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April 2022 Building a Home

Keen B
last year
last modified: last year

Here to share our experiences with home-building--the ins and outs, the tears and laughter, ideas and advice--All welcome! We are a kindly group, and I've learned so many important things I would have never known without you...Glad you are here!



Comments (544)

  • Keen B
    Original Author
    last year

    @Ash M That's really wonderful. I think there are some really great possibilities out there for homeschoolers now to socialize and learn in creative, expansive ways, especially after quarantines kicked in. My son started in public school, was funneled into special ed for his learning disabilities, and it was just not working; he has a 142 IQ but was often isolated in small classes with children in the 70s. I am not disparaging them at all, but this was not effective for him. He's doing really well now...Another son has a higher IQ, but he was placed in gifted, AP, etc his whole education. Totally different planets in education, unfortunately.

  • Ash M
    last year

    Yes! @k brown I have two kids that are at opposite ends- one was held back (given nothing to do because he was 'too far ahead' and the other pushed forward even though she was failing she was still getting A/Bs and didn't know her multiplication tables. And I had no idea from conferences or her work. Not til I had her home and could see what she couldn't do. :/

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  • Keen B
    Original Author
    last year

    @Ash M Totally relate...Glad you can do this for them.

  • Keen B
    Original Author
    last year
    last modified: last year

    @K M and @Naomi I think all these delays are why we love this thread. While we wait for all these flipping delays, we can at least feel a little forward movement while we see a bit here and there progressing for others. Naomi, are you simply waiting for concrete? Labor? Inspections? We had a few delays waiting for inspections during that phase--the rebar/footings inspection was before the concrete was poured, then another was right after the pour on the rebar/stem wall placement (did it stay in the right place after pour). And you have a basement... But true, once we had the corners marked, the dig, rebar and pour didn't take too many days.

    And our timeline has been readjusted again...we do not want to have foam blown in, until A/C is ready to go and mold is gone and under control. (Actually DH and I went round and round on this--he wants it blown in before quote changes, but I do not want it to sit without AC and mold all summer long.) Supply issues on some of the joiners for A/C, plus inspection that must happen before foam, plus taking long break for other project over summer, mean HVAC won't be up and running til August, and in FLA, no A/C equals mold and mildew, even with all windows in place--and our last two are not due til June. I say wait...he says, push onward.

    Every tiny thing dominos on the next, so I guess this has been an exercise in patience for me.

  • chispa
    last year
    last modified: last year

    The wood floor guy I had used in our previous area was the 3rd generation running the family business. He said even he had a hard time sometimes figuring out visually if something was red or white oak, but there is an easy chemical test. You take some fine shavings of the wood and put the test drops on it. The drops turn a different color for red vs white oak.

  • tendrac
    last year
    last modified: last year

    @chispa This is all very interesting. I wonder if it is due to the areas where these woods are acquired. In my location, there tends to be a lot of white oak compared to red oak trees. My lot has maybe 6 or so different white oak varieties but only a couple different red oaks and a much lower quantity of these trees; they are also smaller compared to the white oak behemoths. This has been the case on three different properties. Also, it is harvested and milled here, so I am assuming that this may be the reason why I have not experienced any issues with mix ups. Is the floor guy from the northeast? I am in the southeast.

  • Naomi
    last year

    @K Brown - We were "waiting on concrete guys." Texted this AM and was told they will start grading today and then pouring late next week or early week after. I can handle that. I need to be on site to make sure the one floor plug in the living room is in the right location....I am not confident that they don't revert back to the original plans that show 2 (and one in a weird place). Thankfully no basement!


    I do agree that it is nice to see updates here! And I keep hanging on Pinterest....I need to start making progress on my room-by-room mood boards. Thankfully the semester is done....just finals next week!

  • chispa
    last year

    @tendrac, the floor guy was from Los Angeles. When we bought the house we had the wood floors downstairs refinished and site finished hardwood added upstairs. He tested the old floor downstairs to make sure he was ordering the right species for upstairs. We had red oak.

