I'm willing to be the one to start the April thread tomorrow BTW...Emily is nearly finished with her house...but thank-you!

I was missing 2 Brizo Lux Gold 24" towel bars. The others had taken months to get through my local plumbing showrooms. I got on build dot com yesterday and they had them in stock, so I quickly ordered them and they are supposed to be here on Monday! So I waited 5 months for some and 4 days for these! Crazy times!

@Keen B I picked one color for the whole house and a custom color that we have in our current bathroom and bedroom because I love it so much. Well... I don't love the color I picked for entire house. It is supposed to be white with a hint of green. It sometimes looks gray and sometimes it leans minty green. The paint we took to have matched must have had some rust in it after all these years because the paint in our new bath and bedroom looked horrible. So much that even my DH said I could have them repainted. I went with Vale and October Mist. Much better! The rest of the house will have to wait until it needs a refresh.

What am I looking at here? Why does this brick go up on the corner like that?!?!?! This looks horrible. I contacted my project manager but I haven't gotten an answer yet. (It has only been 30 minutes so not his fault but I'm freaking out a little bit )

@lisainkc I put up my hand towel bars yesterday and am rather proud they seem to be level and at the same height! Measuring tape, pencil, and a level are essential! I measured off the vanity top and from the mirror. Unfortunately, I forgot to have DH slide the mirror 1/2" to the right because I think it's not quite centered on the light. Now I have to live with it!. But otherwise, I'm happy enough.

I'd like to see what your vanity looks like before saying whether a wall bar and a stand would look ok, though it would probably be fine. There is something cool about asymmetry in the right circumstance.

@Buzz Solo in northeast MI I'll take a picture this weekend and post on Sunday night. I've ordered both so may I can get my DH to hold the wall bar up while I take a picture.

@KT_B I'm taking a shot in the dark, but it looks like electrical coming through the exterior there, so is where your meter will go--maybe even your breaker panel if you live in a part of the country where having that outside is common. If so, maybe local codes require it to be on firesafe material? Ergo the brick rather than the wood or vinyl siding that is planned for the upper part of the house? I agree it looks weird at the moment, but may not be as noticeable once the exterior is finished, landscaped, etc. Is this on the front, side, or back of the house?

@KT B I agree it looks like the electrical panel/meter for the house will go there. They are ugly regardless so the brick might actually make it look better.

@jkent9024 it is on the side but it is visible to the road. This was not on our plans anywhere and no one told me this would be a thing. It is hideous and something has to be done. Worst case scenario we paint it to match the siding? Idk but this ruins the house and looks really stupid like this.

Thank y'all so much for the compliments!

"I like some shine, but the gloss would really be too much on my living room and family room walls where I have the picture/panel molding."

Kat - I agree! We do have some wainscoting around the house, and the coffer ceiling that would look too much in a full gloss. Our bedroom has a full paneled wall in the same color, SW Nebula Azul, as our bedroom walls. Although a different sheen, I cannot tell the difference. I'd like a little bit more sheen, but If it were too shiny, the wall would be too much. Pay no mind to those chairs. They are being replaced. And the drapes are yet to be hung.

lisainkc - If you are just talking about hand towels, why not do the stand on both sides?

Our M. bathroom vanity.

Or use towel rings on the wall like we did in our guest baths. One on each side.

I put in a large antique mirror in this bath.

The hook on this side is for guest to hang make-up bags. I have them in both guest baths.

KT B - We had lot's of surprises like that. I remember thinking that our electrical box looked terrible. I hardly notice it now.

@KT B we’re in the same boat. Our meter will be on the exterior side of the house, the prominent side when you drive down the road. We were able to locate it closer to the rear of the house though. Good, but unfortunate we’re having a hard time keeping our Tyvek in place too. My husband secured a piece this weekend but our brick mason informed us another piece has come off. Hate to keep asking the framer to reapply but this time it’s too high for us. We’ve had horrible winds this month. Brick can’t get finished fast enough!

@nhb22 yeah this is the first thing you see coming around the main road. It just looks like someone made a really dumb mistake and will be even worse when the white siding goes up. Way too much contrast. Who thought this was a good idea?!?! I'd much rather have the electrical box hanging on the side of the house than this.

@Joy M.

