Jo Ann-

I just need to say how much I love your house. My wife and I follow your build like it's our favorite HGTV show or something. We're waiting on quotes from builders right now so we're enjoying reading everyone's progress but by far yours is our favorite.

Great tile choice and while I'm usually not a big fan of the sierra shakes, it's going to be a life saver with that red clay. I shudder to think what that dirt would do to other materials / colors.

Thanks for sharing.

Love, love the progress pics! It's looking fantastic and I love your choice of tile. It's going to be beautiful. I know I need to post pictures as well. What's my problem?!? We were supposed to start landscaping last week, but we've gotten steady rain for the past 2 weeks! I wanted to have plants in to take a picture of the house so that it wasn't surrounded by a sea of mud. Anyway, I too love watching your progress. It's one of my favorites as well, along with Kate's, and shelly's (for obvious similarities!). It looks like you are making fast progress. You know, our last house, we built from about 1500 miles away, and I think that's the way to do it. I think the distance forced us to not be as obsessive and anxious, and everytime we saw pictures or progress, it was just fun. Whereas, this time around, we were 5 minutes away, and we obsessed every day about the crawling progress, and sometimes we'd drive by 3x a day! It was unhealthy in ways. At the same time, there were good things, like being able to catch mistakes almost immediately as they happened. Anyway, we still have some odds and ends to tie up, but we are so happy with the house. Good luck Joann.

Mmmmm... love that tile selection! Your master bath is going to be Beautiful! The house has some great details, and I love the lot. Can't wait for more!

BTW, the title "2 engineers decide to build a house" cracked me up. I get it.

Wow! Looking good! I like seeing the ceiling framing over the banquette; I'm always interested in 'how it's made'. I'm jealous- we won't visit TR until October, and we'll probably break ground in 2011. Congrats one where you're at so far, and keep those pics coming!

Jay

Your home is really shaping up. Everything looks fantastic and it sounds like you had a fun trip.

I *love* your choices for the Master Bath - so much so that I may copy it. Would you mind? I'm on the West Coast, so no one would see it, and I would give you full credit! :-)

I can't wait to see it finished!

Jeri

You guys are cracking me up, too! An HGTV show???? Our last name rhymes with "Simpson" & when I read that what went through my head was "The Simpsons" theme with our name, instead. LOL!!!!

Early on, DH got dreamy eyed thinking about using real shakes. I told him that he could have them if he wanted, but he had better be prepared to let them naturally weather and forget about it. I sure as heck wasn't spending the future maintenance money to keep them stained. He got over that right quick. We still have to pick out the tile for the screened porch and mud/dog room and plan to go with something with reddish tones. Jeez, I wonder why? BTW - Sant Agostino has a line called Earth which is a lovely porcelain simulation of slate. We're going to chose something from that line.

On the last picture where it is sprayed painted "STONE" is going to be a thin veneer of a local real stone. I'm so excited to have that. It will be on the interior wall of the front terrace, so we will actually get to enjoy it.

gobruno - we really, really don't care about the landscaping & the mud; we want to see pix. How else are we going to be able to "steal" ideas from you. LOL! In the discussion with the siding guy about mitering or weaving the corners, your house was mentioned. The builder, et al must think I have friends with rather unusual names. ;^)

The remote build isn't as bad as I was worried about. It was sheer magic to walk into the house for the first time with it being this far along. And, I wasn't leaving SC without a whole bunch of selections being complete. The only major things we have left are the lighting fixtures, paint colors and landscaping.

