MFatt -- let me get this straight. The work was performed and charged without your written consent? Sounds like a favor to me.... I would think a lien would be difficult to enforce given that you never signed off on additional work and expense. I'm assuming your contract states all additional charges must be supported with a signed change order, yes? If so, consider yourself the teacher of this person's life lesson. I wouldn't pay for what I didn't order and sign off on.

Hey Everyone!
I am SO excited to see everyone's progress! I am SO sorry I dropped off the grid, I just went through the most challenging month of my life.
LONG story short, we went through absolute HELL between getting our new house finished in time, dealing with the mortgage underwriter from HELL and moving!
I almost ended up in the hospital with a nervous breakdown. I had to rely on medication to get me through the process. It was absolute misery.

Our mortgage broker kept assuring us everything was okay and he would get our permanent loan to the underwriter for approval pending final appraisal. Which he did, and she came back with 2 conditions only. One was sourcing a large deposit and the other was the 4506-T from the IRS for our tax transcripts.

So, we began with those conditions on April 30th, and we were still in underwriting as of May 19th! After those 2 conditions the underwriter came back constantly asking for more stuff. DH is a physician and owns his own practice. Underwriter decided that she wanted tax returns all the way back to 2011. Of course, the ones provided by the accountant weren't good enough and there was a delay getting the ones from the IRS.
Then at different times, the underwriter wanted 2 different letters from our accountant. Then, I had 1 hour one day to create a year to date profit and loss statement for the practice.
Each instance caused 48 hours of nail biting and waiting and wondering to see what else was going to be demanded.
Toward the end, we supplied proof of funds for closing.
Then, at 5:20 pm on a Friday night, when I was expecting to get the final "approval" I got a call from our broker saying the underwriter was requiring a month to date transaction history on our accounts from our bank, with each page signed, stamped and dated!
I could go ON and ON and ON. I basically shut down ya'll. I hope to post pics later of the finished house.

We moved in last Sunday. I LOVE my house and it was totally worth it, but I really never experienced just how bad stress could affect your health. I have been exhausted this past week as I have come down from all the stress....

Passed for temporary occupancy!!! We have to finish the boarded off front porch steps, hook up my claw foot tub, and a pedestal sink to get final, but for now ...Whooohooo
But as if finishing the house and moving were not enough...had to start bottle feeding a calf last night, ugh. But he's doing good!
Jen

Hilltop - So nice to "see" you again. I'm glad you made it thru your ordeal without hospitalization. Can't wait to see the pictures. Congrats on finally moving in.

LadyB - It's looking like a real house now. Better keep your camera charged...

MFatt - sorry to hear about your troubles. It amazes me the way people think you can pull money out your ears if your building a house. I feel broker than ever.

Autumn.4 - I can't really pick one of your choices because I think they are all just not quite right. But I think you were right about them not showing good in the photos. So, I abstain from voting....sorry. It must be nice to be finally sleeping in your new house. Hooray for that final draw!

HappyValley - Yay for progress!!! Your lot looks really nice. Good view.

Hoosier - I hope you can get the people out there that you need so you can move on. I HATE waiting!

Well, as luck would have it, it rained today. And rain in the forecast for the rest of the week....boohoo. So, no more work on the roof. They are at least putting up siding on the front porch. That's the breaks..... Anyhoo, we are lying around in the dark watching The Sandlot with DS. Classic.

Jen - Yay!!! I love your yellow.

uponthehilltop- I totally understand what you mean about the stress! So sorry this is making you feel sick. I am winding up my psychological clock right now to get ready for the adrenaline spikes. B complex vitamins, a diosmin/hesperidin supplement and Advil PM are helping me so far... and maybe a little fruit of the vine.

jennybc- good for you! Once you get settled, you will wonder where to direct your energy PB... post-build. Love your floor.

Rained here too- they are getting absolutely NOTHING done. Painters are still in Bedias and I have to go up there with sinks to see no progress. I need to read a good book and get my mind off what I can't control

This post was edited by musicgal on Tue, May 27, 14 at 22:37

Carson, I am thinking the same thing. I also think the guy who did our walkthrough, a new partner to the electrical company is going to be left holding the bag.

Congrats on all the occupancies!!!! There is the light at the end of this dark and long tunnel.

Good to see lot of action and progress from everyone.