  • Naomi
    last year

    For those of you hanging on to your current house....reading some promising news regarding housing. It seems everything is pointing toward 2022 staying pretty hot. I saw one analysis identifying areas of concern, but thankfully nothing where I am. There are zero houses for sale in my neighborhood and anything that goes on the market is gone in a day. I really hope it stays this way!

    Overall, this helps to alleviate a fraction of all the stress I have surrounding this whole process.

  • Karen
    last year

    @K Brown - We also used spray foam insulation in our (Florida) guest house attic. We were worried about the humidity up there and during the first few months after CO, (Feb-March) the humidity was high. We bought a small dehumidifier and hooked it's output line directly into the drain already in the attic for the air handler/ac. The humidity has been in the 50% ish range ever since, which is great.


    I'm late to the game on the Wayfair sale...is there a code we're supposed to use? I too need ceiling fans, vanity mirror and furnishings. Does anyone have ceiling fans they like that they want to share photos/sources for? I went to HD and Lowe's today, but can't say that anything jumped out at me.


    DH is making a console table for me out of white oak this week and I'll be putting a clear coat on it once he's finished. I love being able to see a photo and ask him, hey...can you build this for me? He's getting a lot of use out of his new workshop! I'll post photo once done:).


    Has been so much fun watching everyone's progress. So many beautiful new homes!

  • Keen B
    Original Author
    last year

    @Karen Thanks for the info on foam. We are putting it in attic, under house and in outer walls. My fear is putting it in before we have the final two windows and A/C, and then letting it sit without either all summer. If the windows come and we can put in several dehumidifiers, maybe...


    I don't think there were codes for Wayfair, just the one day sale. What I've been doing is figuring out size and styles I like and just doing a general search, you know like "Pretty, farmhouse 52"ceiling fans" or "modern, propeller ceiling fans". When I find one I like, then I start hunting for who sells it at the lowest price. Or I clip down the image and do an image search for varieties like it. Someone else on this thread, I think Naomi, gave me good advice too, which was look on HD--they sell more than they have on the floor. Mark it for price drops, and when you get a deal, have it sent to your local store for pick up so you don't have to pay delivery fees. I bought three that I LOVE this way (Thanks @Naomi And if it was someone else who told me that...Thanks to you!) They also have daily deals and closeouts.

  • lisainkc
    last year

    @tendrac You have some really cool ideas for your house. I love the open/close concept you described.


    @doc5md I LOVE the windows in your kitchen. For all the windows we have in our build we only have one small window in our kitchen. Thankfully I have an open concept and I can see out through the dining room windows but not the same at all.


    I sure wish I would have found this thread before I sat down with the architect!

  • Naomi
    last year

    As some of you know, I am slowly packing up my house. I know we're 6 months away from listing, but I want to have it ready to go at a moment's notice and I'll be swamped during the semester.

    Anyhow, I started with organizing the garage to make space for boxes and now I am taking down 90% of artwork and personal photos. Just cleared the "family pictures" wall....it's so weird to see this empty wall. Kind of crazy what art/pictures can do to a space!


    I have SO MUCH stuff on my walls....I have a hard time resisting artwork when I am traveling. I've been to about 90 countries and I can remember every single piece. Packing all the knick knacks from travel will be time consuming too!


    Can't wait until this build is done so I'll know how broke I am and I can start traveling again (usually gone 12-16 wks/yr).

  • KT_B
    last year

    @Naomi I am also packing/purging slowly. So far I've sorted through all my daughter's old clothing and baby gear. I got rid of a lot, and I packed up what we want to keep for a (hopeful) 2nd baby at some point. Next I'm going to tackle our closet, and pack up winter gear and purge, and then probably craft supplies, etc, after that. We got a storage unit so I'm moving things in plastic tubs into there. I went out on a limb and went ahead and put our Christmas things in there earlier this year. I have a feeling we will move sometime this summer, but at least by September.


