Emily - Glad you found someplace to live! I asked because we have considered buying our rental as an investment. The places in our community don't even get listed! They are snapped up, and at a high price, renovated and resold. Or sold and then renovated. Our neighbors up the street (across from the lake) purchased their 3 bedroom patio home about 6 months ago. A month or so in, they found out that the 4 BR house next to us (on the lake) was for sale. They purchased it and immediately sold theirs by word of mouth...for a profit. They were able to stay in the home while renovated the house on the lake. A month ago, they moved in next door, and the new owner of their previous home moved in across the street. Anyway, the owner of our place does not wish to sell. It's too bad because it is in a prime spot. The place needs a renovation.

The people doing the irrigation well have been working for a week! Didn't think it would take that long, but they went pretty deep to avoid rust in the water. A couple of their trucks blew their engines, so I think they got a bit distracted this past week!

Replacement window got delivered and installed and the door from laundry to outside too. Window trim installation is on hold until the alarm guys come back and wire some windows they missed and the new kitchen window and laundry door. Trim guys have trimmed out most of the interior doors.

Tile floors should be grouted tomorrow ... I think that is what the tile guy said in his limited English!

@K H, I like the bulkier curtain rod, outside mount sheers, and an inexpensive roll up shade for night .

For our guest house, I’ve been planning to install motorized woven shades (outside mount) with side sheer panels (with the shades hung up high and at the same height as the curtain rod. That said, I haven’t priced any of this out, so may change my mind when I get pricing.

Just curious if any of you are planning to use wallpaper in your new homes?

I was a huge fan in the '90s and early 2000s, and wallpapered several rooms (got pretty good at applying it and even helped some friends). Then it went out of style--my current home has none. Now it seems like it's back in fashion again, and I've gotten several samples of wallpaper that I'd love to use. Probably more patterns than DH wants...

No wallpaper for us, DH doesn't like it and I like the ability to change paint colors easily.

On that note, I've narrowed the great room wall color down to 3, taking them and cabinet door samples to the flooring store to hopefully make a decision tomorrow with the help of DH's sister. And then picking up more paint chips for the media room. Got plenty of blues to look at for our bedroom.

On yet another note, the heating guy who was persuaded by the local plumbing supply house to come look at our place last week, has apparently sent a plan to them to price it out. I have no idea what it might cost but at this point we are close to desperate. DH will be helping with the install to save money and he seemed willing to work with us. crossing fingers and toes.

@jkent9024 Yes, I will definitely be doing wallpaper. Unfortunately, though, not as much as I initially planned. I wanted to do wallpaper in the master bedroom and the main powder room but my taste was too expensive (lol) so we will only be doing the dining room (damask) and the jack-and-jill shared vanity space (vintage bird style). In lieu of wallpaper in the main powder room, I decided that doing a dusty mauve color would make me feel equally content.

I've always thought of wallpaper as a timeless decorative element but I do think that some of the "styles" that are used tend to age poorly.

@jkent9024, I did wallpaper in the master bedroom of the house we just sold. One bad thing about wallpaper if you really love the one you used, is that you can't take it with you! The one I had used was pricey and I can't get it again because it was made by a small wallpaper studio and the owner/artist passed away so the business closed ... and I wouldn't want to spend that much this time around. I picked it to go with all the colors in my master bedroom, so it will seem so plain with just paint. I might try to find something similar to the one I had and only use it on the headboard wall. I am 99% sure I will be using wallpaper in the powder room.

Tile guys never showed up today to grout. Well guys are still doing stuff and had water all over neighbors front drainage swale ... we'll probably get a complaint about that! Trim guys were working on doors. Doesn't feel like major progress right now!

Lots of tile guys showed up early this morning to grout. They send in the younger Ukrainian guys to do the back breaking work! Stucco guys showed up to finish stucco in the sections that were waiting for windows to be replaced. Our large back slider finally has all the 6 panels installed ... took a long time to get the last panel to replace one that arrived damaged.

Was just looking through my photos and kind of strange that I can summarize months of work in picking materials for the house in just 2 photos! Photo doesn't convey the amount of time to take all the choices available out there into the much smaller subset that work for the look you want in the house. So far mostly happy with what I picked, but covid added a bit of urgency to some decisions with the longer delivery time frames.

My work hub: Tile samples, paver samples, paint samples, roof tile samples, counter samples, cabinet samples ... all organized in tote bags.

Most of my final picks. Colors are a bit off.