Marji, Love the blues you used through our the house. We went with blues and green throuh most of the house and some one who came to see the house commented you obviously love blue :). The wainscoting and tray ceiling look great.

Hooiser, Love your stained door and the closets look great. You have a great trim carpenter.

jDez, My son who is 8 also had times where he did not want to visit the construction. I think sometimes they miss the attention due to us spending so much time on the house. Its been a month since we have been here but if we ask him which house he likes he still says he likes the old house better.

Autumn, Congratulations on moving in. You will get there in regards to unpacking. It took us a good 2+ weeks to get most of the stuff unpacked. Regarding the tile I am no help. I like all the options you posted above.

Jeeny, Congratulations on the temp CO. Hope the calf feels better soon.

Uponthehill, Sorry about the stress you had over closing. Now that you have moved in hope you can relax.

We are officially done but I still like following along and I some what miss the excitement of building.

There is finally sheetrock on the walls. Definitely not keeping up with all the other GW'ers on the quick progress but...its got to be downhill from here right? Lol.

Various pics including a granite slab we have on hold as a contender for a built in desk. I'm secretly hoping number one it will be big enough ( only one slab available) and number 2: DH actually decides to go with it. Its his office but damn, I'm in love with that slab.

Upon-yowsa. That is a bit much! So glad you are enjoying your home! We are all a bit off here too. I am the only one who hasn't caught a headcoldtibfy but I am a bit short fused. Once rental is clean and we are finally truly out I think it will be better. Then I can focus on the house. :)

Jenny-yay! Love your stairwell and those floors. So pretty and you did it yourself, amazing! What is. It to like about a baby calf? They are so cute!

Happy-congrats!

Hoosiers - thanks for posting your closet pics. We still need to do ours but I am calling to get a quote today. At this point I feel time is if the essence but if it's too costly we will diy for sure. I need a place to hang stuff and pantry shelves!

Akshars-oh no. I am afraid my ds will be saying that same thing. So far he is sleeping well here so I will take that. :)

Thanks for the tile thoughts-yes even yours jdez, lol. So JDez what do you see when you look? Pattern, size or? The color really is off. Still bed to unpack my real camera and take a few.

Still no internet. Driveway pour on Saturday.

Have a great day everyone!

Autumn, DH has decided to trim out the closets himself as the carpenter's bid did not include that. Plus, I think he wanted to trim it himself the way he wanted it and probably told him not to include in the bid. :-) I'm sure you can do the closets yourselves. The part that took the longest was the staining and polying of the plywood. Would you paint yours? Of course, I got all my ideas from houzz and then put those ideas onto gridded paper, gave to carpenter, and bam!

We had so much headband trim left over that DH is using it to trim the closets. Plus, he decided to put another piece of support wood under each shelf. He finished one of the closets. Carpenter is going to install the brackets for the rods tonight and DH will install the rods.

Here is a pic of one section of the master closet the carpenter worked on last night. Apparently he finished all the shelves. I need to go down and see it and take more pics.

Painters are finishing up the exterior painting. Keeping fingers crossed that the septic laterals are dug today. Excavator said he dug one yesterday and ground is still so wet down deep. He said it that one passed inspection, he'd be out today to dig ours. Please please please!

hoosiers-I am at that place...you know the one - I don't care really if it's painted or stained-which ever is FASTER, I just want it done! ;) We have zilch hanging or shelving in our house right now. Kids clothes are all on the floor. We have 2 temp hanging racks in our closet or I'd be ironing constantly, all other stuff is you guessed it, on the floor. No dressers, one still at the storage unit and the others in the garage. I am contemplating just having built in drawers in the closet and skipping dressers. I don't know. At this point I just want it DONE. I want to put stuff away, where it goes, clothes, food, all of it! The punch list for ourselves is so long that if we just got this off of our plates I think we'd be doing pretty good on the inside. That said, your closets look so nice it is tempting! The quote will be the determining factor so we may end up doing all or part DIY in the end anyhow. If it's not much more for them to do it vs. us then I am going to go for it. With our differing work schedules it's impossible to find time to work on it together. :( Then there is the lawn and the barn and the screened porch that are all larger jobs that we are also doing (I said we but it's really HE, hahaha).