    My finals are next week....and then I only have one week off before the 10-week summer term starts. (And of course my inlaws decided to visit during that week, so there goes my packing window). I wanted so badly to take this summer off, but we are going to need to put up a fence pretty quickly for the dogs and our little girl, so....$$$ won out. Thankfully these summer courses are all online, but I still have to go to campus a few days a week.


    I've also got to get someone in this house to fix a few things before we list, so i need as much cleared out as possible.


    The packing/moving task I'm dreading most is the garage. My husband has every square inch maxed out with tools, etc. And he is not at all motivated to start packing any of it up early. He'd be happy to stay in this house and is kind of in denial about the whole thing, I think! I'm miserable in this house.... His solution is always "well just get rid of some stuff" but of course that never applies to his stuff. :-P And it still wouldn't solve the problems we have here anyway.


    I went by today and was really happy to see this!!! Shelves, mantel, and cabinet tops will be stained...everything else painted white. And there will be brick in the little fireplace surround. We have an electric insert going into the fireplace. They also had the dining room wainscoting done. So glad I went ahead and had them do that...



  • K M
    last year

    @Naomi We took about 6 months to prepare our home to sell, getting rid of things and filling a storage unit. It was well worth it. We had the pictures done about 3 months in advance and we took down most of the personal photos, etc before that as well.


  • Naomi
    last year

    @KT_B Ooooohhhh that looks so beautiful!!!! Just curious, did you have a big charge to finish out the windows? My builder quoted some crazy number and I wanted to ask him if he was smoking good stuff, but held back.


    Next week is finals too...fortunately, I am not teaching until July. So only 4 weeks, but 2 classes and one class I've never taught. Silly me. I'm teaching a stats technique that I wanted to force myself to learn....so that's what I'll be doing the next 8 weeks LOL But doing 2 summer classes is 16% of my salary, which is nothing to sneeze at. Like you, a fence has to be in place on move-in.


    Thankfully my husband isn't a collector of anything. But he has this odd thing of wanting to keep old clothes. I throw stuff out here and there and he forgets, but he has a few things I really want to toss and might have an argument.


    I have a few small things to do around the house (some nail pops in the ceiling and touching up baseboards), but want to wait until the last minute for those. The early lockdowns had me cleaning baseboards with a toothbrush and I recaulked everything during that time...so thankfully it's stayed pretty clean LOL I'm also saving front yard beautifying (new mulch etc.) until just before we list.


    I don't have a ton in our garage, but I had 3 shelves full of boxes and stuff. I've made it through 2 of them. Have a growing pile for donation.


    Like you, I packed all the Christmas stuff. I also packed the turkey roaster. So we need to be out before Thanksgiving LOL I'm hesitating to pack winter clothes though (well, Texas winter clothes).

  • Naomi
    last year

    @K M I didn't even think about doing pictures super early like that! That is a great plan. Basically we could then be ready at the drop of a hat to list and not have delays waiting for photographers and stuff. I'm definitely reducing spots where I had stuff on the walls....I knew I had a lot, but now I look around and think "Oh....you bought too much stuff."


    I know we'll sell some pieces in the house too (high bar stools we don't need, office desk, etc.). Waiting until the last minute for that though.


    Wondering how far in advance movers will be needed. It's been so long since we moved that I have no idea what this will actually cost!

  • K M
    last year

    @Naomi MH is a realtor so he was super prepared. Of course, we ended up selling too early with our delays and now are stuck in an VERY expensive rental. He took time to fix things up too. We had only lived there 8 years but boy you accumulate so much junk in 8 years! It is crazy. I sold, donated, gave away. If your town as a Buy Nothing group on Facebook that is the BEST!

  • Kat
    last year

    @tendrac your kitchen set-up sounds lovely and to be able to open it up or close it off sounds like a great idea. Most people don't understand why I even wanted formal spaces, but as much as I think I'll love my kitchen, I love having a nice room to sit in where I don't see it.


