Joy M - Room is 18' wide and the island is 7 x 4.6.

Sherryl - Nice hood! Yes, it does appear that it will have to be removed to tile around it.

We picked our type of hood because we did not want to have to tile all the way to the ceiling. I am very please with how it is turning out.

As for the brick, we have had a sand finish before and the retaining wall was ruined by power washing it. Just makes the brick look flat...no coating.

I finally feel like we are moving forward. We met with the cabinet company this morning and the countertop company this afternoon. I was so afraid I wouldn't find a piece of honed granite large enough for our island to not have a seam that I liked and yet I did! We are going with birch for our cabinets and hickory for our floors. The hickory will be fairly light and the birch will be about the color of the wood in the picture. The perimeter counters will be dark grey. The granite below has a beautiful blend of colors including brown that you can't really see in this picture.

I went to look at bathroom accessories yesterday. I had already done some research, but figured I should get an order in soon. Turns out that Brizo has closed their ordering system because they are so backlogged. They are supposed to open it back up in October and delivery is out 10-12 weeks once they accept an order. I guess we might be living without towel bars and toilet paper holders for a few months!

I'm going back to the plumbing showroom next week and may decide to use other brands for the secondary bathrooms and only use the matching Brizo in the master bath and powder room.

Remember the good old days when you could get anything you wanted and worst case you had to wait 2 weeks for it to come in! Times have changed and it's never too early to make your decisions and place your orders.

@chispa Not sure if you are able to purchase outside of the plumbing supply but I bought all my high end Delta Cassidy which is compatible with Brizo through Ebay. The seller was a builder whose clients changed from stainless to chrome so they were open box but many were brand new still packaged. I got them for 65% off because I bought pretty much all of them!

@K H, What a lucky find! We met with the plumbing supply guy this past week, and he didn't mention any current shortages (at least that he was aware of), but we are getting mostly Delta (Trinsic). Our builder did go ahead and order all the rough plumbing items now, in case there are any delays. I will remember to check Ebay in case any of our finish plumbing fixtures are backordered and start causing issues for the finishing stages. I can live without towel bars and TP holders, but not faucets. 😂

@K H, I can purchase anywhere. I just looked at ebay, but they don't have the style and/or finish I want. A few other online sites also said they weren't taking orders and one gave a delivery date of 18-25 weeks, but also said they weren't taking orders! The rental house we are in has no towel bars, so we should be able to survive without them for a while in the new house! :-)

Forgot to mention to the person that is looking at Shiloh cabinetry. I mentioned the price increase to my designer. She confirmed the August date (she was surprised that I knew about it), but also said that it was the 2nd increase since the December 15th increase. We ordered before before that increase. I was also told that wait time is now at least 16 weeks!!!

Yes, lots of products have had more than the typical once a year price increase.

@Emily, you might want to check what the availability of that Delta faucet is? The showroom I was in said it was all Delta & Brizo with an order freeze, but she only checked the Brizo model I was looking at.

Thanks, @chispa, but we've got a ways to go before finish plumbing is needed. Hopefully the supply chain will start to catch up by early 2022. If not, we'll either change products or wait on those that we can live without for awhile. We are fairly flexible with our choices and could change to something in stock in a pinch, so I'm trying not to freak out about it yet, or get in the way of our builder, who is doing all the ordering. I am encouraging him to order things earlier than usual, though. He's already ordered our dishwasher, for instance, as we found out it would not be available until February! Anyone else wanting a Bosch dishwasher by then, order now!

@Emily, that's my point though, when I looked at bathroom accessories a few weeks ago there was no issue mentioned by the sales people and then bam, they locked the Delta/Brizo ordering and nothing gets ordered till October. I thought I was ordering 5 months before I need them and now don't even know if I'll be able to get them before we move in.

Which reminds me, I'd better figure out my closet system and get that ordered asap! I can live without towel bars, but not without a closet system.

@chispa, Interesting. We were at the plumbing showroom on Thursday, and the salesman didn't mention a thing about an issue, and he knew our order was full of Delta products. October ordering would be perfectly fine for us with an expected move-in date of late March, but I will mention to the builder that there might be an issue and that he should possibly order sooner than he would usually. Are you ordering your own finishes? We are not, other than a few oddball items that the builder's usual vendors didn't carry, so I have only limited control. But I will mention it to him.

My builder orders stuff, but I get to pick anything I want. There are 3 or 4 major plumbing supply places locally and I can shop at any of them. I am doing 2 bathrooms in the Brizo Lux Gold and the other 3 bathrooms will be Brizo chrome.

Had I know I would have ordered the stuff a month ago!

@chispa, When is your estimated completion date?

