pps7 and tooskinnee - such beautiful houses you have. I have no pictures this month because frankly I am too traumatized to take any. We are supposed to get our CO this week, and I think there is a better chance of pigs flying. Meanwhile, we have movers and truck scheduled for September 4, and I still have no stairway railing, no toilets, no first floor fireplaces, and no doors on any cabinet in the place. On the plus side, we have running water and almost everything painted. This last couple of weeks I have been totally crazy. IF they finish, I will post pictures next month.

WOW-the pictures of the new homes this month are amazing! So many unique materials and design elements- makes me wish I could have "borrowed" a few :)

Congrats pps7 on moving in. We are getting down to the wire- 6-8 weeks YIKES! So many decisions left to be made and lots more to do but we are happy with how things are coming.
A few progress pictures:
Outside Lights Going Up:

Foyer Light:

Start of Dining Room Built-Ins (color on walls is the primer):

Kitchen:

Farm House Sink Installed:

Start of the Coffer Ceiling in the Family Room:

Beautiful homes, all. I hope our project turns out 1/2 as nice.

pps7: Hope I'm not asking questions that you've answered already... but..
WINDOWS. love your casements. Can you tell me the manufacturer?
ceiling heights - are you higher than 9' downstairs?
Interior doors: manufacturer?

Thanks so much to all for sharing your journey.

Crescent50,
You're home is beautiful! The exterior is gorgeous. Love the coffered ceiling too. Your kitchen cabinets have a really pretty grain, what type of wood are they?

Wow some supreme homes bieng built. I love seeing the progress. Looking good everyone!

We are shingling as we speak. Should be done today. Yay! Some rainstorms hit us and I was getting anxious about the floor. But know no worries. Our skylights off the back deck were and old model (no wonder why they were on sale) and trying to get the corresponding flashing kit was difficult. But shopped around and found some finally and just in time for the roofers.

Completing the forms for the front concrete porch.
Windows are in and our "contractor door is in" really ugly beat up looking thing. I haven't decided on a front door yet. Still looking. I really hate my door on my house right now so I know what I don't want. Can I see more of your front doors? Inside and out?

Well good luck everyone. I will post some pics soon!

Here's our front door. Nothing dramatic, just simple and perfect (in my eyes) for our country style house. They had just started painting it when I took this--first coat and it's going to take 3-4 to get it right.

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Just a few more to add to my earlier post:
laundry counter and sink:
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Hubby's vanity and MY tub:
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border and shelf in our shower:
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Rookie 2010-
Thanks for the nice words- the cabinets are cherry with a cocoa glaze.

BTW, your home looks amazing-- I love your lighting choices. Do you mind sharing the details of the dining room chandelier?

arkansasfarmchick- your front door is perfect for your house- what color will it be when you are finished?

Rookie - love the lanterns above your island! Those are the ones I am considering putting down my upstairs hallway . . . glad to see them in a real room! Are you in Atlanta or did you order them from the Circa website? Or do they have stores other places?

Thank you everyone. Honestly at this point it feels a little surreal, after 3 years of planning, I will be sleeping in this house sometime next week. Will it feel like home?

athensmomof3, we used Emtek for door hardware.

tooskinneejs, we have similar taste in bathtubs :) The bath vanity fixtures are from rohl's country collection.

kristinva, hang in there. The last month is really, really hard.

dallasauburn, the windows are Windor pinncle clad. Ceiling height is 10'. Interior doors are woodgrain.

It's SW spicy hue. It's a rusty red color that will really pop against the clay siding. :-)

Thanks Crescent50,
The chandelier is Hudson Valley part of the Menlo Park collection in Old Bronze. I used www.lightingcatalog.com to order it.

Athensmomof3,
It always helps to see a picture of lighting in a real room to get an idea of the size. I ordered the large lantern for my office and it's HUGE. Way too big. I'm going to just get used to it though.
I ordered the lanterns from the Circa website. I think I ordered 75% of the house online :)

pps7 - thanks! Is it the oil rubbed bronze or the flat black??? I am worried the ORB will be too dark for my house but whatever you have looks great!

Also are you happy with the Pinnacle windows? We priced out supposedly those but the quote came back as Legend with a clad sash - the quote was the same as the siteline ex. Marvin was 30k more. Legends were 75k. I almost had a stroke! I bet the Pinnacle are more though, huh?

Stonework on fireplace has begun. Trim should br finished up by the middle of this week and the painter will come back and start on Wednesday. Geothermal hook-up begins tomorrow by flushing the loop field

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos from Sunday start here

Our build is moving right along. We broke ground in early May and hope to close by Sept 30 to get the $6500 tax credit. We've been rushing to get our selections done so we don't hold anything up. Almost there.