Marjorie-I forgot to comment on your blues. They are all so nice and look to play very well together. LOVE you built ins!

illini-are you packing or? I saw a really nice backsplash at Virginia last week. It made me think of you - it's a marble mosaic. It was honed though and it also had this other marble that was textured in the mix. Different but so pretty. $25/sf. Not that I need to introduce something else to you when you have that decided!

Back to work for me!

Hoosier - Very nice closets. The way we're spending money, I'll probably just have to stack milk crates in our closets...lol. Although, the blue big box has some pre-made closet systems for around $300. I'd like to buy those for DS and spare bedroom.

Autumn.4 - I'll have to look at your tiles again when I get home. My work computer blocks photobucket.

This post was edited by JDez on Wed, May 28, 14 at 12:36

jdez-I am actually wondering if we should just stick with the paint since I like it so much...or thought of doing something just behind the range but dh thinks all or nothing. I need to take some decent pics. Will try to do that tonight. :)

Autumn,
Thanks for asking about me! Yes, I am packing. I'm still saying 'right now' the move in date is July 18. I'm nervous about the wood floors arriving on time (supposed to arrive June 5). That is the only area where I can foresee delays happening. So.

I am getting nervous about our selections. Bad idea to go to a few parade houses last weekend. Their bathroom was gorgeous in tans/creams and the same accent tile we chose but a different color (warm and irridescent where we chose cool and non-irridescent). BAD.IDEA. lol. My husband is killing me with the paint. We SELECTED weeks ago and wants to change the MBR which was going to be Revere Pewter and now he hates it. OK. fine. But it has to coordinate with the MBR which is blue (wales gray). So now the MBR is also probably going to be blue. Love blue, but now the number of blue rooms in the house is adding up and I'm worried about getting sick of BLUE. Although I do love each of our choices individually. The main space is SW Blonde, and we also happened to see that in one of the parade homes and i do LOVE it. So that's good.

I dunno, I'm just freaking out for no reason. Other than I'm worrying that everything we picked will look ok. And my husband and designer and the tile lady at Virginia insist that the calacatta backsplash is going to be perfect with the granite in the island but i'm not so sure (mainly because of the GW advice). We are going honed also. I will go back to Virginia (have to go back anyways to finalize the grout colors) to look for that mosaic. What was it like/called?

I am going to look at hardware on Friday. But I found one I love online by Jeffrey Alexander called Belcastel. I am looking for clean lines without getting too modern if you know what I mean. Unsure about finish. DH likes dark and I think brushed will have more longevity for my personal taste. What are you doing? I have refrained from advising you on BS because I'm TERRIBLE at it. I do love the crackle idea though. Where are you getting it and what's the lead time? I ordered some Fireclay samples but DH didn't love them and they do have a longer lead time anyways. They are a lovely look though.

MFatt - We're using Seattle Granite Top. My husband is a flooring contractor and uses them all the time. We're buying our slabs from Pental.

Illini-just say no to parade homes, at least until you are finished, lol! I felt the same way while painting, questioning everything and it was giving me major anxiety. I will get you the name of the tile. Not sure on its leadtime but I know the Sonoma tiles are 2-4 weeks. The marble I was talking about is around the left side of the reception counter, about shoulder level on the wall. I will get the name tomorrow. It was marble but something different and I liked that it had some texture to it. It will all work out, hang in there!

Autumn.4 - I don't know if it's the sizes, colors or what, but (on my iPad at least) none of your choices seem to be perfect. I personally like the idea of just leaving the paint with nothing on it. But I'm all about simplicity. If I just had to choose one, I would pick your original choice that you posted on a different thread asking for alternate mini brick. It would look good and you could do your quilted stainless behind the stove. I have not yet seen the results of my design choices, so my opinion should be met with caution. Later Gator.

Thanks Nwhobart. We looked at Pental and the warehouse down the block too but we need a fabricator. ;)

Well we finally broke ground and the brick work around the foundation is almost done, so we are about ready for them to start framing.

Autum4 I liked the darker tile.

Jennie,
Congratulations on breaking ground! I'd love to see your plan! Beautiful brickwork :)

Thanks for the vote of confidence Autumn. Just what I needed was to go to the house last night and see about half of the paint colors in the rooms finally! Loved everything and that certainly helped me take a deep breath about everything. Can't wait to go back tonight and see hopefully the rest of the colors we chose. I have some photos but the colors aren't real true in some of the photos. I was at Virginia today and couldn't remember what you said about the mosaic....I'm sure I must have seen it on the marble wall but I just don't know which one.

