Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving! stopped by the house today and the front doors are in. need to be painted obviously... this is about all that got done... such a slow process. Went and looked at tile today also... we will have 4 full bathrooms to design, mudroom, kitchen and laundry.. pretty exciting but so much to choose from, overwhelmed with choices. what is everyone doing for their bathroom designs/tiles? do you guys have inspo pics? anyone doing marble kitchen backsplash in either full slabs or subway?

Anyone have a standing seam metal roof? How did you choose your color? I'm having trouble. One wing of the house will be stone from the site, which has a lot of gray and blue-gray tones, and the rest will be paintable siding similar to hardiplank. We're leaning toward a light gray roof, and then (I hope) we can do something with more color for the painted siding. The roof is 12/12 and it hangs over the patio by several feet. Architect suggests painting the house dark gray. But I think I want a little color! I'd want to pick up something from in the stone to amplify. As long as it won't seem like too much in the landscape. We're on a mountain, and it can be seen from part of the 4-lane, so if I use too bright a color the house could be a beacon.

Our old house was across the water from a group of houses with metal roofs. They had natural cedar siding; the roofs were blue and blue-grey. It looked very nice. It sounds like a blue grey would look nice w/your stone.

@2rickies We have a metal roof; I chose based on what was typical for style in beach community, which are mostly silver, white, black, or, rarely copper. The outliers of green, blues and any of the tans look odd or even like tiny Kmarts (recall their roof?). We chose the nearly white silver for its reflective qualities-save on AC. The black would have looked nice, but too hot IMO. And though you didn't ask, I think certain houses ask for metal, and certain house styles look forced and "off" with metal. There are houses in my current suburban community of homes built in 70s and 80s (mostly saltbox or colonial styles) that have tried to be trendy and have recently gone with standing seam and they look weird rather than on trend.

@cathie2029 Some of us decide on tile before we decide on the look of the bathrooms, some of us do the opposite. My problem was always that I fell for tile waaay out of my budget, like $50 to even $528 sf out...and I'd be stuck with that love affair in my head (and resentments that I just couldn't do them, Lol.) Then I started really looking at bathrooms I loved for inspiration and afterwards finding budget friendly tile that supported those looks. You might see many of my previous comments, tile choices caused some struggles with DH (who wanted to go with free tile someone gave us that conflicted with a design I'd already thought was solved in one bathroom.) I have four bathrooms to figure out, and instead of choosing a color theme for all four the way some do, I chose a shape-Hex- to pull them together. I have not decided on kitchen yet. Our budget is quickly shrinking based on all our overages and inflation, but as an owner builder I have the luxury of time; you might not.

@theotherjaye Swoon on the miter work. Pretty.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2rickies - We are doing rock house of greys and browns with a shingle roof. We picked black oak from malarkey. Our windows will be brown. I think we’ll do a dark grey paint for the eaves. The designer at our local building supply store where we are buying most of our stuff suggested going with a dark grey for the eaves to match the house. She said to go darker rather than lighter for paint outside. The shingles are black and grey with spots of darkish brown. So I’m not sure what color to suggest for you. As you can tell from others comments, roof colors are really a local trend. Very few people in Oklahoma have green or silver roofs. The designer also cut the color paint samples away from the white and gave them to us to look at outside. So I’d gather some samples and cut them out and take them outside. Someone on here has a blue house, and it is lovely. I cannot remember their roof color.

Cathie2029 - if you search on Houzz, you can find inspiration pics for the bathroom. I haven’t gotten to that part of our build yet. Your house is looking lovely.

@2rickies, Your color scheme and taste sounds like ours. We have blue-gray foundation stone and bluestone caps on both porches. We wanted a dark blue house so went with Hardiplank in Deep Ocean (pre-painted). We were planning on a standing seam metal roof in a light gray color, but budget didn't allow -- even though our house is smaller, it's a single story with a lot of roof line changes, two large porches, and a 2.5 car garage, so it made for a huge roof. If you're leaning towards a color for your house, definitely consider dark blue. It is trendy right now, but that's not why I picked it; I just love the combo and found it on Pinterest before it went crazy popular. We went with a lightish gray asphalt roof, so you can see how this color combination works (even though yours would be metal):

Good luck and have fun! Your house sounds lovely.

@Emily ha thats the problem- too many inspo photos. Cant decide🤣 i like quite a few different styles.