@chispa, I love your choices. Even though I am more of a color gal, I do appreciate the look of nice neutrals too!

I went out to our site yesterday for the first time in a little over a week. I was happy to see the windows installed (all except two that have not shown up yet), and exterior doors. The soffits and fascia had also been mostly installed. But I was disappointed to see no siding guys working, and to hear our builder's story of how they chose to go to an "emergency" job. This has happened to us with our excavator, framing crew, and now siding crew! So, no trim had been installed, much less any siding. 😥

We did walk through and discuss all the interior doors, which our builder is about to order, and he's waiting to hear back from the lighting guy to place that order. Roof is also waiting in the wings. But it seems like we make great strides, as we did with the rough-ins, and then there is some emergency that holds up the next phase. The stonemason is also slammed with jobs, so who knows when he will get to ours? We'll go out again in another week and hope for a bit more progress. I will also post a photo or two once I get them uploaded.

For those of you choosing to do wallpaper - our contractor spec book recommends that we don't do any wallpaper for at least a year, so the house can settle and nail pops can be fixed. Just FYI in case you hadn't considered that!

I'm planning on doing some peel & stick in our powder room after our year is up. Maybe the laundry room too, to give it a bit of flair.

@Emily, oh I make up for the neutral fixed elements with lots of color in my furniture, drapes and art! No monochromatic beige/gray furnishings in our house!

My master bedroom with the wallpaper that I loved! No neutrals here!

@anj_p, that is a good point about the walls settling. It will probably take me that long to decide on a wallpaper 😄

@Emily, sorry your subs aren't getting to you as quickly as you would like. I'm very happy with our builder who seems to be able to get subs back pretty quickly and the subs seem to stick to the time frame they give my builder.

Chispa
I love your collection of neutrals! I’m particularly interested in your 2 nd photo, I believe you have two samples of stone. Can I ask what is the stone, bottom center? Thank you.

@chispa, I see! You are a color gal too! 😁 Glad you're having better luck with your subs than we are. I think part of the problem is that our builder is so small-scale. He really only does one house a year, so even though he's been using most of these subs for years, he probably doesn't have the "pull" that someone who builds more houses does. But it just seems like the existing subs are way over-scheduled right now. There is so much building going on right now, not to mention remodeling.

A couple of photos. I'm puzzled by why the matching window was not delivered...seems like they would have both arrived at once. We are missing one other window, but it's a small awning window in the hall bath shower, so that one didn't surprise me, since it's an oddball size.

Also, our front door:

Emilty - House looks great! Weird about the windows, though. What are those post with the cables? I have never seen that.

anj_p - I am doing a little Peel & Stick grass cloth under our bar area backsplash (no sink). Shouldn't have any movement there.

chispa - Your bedroom is beautiful. My DH would never go for that pink chair. haha

Glad you have a lot of work going on. Ours is still at a slow pace.

Emily - I cannot tell you how many times we have heard the "emergency" over at one of the other two houses. And I feel sure that the owners of those houses are hearing when the guys are working on ours!

We were able to peek in the windows yesterday to see the Bona Provincial stain on the floors. I love it in the dining room, but not a bit disappointed in how light the color is in our family room with the Western sun pouring in. I hope it looks better when the two coats of finish are put on.

We lost the tile guy that is suppose to do the kitchen backsplash. I heard he was really good and meticulous. So now I am worried about the next guy.

I am really concerned because things are suppose to start back on Monday with trimmers, painters, etc. AND, our builder has arranged to have Ferguson, the plumber, and the electrician come in to deliver and hook up appliances next week!!! 😮🤔 Isn't it too early? I am so afraid that they will mess up my new hardwood floors for one. They will have just cured over the weekend. The flooring guy said that he would rather there not be any heavy traffic for 2 more weeks. Also, I am worried that the appliances will get dented and dirty being installed so early. And to top it all off, I will leave for the Disney trip in the midst of all this! I knew this would happen!!!

@nhb22, Those posts are a fancy contraption that the siding crew left on site. It hoists them up to the roof level for installing soffits and fascia. I had never seen anything like it either. I am glad they left it, as it means they will be returning. I talked to our builder on the phone today, and they were not there, but he expected them back tomorrow.

I know some of you are building in rural America. Will any of you heat with propane? If so are you burying your propane tank?

Solo Hale, the patterned tiles, on the right under the other samples, that look like patterned rug/fabric?

No pattern. I’ll try uploading a photo.

