Robin...we are in Florida...so most homes are all CMU.

Pam

Olivesmom:
You guessed it, Portland Oregon

Roof is on! This is the most exciting time as I get to see the rooms in person vs a drawing. I have made a few changes during framing all pretty minor (bumping out an area into garage to recess fridge a little, adding three windows to basement, and changing two door locations). My builder emailed my Friday to say they are scheduled to finish framing tomorrow afternoon and did I have any changes that need addressed. I do have one more change I want to approach my builder about but I'm afraid it may not be possible. Now, that my master bath is framed it seems way smaller than we envisioned (very narrow). We could enlarge the master bath by eliminating the double coat closet that runs behind the wall with the vanities which would widen the room by @2 feet. However, it looks like it may be weight bearing wall....

Not much new to show; I'm mostly working on plumbing and electrical. Here's a sneak peak at the exterior finish. The colors don't show up well, but the main color is Sherwin-Williams Pewter Green, the trim is SW Favorite Tan, and the accent color (brackets) is SW Sundried Tomato. I finished this gable before roofing the garage so I wouldn't have to work on that slippery tin roof. The second picture is the view out the kitchen window this morning. I'm getting tired of rain, but it did set up a pretty view.

We have walls!!! After three weeks of nothing happening, so nice to see progress.

Framing continues, trusses being set and starting to look more like a house! Mennonites have the shop basically completed.

Duplicate post

This post was edited by Meg4440Roberts on Tue, Jun 11, 13 at 14:42

Back of the house.

Countertops and big island:

Cooktop:

We have power!!! So tired of painting with extension cords and spotlights! Hardwoods started Monday. Supposed to be done with those at end of week. We were supposed to close on mortgage next Monday....but that wont happen. A painting question....the quarter round that goes up against the baseboard and hardwoods.....Do some paint trim color or is it stained hardwood color?

War Eagle - the quarter round is personal preference. Go look at the pictures that Momto3 just posted of her finished home and you can see what her wood floors look like with stained quarter round.

War Eagle - Like your kitchen cabinets. Any other pictures of them?

My personal preference for shoe molding (quarter round) on the baseboard, and all trim for that matter, is white. Usually semi-gloss. Regardless of whether the flooring is wood, tile, or carpet.

War Eagle,
My preference on the quarter round is to match the baseboards as it is a piece of trim, not flooring.

War Eagle,
My preference on the quarter round is to match the baseboards as it is a piece of trim, not flooring.

War Eagle...I have had power at my home for some time but the geothermal won't be going until Friday and my hardwood floor vendor/installer estimates it will take a week or more of running the AC to get the humidity and moisture content of the floor down to an acceptable level for install. Also I am told my hardwood will need to be acclimated in the AC for several days too. My vendor is going to let me use one of his moisture reading guns to monitor for install.

LOTO....I am in the hot and VERY humid south and I was concerned about this as well. My very experienced floor guy has said nothing about getting the air on. Maybe its because we are using engineered hard woods? HVAC told me that he recommends NOT turning system on until they are done sawing, (which they are doing inside because of rain?), sanding and staining because he doesnt want system to be sucking in all of the sawdust.

We've got a second floor!

Ought to get the interior walls framed upstairs today.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our house blog

I just got word from our site prep company that we break ground on Saturday!!! We only decided to build a house last November, and we've made fast progress - choosing a log home manufacturer, finding a builder (we are sharing GC work with him), designing the interior layout of the house, finding the property, and selling our existing home. This has all happened very quickly, especially considering how long it takes some people to build. But it still seems like we've been waiting for forever for this to happen.

Framed, roofed, waiting on electrical and framing inspections to pass so we can start drywall. Hopefully cornice work guys will start next week, and thereafter brick!!