As some of you know, we've been designing and building our kitchen cabinets. I finally figured out my stain recipe and finish--woohoo. I've been working on this recipe for I don't know how long...The whole thing gave me fits with this red knotty alder, which is notorious for getting super blotchy and for its super red tannins. But I was trying to achieve a particular look of reclaimed chestnut (which I cannot afford). Thrilled with my results!

Pricey Chestnut I wanted:

My work on alder (looks even closer in person):

@Keen B Looks beautiful!

We installed some board & batten style trim this weekend in our master bedroom. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished project.

Wow Joy M! Beautiful!

Keen B - you did a great job! Those cabinets are beautiful.

@emily. Your bright yellow door makes me smile every time I see it.❤️❤️

Thank you, @ghatta! It does me too. And I don't think I've ever posted this side view, so you can see that we get a smile of yellow on the garage side of the house as well! This also shows the siding and roof color well together.

Today we move into the new house.

We’re on our way up there to make coffee right now.

@di0spyr0s HOORAY!!! SO happy for you!

@di0spyr0s Wonderful!

@di0spyr0s congratulations!!!! so exciting!

@Keen B beautiful stain job on those doors, wow!

@Joy M your trim looks terrific! There is some really amazing talent on this board, I wish I were at all skilled with this kind of work.

@Emily thank you for reposting pics of your house--love that color combination. I'm a big fan of blue in general and I'm really hoping to paint the siding some shade of blue. I'm hoping to do a blue painted kitchen island as well, and depending on what color we do on the siding and how it looks indoors, I might use the same color for those cabs.

@Janet, @Keen B, @theotherjaye Interesting to hear about the different regional preferences. We are on a mountain outside of a very small town in a farming community. The nearby town is all green roofs with white siding, that's the traditional color, though each town is slightly different (some are red and white). Outside of the town there are also a number of muted red roofs with white or gray siding. And of course a lot of red barns with light gray or silver roofs. A lot of people who are in the woods do a medium bronze roof with muted green siding. I totally agree that some color roofs look like commercial buildings or strip malls! Definitely a look I want to avoid! Our house is closest to a modern farmhouse 2 over 2, with dormers on the 2nd floor, connected with a one-story barnlike wing that has stone on most of it. The goal is to fit with the countryside/rural vernacular, and a metal roof seems like a natural for that style. Plus it will stand up better to the weather--bright sun and wind we get almost all the time. I like the light roof/darker siding combo, especially for our site. We are in direct sun a lot of the time, so a light color will be more energy-efficient. And b/c we're outside of town I don't feel we need to do the green on white combo.

@Keen B you will have to place a patent on that stain combo! It is gorgeous!!!!!

@di0spyr0s I am so excited for you. I remember when your house was in the design stage. It has been so fun to see your progress from a few ideas on paper to a beautifully built home and hobby farm! I so enjoy seeing your pictures of your livestock.

@2rickies on your standing seam roof a true copper with a dark blue would be spectacular and would eventually form a natural patina to a gorgeous dark bronze color. Like @Emily I also have a dark blue/gray house color. The siding is LP Smartside, prefinished in South Dakota with the color Foothills. Our roof is Owens Corning, Black Sable. I love the color of our roof. It was kind of gamble because it was a new color and I could not get a sample for weeks. But we finally got it and it was the perfect match.

@di0spyr0s Congrats on moving into your gorgeous house!

Our house is also blue/grey on the outside on the parts that aren’t cedar.

Tile guy finished setting the backsplash today; he’ll grout that and the fireplace tomorrow and then floor guy can get in. Floor guy was there over the weekend puttying in the front rooms - he should have the run of the place by Wednesday.

Every time we go over to the house I am happier with the choices we’ve made. It’s not going to be perfect, but it’s damn close. They installed the quartz counter in the laundry and bathrooms. I’d forgotten we got polished in the baths and honed in the laundry, which is really lovely.

And soon, soon, we will be able to take the giant pile of boxed up light fixtures occupying half the garage here over to the new house and finally see them installed. I (not particularly originally) think of lights as the jewelry of the house, so I can’t wait for those to go in!

Some of our lights and fans were installed today. This is looking from our kitchen into the great room, so peninsula pendants, then dining chandelier, then ceiling fan. It’s a little hard to see the fan against the black wall. Now we just need to get the refrigerator out of the entry so the chandelier can go up.