    For those prepping to sell, we did that for months before. It's deifnitely nice to take your time. I still had to do a lot right before we listed, but it would have been much worse if we hadn't put a good dent into it prior. We close in 10 days if all goes well, then we have an additional 30 days here. It's going to be close. I have the mover coming Monday to give us a price for both a straight move and the possibility of putting it into storage. Thankfully living on a vacation island has it's perks in that we can likely find a short term rental for a week or two if we need to, but we'll pay big for it.






  • Kat
    last year

    @KT_B too funny about your husband. You sound like you could be on the show "Love it or List it" where the one spouse always wants to stay and the other move.


    Your built -ins look great. Was there a reason you did the fireplace off center on them with one side bigger than the other. Is it centered the room or something. I love the shiplap. Are you out in the country? It looks like there's some nice greenery out your window.

  • Naomi
    last year

    @K M I've tried to be really militant about clutter. We've been here 9 years and it's all the furniture....we moved here with a couch and a bed and a dresser. Now we have a 3/2 fully furnished.

    Thankfully we don't have kids....I couldn't imagine all the extra stuff you end up with them!!

  • KT_B
    last year
    last modified: last year

    @Naomi Thank you! I don't have it broken down with that much granularity, but window and door trim was included in my original quote along with the baseboards and crown molding (which is in all living areas and the master bedroom), and I think the fireplace. This might also include interior doors because I don't see those listed anywhere else.. Including labor and materials all that was about ~$9k. Every time I asked if NOT trimming the windows would save me alot of money the answer was "not really" but I couldn't get more specific than that. This style of trim is something they consider "standard" on their builds, but of course we are cost-plus so it's all in my estimate.

    For my "specialty" stuff, like the fancy pantry/closets and built-ins, and the mudroom which has not been installed yet, as well as getting stain-grade wood for some of these accents, will be another $5k.

    So...more expensive than I'd like it to be but not absurd. As far as interior finishes go, I saved on some areas that don't matter as much to me, but the trim stuff is where I wanted to splurge a bit.

    We have (including all closets and both int/ext) ~26 doors and ~20 windows. And we are in North Alabama, so LCOL might figure into that too.

    Thankfully I just have 3 sections of Calculus I this summer which I've taught at least 30 times and can do in my sleep now! :-D

  • Emily
    last year

    For those who are removing all your personal art/photos, etc. in preparation to sell your house, are you patching all the holes and touching up the paint? That's one thing we never did when we sold houses in the past. We just left up our art. We removed family photos, but those were on desks and tables or on the fridge, not on the walls, fortunately, so we were able to depersonalize our space without taking art down and dealing with wall holes. Just curious! Perhaps in this hot real estate market, it doesn't matter if there are holes in your walls. We always sold when the market was much tougher so had to have things as pristine as possible. Never had the luck of selling in a seller's market. 😥

  • jkent9024
    last year

    We needed to repaint a lot of rooms anyway, so removing the family photos and patching the nail holes was not a big deal. I also use Command hooks whenever possible, so there weren't a lot of nails. With raising four teenagers and our home being the hangout place, there were many nicks and dents, though!

    @Emily the last time we sold a house was during the 2009 recession. I remember painting the inside of the front hall closet in order to make the home as pristine as possible. I keep wavering back and forth with his home. My instinct is to put a lot of elbow grease into making it perfect, but then I remember that homes in our subdivision are selling within 24 hours after multiple bids, so I don't need to try so hard. Our realtor is sending a home stager to walk through next week and tell us what we still need to do. I'm hoping it's not much.

  • Emily
    last year

    @jkent9024, Yes, I suspect the stager won't have too many suggestions at this point, so long as your house isn't super cluttered. Seems like pretty much anything is selling these days! We never had that luxury. And when we sold most recently (2010), I'm not sure the Command Performance picture hangers had even been invented. The hooks, yes. Best of luck to you with your sale!