We broke ground yesterday - our foundation guy had some time - he's very busy right now - so he put our new driveway in. Kind of anticlimatic, after I spent so much time stressing about the backlogs in permitting and with the construction loan people - suddenly we have our driveway! Not that I'm complaining...it was fun watching the trees come down (such great firewood!). Our logs arrive in 2-3 weeks...

dlm2000 - Marblemount is about 1-2 hours north of here, I think. It's been a while since I've been up there. But if I could, I'd live there - it's more surrounded by forests than we are. Much more wild! But Granite Falls isn't bad, and it's a decent commute for my dh...yeah - our log house is going to be unique and fun. Well suited to this environment and to us (outdoorspeople).

My geothermal HVAC is finally running today and just in time. I checked the moisture content of the Armstrong Oak Hardwood flooring at my vendors today and it was running between 12-14% on the boxes we checked. He let me take the moisture meter with me and check my home and I was pleasantly surprised to find my Advantech subfloor running from 11.7 to 16%. I have had a dehumidifier and fan running in the crawl space (4' high with concrete floor) for quite some time to keep things dried out and it looks like it worked.
I'll run the AC all weekend and then the hardwood will be delivered Monday and we will check moisture content in a few days.
Tile is going down today and trim carpenter/cabinet installer will start Monday and hopefully the hardwood install will not be too much of a delay in the kitchen cabinet install...don't want to rush the hardwood installation though.

We have a 2nd story!! Should be finished with the roof later today.

Rainy day but they have the main part of the roof up.

Hey Everyone,

I wasn't sure I was going to join the building thread because frankly, this has been the most stressful experience of my life. That said, I enjoyed looking at everyone's pictures when I was just dreaming so I figured I should jump in.

In the past few months we've cleared our land (it was solid melaleuca), dug a pond, and the house is through framing. We are putting in the electric, HVAC, and plumbing now.

We have been DRENCHED with rain and I'm worried about the roof but fingers crossed we get a dry spell in the next couple of weeks so we can get the tin roof installed!

I hope this isn't too many pics. I look forward to watching everyone else's progress... it's nice knowing I'm not the only one probably ripping my hair out!! To think I thought this would be fun!!

The dining room after the latest rain before the doors:

The side porch:

Upstairs Foyer View (can you imagine that I hate two story foyers?! Somehow this didn't translate for me with the architect... not his fault but mine. Sigh):

Family Room Fireplace:

Breakfast Nook:

Master Balcony with 4 over 2 windows. We did all 4 over 2 or 2 over 1:

Looking into screened-in porch:

Love the black windows dutty! Can't wait to see your progress.

Framing should be complete in another day. I'm hoping the pace will pick up...

The walls for the basement are getting poured today!!

The walls for the basement are getting poured today!!

{{!gwi}}

Me too!! Only about 2 months late.

My subfloor moisture content (10-13%) was good but as I checked the wood in the boxes of flooring on Monday I found a number of boxes that has flooring in the 17-19% range. The flooring has been resting comfortably with the geothermal cranked down to 68 and I'll check the flooring again next week.
I know that some recommend acclimating for up to 60 days.

Things are just speeding along now! We just got the front door installed and I love it! It really makes our split foyer have a totally different look from the frontâ¦especially compared to the split foyer being built next to us with a standard size door, two foot spacer, and semi-circle transom. I LOVE the way it turned out! Electrical is almost done, plumbing is almost done, and insulation and drywall begins next week!

Here is a link that might be useful: My home-building blog

Sparkler39,

That door looks fantastic! So glad you are happy with it too. The windows and front of the house all look good. So nice to have two garage doors as well.

Can you tell us what the outside steps are being made with? It doesn't look like you are getting the typical pre-cast concrete steps that are common around here for split-foyers.

I wondered about your under stairs closet. I see that you have framed off the back of it. Does that mean you won't be able to access that last four feet for low, in frequently used storage, or will there be another way to get in to that spot?

Your build has certainly moved along quickly. Can you show us pictures next time of the other sides of the home? It looks like you have good sized basement windows on more than the front elevation. If so, that is a wonderful bonus.