December ... hopefully!

Karen - I found a box of tile that hasn’t been put up yet - here is what it is.

@chispa, Thanks -- we don't expect to be in before March, so we're not on quite as tight a timeline as you. Actually, had everything gone according to plan, we'd already be in, but COVID and weather set us back big time. So we really didn't get going until this past March, and it looks like it's going to be about a year total for the build, given everything.

@Sherryl - Thanks for the tile info! It really is lovely.

I forgot who posted that beautiful built in linen cabinet, but I love it and am trying to see if there's try ion to build it into my hallway linen closet area. Hubby is pretty handy:).

@ Nbh22- love your tile with the return! It looks like it was meant to be. And your kitchen is to die for. Windows, cabinets and floors are beautiful. Are your floors white oak?

@Kat - thank you:). Yes, we are in Tampa, Fl which is west central FL. Our property is just under 4 acres on a small lake; we are blessed with many oak trees and we planted mango, lychee, starfruit, lime, and peach trees 10 years ago. :)

On the plumbing issue, I found the same issue with the Brizo Tresa bathroom faucet I wanted and can't order until orderable mid October. At least the shower valves are in stock, as that is a critical path item. Trying to decide on plan B in case forced to "& or get off the pot". No clue yet when our place will be finished. May not be an issue.

I found a beautiful Rohl Allia Paris fireclay undermount sink and drain rack this week for $300 (normally $900 sink w grate included) . It's a display model. I've been glued to researching fireclay sinks and see that they can chip/crack/craze, but the chipping/cracking are home repairable and though it could also "craze" that is cosmetic and deemed by some like marble "wear" marks. It wont come with a warranty, so should probably run, but since it's only going to be used in the guest house, I haven't ruled it out yet. Warning Will Rogers? Danger approaching?

Possible kitchen sink...

@Karen thats a great deal. I would get the sink. I heard most people have trouble during shipping or install but if you are picking it up yourself you can be careful and bring extra moving blankets. And if the installer breaks it then they should replace it.

@Karen love the pretty hedge in front of your guest cottage. Is it a boxwood?

My advice would be to order anything you know you want as soon as you know you want it— even if it seems too early. The only downside is storing it a bit longer, but everywhere weve gone they have been happy to hold it for us.

I ordered all my light very early on. I had 2 get discontinued so I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. The only thing I was missing was 4 pendants for my patio. I finally decided what I wanted and ordered on June 15 with a July 30 delivery. Sounded good! A few weeks later I get an email that they will now be shipping October 8. You can't trust the online vendor websites and need to have a local company call the actual manufacturer for more accurate production and delivery dates.

@KH - thanks! And the hedge is a Vibernum. If not trimmed, they will grow as tall as trees and 6 ft wide. But no work and don't freeze (at least in zone 9B when it gets to freezing)..

@Karen We have a ROHL Shaw fireclay sink in our current kitchen. It has one tiny chip that has been there basically from the very beginning. The grate is a must have, but 3 years in and that is still the only small chip we have. We should have probably repaired it when it was first noticed, but it's not visible under the grate and hasn't gotten any bigger. I use Barkeepers friend or So Soft Scrub with bleach to keep it clean. I'm getting the 42" one for our new kitchen.

@nhb22 your cabinets and kitchen are lovely. What color white did you go with?

@K H thank you for the nice comments on our home. It will have a bit of Victorian feel to it. It's probably closer to a Folk Victorian or Victorian Farmhouse than a Queen Anne style. There are elements of Victorian Architecture that I love and some I'm not as fond of, and that's the beauty of a custom design I guess, as it doesn't have to be somebody else's idea of what a Victorian in 2021 should be...haha.

@chispa I'm sorry I can't remember, has your home broken ground yet? I'm going to check in with our plumbing fixture rep this week to see what he is finding. We have several Delta's in our list of items.

@Kat, haven't been participating in the threads ... we just got to drywall stage. Rough electrical got really delayed and set us back around 8 weeks. We might have made some of that time up in the last 3 weeks as everyone else has been on time and had extra crews. The landlord in our temporary rental has gone psycho so even more important to get out asap!

@chispa Ugh thats awful!

@doc5md, thanks! Was crazy stressful about a month ago, but we got a lawyer and support from the community, so the landlord seems to have backed off for now. He wants to break the lease to flip the house. When you think it can't get worse when building during covid ... and then you get the crazy landlord! 😱

@Kat - thanks for the info on your sink. It's comforting to know that you would still use the same type sink in your new house :).

Karen - I think you are confusing my kitchen and KH's. I do not have any tile. My floors are red oak and will be stained Special Walnut...I think.