We’re in! The place is a mess and it turns out we don’t actually have hot water or a working dishwasher right now. But we’re here.

It still doesn’t feel real.

We locked the cats in the basement music room while we were moving everything in, but they’ve had a good chance to explore now and seem to be loving it.

I’ve organized one tiny corner of the kitchen so when the sun wakes me up at some godawful hour tomorrow (we haven’t got curtains yet) I’ll at least be able to make coffee!

We’ve also discovered that the toe kicks of our kitchen cabinets should have been a quarter inch taller - they’re exactly the right height to trap the roomba. And that the kitchen shelves could have been a good 8” lower (I struggle to reach the lower one and the top one is completely unreachable.)

Such is life. This house is such a massive upgrade from anywhere else I’ve ever lived.

Congratulations, and love seeing the kitty in all of your photos!

@di0spyr0s What a great feeling that must be to finally be home. Your home is so original and beautiful at the same time. You'll need to repost your farm cam feed info so we can continue to keep up with the animals!

@Sofia What are those round pendants? I love all your lights, but those in particular.

@K H Thank you. It's a combo of dye and oil products.

@Keen B - we definitely need to get that running again. My horse has been in that shed napping and it’s an unfortunate angle/slight fisheye lens that makes his ass look enormous it cracks me up every time.

@di0spyr0s, congratulations on making it to the finish line!

Hopefully you won't be working on your punch list 11 months later, like we are! Got a good news email yesterday that cabinet company is coming to install my family room wall unit next week and the finished panels under the upper kitchen cabinets. Electrician will then be able to finish the under cabinet LED lights too. The only other major items left are gutters and finishing up our pool fire/water bowls ... my builder keeps trying, but these two subs are completely MIA.

@di0spyr0s congratulations on your move, so exciting to see and feel all of your hard work come to fruition!

@Sofia your home is coming together beautifully. I truly appreciate all of the various architectural styles and choices of our individual homes.

@2rickies thank you for the compliment on our board & batten trim. What's funny is that my husband was so apprehensive about this project because neither one of us had done this before. I always say he can put power to a building, but some other "common" things not so much. The trim was actually quite easy; measuring, cutting, gluing, caulking, painting.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Our front porch brick steps started today. The mason questioned that the brick is a different color than the house. Said in all of his years he had never done a different color step than the house. Talk about decision doubt! Oh well, we're in it now!

“We’re in it now” is basically how this entire process goes isn’t it? Lol

Congrats to dio0! Hope you get hot water soon!!

Keen B, thanks! The pendants are Hubbardton Forge Rhythm. If you’re interested in Hubbardton Forge, I’d recommend the online retailer Handmade in Vermont. They’re great to work with plus offer free shipping and no sales tax.

Di0spyr0s, love the sight line and natural light in your hallway, beautiful!

Woke up to snow this morning. HVAC sub is scheduled to install heat pumps and get everything up and running on Friday. Just in time! We’ve been relying on a temp furnace and space heaters to keep the chill off. Not sure how much longer that would work.

@di0spyr0s, Congratulations on your move in! I'm surprised about your toekick issue with your Roomba. Ours fits right under our toekicks, and I guess I thought that was a standard measurement that the iRobot manufacturers made sure to respect. Or are your cabinets custom -- if so, I can see where they might not be the same as the typical toekick on semi-custom cabinets like we have. Bummer!

@Sofia, I also love your pendant lights - so pretty! And the fan is nice too.

@Keen B, You did an amazing job with your stain/dye on the alder. I remember you giving me some excellent suggestions re. dye for our pine bed, but I ended up deciding to paint it, and I love how it turned out (the color). I knew I'd have a better chance of success with paint, since I am not as patient or as experienced with you with staining, and certainly not dying, wood. This photo came out a bit dark, but the paint is SW Rookwood Blue Green and works really well with the Sea Salt walls and an easy chair I have in the room. The bedside tables I bought are a sort of whitewashed pine, which is why I ultimately decided to paint the bed. We're going to do a headboard (and paint it) at some point too.

@Emily I've decided to paint our new to me bed as well. I originally searched for someone to do it, but wasn't able to coordinate our schedule. I've resolved to just paint it myself. I need to start on it ASAP as it sounds like we're having movers come the 10th! I'm going to use Annie Sloan chalk paint as I've painted furniture with that before. What brand / technique did you use?