It’s to the left of the pattern piece, chispa.

@Emily, looking good! They probably found a problem with the window in manufacturing or got damaged when it got to the distributor. They won't tell you what happened unless you ask. Hopefully it won't take as long as our replacement window and slider panel ... those took 5 (five) months to get here! We gave up on the other 2 windows because they still couldn't give us an exact date for those.

@lisainkc

Yes, we are heating with propane and I am pretty sure the tank will be buried.

The marble-look tile? The 2 marble-look tiles are the same. Piece on the left is glossy and piece in the center is matte. I wanted one with a neutral white background and it took me a while to find it. It is a calacatta gold look, but my sample seemed to have a bit more brown/gold than the lot/batch that I got.

@lisainkc, not rural, but our neighborhood doesn't have natural gas, so we just got our propane tank buried in the front yard this past week. We won't be using it for heating the house, just for some appliances and to power the generator.

@lisainkc, Our build is rural, but we are going all-electric. With our long driveway, which will have a gate, DH didn't want to deal with propane deliveries. So, we'll pay more, but fortunately our house isn't that big (1636 sq ft heated), and we live in a relatively mild climate. We'll spend more on air-conditioning than heat.

@chispa, Gasp! Five months is as long as the house should take to finish, so I will have a conniption fit if it takes that long to arrive! Actually, they originally told our builder the missing windows would be in this week, and now they're saying next week. I guess this could continue, but probably not for five months! You're probably right, though, that there was damage; otherwise, it seems like the two matched ones would have arrived together.

@wyosue58 @chispa My husband is meeting our builder tomorrow to determine where we are going to bury ours. He is choking on the $$ because he said most people to bury theirs and therefore don't have to buy it.

@Emily, yeah we kept getting the "it will be in in 2 weeks" line every few weeks!

@chispa, Our roof is supposed to be installed (or at least started) in two weeks also...we shall see. 🤣

@lisainkc, we didn't have a choice to bury it since we are in a neighborhood with 1/2 acre lots and that was the only option. I know you can kind of screen them with landscaping, but do you really want to look at some big tank for the next 10, 20, 30 years? Unless your property is large enough that you could hide it behind a barn or something similar and didn't have to see it from the house, then I would consider not having to bury it.

In the past there was a thread on creative ways to disguise a propane tank with paint. Some creative ideas, but none that I would want to see every day from the house!

Chispa - yes, that’s it and thank you! It’s what I’m looking for!

@lisakc we opted not to bury ours because of the cost. Plus I wanted to run copper from our tank and that wasnt an option with it buried.

Here is the link to the company. Something is up with their site because I can't get to the details of each collection and the pdf brochures that I looked at before. The distributor/store locator works, so you can see if a local tile company carries the tile or can order some samples.

It is part of the Marvel Edge collection

https://www.atlasconcorde.com/en-us/collections/marble-floors-and-walls/

Solo, here is a close up of my samples (matte on floor and glossy propped up) next to a sample board of BM Chantilly Lace and a sample of Cambria White Cliff. Hopefully it will give you a better idea of the color of the tile. I liked all the brown veins, but as I mentioned, my batch came looking a bit lighter.

@lisainkc we are coastal and no natural gas to our island so we will be burying a propane tank in our front yard for grill, range, hot water tank and our fireplaces. Believe it or not there is a shortage of tanks, so we are having trouble locating a 500 gallon one. We are on a couple of waiting lists and hoping they get some before we need it.

@K H What do you mean by running copper from the tank?

Chispa, yes it’s the brown veining on a perfect white I love too. Thank you!

chispa - Are the tiles shown above for your bathroom? Matte for flooring and shiny for the shower walls? They look a lot like the tile in our shower.

To those who are considering renting a propane tank versus buying one…we rented an above ground tank for years and never gave it a thought. Then later we bought one and had it buried. I never realized that when you rent, you always have to buy gas from the same company and usually at a premium. Once we bought the tank, I started shopping around and have been paying much less for gas.

@Karen good point on purchasing a tank! We had our old tank moved but we were grandfathered in so don't have to pay rent on a tank. We also contract our gas in the summer so we usually get the best price. Out here in our rural area there is only a handful of companies so there isn't a lot of shopping around.

