@di0spyr0s, I agree with Keepthefaith...that is an adorable calf! 🥰

Adorable calf and pig too! I want calves and pigs too!

Me, too! After seeing the photos, I have an eye on the farm land near me.

Everyone’s builder sounds much better organized than mine was. If you don’t mind sharing, how much do you pay your builder, not including sub or cost?

Just curious, does anyone have an instant hot water dispenser on their kitchen sink? When I purchased my beverage faucet I received an instant hot water dispenser instead of my beverage faucet and I didn't open the box soon enough to return to amazon. It's a bummer I won't get my $65 back but just curious if maybe I could use it?

@snowcountry my builder/gc we paid 38k on a 300k house.

@K H I had an instant hot water dispenser installed in a previous home years ago. I had visions of using it for tea, coffee, instant jello, etc. I don't know whether it had a separate thermostat that could have been adjusted (that we didn't know about) but the water was still too cool for those uses, at least to me. The only thing I ended up using it for was in my kettle (a head start on boiling water), and to rinse out mugs and glasses, etc. That was 20 years ago and they may have improved, but I'd not bother with one again.

KH - Thank you for the info. We are still waiting to hear from the trimmer on our pantry cost. We went ahead and ordered shelving for our closets. Picked a shelving/hanging system for our M. closets in a light gray wood that matches our bathroom cabinets. Went with wire everywhere else.

We will not have an instant hot water dispenser. We have a circulating tankless hot water heater. I like to use my Keurig for hot water for things other than coffee.

@snowcountry, We have a cost-plus contract with our builder. He charges cost plus 20%, which is on the high end, but he is a very small builder, high quality, and pitches in on the various aspects of the build himself, so we are paying for his labor as well as his expertise. He has spent countless hours emailing back and forth with us since last spring, on every detail of our build, so we do think that we are getting our money's worth -- so far. However, it does stink that he makes more when commodity prices go higher, as they have since the pandemic began, since that only hurts our pocketbook more while benefitting him. 😫 He does always look for good deals and ways to save us money everywhere he can without cutting corners, so we respect his integrity.

Our builder normally does 10% of the cost of the build, but with prices so high, and with our home being a more expensive build than he usually does (ICF, near passive house levels of insulation) he’s capped his fee at $50k for our estimated $720k build.

I can highly recommend the farming lifestyle. It’s not all adorable tiny cows, sometimes you get rained on or an animal needs to be put down, but there’s a whole lot more good, joyful, beautiful moments than there are bad ones.

Rushed hack job on our stone fireplace - head mason left one guy alone to do this on a holiday weekend. I’m sick. Ugly side of stones used and not thoughtfully/artfully placed AT ALL; too much mortar gaps, sharp corner on hearth, really ugly spots; there’s TONS of stones left, so not a shortage problem. The CM said through texting that “there’s a lot we can do.” Is there, short of tearing it all down, getting more stone, starting over? Am I just being too obsessed and unreasonable? This is the focal point of the whole house, with the mantle from our cut down tree by a real artist. :(

@Sherryl, Oh no, that is not acceptable! What are the holes in the stone he left facing out? I don't understand how anyone would do that. I'm no mason, but I am baffled by this. And what is the deal on the hearth with all the rubble? Did you take a sledgehammer to it? I wouldn't have blamed you at all.... No, I do not think you are being unreasonable.

Make them redo it. That is unacceptable big time. We have issues with ours and made them fix it.

@di0spyr0s, Your builder sounds very reasonable re. fees. We are hopeful that given the crazy commodities increases (who could have foreseen these?) that our builder will eat some of the overages (or split the cost with us) so long as it's not us making more expensive choices since we got the detailed estimate from him (early last September).

@Sherryl is it done? It looks like it’s crumbling. Is it possible he just didn’t finish? Not really sure why he would select stones with very obvious flaws but maybe there’s a way to fix the imperfections. I wouldn’t panic yet- there’s been times during my build when I stopped over mid way through a step and thought “oh my god what have they done” and it turned out fine.