Yeah we had a tornado watch last night which is likely when our tyvek fell down. Wind was crazy

@nhb22 I bought two wall mounts. One for each side; however only one will work because the plumbing for the shower is on the other side of where the second one should go. I'm told it has a really good chance of puncturing the pipe. I could move it forward but then the other side would have to be moved and that doesn't look right either. I then ordered two towel stands but the space is limited in the corners so the stands look overwhelming.

The blue rectangle is where I should and could place it but I can't on the opposite wall.

@KT_B Have you noticed those on other houses in the area? Could you plant something in front of it to block most/all of it?

@Kat I'm sorry for your paint issues and appreciate you sharing that info. It seems crazy that they would make changes like that. We are also also using BM paint so I will definitely visit my local store and get a sheen chart. Our painter highly recommends eggshell for the walls but I've always preferred flat so I'm on the fence with that decision too.

We are waiting for sheetrock mud to dry so they can start sanding. From what @cwcf185 said, I also need to be finalizing paint colors. I have a pretty good idea what I'm going with but need to mull over a couple rooms. If you asked DH, he'd be sure to tell you that I'll go neutral.😂

@nhb22, I love seeing pics of your newly finished home and it helps me with all the decisions that I'm in the middle of.

@Naomi I've never seen anything like this before ever. I've seen other houses with the electrical stuff just on the siding, which is what I expected. There's no universe in where this will stay as is. At very least they're going to have to paint the brick above where it should have stopped, to blend with the siding. My project manager confirmed it's for the electrical meter but has not given me an alternate solution yet. Again... I will not be able to live with the brick up that high unless it's painted to camoflauge it or something. The way it is done, it just looks like someone made a mistake. Simply awful.

@KT_B, That is odd indeed! Our guys just put the electrical box stuff right on the siding. Maybe it depends on the type of siding and whether it is flammable/meltable? Ours is fiber cement so would not be flammable. Don't blame you for being upset.

@lisainkc, I don't see anything wrong with using a towel bar/ring on one side and a freestanding towel ring on the other.

I am glad to see photos are working again! So here finally is our wall of ovens...microwave top (the too-high one) and double wall oven below. You can see the little stepstool I bought so I could more easily use the microwave. It slides right under the drawer so is pretty handy, but I am still mad at myself for not realizing that the microwave was going to be a problem where it is. If it were a side-mounted door it would be fine, so I just never gave it any thought.

@Emily I'm such a visual person! I'll be going to the house this weekend and maybe after standing in the bathroom, I can come to grips with it. In my mind I think it will look fine.

@Steph That is interesting re eggshell v. flat. We are paying extra for eggshell in the house (apparently they have to do multiple coats and so it is pricier). Is there a reason you like flat? I have big dogs that are messy and worry about the paint being damaged when I scrub the walls.

@KT_B This sounds like someone screwed up then. I wonder if there is a way to remove it and just do the siding? I hope the PM responds quickly.

@Emily They look pretty, but I can see how that would be challenging with the drop down door. We are having full double ovens installed, so no drawer on the bottom (I was very conflicted about that, but I wanted the full ovens). So I imagine my microwave will be even higher, but is a side open.

@Naomi, it also depends on your height; I am only 5'1.5". My DH is 5'10" and has no issues with the microwave.

@KT_B The fact that there's no hint anywhere that this is what they were going to do would drive me nuts. That bricklayer is going to be so unhappy that his fine work will be undone, but I'm with you. It looks like there used to a be a door that they had to fill in. Painting it, if you have to go with it afterall, will help, but demand they add the ledge that you see on both sides to help camo the aberration.

@Steph I prefer flat paint too on the walls, and for awhile our painter couldn't get it at all in SW Duration, but I balked at satin, as I prefer only the trim to have a sheen. Fortunately, by the time painting time came around, the shortage must have eased, as he was able to get Duration in flat. It looks great, and I am very pleased.

lisainkc - First of all, you need to hang a bit higher so that your towels (or future hand towels) clear your backsplash by a few inches. I would be really surprised if you hit a pipe. And are your water supplies made of the flexible tubing? They are made to give a little. We have things hanging on the wall behind a pocket door in the bathroom. No problem. However, if you do not feel comfortable, I think having a bar on one side is perfectly fine.

Steph - You have a good painter to recommend Eggshell. We have had Eggshell in all previous homes. The painter for our new home always uses flat. I did specify Eggshell for my bathroom and laundry room. The walls still look flat. The Flat paint is not washable, and I have missed that. On the other hand, the Flat is easy to touch up if you have the original mix.