Is your hedge the Viburnum white snowball bush? I am getting some of those. Love them!

Kat - Our cabinets are the Shiloh beaded inset in Polar White. There was a whiter option by thought it too stark.

chispa - I feel for you. Our rental has been problematic, but our landlord has been great getting things fixed. Besides a leaky roof (rain does not get into the interior of the home, but we have a dehumidifier running 24/7), two weeks ago the main toilet and the kitchen sink faucet both broke at the same time. This weekend, the air conditioning went out. And on the hottest weekend of the year!!! You all may recall that we had a gas leak during the winter and had to cut off all electrical...including the heat on the coldest weekend of the year. LOL Air will not be fixed until tomorrow. In the meantime, the landlord brought over a neat type of window unit fan that does a great job in cooling.

@chispa, I feel you. The owner of our rental wants to sell, and we were supposed to be out this past April but had to extend since our build is basically a year behind schedule. So, we will find out soon if we need to move out this fall. Fortunately, we have another option right next door, but still, a bit of a disruption to move, especially our elderly, blind dog who is totally used to this place. We've been here since April 2020. Building during COVID has indeed been quite the adventure!

Our house site (partially framed) got soaked this morning in a severe passing thunderstorm. Not a drop at our rental, which is only 20 minutes away. Figures! 😫

I hate that you all are having problems in your rentals. DH and I considered selling our house now, in the hot market, but ultimately decided the potential increased profit wouldn't make up for the headache of trying to find a rental that could accommodate our large dog and have room for our 4 kids who still come home during college breaks--and would be open ended on the lease considering our build timeline went out the window a year ago! We may regret that decision next year if the housing market falls off a cliff, but we're happy for now...

@Kat - Do you have a disposal in your Rohl's Shaw sink? Any problems with cracking around the disposal?

@nhb22 - you are right...I didn't actually confuse you, but I did have a typo...you are right, the tile over the coffee bar was KH's kitchen.

Today they are starting to install insulation on the inside of the guest house, concurrent with finishing up the roof. Hope to have the peel & stick roof stuff on this week to prevent rain from coming in.

I read on one of the other threads that if you have wooden windows, it is better to get them factory finished instead of site finished. Of course, I didn't get that info until after our windows were ordered, so hoping that we don't have problems getting our primed interior windows painted by someone who knows what they are doing...the exteriors are all glastra, a fiberglass type material.

I hope to get my plumbing decisions finalized this week, but may not get there. Our daughter is on vacation this week and our 6 yr old granddaughter is with us. Hubby spends all day at the house (he's the GC), so I get to "play" all day. I now remember why God takes child-bearing capability away from old ladies, haha. By the end of the day I'm so ready to play the "Next person to speak loses the game" game, haha.

Hope everyone has a productive week!

@Karen….just wanted to give you a heads up about a potential problem with the Rohl Shaws sink. I have one. It’s a beauty, we have a disposal…no cracking or chipping of any kind, BUT……it does have a problem with draining properly which seems to be an issue that many have had with with their sinks. The water tends to pool in the bottom of the sink in all the corners and doesn’t completely drain. This doesn’t happen with EVERY one of their sinks, but has certianly happened with enough people (myself included) for it to be something to watch out for. I wish I had tested it while it was with the counter fabricators (or had THEM do a test) to see if it drained properly. I would have returned it and had them send me a replacement.

If you do a search here on Houzz there were a few discussions about it.

@nbb22 - our hedge is not the snowball viburnum, but after looking it up, I now want that type. I've never seen it before and it's a gorgeous plant!!! Lucky you to have those in your plan!!

@Nidnay, thank you. Yes, I had seen that, including a video on YouTube. That's part of why I'm second guessing the decision. But since it is going to be installed in a guest house with infrequent use, I hadn't ruled out out yet, especially since I will not be able to return it (I don't think). It's not a Shaw sink, but had heard the Allia Paris may do that as well. They are all hand made, which I suspect is part of the problem.

My shaw also pools water at one corner. I knew of the isuue when i got it. The showroom only had a display model. I had no idea how l could test it. It is so heavy I didn’t see how i could return it. It is a common issue and there is no guarantee a replacement would be any better it is gorgeous looking.

Karen - We had our windows factory painted. I thought they looked fine, but the builders had already gone around and found a few places that they were not happy with. The window rep called the window manufacturer and we got a refund for the 2nd coating. We are suppose to be getting paint so that the windows can be touched up by our painter, if we think they should be. Frankly, they will be covered by blinds, so i really don't see the need. Oh, and when my painter found out that the windows were wood, he panicked. He said that he had not priced to paint the inside as he has not seen real wood windows in a long time. I set his mind at ease.