How is unpacking going?

Hoosier- I agree the closets are great!

Illono-oh shoot, I sent you an email with the tile info, too busy to post from work. Baseball...so no unpacking yet and my sis is coming from out of town for the weekend, yikes. It will get done eventually. So glad you have been reassured after seeing your paint!

Back to baseball...have a good one everyone.

OMG, finally our foundation begins SATURDAY! I had to fire the foundation contractor I had hired, as he never responded to calls or emails for over 2 weeks. Our pad has been sitting, finished, waiting for foundation for three weeks. Craptastic.

Speaking of finished pads, we had torrential downpours here earlier this week... the pad is a little eroded on one side, but I think it should be fine:

We've had some visitors, who have left their calling cards -- anyone know what kind of tracks these are?

and of course deer tracks:

And *THIS* dude was slithering around on the edge of my pad today. Hubby said he looks venomous. I am googling to see if I can find out:

So, I think we are actually going to build a house! OMG I am sooooooooo ready to be out of my crappy rental house. Hopefully by Christmas......

carsonheim- raccoons? We had 5 inches outside H-ville. That put a stop to my driveway retaining wall pour. All of the critters are coming out of the woods down here looking for the ark. That's one bad looking snake.

musicgal - 5 inches is a lot! I don't know what we had but it was a LOT!

I think you are right about raccoon tracks. I was curious because the hands and feet are right next to each other, not staggered like the deer tracks.

The googlz told me that the snake is a western cottonmouth. ughhhhhhh............. We are across from the Brazos River, and we have ponds right behind our house. No more flip flops in the yard!

Yes carsonheim, part of the price we pay for building close to nature. The lake behind our house has at least 1 gator. Cottonmouths are scary! But, I'm just hoping Bigfoot stays away:) There have been recent sightings in the national forest we back up onto.
We needed the rain though. Lake Conroe is finally back at 100%.

We got some siding on our front porch.

Carson, DH thinks your tracks are from a fox or possum.

Baseball ran late tonight. Gotta go. I can see into the future and I see me being ticked off at that annoying alarm clock in the morning...lol.

JDEZ, that siding is a really nice color. What is it called? Columns white or stained?

SCARY SNAKE!

illini - I wanted white but DH won't let me. So they will be stained but I haven't picked that out yet. The color is called Thunderstorm Gray. It's a weatherproofing stain by Behr. It is a strange color in person. On the back porch in the west sun it has a brown look to it. In the shade it almost looks blue. In direct sunlight on the east side, it looks like a dull gray. The stain color was made to match some type of shingles but I don't remember what kind. We will have a metal roof though.

On my computer, your siding color looks similar to ours, which is SW Pewter Green. With ours, in some light, it looks green; other times it looks more blue or gray. Our trim is SW Favorite Tan. The windows and front door will be SW Sundried Tomato, a deep red. This pic is only one coat, but you get the idea.

Unrelated: My topic notifications are running really slow on GW. I just got one from Part II of this thread!

Mushcreek - Ladybrowncoat also had issues with notifications. Maybe they are working to fix it and you're about to get a hundred or so notifications as it catches up...lol. Our siding colors do look very similar. Great idea on the red! That is going to look great. I like that wooded view in the window's reflection.

Funny- I just got about two weeks worth of notifications LOL!

We have pretty much 360 degrees wooded views. We'll save a bundle on window treatments!

MFatt we just purchased 2 slabs from Pental (Bianco Antico and Kayrus) and 1 slab from Meta (Smoke Soapstone). Pricing can be better from Cosmos on Slabs, but Pental has a wider selection and we bought the soapstone from Meta because they were the only slab yard around that didn't have all their soapstone on hold.

We looked at Meta and Pental. We are looking at lower to midrange granite and they both seemed to have a lot of inventory. None of it said 'hold' but maybe I wasn't looking very close. Did you contact the fabricators first and then go pick out the slabs and pay for them? I am trying to wrap my head around this. Our GC quoted us tiled countertops and his granite guy he usually uses is way too high, mostly because he doesn't want to work as far north as we are. Thanks for your responses. Local recommendations are sooooooo helpful.