Emily LOLOL - no I didn’t take a sledge hammer to it, but you gave me a laugh at least! The spots in the stone are just in the stone, but there is TONS of stone to choose from. Thanks for confirmation that I’m not being obsessive and unreasonable. It’s very disappointing to me. We currently have a really nice stone fireplace built by a mass builder on the lower end. Looks great.

Here is the builder’s model, and we chose the exact same stone.

Wat too much space/mortar between the stones in your fireplace. You did not have a skilled or experienced person setting the stone.

@Sherryl looks nothing like your photo. I don’t know how they are going to fix that! I despise shoddy work. Masonry is a skilled art! We want an electric fireplace on my living room wall. I have an inspiration photo and my husband said you might as well try to learn yourself. He lost a lot of trust in the quality of workmanship in our area. But of course I said I’m not a mason! Here is the stone I already have picked out!

Might do a blend with some lighter like in this pic

@Emily our build hasn’t started yet but so far I am extremely impressed by our builder. His pricing model is that he takes a flat fee and we pay the cost of the subs and materials with no Mark up from him. It gives us a lot of control in the budget to change up materials if we want to. He says “your house, your money. I’ll do what you want.” He’s also been comfortable telling us when he thinks we’re making silly decisions and explaining why. Sometimes we’ve overruled him (loads of extra insulation) and sometimes we’ve decided he’s right (wood floors vs concrete) but I’m really glad he’s voicing his opinion. He has built a lot more houses than we have!

Here are Neils Bohr and Miss Piggy, Sonny the horse, Short Squeeze the bull calf, and most of my chickens (they like to follow me around)

The animals are adorable!

@di0spyr0s what state are you building in again? We are in rural Missour. Btw thank you all for chiming in on the hot water dispenser. I’m going to try to resell it.

We’re in Indiana

K H - I agree with your husband. I’m starting to think that the mass builders are getting the best subs, and the custom builders are not, or at least ours isn’t. I see the Perry Homes being built in our current neighborhood, and they go up way faster, workers are always there, and I’d be willing to be their fireplaces don’t come out like that.

K H - the inspiration photos are nice! It’s dry stacked. Our designer (who works for our builder) had put “mortar: none” on our selection sheet, but the CM said this stone doesn’t do that - I guess not rectangles or something. So why did she put that for that stone? None would certainly be preferable to this mess!

We had two fireplaces in the first house we built, the living room was traditional stone and done well. Upstairs we wanted stacked stone, no mortar. Came back to find, indeed no mortar, but he put the stone in with huge gaps as if they needed mortar. You could see the wire behind it, it was so badly done. All we could do was have them mortar it after all. Apparently, they'd never done/seen stacked stone before! It never occurred to us to refuse to accept it! Not doing anything that elaborate this time, we're just planning on one of those enamel free standing gas stoves.

Yesterday, DH took a break from rough electrical (some supplies he ordered a couple weeks ago are still "missing" and he started blocking the garage ceiling to be able to install the overhead tracks for the garage doors. The doors have been up for months but couldn't be opened. We need to get this done before drywall and before the concrete guy comes back to put in the apron in front of the doors.

I'm supposed to be putting up more furring strips on the ceiling but I wrecked my left leg muscles trying to plant seedlings in hard clay so I can barely walk never mind climb a ladder. my leg is better, it only hurts around the ankle now and I've braced it, so that ought to help. At least I have time, drywall won't be till August. Guess I better start looking into garage door openers. That will be nice. I spent the last 20 years manipulating the doors by hand. Getting too old for that crap! (hit social security age yesterday!)

We finally decided on the exterior lighting, too. I'm returning the first gooseneck barn light I bought, I'm afraid that long neck will just cause it to swing in our high winds. Instead we went a little more modern and got this one. This is the large one for the garage doors, 15" in diameter I think. The ones for the man doors will be 11". They are made by Westinghouse.