  • KT_B
    last year
    last modified: last year

    @Emily I plan to patch and paint the big spots, but not do a total repaint, and I probably won't bother with the pinhole size hooks. Even before covid, we are in a crazy market and a very desirable school district so I hope we won't have too many issues. We have to make some bigger repairs (replace a shower insert and scrape a popcorn ceiling, and replace a few tiles on the back porch. NEVER TILE YOUR PORCH people. I've hated it since I moved in.) Other than that we're just going to finish up some unfinished projects. Stuff we already bought materials for and just never installed. And I need to paint the baseboards... I got pregnant right after we finished DIY changing our flooring, and, well, 4 years later the baseboards/shoe molding are still just primed. hah.

  • Emily
    last year

    @KT B, We just had both our porches tiled in our new build. Eeek! They are super thick outdoor pavers, though. Hopefully they won't give us too many problems.

  • KT_B
    last year

    @Emily I'm pretty sure what we have here is just standard ceramic and probably a DIY install from the previous owner. It's always slippery and covered in mud that the dogs track in--I have to mop it with a magic eraser mop to get it clean. And there was some water drainage issues coming from our neighbor's yard that made a stream towards our porch and eventually led to several of the tiles cracking and coming up. The only good news is that the seller left us a box of the tiles and we still have it.

  • Emily
    last year

    @KT_B, Thanks, you eased my mind. We specifically picked outdoor pavers, rough surface for floors, from Daltile. They are thick and very nice, an upgrade from concrete or pressure-treated decking, which is very common here in NC. Assuming everyone did their job correctly, they should hold up for many a year.

    Best of luck with your house sale!

  • Naomi
    last year

    Thank you KT B! I added in about 8K to do a built in desk and shelves in my closet and then I added to do some counter/cupboards in the pantry. When I asked about trimming windows I was told $175 per window! They automatically add 2 rooms of crown, but I’m on the fence.

    Emily - I will fill and touch up the nail holes. I just dab a little finger of paint on the nail hole lol No one pays attention. I am not repainting… my main area is neutral beige, but all the bedrooms are colorful. Realtor said in this market it doesn’t matter. I’ll likely leave a few nail holes as I will leave some art up for pictures and open house.

  • Naomi
    last year

    Porch/patio - we just have concrete, but I’m the back patio I requested they stain the concrete. The dogs get everything so muddy and I don’t really want to see it 🤣

  • KT_B
    last year

    @Kat yes it centers the fireplace in the room to allow for better furniture placement. To the left of it there is a cased opening leading to the foyer and the bedroom side of the house. (I intentionally designed a "non-split" floorplan with the bedrooms grouped together to separate the "public" and "private" areas of the house.)

  • Kat
    last year

    KT B That makes sense. It's hard to tell when only seeing little peeks of things. We've almost always had our bedrooms all together. This was the first house we've owned where two bedrooms were on a diffeernt floor and my kids were 17 and 19 that were down there. When they were little, I always wanted them near me. Even in our new home, we have two bathrooms that seperate us from a teen's bedroom, so will reduce noise, but we have all the bedrooms together upstairs.


    @Emily we removed all photos and a lot of art work, patched nail holes and painted most of the house, but many of the areas were in need. Washing walls and using magic erasers are great for removing dirt, but eventually they take the paint with it too and it just freshened up the entire home. I follow a lot of home decor accounts and design/ decorating is a bit of a passion for me so just staged it myself and we had such positive feedback on the condition of our home. Every realtor said it showed excellent, which was a real compliment. This house was so dated when we bought it, and my kids and even my husband thought I was crazy when i said we should go for it as they just couldn't see the vision I had for it, but it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself and it was nice to get the feedback from others.


    We used the same travertine we put around the pool on the screened porch.


    Trying to upload a photo, but doesn't seem to want to work.


