@cwcf185, Before instructing the electrician to center over the vanities, I did some research on Houzz and Pinterest and the designers said to center over the vanity in this situation. I suppose if your vanity were really long you might center over the sink, but to me it would look strange on a shorter vanity, which mine are.

Because of the off-center sinks, I am not going to be able to do the round mirrors I'd originally planned on, because those would look strange, I think, plus, you might not be able to see yourself as well while using the sink, as it would not be in front of the widest part of the circle. So I'm going to go with rectangular mirrors that are as wide as the vanities.

@J Sk, Sorry, it would not let me tag you. Thanks re. our backsplash. I went dark because I wanted some color in the kitchen space, and it goes nicely with our blue island (which is covered with cardboard for protection in the photo). I can't really see your backsplash in your photo; do you have anything closer up? I don't, because I'm relying on the builder to take photos, and he doesn't always take the kind of photos I would!

Thanks @Emily. I keep thinking of when I'm traveling and applying make-up or doing my hair, I do it over the countertop area and not the sink. So for me it seems awkward not to have the mirror centered over the vanity. I solved the problem in the guest full bath by doing a frameless mirror that spans the width of the vanity. I'm looking for the perfect mirror for the half bath - I'm looking for one to span most of the width of that vanity so it can be centered.

J Sk - It looks fine from what I can see. As Emily mentioned, we need a closer view. 😏

Emily - We do have a dog, but the filter doesn't seem to matter as she is all over the house anyway. 🤣

I completely missed your backsplash in the kitchen photos. I was too busy looking at your cabinets, light fixtures and floors. I have said before that I loved the tile you were going to use. Please post a closer-up when you can get a better photo.

Speaking of sinks. I was planning to post this to the general Houzz forum. I saw this bathroom arrangement in a house listing. I have never seen anything like it before. I cannot imagine this being my bathroom sink area!!! To me, this was a big design FAIL decision!!! The bathroom is plenty big enough to get those sinks on a wall.

@nhb22 I'm envisioning toothpaste spittle flying across that into each other's faces.....

We did back painted glass backsplash ( no better pictures right now), my only regret is, that it might be just a little too dark, but I hope when appliances go in, it will pull everything together. And one more lesson learnt- always listen to your mother lol, ( who said to go with my intuition )

@nhb22, That is a truly bizarre bathroom! With all the windows, and even a fabric window seat with book shelf below, it looks like a kitchen/breakfast room, NOT a bathroom. Perhaps they added a new kitchen and remodeled the previous kitchen into a bathroom, so put the sinks in the original kitchen island? 😲 That is going to be a hard sell!

No, they have a huge original kitchen with fireplace! It's a very large home built back in the 90's, I think. I did some sleuthing and realize that I know the owners. I remember when they sold their other large country home and built this. Asking almost 2 million for it. It's a beautiful home that needs mega décor updating. Plus a bathroom revamp. :)

KT B - I was thinking how I would hate having to watch my DH brushing and flossing his teeth directly in front of me. Can you imagine trying to use those tiny make-up mirrors?

@Karen As there is no bank involved it's our house, if we want to camp in it, we can.

@Emily I'm afraid it looks tucked into the corner to me. I also have an off-center sink in my guest bath, DH centered the sink over the vanity. I like how it looks. We'll be putting a rectangular mirror over it, wider than it is tall.

@Buzz Solo in northeast MI here it would be the building inspector coming after you. It doesn't matter that we own the home. We aren't allowed to stay over in a house or technically move any personal belongings (unrelated to the build) in until we have the Certificate of Occupancy from the town inspector which doesn't happen until all inspections and code requirements set up by the state/ county/town are met. Every state, county and town are different though, so your situation may be different.

@Buzz Solo in northeast MI, What Kat said. We own our land and are paying cash for our house as well, no bank involved, but we are not allowed to occupy it without a certificate of occupancy, which isn't granted until all inspections pass. It is a safety thing, I suppose. I figured all jurisdictions in the US had these same kinds of rules, but I am just guessing.

I definitely think the light fixture in my hall bath is off-center. The electrician has made a few other minor mistakes, but the earlier ones were during rough-in so much easier to correct. I will find out for sure on Monday. Our builder is more a systems guy and not into the finer points of design, so he wouldn't have even noticed.

@buzz solo in northeast mi, my thoughts were the same as Kat and Emily. I thought the inspectors would not allow it before the CO.
But perhaps things are done differently in different parts of the country.

@kat Thanks for the link:). I always thought that those were metal vent covers. Pretty.

@k Sk so true about listening to our mothers and our intuition. I have a few misses and my gut warned me ahead of time. But when DH seemed set in his resolve, I decided to not rock the boat. No so sure about that decision now though.

@nhb22 the bathroom/vanity you posted is just wrong on so many levels.

I forgot to mention. I was SOOO bummed the other day! I accidentally permanently and completely deleted the Pinterest file I’d been creating for our build for two years. I still have a small subset saved in photos, but lost 90+% of ideas/photos right when I need them. Wanted to cry.

@Karen that is awful! Isn't there anyway to get it back?