I did catch a mistake: the header into the future basement rec room was supposed to be 7ft wide so that we can open it up as a cased opening when we finish the area off. For now, it will just be a door to close off the unfinished areas. The electrical contractor was kinda watching me in action with that & some other things and, by the end of the day, he asked me if I wanted a job. I guess he needs someone to help keep his operation in line. Well, at least I'll be able to put shoes on the grandbabies and buy some cheese. ;^P

Two engineers building a house is an interesting proposition because even though we are both electricals, our experience base is so different. I'm a project manager for flight hardware, so I really felt in my element, even though this is the first time I've been the customer, rather than the one on the hook. At one point there were all kinds of decisions flying & I kinda went into "Field Marshall" mode. Then, I stopped myself & said to the guys, "I'm sorry if I'm being too brusque." They looked at me & said, "Uh, we don't know what that means, but thank you, anyway." We all just burst out laughing.

flgargoyle - good knews on y'all getting started. If we stick to schedule, we should be done by the next time you visit TR. We're just so thrilled with the arches, especially the barrel arches. I tried to post some more pix, but Photobucket is honking on me. Another thing that really struck me as neat are the kits they used for the two pocket doors. I know that good ol' MA would have chided me for having pocket doors, but the one if for the dog room to give the blind doggie a more guided way to find it and then the doggie door to the outside. The other is so I can close off the inevitable mess in DH's teeny tiny office behind the keeping room.

OK, I'm typed out & still have to tell about the cabinets.

Jo Ann

jeri - I'm glad you like the tile combo. I was so worried that it would be impossible to coordinate with the Rainforest Green marble, so when we walked into the tile showroom and saw this it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I can try to get the exact names, if you would like.

Here are pictures of our marble slab:

The vanities will have very simple lines and stained to pick up on the deep reddish brown in the marble and our mahogany furniture in the bedroom. The next trick is going to be the paint color and light fixtures.

Jo Ann

I love love love the Rainforest Green, I work for a granite fabricator & ever since my first day at work I've wanted to use that somewhere
Looks gorgeous, can't wait to see final pics.

Thanks for the complements, granite-girl. It's bold, but we figure it's just for us in the master bath & you only live once. ;^)

On the original quote, the fabricator indicated that he planned to hone it. We said that we preferred it polished. What would you suggest? We were afraid that honing would make it look more muddled & not pop as much.

There are very nice sprinkles of white in it, so we plan on white porcelain sinks and chrome fixtures to be neutral and let the stone do the talking.

This is a picture of the master bath vanity bumpout where the Rainforest Green will sit. It is 10' wide and will have a 2' wide cabinet tower separating the sinks. The lower edges of the 4 upper windows are set at 7 1/2', to give some perspective. The lower window is a casement for fresh air & birdie sounds & has a mate on the other side:

I'm so excited for you. I love your choices. The stone is to die for. I look forward to seeing even more.

joann, i am so freaking tired (it's late here and i've had a ROUGH day!) but i had to tell you everything is really BEE-U-TEE-FULL!!! i was just saying to my husband today that i don't know how anyone with a full time J-O-B could possibly build a house ...yet you don't even live nearby! holy crow! i live 25 feet from our build and i'm running all over the place like a crazy person!

i don't know how you do it. but it seems to be working!

Kate - Simple. I don't have any kids at home. LOL!

More seriously, I think there are a few factors in our favor:

* DH is retired, so he can devote pretty much the majority of his time to this when he's not wrangling the dogs or cleaning up the kitchen. ;^>

* Excel is my friend. I have a spreadsheet for everything. At first, DH was making fun of me for what he thought was OTT behavior. Then we ran into issues with window choices and he saw how easy my spreadsheets made it to keep track of & resolve.

* Except for a few hiccups, our builder is doing a great job & we really like the subs we've been able to meet. Also, he's from Philly, so the Jersey Girl "gets" him.

* Modeling the house in our SW has been invaluable. (yes, macv, 3D Sketchup would have been better for the 3D, but we drifted down a different path). DH sends 3D renderings to the framer, etc. all of the time so he has a "picture" of what DH is trying to achieve and they can collaborate better. It also really helped with the kitchen layout, but that is better told in the "Jo Ann in Cabinetland" story. ;^)

* By the nature of the work I do, I'm used to delegating, trusting people to do their job and being willing to make decisions when they come to me with problems. Now, I do wish we could be closer so I could stop by more often for a friendly chat with the subs and let them know that I appreciate the job they are doing for us like I would do at my own lab, but I just don't have that luxury.

Thanks for the complements. It really means alot. I hope you have smoother sailing ahead.

Thanks - Jo Ann