  • Keen B
    Original Author
    last year

    @Kat Want to come stage my house? (And btw, what island are you on--PM me if you are comfy with sharing). I agree about bedrooms...when primary-on-main became so popular in new homes, I just couldn't be that far from my kids! Now, we need it to age in place in the new home.


    I'm reading everyone's packing and refreshes before selling and y'all are making me anxious. My DH is a mild hoarder...like, when we picked up the pink sink I found on FB on Sunday, the guy had set a toaster oven on the curb. It's now in my garage---with all the other things DH thinks shouldn't be thrown out...LOL. My fantasy is having one of those huge dumpsters delivered and just shoveling everything in, willynilly, when he's not looking...


    We won't move into our new build til DH retires, but more and more we think we need to sell our current home while market is hot, and rent a home in the interim. The math of it all suggests that even with high rents, it will still bring in more than we will lose if the market slumps and we cannot sell our home for current value. The only scenario where that is not true is if the market remains ridiculously in favor of seller for more than 2-3 years. It's just a scary choice, since life has so many curve balls.


    @jkent9024 I can't begin to list all the things we will have to fix before I let strangers troop through, even in this market! And @KT_B your trim is going to be so pretty! I've been leaning towards none around windows, but I see yours and go Awww.





  • KT_B
    last year
    last modified: last year

    @Kat. Yes we placed closets and bathrooms in such a way that there is a sound barrier but we can still get quickly from one room to another. We have two main hallways....one with our primary, and two bedrooms and kids bath, and my office/storm shelter. The other hallway has the laundry, storage, a dog area, and a guest bath and guest bedroom/office. So there is a separated bedroom if we ever need it. We also have the option to finish our attic someday, but I kind of see it as a future grandkid bunkroom with games and bunk beds. (Long time in the future I hope...our daughter is not yet 4! Hah). And yes we are in a pretty rural area but it is near a city and unfortunately growing. We have 2 acres backing up to a creek and a huge corn with an 1870s farmhouse on it.

    @Keen B I never knew I would care so much about things like window trim but once I saw the option I knew I wanted it. And I love it 😍



    Eta:. Houzz is doing this weird thing where it deletes one of my words and no updates will put it back. I meant corn field.

  • cwcf185
    last year

    @KT_B. I've had that same technical glitch the past few weeks.

  • revamp
    last year

    House building is going to be the death of me. Yesterday I discovered three large dumptruck loads of dirty rocks dumped in the front yard of the new house and I texted the builder to ask where they came from and what they're for. He's like "I don't know anything about it, that shouldn't be there". Apparently someone illegally (mistakenly?) dumped three full size dump truck loads of dirt and rocks and now it's my responsibility to find a way to get rid of it.


    This is a few weeks after discovering an old barn foundation buried in the ground that had to be removed. I'm talking a barn building with a footprint of 80x30ft. and the foundation was 3ft wide and 2ft deep concrete along the perimeter. We had to pay ($5k) to have that excavated and hauled off.


    This is after discovering our property that was advertised as having "2 functional wells" actually had two illegally abandoned wells drilled prior to the 1960's and cost me $4k to properly close/seal them off plus the cost of drilling a new well (TBD).


    This whole dumping issue might just break me. I keep trying to remind myself that it won't matter a year from now, we'll figure it out and move past it but we don't have a lot of money, construction prices are already going up at every turn, building is taking twice as long as we were told it would, and we're already having to cut and cancel so much just to be able to afford to finish. How much is this going to cost and what are we going to have to give up in compensation?


    Sigh.

  • Emily
    last year

    @revamp, OMG! I can't believe someone just dumped garbage, basically, at your site. Have you thought about a security camera or two? Because they might do it again, not being caught this first time. I would be livid and probably about ready to throw in the towel if I had been through what you have just trying to get your house built. My sympathies! 😥🤬

  • agbhw
    last year

    @revamp So sorry to hear this. I sure hope things turn around for you guys soon

  • jojabis
    last year

    Today's progress photo



    Please tell me it's not always like this. Our supervisor keeps fighting to keep a sub on our job. The contractor and other supervisor s keep stalling them away.