@lisainkc I asked about burying our tank before they came out to move it. Our install guy didn't recommend it.(it is possible they just didn't want the extra work....) I can't remember his exact words but in his opinion they were more prone to future problems such as corrosion and you had to buy a special anchors for it so the tank doesn't float up. It must be the clay soil around here(NW Missouri), and we do get a lot of rain. Buried tanks just aren't common in our area. He also mentioned that now they only use a plastic type of tubing when the tanks are buried. We are kind of old fashioned, in the sense that if something has worked for years why change it. All of our other propane tanks have been run with copper so we felt most comfortable staying with that.

Re: waiting a full year for nail pops before wallpapering. It may not be necessary. If your drywall is installed with screws, there SHOULD be fewer nail pops of less severity (though, yes, there will still be a few). If you use a thick wallpaper (e.g. grasscloth) or a liner under your wallpaper, it actually helps to minimize the nail pops as it holds them in better. A patterned wallpaper will help hide the appearance of a nail pop--the light would have to hit it at just the right angle to notice it--and you can still hammer any obvious ones back in (place a towel over them to avoid damaging the paper with your hammer). That's been my experience.

So I'll wait the 30 days for my paint to cure, but I don't think I will wait a full year before I wallpaper; those couple of rooms where I intend to put it would just look too unfinished to me, and my color choices for one room in particular would make no sense without the patterned wallpaper to tie them together.

Jkent9024 we had to wait 2 years for “nail” pops due to Covid. They were screws. I had almost 150 for them to fix. After watching the process, I will be doing any others by myself.

@ghatta @jkent9024 Our builder comes back after a year to fix. We are newbies at this so I'm going to wait for them to fix, but I also think I should know within a few months if there will be any. If there aren't any in my PR I may put it on early, but since I'm doing peel & stick I doubt it will help keep nail pops down. We are also building on clay, which settles for eternity, AND we have freeze/thaw here, so I expect we may have some surprises. It's probably different with other soil types and in other more temperate climates.

We're getting 500 gallon propane tank which will be above ground behind the attached garage, so I'll be able to see the end from my kitchen window but I'm going to put up trellises probably and other plants around it. When we lived in VA it was buried, we were never asked, I think it's just a thing. Not even sure where it was. lol.

Great looking colors @chispa @Emily nice front door, ours is just a Home Depot in stock door with a little window on top.

Speaking of colors I think I chose my floor. It's LVP from Southwind, Authentic Plank in color Frontier. SIL and I picked it out and brought it home to look at in the actual house, and dang if it doesn't look darker than in the store with all the fluorescents, This is against my 2 kitchen cabinet colors and the Formica. (wall paint is some sort of pale beige leaning toward gray). This was taken in the evening with SIL's iPhone, and only a few LED and CFL lights in the ceiling.

Thoughts?

NEW THREAD FOR OCTOBER

Anj_p we closed 12/18. 2019 came and went. 2020 Covid hit and we wouldn’t allow anyone in house. Finally got them done in July 21 because we waited for availability and because we could have windows open for ventilation. We take Covid seriously and even vaccinated took precautions. Just glad to be done with final punch list items.

@nhb22, trying to repost, I'm using my tablet and it logged into houzz using an ancient login! I'm at the laundromat washing my big sofa dog covers!

Yes, I used those tiles in the master and mixed and matched them with other tiles to use in another bathroom and powder room. I was trying to limit the different brands of tiles I ordered. I like that they aren't plain white, but are still light/bright tiles.

We are doing propane heat. After reading your responses I asked my husband if we are burying ours or not. He hasn't considered it. Another topic to put on the agenda with the builder. We are annoyed that 3 houses up there is natural gas, town water and sewer, but none of that is running to our house.

@Emily You house is looking so good.

I am jealous of everyones progress. We are still waiting on final approval, since the beginning of June. At least we are settled into our rental. Originally when we started (our loan was approved last December), I thought we would be in by now. A good portion of our winter stuff is packed in storage. Trying to unearth that is going to be a HUGE hassle.

OOPS, it's OCTOBER! Here's a new THREAD,

@K M and @Buzz Solo in northeast MI, Thank you! 😊

If you decide to do the construction or significant renovation, you should know that the kitchen and bathrooms will be the most expensive interior design. They require ventilation, plumbing, drainage, installation of appropriate equipment, and tiling work on the interior is costly. Therefore, if the builder is trying to reduce costs, the total area of these premises should not be significant to locate them favorably next to each other. Also, the design of the staircase without steps is more profitable than with them. So if you choose projects among https://www.boutiquehomeplans.com/farm-house-plans, then do it carefully. But it is better to choose what you like.