This next one is a little out of focus but it shows the size better and that the interior is white.

eta: Photos

@Sherryl I am so sorry this is happening but it sounds like they agree that something needs to be done. I cannot imagine a solution other than tearing it out.

@di0spyr0s, I really like the way your builder worked the pricing. Wish we'd been a little more savvy up front and we might have suggested something like that. Oh well, right now builders are in such great demand, they can basically ask for anything and get it, and if one buyer isn't interested, there are many others lined up behind them who will sign on the dotted line! One thing about our builder, he builds a lot of extra contingencies (bla bla bla "if needed") into the estimate, and if it's not needed, it isn't charged. So far we've lucked out on a couple of those; for example, our well was done in time so that no extra water had to be trucked in for the foundation, so we end up being under budget on some line items, while I am sure we will be over on quite a few more!

Sherryl - I took one look at your photo and thought the fireplace stone was lined up crooked. As Emily says, the stone looks nothing like your inspirational photo. The mortar is horrible, as well. Stay your ground...it's an easy fix to start over.

I may have told y'all that we picked black soapstone for both our bar top, and for the fireplace surround. The cost to do the surround is $2300, We did not understand because the bar top is only costing a little over $800, and it's 26" x 8'. We are going to have to come up with a plan B. DH does not want stone. I do not want the house brick because I just want something different. The same goes for using the Fantasy Brown from the kitchen since it's in the same room. Did that before. Any suggestions?

Our fireplace

Inspirational photos

Mock-up using our fireplace

@nhb22, Have you looked at tile? You might be able to find something very similar to the stone but in a porcelain tile.

I agree with a porcelain tile. They are amazing and comes in as big as 48” size. There is also granite that looks very much like soap stone. In my area, granite is considerably less expensive than soap stone.

@Sherryl You will be looking at it all your life. I agree with everyone, do it over. It is pain and headache to do over but once done, it is done. I had to redo my fireplace 4 times. We were practically having a shouting match on the last redo. Not fun.

@nhb22 that insta account @lovehousetn used black. She usually responds I could ask what she used unless you have insta. I think a black granite would work well or a black porcelain tile. My parents have porcelain tile surround and it has withstood many years!

K H - Here is their other fireplace, which is another inspirational photo. I was afraid to use it without permission. I do not have Instagram, so it would be great if you could ask for me. TY

Thanks everyone! I will look into both porcelain tile and granite. I have already told my stone place that I will look at remnants of granite. I think the reason that the soapstone is going to be so expensive is because they need me to purchase a whole slab. Since the bar top was already built into the estimate using another material (the Fantasy Brown), the stone place put the remainder cost on the fireplace.

@nhb22 when I first looked at your inspiration fireplace post, I thought your surround was black granite. We looked at that option and it looks almost identical to what you want. Now I can’t remember if I picked black or the one to match my kitchen granite 🤣

@nhb22 lovehouse used black granite. It seems to be pretty common, I bet you could find a remnant

Thanks! Perhaps I can find a honed black granite. When I had mentioned to the stone lady that I would like soapstone, she said that it wasn't that much more expensive than a granite. So that's why I am thinking that the cost must have something to do with a whole slab purchase.

Oh no, @nhb22! I'm using a quartz that looks like soapstone in my kitchen and planned on using real soapstone for my fireplace. But I'm not prepared to pay for a whole slab, so hopefully can find remnants somewhere (I'm only a couple of hours from you). In our current home, we have leathered black granite countertops (we put in during a renovation) and our fireplace has black marble (here when we bought it). It's not a perfect match, but they're far enough apart in the room that it still works.

Maybe we can share a soapstone slab! LOL Seriously, I will be interested to find what you learn.

Are you planning on using the enhancer (shiny) to brighten the soapstone or leave natural?

I wonder how leathered black granite would look around the fireplace.

Although not for the bar top, I think I would rather have a little white running through the black like shown in one of my about inspirational fireplace photos. I guess that might be a marble.