Emily - On the plus side is that you do not have to lean down to get things in and out of the ovens. My range is low, but I do love it!

@KT B - As Naomi says, plant something in front. We used arborvitae that will eventually become a hedge. The power box is not the only thing that needed hiding!

Before

After - The gas meter really through me for a loop! And then there are the heat pumps and cable. This can all be seen as one rounds the corner of the cul-de-sac.

These arbs will double in size in a couple of years. They are 6', but you can get them larger to begin with. The larger they come, the slower they grow.

@KT_B Your electrical box situation is definitely puzzling. I concur with the suggestions to landscape around it if they can't find a better solution. I feel your pain in the Tyvek. This was the state of my Tyvek this morning following last night's supposedly 50mph winds. My garage has Tyvek all over the place.

@Keen B YES I would never have approved this. It definitely wasn't on the plans and you're right, it looks like a door or something got filled in.

I heard back from the PM and this was definitely intentional (?!?!). He sent me an example of what it would look like "trimmed out" and said something about the electrical box getting water behind it if placed over vinyl siding. He's checking with the GC... I told him my preference is to remove it and make the brick all the correct height, but if the extra brick has to be there, then they need to paint it to blend it, and yes @Keen B I agree that the ledge needs to be there. I will landscape around it regardless but I still don't want the goofy brick sticking up--it looks like they started on a chimney and decided against it.

@cwcf185 Yikes you lost a lot of tyvek! I didn't go around back but from what I could tell this gable was the only tyvek we lost. Our camera did get knocked around (it's hung in a tree) and is now facing the grass, so we've got to adjust that.

@KT_B The chimney thing was my first thought as well! Very odd.

Is your camera connected to cell service? I'd love to have a camera monitoring, but sadly there is no cell service at our site (a block away...but not us).

@Naomi yes we have a reolink camera and a sim card. We refill the card online for $10 a month. I think it uses TMobile but it is 3rd party

@KT_B That was a lot of Tyvek. Thankfully the wrap on back and sides of the house are still intact. I sent a text and photo to my PM this morning (I cannot say enough good things about him!) and he was able to get my framers to come over and fix it today. (Have I mentioned how much I liked them? 😄)

On another note, supposedly at least some of my windows have been located and are in town.

@cwcf185 We got all of our windows finally, but two. For the life of them, they could not track where they went, and since special order color, they had to reorder them to be produced...luckily, we passed inspection on the others and the siding is going up all around all but those two. Hope yours show up in one place soon.

@Keen B I don't even want to think about that! A few weeks ago my builder said he was about ready to drive up to Minnesota to see Andersen (I'm not the only home he's having Andersen challenges with.) I told him he didn't need to drive, that I have more than enough miles to fly us both up for a day. Following the Andersen windows saga thread here on Houzz, there apparently are people who ordered in September and are being told May for shipping. My neighbors across the street (same builder) ordered their 400 series black/ white windows a week or two after my 400 series sandtone/white windows and half their windows were in a couple weeks ago.

I live 9 miles from the Anderson plant. We used Marvin in our house when we built in 2018. Many custom homes here also don’t use Anderson. Read into that what you will.

Ours does custom built windows….had to order them before we even closed!

@nhb22 our builder insists on flat because of the level finish of drywall. I think they do a 4, but he says you need a 5 or some such thing if you want to have zerio imperfections. The funny thing is, because I put picture molding on many of my walls downstairs, I'll have tons of drywalled walls with satin on them now, which I understand to be a bit higher sheen then eggshell.

Also are those Emeral Green Arbovitae? I've told our landscaper I want a 6' one to block our neighbors window but he said he can likley only source 4' ones. I don't know if it's because of us being coastal. So many plants seem hard to source here.

Went to the house and the repainted ceilings look a bit less shiny, but still more than I think it would have if they hadn't just painted satin over the gloss.

Our electrical boxes are hung on our siding as well. We have an extra one for the pool as well. We used hardie cement board, so it may be different then if you are using vinyl, but I believe lots of vinyl homes still have them without a brick backing.

We had a vinyl siding home in Indiana and I don't really know where the meter was, but I know there wasn't a single piece of brick on that house!