@snowcountry - That's what I read too. I'm in the same boat; the display model sink is not connected to water, so other than pouring water all over the showroom floor, not sure how to test it either. if you knew then what you know now, would you have chosen a different sink?

@nhb22 - I'm afraid my painter is going to panic about painting interior wood windows too. Especially with our summer humidity. Not sure DH realizes yet that they aren't factory painted, so this will likely be an unexpected expenses. Oops.

Not sure why all this panic about painting window interiors! The last house we owned for 10 years was the only house that had vinyl windows. Every other house had wood windows and in my younger days I even painted some of the window interiors myself. New build will have clad on the outside and wood on the inside. They came primed white and will need to be painted my trim color (BM Chantilly Lace). I hated the vinyl windows and didn't want that option if possible.

We went with Marvin and I was never given the option of doing factory paint, but based on the "abuse" that the windows get at the site, I would think they would all need to be repainted again in any case, or at least major touch ups.

@Karen Yes, I would. I knew about the drain issue. The corner where water pools develops deposit. I deal with it by scrubbing down every few months. If you have soft water, you may do fine.

@chispa, I agree. Our previous house had Hurd casement windows, aluminum clad on the exterior and wood interior. Our painters took care of the interior painting during our build in 1999, and I repainted many of them to brighten them up before we sold the house in 2010. It's time-consuming but not difficult. Same this time around, except the Pella casement windows we've ordered are primed wood on the interior, aluminum clad on the exterior. It will cost more in paint and labor but is not unexpected by painters, I don't think?

Agree on the windows. Ours are aluminum clad and will be painted interior. Everypne is aware and expecting it.

Continuing the slow forward progress. ecavators broke the hydraulic hammer while trying to do the geothermal trenches. I dont know what that will do to cost/time.

@Emily, I guess in my area most are used to vinyl inside and out, so wouldn't expect to have to paint any part of the windows! But my builder knew we were doing clad windows soon after we started working together and added that higher price to the budget. I'm hoping he added the extra labor to the painting quote too ... we'll be paying for it in any case!

I have a question - we had also priced out Marvin clad sliders but decided against them due to cost, as we would never get that back if we needed to sell in the short term. We went with Euro-wall which is all aluminum. I never paid attention to the fact that the Euro-wall are all one color.

All my windows are bronze on the outside and will be painted BM Chantilly Lace on the inside. I will have trim around the windows and doors, also painted BM Chantilly Lace.

What do I do with the sliders that will now be bronze on the inside? My builder said we can paint them. Do I want that? I was trying to keep things light and bright on the inside with low contrast. The frames are quite slim, so it won't be a large area of bronze, but still they would be the only things that would be bronze surrounded by white trim. What would you do?

@Karen no cracks or issues around our disposal that is used daily. We do have a bit of water that pools on the one corner but I’d not consider that a big enough concern to not get one for our new house! . It comes clean with Barkeepers friends or the so soft scrub and that’s the beauty of these sinks. I do believe the grate is a must to protect it from people throwing things in the sink and chipping it but love ours!

@chispa, If it were me, I'd probably leave them, unless bronze was terrible with the rest of my color scheme...for instance, if they were in a room where all the other metal was brushed nickel or chrome. If they were in my kitchen, they'd work just fine, since I am using various bronze tones in the faucets, pendant lamps, and cabinet pulls. If I were you, I'd wait until after you move in and see how they work in the space with your decor. If they're bad, then paint 'em.

I have never had vinyl windows. I know they are popular as replacement windows, though.

I started August, folks! Have a great month!

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6157164/august-2021-building-progress

@Amy10N, Thanks, d'oh! I didn't even think about the fact that it's now Aug. 2.

@Emily you and me both! I thought, where did July go? But I have to say I have really enjoyed ’passing the time’ with all on this forum. Makes what we all know is stressful, a tad bit more bearable. Here’s to more progress for everyone.

@nhb22 That was me about the Shiloh increase. I haven't heard back yet whether my order was confirmed before or after the woods species price increase on July 23rd kicked in. As I assumed the worst, I changed my wood from rustic alder to rustic hickory. I have serious doubts we will be able to move in before Christmas.

DH was finally able to pick up 2 pallets of rockwool insulation today. Another 2 are expected in a couple weeks. Nothing like more insulation when temps are heading back into the 80s.

I am so glad that I found this thread. I have so much to say--where to begin??

This shows the foundation dug. Sorry--I don't know how to make these photos smaller.

I don't know if someone starts a new post each month--I see this one is for July 2021.

I just hope the builder can get it framed in before the snow hits.

By the way, I only have a few steps to check on the progress.