I feel like this forum is a version of "the circle of life". there are the relieved ones moving in and the excited ones just begining and those who are in the middle-like us-who want to see progress and start wrapping this up :) it is a highlight of my day reading all your posts!!

After falling a bit behind-all the recent rain made it impossible for the cement truck to drive accross the front "yard"-we actually had our LL poured today. the framing for that area was delivered this afternoon and the drywallers are working away on our main level. all our selections are made- we are just sitting back watching and waiting-3 1/2 more months to go...

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Here's a pic of our livingroom looking into the kitchen.

Hello everyone!

We arrived in Utah today with our Uhauls! We ran by the build and walked through it for the first time (on all floors). I am completely OVERWHELMED! It looks so different in person than it did on my video camera. I really love it but it seems like I still have a LOT of descisions to make. My builder and I are meeting with the cabinet guy AT the build on Monday morning. He is going to start measuring and getting it all going. I cannot believe it is really happening and we are really here in Utah.

Everyone's progress looks FABULOUS!

robyn- how exciting for you to be onsite in Utah. The subs are going to try to wring as many decisions as they can out of you tomorrow. That's fun but as you said, overwhelming too. Don't be afraid to say, "I don' t know yet," or "I'll get back to you on that one".

We stopped at our build site on the way to Waco today for a birthday party. This is what we saw.
Lazy Gray paint by Sherwin Williams. Ah, the sweet smell of painters in the house.

That is the upstairs landing above. This is the line of sight coming into the garage. The light at the end of the tunnel is my desk space in the Master bedroom, sheathed with plastic because it is being painted and stained.

Moving closer in, entering the back hallway from the garage, and the drop area on the right. Those benches open for storage.

The completed but unstained as of yet, media center. To thine own self be true.

The wine grotto. Why they call it that I don't know- but they are everywhere in the new homes down here.

The wine grotto juxtaposed with the front door showing the drop down from the entry into the living area.

From the front door looking back onto the porch-

The dining booth with handmade walnut tabletop.

And finally, the back porch. It's been so long since I could post this much progress- bear with me. I feel as though we are getting closer to moving in now. Still lots to do.

Welcome to utah robyn, just in time for the temps to skyrocket!

musicgal, is your carpenter building all your items? Everything is just stunning! I love your back porch!

Robyn, glad you are there now! I bet you were totally overwhelmed walking through the new home. Breathe and those decisions will be made as you go along.

bluemoon, love your arches!!!

carson, that snake creeped me out! We see lots of wildlife where we are building: deer, fox, racoons, groundhogs, crawfish, wild turkeys, heron by the lake. I've only seen one snake so far and it was a black snake. I don't want to see another! :-)

Our carpenter is trying to finish up today. He's going to build our fireplace mantel, install the hideaway wall mounted ironing board in the master closet, and install the closet rod brackets. DH will help him and continue to finish trimming out the closets. He will have to come back to install the window seats when those ever get here. I emailed our sales guy to find out when they would be ready since he thought they would be here this past week. I didn't hear back from him.

DH & I went shopping yesterday afternoon. Productive day. Found dining chairs to go with the double-pedestal table I had bought. They are on order. Bought laundry cabinet hardware and master bathroom hardware. Bought LED light bulbs for the can lights. And, picked out laminate countertop for the laundry room. Whew! Found some counter-height bar stools we liked, but dang, they are higher than we wanted to spend. We're going to wait on those.

We had heavy downpours yesterday so that didn't bode well for getting the septic laterals dug. We can't pour concrete until those laterals are in. We still need to have driveway, walkway from garage to front of house, and the large back patio poured. I feel we are in slow mode right now getting all the last minute stuff done. Granite still scheduled for June 12 and hopefully plumbing will be able to come right after that. At least DH is getting stuff done that might have waited until we moved in.

Finally some progress to share:

Colors aren't totally true. Here's a shoot of the whole mudroom. Doors to laundry, powder and walk in entry closet:
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Now the tile:
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The bench top and the niche ledge will have cs raven on them to match our vanity quartz.

Master shower:
[IMG]

illini- yes, the horizontal niche. Tile is so natural.

Hoosier- yes, all site built. He has a team that cuts the wood to size onsite. Then, he handfits everything into place from the floor to 7 feet up. Anything higher than that he assigns to a younger guy.
Here he is, pulling out something I hated. That was rare. His name is Terry.