Also who posted about the rugs with backing reacting with lvp flooring? Could you share more details? I just bought two beautiful navy rugs for our mudroom. We have a Mannington product in there. Anyway they are going back to the store. One day and they were covered with foot prints. What was I thinking????? Does anyone have a good rug source that doesn't break the bank? I think I'm going to go with a lighter blue with some gray fibers intermixed.

Karen - Sorry that has happened to you. 😲

I have no idea how Pinterest works, so I saved all of my ideas and photos on my personal computer in Microsoft Pictures, or in My Favorites. If the photo or idea were not something I was allowed to SAVE, I would take a screen shot and put in PAINT, edit, and then save to My Photos.

@Buzz Solo in northeast MI - Are you able to move in because you live outside of the city? There was another frequent poster on this forum that moved in their house before it was finished. They live on the lake that I believe is in the county. Like the others, we paid everything in cash. No bank involved. However, we had to have city inspections for every element of our building before getting our C/O.

What is suppose to happen with LPV and rubber backed rugs? My brother and wife have LPV and several rugs. I think mostly old Orientals and some Ruggables on there LPV. I'll have to warn them if they have any rubber backings. Does that include rug pads?

@kh and @nhb22 thanks. I did have a few photos saved as screenshots and saved to Microsoft OneNote, but only a few. The danger with Pinterest is that there is no way to get a deleted board/photo back. I read through the FAQs. Oh well, it is what it is.

It's news to me re rugs and LVP. But someone coincidentally started a thread on this a few days ago. Unfortunately not a lot of good responses yet.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6220765/wool-area-rugs-are-they-safe-on-lvp-without-using-a-rug-pad#27498748 

I'm keeping an eye on that thread as I'll be using Coretec

I don't know if this will work, but have you tried Googling your Pinterest Sign-in name and seeing if anything is comes up as archived? I have been able to find things that way. In fact, I just did a test using my Houzz name on Google and found something from 12 years ago that I had forgotten all about posting. It was a tour of my home decorated for Christmas. 🤣

@nhb22 That's a good idea!

@nhb22, We have the same issue with getting a CO, and we are in the county too, not in any city jurisdiction. So it may just be a county by county thing. Ours is crazy strict.

Weird issues that pop up in a new house ... many of our interior doors are making a scraping sound ... they left the darned stickers on the doors and they are partly unstuck and scrape on the floor when you open/close the doors! Can't get your fingers under the door to rip them off. Need to find a metal ruler or similar to try to scrape the labels off. A couple of them sound like playing cards on the spokes of a bicycle wheel! 😄 Not funny when it is DH's closet door and you are still trying to sleep!

@chispa thats funny! but it would drive me bonkers!! Take a large kitchen knife to the bottom! good luck may the force be with you! lol

Regarding our dance space, it's only 8 feet and we need access as that's a sliding door to our future deck. I could maybe do a little seating area on the fixed glass side. 
Regarding vinyl floors and rubber... eventually the rubber will react with the floor and your floor will discolor/ become damaged. It's a chemical reaction between vinyl and rubber. You can get rug pads that are safe for vinyl but you have to search. Ruggables aren't ok. And the rugs I have with backs have rubber backs, so I'll need to find something else. It doesn't happen immediately but over time.

Thanks @anj_p

anj_p - Thanks for the warning!

chispa - Are the stickers stapled to the bottom of the door? Can you get a pair of needle nose plyers underneath?

At least your doors are close enough to the floor. Our bedroom doors have a sizable gap underneath. I am in the process of finding something (besides a draft stopper sock) to close the gap so DH can sleep in after I get up. I can stick the front part of my foot underneath it it's so high. Sound seems to travel very easily in our house. I think because of the taller ceilings. But our bedroom is a direct shot from the kitchen, so it's hard to keep noises from traveling down to the room when I am in the kitchen.

Speaking of gaps, there is a gap between our cabinet doors in the bar area. I have looked and think they are adjusted as much as they can be. I am not happy with this look and will be contacting my kitchen designer. I am not sure what can be done, however. 😏

@nhb22 If you do not mind sharing, what type of wood and stain was used for your cabinet? And, is that a decorative etching? It is very pretty! Also, for your doors, they may have needed the high undercut for air circulation if your bedroom does not have an individual return. So, you may want to check before minimizing it.

Has anyone started a FEBRUARY Thread yet?? I have to have my new build group...I learn so much from you all..."make sure stickers off doors before they are hung.." "Make multiple copies of my inspo files..." Pay attention to trim cutting/planning issues...See you in the next thread!

@K Brown I second that! I wish I would have been on this thread two years ago before we started building! I would have been able to look at each room on the master plan (or at least I think I would) with a better eye for looking at the details. For instance, this is our bathroom downstairs. I went to the house over the weekend and the door to the toilet/shower room opens in, barely squeezing by the toilet. When I protested I was told they had to make a change otherwise the lightswitch would have been behind the door. If I would have caught this I would have made the door smaller. I know this is going to bug me forever.

This isn’t exactly build related but is a result of our house sale before we move into our new build. Sold the washer and dryer with the current house. Am I crazy to buy a champagne colored washer and dryer set? My concern is down the road if I need to replace one I’ll be limited on a replacement.