@Joy M, This article was my inspiration and instruction on what type of paint to use:

https://julieblanner.com/furniture-paint/. She recommends Sherwin Williams Pro Classic, and I bought the semi-gloss (latex). It was expensive, because of course I didn't wait for the September sale but paid full price in August. I first primed with a white latex primer (similar to Kilz but a different brand I got at Home Depot), then painted two coats of the SW. Most spots were okay with one coat, but I wanted to be very thorough. I used a very smooth, high quality small roller on the side rails parts and brushed the legs and edges. I am happy with how it turned out. DH had lightly sanded the wood (he built the bed) before I took over.

I have never used chalk paint, and it sounded a bit daunting, so I just went with standard paint. Best of luck with your project!

@Emily regular paint seems daunting to me, lol. Thank you for the link.

@di0spyr0s, my BobSweep gets caught in my toe kicks too, I'm going to have to get another brand that's thinner, they're out there, but this one isn't even 2 years old. What is annoying is that I have to stop it halfway through its work and empty the dustbin otherwise it just pushes the dog hair around. Freaking Labradors! lol

Master floor tile in. I love it!

Very pretty! Love the texture, too.

The cats are settling in well! I’m loving the morning light in our bedroom but my my husband is desperate for the blackout blinds to arrive - when I woke up this morning he was not only wearing a sleep mask but also had a pillow over his head. 😂

We have hot water! And the new shower is lovely. Our trees have not grown quite tall enough yet and I am regretting not frosting the other bathroom window - our neighbors are 1200’ away, but have a view straight into our shower if they’ve got good enough eyesight!

The open stairs gave our builder fits but they are absolutely worth it for the cat entertainment value alone

We "officially" have our CO! Movers are scheduled for the 10th. Now we begin the mortgage process. Brick steps going in this week, first of next week railing measure, topsoil, seed & straw. Still lots of details to wrap up. Wow, its's been a journey!

@Keen B your tile floor is beautiful, bold and beautiful. What finish are your vanities?

@di0spyr0s, Your house is so beautiful and unique -- I love it. The deep windowsill is perfect. I would use it for growing herbs indoors, as I don't have cats (allergic). Stunning! Glad everyone is settling in nicely.

@di0spyr0s I think it was very kind of you to build a concrete home just so your cats would have the perfect viewing perches... I literally caught my backyard neighbor once bending down to get a better look up into my current bathroom window through his bushes. It was like he saw me moving around and suddenly couldn't stop himself--not like he was out there just to do that. Even so, it was creepy. I knew if people tried, they could see in, but I figured it was far enough away, what could they discern. However, after witnessing him, I promptly put up privacy window film. Makes the window look frosted. It has worked steadily for nearly 7 years. I did have to bleach one edge when it started getting mildewy. The master bathroom window of the new home is only 15 feet away from the neighbor. Many of their windows offer a view of us. This time, instead of window film, I might buy the etching cream and make the blur permanent. I'll practice on other glass first, but the videos make it look easy.

@Joy M COngrats on the CO...whooot!

Thanks for the compliment. The vanity is below. My Dh has always wanted to use cheapest tile possible (i mean like under $2 a sf cheap,) and this hex was not what I'd call expensive, but certainly more than 2 bucks. I wanted to paint the vanity blue, DH wanted to keep its wood finish as it is, so I was able to bargain for the more expensive hex-with its matching brown elements--by saying I would not paint the vanity. I think I will have to add spar though.

@Keen B the vanity is gorgeous! Your bathroom will be beautiful!

I started the December thread: Here's the link---see you there, Y'all. (Man, I cannot believe it's already the end of the year...)

December Building thread

We recently finished building a house, everything was done in the best way exactly as we had dreamed. I really wanted to build a fireplace, for comfort. I ordered masonry services, I was happy with the result. The masonry contractor chicago il did everything to a high standard. The fireplace turned out delightfully beautiful.

Not into building a home this year but I loved to see all the people sharing updates about their homes. With Christmas down the line, almost everyone would be working on preparing for the festive season ahead. So, everyone building a new home should plan to add decorations and party preparations right away.

Hello, im looking for italian tiles and bathroom products in one place. Any recommendations? Searching for big slabs and Gessi products. Found something at archiproducts.com and lineaselect.com - looking forward to other recommendations. Thanks.