Am I correct that we cannot use the quartz around a fireplace? Plus, I believe that quartz may be more expensive than the soapstone...maybe not.

Here is the soapstone that we were looking at against the floor tile (that will have a whitish/gray grout and in a brick pattern instead of a pinkish grout and herringbone) for the mudroom. The small wood sample is our bar cabinetry. My daughter thought that the room would be too dark with the soapstone top. DH loved it! Non-enhanced in this photo.

Here is the brick tile with color choices. I don't know why it looks so yellow here.

And here it is with our kitchen Fantasy Brown. I think it too busy.

Ordered the wine fridge today. I just got the inexpensive 2 zone Magic Chef. These things are notorious for breaking down so may as well get one I can afford to replace more often!

Bought myself a Milwaukee compact drill driver for my birthday gift, too. My deWalt had to be sent out for repair after only having it for 6 months! Using the older Ryobi to for screwing screws for now, though I am now on indefinite hiatus till my ankle heels from its tendon injury. Sure is a bad time to not be able to walk and climb ladders! I'm really feeling the pressure to get things done now that we've hired the drywall company!

Still no sign of the HVAC guy so it definitely looks like we'll have to do that ourselves, too. We need to clone ourselves!

@shead How deep are your flower beds in front of your porch? I’m getting ready to plant and I’m pretty sure you helped me with some plant choices earlier on 😊

I’m fully moved into the house with my fridge delivered today after the wrong one was

installed Friday. I noticed it was wrong 10 minutes after they’d left and called them back. Long story short mine was never loaded onto the truck. Anyway, all those projects I said I wanted to do after moving in have been moved to the back of the list. Just getting settled is enough!

The cats are adjusting well after a few hours of hiding.

@Marie J., Congratulations!!!👍👍👍

Congrats @Marie J., must be a wonderful feeling.

eta: And the kitties are adorable.

Marie J - enjoy our new home. Your kitties are so cute!

Marie J. - The cat photo in the office is just pure sweetness. The black and white cat looks scared... poor thing. We are going to take our dog over to see the new house for the first time tomorrow afternoon. Can't wait to see what she does. I think the hardest part will be her riding in the car.

Love your kitchen, or what I can see of it. How tall are your cabinets? And is your fridge recessed? I cannot tell from that angle.

@Marie J. Enjoy your new home! I very much identify with your “all those projects I said I wanted to do after moving in have been moved to the back of the list” statement. We’re 3 months in, and our next round of projects is full of things I thought we’d do as soon as we got here. Along with money trees, I could use some time trees and maybe a few energy bushes :).

#Marie J. Hah, re the projects. 2 1/2 years in and we are still working on “projects”. We built a one level with a walkout lower level. Decided to pay them to frame the lower level in 2018 when we were building. (REALLY GLAD WE DID IT NOW) lol. We are taking on the Sheetrock a little at a time. Just going to finish bedroom/bathroom and a small cat room for now. It’s slow going. Lol. You have a beautiful house! And LOVE your kitties! I just lost my 19 year old cat. It broke my heart.💔

It's June! Join us on the new thread:

June 2021 Building a Home

@nhb22 Thanks! The cabinets are 36” and the fridge is counter depth.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Frigidaire-Gallery-21-8-cu-ft-4-Door-Counter-depth-French-Door-Refrigerator-with-Ice-Maker-Smudge-Proof-Stainless-Steel-ENERGY-STAR/1001287752

The wrong one they first installed was standard depth and stuck out a lot! Counter depth makes a big difference in walkway space and not making the kitchen look dominated by a huge stainless steel beast.

Hello, we are building despite availability and cost escalation. I am wondering if anyone has experience about LP Smart Siding Colorstrand Black Hills? It is a weathered gray that we like and just wondering if others have used this product in this color? Thank you!

@bisondaktelcom this thread is no longer active.

You should ask on the June board. Sorry I have no experience, but somebody there may.

@bisondaktelcom Here is thelink to the June thread.