Carol

P.S. Do you like your wider interior steps now that they are in?

Carol,

Thanks! I LOVE the interior stepsâ¦makes such a big difference in the foyer area. I mean, it's still a small foyer but those larger stairs really open it up!

I'm not quite sure what they're doing with the stairsâ¦it appears that they've laid a cinderblock outline and attached the bricks to the front. I've been told that there's a cement truck coming early next week so I'm assuming it'll be there to fill in the holes.

For the under stairs area, the 4' high section will be accessed through a small panel in the garageâ¦it'll mostly be for stuff we NEVER use. Then there will be a door in the mudroom that will let us get back to that 4'x4'ish storage area for more commonly used things.

We actually decided not to put any windows on the sides because we're only 25' or so from our neighbors and didn't really want to be looking in their windows or having them look through ours. But there's a lot of windows on the back and the sun rises pretty much directly from the back and goes overhead so side windows wouldn't contribute any direct sunlight.

It is moving much faster than I expectedâ¦I have my final kitchen appointment on Monday!

Here is a link that might be useful: My house-building blog

Progressing nicely now. Roofers will be out this week.

LP, are you going to the roof line with ICF or just basement?

I escorted my daughter's Girl Scout troop to Colorado and when I returned found the GC had been busy. I cannot believe how large the hole for our new house is and the excavator didn't turn over a single stone. He dug down almost 10' in the back corner. I was very relieved. Hopefully the footings will go in without issue as well.

Hopefully we'll have footings and concrete in the next couple weeks.

Basement walls are done!

Putting up rafters now

Our roof is sheathed.

Hopefully framing will be done by the end of the week.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our House Blog

Getting closer...kitchen cabinets delivered tomorrow.

This post was edited by frozenrain on Wed, Jul 3, 13 at 12:31

{{gwi:1454212}}
Uploaded with ImageShack.com

can anyone see my photo? I am struggling to make it show up.

No sweet.reverie. If you click the link it doesn't show up either. :( I will go to your blog to get a peek!

We have windows!! Front door had issues and had to be re-ordered. Should have our pre-drywall walk-through sometime in the first 2 weeks of July. Not that we don't walk through whenever the crew is not there!

I'm just starting the site work. Perc is done and we will be going back to NC for six weeks in the fall to pour a slab. In the spring, finish it up.

We have finally been making some great progress!!! Right now we are working through interior trim, and the exterior is getting closer to complete. Stone is done and is having the grout done! Hope to be starting the finishing coats of stucco next week!!! Then we can move on and pour our stamped concrete pool decking- as well as the stamped turn around by the garages! We are hoping to be in by the first or second week of August even though our contract with our builder says July 29th move in date (yes it was in writing- silly on his part.)

Side note- We are planting our 500 grape vines on Sunday! We also got offered a Co-Op for a local winery. We are considering it!! :-)

Front stone going on! (dont have a finished picture of the porch yet sorry :-( )

Garage doors after install!

Working on grout on the stone on the back of the house!! Covered porch framing finally finished- cant wait for them to come back and case the columns on the back porch! We decided to do a cedar tongue and grove stained porch ceiling on the front and back porches. :-)

Grout complete on the carriage garage. We did a dark charcoal and I think it looks amazing!

Pool ready for the hot tub and stone on the block wall for the hot tub and ready for the stamped concrete to be poured!

Cabinets going in!

Love the detailing on the hood!

Espresso stained Island- the front will have espresso stained wainscoting with an 18 inch over hang and corbels /posts

Entry way ceiling painted!

Wainscoting in the upstairs hallway going in! Can't wait to see it painted- our trim is SW Creamy!

Tray ceilings in the hallway with the crown in! (dont mind the miss matched doors- some of ours were not complete yet and they sent a filler to set the door! and it drives me nuts!)

Site built steps started going in! Only the basement has been done so far!

Crown going in the bedrooms!

Everybody's homes look fantastic!!!! So jealous of those who are further along!!! :-)