@lisainkc, We had a similar situation in our toilet room. The plan called for an inward swing door, but once we thought about it, there would be no way to open or close the door without squeezing right beside the toilet...not very functional! We changed the plans to use a barn door there, but then there ended up not being quite enough wall space to open the door all the way and still allow for a privacy overlap when it was closed. So we ended up going with a pocket door. We're very glad that one did fit, as we didn't want the door opening out into the bathroom as it would have blocked our traffic lane to and from the closet. So many little details to think about -- some of them we got right, and others I wish we'd done differently or thought about before it was too late to change.

@Joy M, You're right that you might be limited in the future, but on the other hand, I am usually a fan of buying what you love and taking that chance. We are also doing a washer/dryer that could end up burning us in the end, as it's an integrated washtower instead of two separate pieces. If one dies and can't be repaired, we'll have to replace the entire thing. But we love it, and it's shorter and more compact than stacking standard-sized W/D, which is important since I am petite -- and we didn't have room to have them side by side without losing too much storage space. So, we're taking that leap of faith too!

@Joy M I don't think you'd necessarily be crazy, but I don't know how important it is for your laundry to be "pretty." My laundry rooms have always been working rooms, not pretty, so I don't care about looks. Colored machines (at least the last time I was looking for one) seem to cost more, so it's never been worth it to me. But on the other hand, since I don't care about aesthetics in the laundry, having mismatched colors down the road wouldn't deter me from buying a colored set if they happened to be the same price.

Ironically, in our new build, we're putting a stacked unit in our master closet (in addition to the set in the laundry room at the other side of the house). Since the stacked unit will be more out in the open and I'll see it every morning when I'm in my closet getting dressed, I'm considering the upgrade for a colored unit.

@Emily are you doing the LG washtower? That's what I'm looking at for my master closet.

@Emily Believe me I wish it wasn't too late to change. I've changed so much since the start of this build but we are getting close to the finish line and after waiting 9 months for our doors I think my DH would freak. I'm going to try and live with it as long as I can before suggesting we order a new door and frame.

@jkent9024, Yes, that's the one we're getting. We're getting the white one, since it's a little less expensive, and our cabinetry in the laundry room is white.

@lisainkc, I totally understand and was not at all suggesting that you should change now. Once you get close to the finish line, as we are too, it gets very costly to make all but the smallest changes!

Today I was able to take a better picture of my backsplash. I think I will get used to it ;-). And as it was mentioned above, at the end of built there is no more money to spend to change things, so You need to love/ or not what You got ;-)

@Emily I took your comment in the way you intended. So no worries! And yes, the overruns on this house have been staggering! I'll just try and focus on all the things we did right :)

@J Sk I love your backsplash and your lights are very pretty!

@J Sk, I think your backsplash looks great. It totally goes with your countertop and the rest of your kitchen.

@Emily and @lisainkc, thank You for Your kind words.

lisainkc - Could you change to split doors?

tendrac - The bedroom door is a slit door that we do not close at night, so not worried about the air flow. I only want to close it in the morning while DH is still sleeping, or if we have overnight company. I think that the doors came from another job where there may have been carpet. We had a hard time getting all of our split doors. Our builder told us that the distributor gave us a set because he could not find another 36" split. We also have two for our closets. We have talked about trading out the doors for one of the closet sets. They are cut closer to the floor. If we do that, we will have to order another set of dummy knobs. The closet doors only have knobs to the outside.

tendrac - The wood is American Poplar stained in Bayou with a mocha glaze. The glass design is actually made of lead.

Finally finished the bar. Put a grass cloth designed wallpaper on the back wall.

@nhb22 the bar looks fabulous- and the doors are gorgeous!!!

@nhb22 it looks like they could have set them closer. I dont know how they would fix something like that without having to completely redo though? Unless there is some sort of adjustment on the hinge? I just checked all of my cabinetry and one of my cabinets has a very large gap!!

There are adjustment hinges, but I think they are adjusted as much as can be. I will have the KD take a look. I need her to adjust a couple of cabinets and drawer, as well. If not adjustable, the only way I can think to fix it is to order a couple of pieces of matching stained trim to attach to the inside of one door.

Thanks, Ash M!

@nhb22 asked my DH if we could change and he said not unless we are willing to wait 9 months for a new door. I told him we will see. This supply issue can't last forever...

@lisainkc, Another option is to remove the door entirely. That's a small bathroom to have a separate toilet closet, which is leading to the door issue in the first place. Unless you really think it will be used frequently, maybe just take it off, at least for awhile, until replacements are readily available?

Funny you should say that. My DH said no one will probably close the door anyway. I think I would feel better if we took it off.

@lisainkc You could leave it without the door and boom you have a cased opening!

Has anyone started a February thread yet? I will be happy to do so but don't want to step on any toes!

Please go ahead! I was looking for it when I realized half way through the day that it was Feb. 1st! 😏

Yes, please go ahead and start the February thread. It seems like the first to post in the month can start it.

Okey doke, since it's (maybe!) our final month, I will start the thread for the first time! Here it is: February 2022 Building a House.