@Naomi, like @Emily I just prefer only the trim to have a sheen. We had flat walls in our current house until we repainted about 10 years ago and now they are all eggshell. I just assumed that the painter would use flat paint. My bad for making assumptions. I do agree that eggshell is easier to clean/scrub but honestly, I never had any issues with our flat walls. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones that my kids never colored on the walls, haha.

@nhb22, thanks for the reassurance that your eggshell walls look flat. I would say the same for the walls in our current house. Also, last fall we visited several Parade homes, all had eggshell walls and they looked good. Since BM has made some changes to their sheens, I just want to make sure I don't end up with shiny walls.

@Steph I think our problem was that our current mass production build had flat and they probably used the cheapest thing possible and it was awful. Tried to wipe off one thing and the paint came right off.

I repainted all of it either eggshell or satin (whatever Behr has) and I can take scrubbers to the walls with no issues. I also like that it provides some saturation and some depth...but again, my experience was with the crappy builder paint.

No kids here, but I have an English bulldog who just makes a slobbery mess everywhere! I wipe my walls with powdered Tide & water at least once a month (I'm also a bit of an OCD clean freak). Tide/bleach/water combo for the bathrooms.

Today we met with our kitchen cabinet guy to finalize the kitchen plans and the hall linen cabinet. Really happy with how that’s all coming along, but nervous about getting the wood cabinets and wood floor to look nice together.

We also met with the guy who will be building our bathtub! I looked for ages for a small enough, deep enough tub and they just don’t seem to exist at a price we can afford. So glad our builder knows a guy who wants to build it for us! We wanted a cylindrical tub - 30” diameter, 30” deep and it’s been just impossible. So now we’ll have one made of cedar and held together with copper bands.

In other news, our veggie garden is underway. The garlic is coming up and we’ve spotted the first few Brussels sprouts and cauliflower seedlings this week!

"Also are those Emeral Green Arbovitae? "

Yes they are. We have mostly 6' arborvitae (side and back yard). Two weeks ago we decided to have another row in plated the back yard and the landscaper used 4'. Our locale grocery had the 2'-3' arbs for $19.00. I tried to talk my DH into getting a few to set out in the lower back yard because I thought they were a deal and they would grow the fastest.

The atrium door & two matching windows set was delivered this morning! These will go from my Great Room to the back covered porch. Still trying to find the rest of my windows, but it's better than nothing.

@cwcf185 Whoohoo! Happy they are arriving, even if it's a trickle.

@di0spyr0s Love the garden...can you tell me your reason for two dishwashers. (I mentioned before, DH is pushing for this just because we have access to two new ones for free.) My son says I can just always keep dishes in clean dishwasher as I use them and move them over, but I figure this isn't quite right because I won't use exactly the same dishes in same numbers everyday. Your thoughts?

@di0spyr0s I've never heard of someone building a bathtub. Please be sure to post a picture when it is done!

K Brown - we live in a farm and do a lot of home processing. We’ve always managed before this with one dishwasher just fine, but now that we’re on the farm I find I’m running the dishwasher twice or three times a day - all our milking equipment, processing 30gallons of tomatoes from our neighbor, making cheese… there’s just a lot more dishes than there used to be, and they’re not sizes that stack well for the dishwasher. So two of them so that I can have one running and still be loading the other.

Lisainck - I will definitely be sharing pictures of the bath!

@di0spyr0s Now THAT makes total sense! Do you have a blog about your farming?

Blerg....first delay/mistake and we don't even have a foundation yet.

Form survey was done this week and the house was set too close to the street. So now the form setters are back out today moving them back (they were off by 2-4' depending on the part of the house). Form survey redo is early next week. So now we won't have piers poured until early in the week of the 11th and, weather dependent, foundation poured toward the end of the month.

Kind of a costly mistake for the form setters...they have to pay for the additional survey AND another day of labor.

It was neat to see the actual distance from the property line with the house set in place though....we have so much space on one side! And it also makes my house look so teeny tiny on this big lot!

@Naomi Wow, that's a huge and costly mistake on their part. What would have happened if it hadn't been caught until after the piers were done?!

BTW, today's the first of April. I can't remember who offered to start the April thread, but once they do, please post the link here so we can all follow it.

@jkent9024 I have no idea! But the lender requires a form survey before they'll release any funds....so I think it would have been caught no matter what. But if there wasn't that requirement???? Who knows!

Hey Everyone! I've started our April thread. See you there! April 2022 Home Building Thread

@Mary Elizabeth, that's good info. Thank you.