchen are perfectly level. On Thursday the electrician came to verify installed radiant heat cables for correct resistance to make sure they were ok; being an electrical engineer and having necessary equipment, I had already measured and tested the cables and pulled the supply cables and two heat sensors (including one spare for each location) through the conduit to each Nuheat radiant heat wifi thermostat location which I'll also be installing myself. The electrician also finally connected makeup air unit to two new 240V 50amp breakers, one in each 200amp panel since the two AC's are divided amongst the two panels. The idea is that ACs and 20KW heat section of makeup air unit won't be operating at the same time; I still need to calibrate and program the makeup air system which thankfully works when I tested it; sad I can't calibrate the hood until kitchen tiles are completely laid, I was so looking forward to completing that this weekend.

The weekend won't be wasted however; earlier in the week I mounted/installed/wired the Glendon septic system controller panel and on Thursday afternoon I dug a trench 30'Lx18"Dx12"W from the panel to the last septic tank which has the pump and sensor; that a stiff workout, it took me three hours and though the builder offered his guys to do that 'sometime in the unpredictable future' I chose to do it myself, just because I can and probably saved hundreds besides doing the job like 'I want it done'. I'll lay the conduit and sensor/pump wiring today. Oh yes, forgot to mention when I arrived onsite yesterday, the tilers complained the delivery guys had left about a hundred backer board sheets on the open section of our rear deck; they grumbled it was not their task to move them and they wanted to get on with the tile job, I moved the entire lot to the other end of the deck which is covered and boy, this was another Friday morning workout, yet I subsequently went for my usual Friday bowling and consecutively bowled 41 games in a little less than four hours; I really feel very good about it.

Certainly not my best score but had fun bowling

We went out to the house today and we found 4 drums of spray foam sitting in the garage! The roof is half done, stone is going up, plumbing and electrical still being installed. Our builder says we are approx. 8 weeks till we're finished. I won't hold my breath! LOL Please excuse the mess and tall grass. The subs were raised in a barn and don't know how to clean up after themselves. sigh......

Wow, lots of great photos and progress on so many homes! (I feel bad for those with the continuing problems!)

Not a lot of progress to actually see on our build, with one nearly 61 year old husband pretty much doing the roof structure himself, it takes a long time! But he's installed eave girts, fascia boards and varge rafters all around the main part of the roof and is probably going to install the last purlins (rafters) that will connect the small bedroom gable to the house today. We had to wait for the LU24 hangers to arrive at Home Depot as no one around here actually keeps them in stock. (Sure they had plain old nail type joist hangers but we needed the ones for use with screws.)

Here is a photo showing the 2x12 blocking he just finished adding to which the last purlins will be connected. Once it's all done, we will finally be able to start adding the steel, if the weather cooperates. It's been an awfully rainy last half of August!

Sabrina...don’t want to sound like a nitwit but what is your third picture? Impressive!

Gthigpen...those pavers are absolutely beautiful. The edges look like they are already textured for the sides of your porch. And all the same thickness? What a find.

We had our back screen porch done in slate that was varying thickness and it was so poorly done with so much lippage that it had to be torn out. So disappointing. Now trying to figure out what to do there. SMH. Kaching $$$.

Our front and side porch turned out better. Different stone mason. But, I held my breath until it was done.

ILOVERED - It's a pex manifold. This allows us to turn off water to one location if a leak develops. Say like the kitchen sink. We go and turn it off and we'll still have water to the rest of the house. Pretty neat little system.

ILR - no, they are varying thicknesses unfortunately. Our stone guy has done work for us before and does good work. So far he’s adjusting the thickness of the mortar on each one so the tops line up. As for the edges, he’s chipping off the front lip so it looks worn. That was by my DHs request and had started before I realized it. I would have preferred a smooth edge, but that wasn’t the hill I was prepared to die on. It will look nice either way. Trying to decide what to wrap the porch with. Another post on here has people advising brick, native Texas stone or a cement parge coat. Your stone and slate looks fantastic!

ILoveRed - I really like your front entrance! The colours and stone work looks awesome.

Carpet is in - just waiting on the bench top which will go in on Friday and plumber and sparky are booked in for final fit offs on the Monday. Last inspection Tuesday and then moving in on Friday (fingers crossed!)

Master

Living Areas and Kitchen

Thanks Alison, yeah from looking at your idea books and your house I think we have very similar styles. What kind of bench top are you going for?

Alison - do you know the name of your Pravada floors? I love them!

Gthigpen...our stairfronts have the “rock face” too. I didn’t love it either so talked dh into not doing the porch stone that way. Kind of looks like mix n match but oh well. If your stone guy does your pavers without the lippage like I got with my slate in the above pic then you must have a good stone guy. My other pavers are consistent in thickness so no lippage. These decisions are so difficult.

ILoveRed, I like the chipped edge. Plus it would hide any future chips that would then be glaring at you. :-) We'll probably end up with wood decking type steps simply because they're cheaper and DH can build them himself. Otherwise plain old concrete. Anything else is overbuilding for that pole barn look AND the neighborhood.

I made some progress over the weekend; laid two almost 40' long conduits and wired sensor and pump to the septic system only to discover a break in the pipe (transport line) somewhere close to the tank; I dug the area up and discovered two broken elbows, presumebly broke soon after install due to heavy earth moving equipment or something; will have to wait for the mini excavator guys to dig deep when they bring the machine here next week. The good thing is the septic system is all wired and ready, just needs final programming when leak is fixed.

I also wired a radiant heat wifi thermostat in the kitchen, connected it to the router and app and it worked perfect; four more to go when tilers are ready. I pulled off the control panel to prevent accidentally switching them on since kitchen tile work is still in progress.

Tile guys continued the painstaking tilework in the kitchen till they ran out of tile; yep ordered more than six weeks ago and only 2/3 delivered, rest is expected tomorrow. They brought in a third guy who worked on leveling the huge foyer, took him the best part of six hours, a very noisy excercise. At this rate tile work will finish sometime in October, hopefully enough done by next month for a TCO.

Like watching molassis grow; each tile is supported by no less than 8 T-Lock levelers plus spacers, a lot of work and effort indeed by the tile masters.

I can't believe how fast my excavation/foundation contractor has been. Today they poured footings. Tomorrow my husband is going to meet with the 'wall guy' to discuss the final height as we're building the home to have one accessible entrance so there can be no 'close enough'.

So exciting, foyer/entry with polished tile just completed today and a little more progress in the kitchen. Their target is to complete all tile floors (floors only) including 5 bathroom floors, laundry and mudroom/garage entry by next Thursday; fingers crossed.

My son who just spent the summer with our daughter in Whistler BC, stopped by 12:30am last night before continuing his drive to Las Vegas where he'll spend the winter. He had not seen recent progress in the home. We all decided to head to the site around 1am and stayed there till 2am. I switched several interior and exterior lights, we experienced extreme peace and quiet, watching light reflecting off a very calm sea from homes across the harbour while standing on the rear deck. Silly me, I did not take any pictures. It was an amazing view on a serene night with no sound of bugs, frogs or the wildlife in the area; we are really looking forward to moving there soon.

Amy79 congratulations on getting started!!

Pinebaron..your tile is beautiful.

Buzz...I had not even considered that. Perhaps I should have rockfaced all of the stone! Good point.

And our kitchen is done too! I wasn't sure but I think I love it now.

Knotty Lodge - I just subscribed to your blog! What a great site! Can't wait to dig through your posts and pics!!

Alison, please message me.