  • Ash M
    last year

    Last (4/4) bathroom tiled. He did it all in one day, poor guy. At least it's done! Love it. :)

  • Kat
    last year

    @revamp that's horrible and I second the idea of a security camera. I hope things get better.


    K Brown we are on a barrier island outside Wilmington NC.


    @jojabis your kitchen looks lovely. We've been fairly fortunte with keeping subs once they get started. We've had a few issues with the Mason coming and going, but he's been back for the last few days and worked all day yesterday as well so hoping he's here until he's done. Probably another week of work.


    @Ash M great job on the tile!!


    They started laying the flooring downstairs. We are doing a pre-finished engineer hardwood because of the water issues at the coast.


    I'm not sure why the installer chose the place to start he did, other then possibly because it's the longest straight run throughout the downstairs, but he started in our formal living room and ran about 3 board widths straight through the back hall and the kitchen ending at the dining area's back wall. It looks fantastic.... BUT..... because we are on a slab, it is a glue down floor, and he installed it right up snug to the opening of our living room fireplace which is supposed to have a small brick hearth. It's likely not going to be very easy to cut it out of there at this point without damaging a fair bit of it. It's always something.





  • Kat
    last year

    I don’t know why I can’t get photos to upload from my computer so I’m adding them from my phone in a separate post!

    The mason has been working on the brick that goes through the breezeway and up to our screened porch.

    Also they finally, after 6 months, added the applied molding around the bottom of our door. Hopefully that means they’ll be staining it this coming week!

  • Keen B
    Original Author
    last year

    @revamp I am so sorry that is all happening...my first thought was wondering if they just brought you back your old barn pad because they couldn't dump it anywhere?? Then I thought it was materials to build a foundation (we had some pretty big piles) but if your builder has no idea, then obviously I'm wrong... Can you advertise it on various free sites as "free back fill?" Maybe someone else will need it?


    I think I've said this on here before, I had a friend who kept telling me when we started this process that everyone she knew who built a house (her included) ended up divorced within a year or so...I finally told her she had to stop saying that! We've actually enjoyed the process, but it is stressful, and sometimes I so want to strangle my DH for his overthinking, fingers-in-every-pot tendencies...


    @Kat I love your brick.


  • Keen B
    Original Author
    last year

    Happy May Day, Y'all. I'm going to start the May thread for us. Here's the link!


    May 2022 Building a Home!

  • Emily
    last year

    @K Brown, We have built several houses together and are still a couple, but it definitely happens. We're a bit curious about our next-door neighbors. We saw the wife and young daughter once, right after we moved in here in March, but never since. We see the hubby all the time. A few weeks ago, there was a U-haul parked in their driveway for a couple of days. We're on large acreages, so it's not easy to see what your neighbors are up to, but we do wonder if she took the kid and left him. Rural living isn't for everyone, and they seemed like kind of an odd match to me anyway. Guess time will tell. Thanks for starting the May thread!

    Keen B thanked Emily
  • cwcf185
    last year

    My April ended with the delivery of the 2nd of two loads of bricks; yesterday two of their senior were out when I stopped by and we were able to discuss the location of my address block on the front of home, the limestone brick wraps on the front windows, the 2' high wall that is to outline my covered (back) porch and the location where my Knox Box is to be installed (and bricked around).

  • Blair
    last year

    Need opinions here i am ready to put in my cabinet order . salesperson said i needed side panels i was ready to do it, and i thought it would be unnecessary to have side panels on the cabinets by the sink and opposite the refridgerator door i will load up a photo but in the meantime, thoughts?

  • Blair
    last year



  • Buzz Solo in northeast MI
    last year

    @Blair Hey, everyone has moved over to the May thread. click this link.

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