Front elevation:

Kitchen from the family room:

Family room looking out to the rear deck with double sided fireplace:

Garage:

Master Shower:

pps7 with the bathroom I love! Any luck finding something for the window yet?

can I ask what company for interior doors you used? They are lovely.

athensmomof3, the doorknobs are ORB. Emtek does have this cool hammered flat black finish that I almost got. We only prived the pinnacle clad, but I do thin kthey will be more than the Legend.

shoelvr, I ordered a bamboo shade on the internet. I'm a bit nervous about it, but hopefully it will fit and look great! My interior doors are woodgrain. Trustile also makes a similar door.

We moved in the weekend before last! It was a mad dash to the end, but we made it. In fact, the sod was being laid while we were moving in.

So nice to get settled, and still getting internet, phone, etc hooked up. Thanks for all the opinions and ideas!

rookie-I love your home! Could you tell me the paint colors you used inside? They all flow so nicley together

pps7-I am loving your masterbath! So gorgeous. Would love to know the paint color you used in there as well. Looking at repainting our home. Can you tell? LOL

pps7 - I like your paint colors - what did you use in the kitchen?

Well, ours was going S L O W but now it's going backwards! It's a comedy of errors: first they applied the stain to the hardwoods in 100-degree heat, and it dried before they could wipe it up yet they continued doing the WHOLE house (only bedrooms are carpet, 3500sf house) AND applied 2 coats of poly. So, they had to re-sand and start over. When applying poly this last time, they dropped a bucket of it from half-way up the staircase in the foyer, splattering parts of 6 already-painted walls. Poly "bubbles" are all over the floor and even footprints in poly leading out the door. AAAARRRGGGH. I'm ready to throw in the towel and crawl under a rock to live. We broke ground in January and were assured we'd be well finished by the start of summer. Uh huh.

Guess I still need to vent (just saw the mess for the first time this morning).

rookie, your kitchen looks so pretty! Can you post a picture of your layout / floor plan?

Tfm1134,
Thanks for the compliment! The colors are Sherwin Williams in Dried Thyme (lightened 2 shades) in the kitchen. Masterbath, dining room are Sherwin Williams Softened Green and guest bath, hallways, some bedrooms, great room are SW Softer Tan.

Tinker, thank you, the layout, according to the plans was pretty boxed in with a peninsula. It was pretty bad so I took it out and added the island. The island is a tight squeeze by some standards but I'm really happy with it. I'll see if I can find the layout after the change was made and I'll post it.
Thanks for the kind words!

Down to the last couple of weeks. Digging our septic system tomorrow. Geothermal hook-up this week. Painting all this week. Too bad our bathroom tile work is too crappy to show; we'll see how they fix that...

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Latest pictures begin here

I've been reading this site's posts for awhile but this is my first time posting. This is our first custom build and we're about 5-6 weeks from completion. French Country style house on a corner lot.

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Living room
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Master rain shower
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Dining room ceiling
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Back of house (top mortar is still wet so looks dark)
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Keeping room
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OK... my second try and I hope my post works this time. It's been so hectic I haven't had time to think. We are hoping to be completed in 3 weeks which is a BIG step but DH leaves for France Sept 1 for a comference and his parents are French and it's their 50th anniversary so he will be gone 3 weeks. I will explain our plan and share more pics soon but for now I have a few that are from about a week ago.
Here's our living area. The window area will be home to our black grand piano which has always needed a nice home and finally will have one.

A view from near the sink into the eating area.

We LOVE our cabinets! Painted SW creamy but don't have clue what color glaze to do yet. Now that I have floors picked out it will be easier to decide.

Office nook

That's all for now. I promise to spend more time in the next few days to enjoy everyones progress!! Sorry these are SO HUGE. I will resize the next ones!!
Sunny

omg! all the progress is amazing! pps, i love everything about your home! it's gorgeous ...especially the kitchen! and of course love your master bath too.
crescent; i'm so envious ...your stone and exterior are breathtaking! and i just had second thoughts on my white kitchen cabinets after having a look at your beautiful stained kitchen.
dr joann: of course i love your house. but i'm biased! i can't imagine building long-distance, but you make it look effortless (even though we all know that's NOT the case at all!).

GREAT work, everyone! it's very exciting around here this month and i hope to update on our build soon. hang in there you guys! you're SOOOOOO CLOSE! -best of luck, i am sincerely happy for you. i know how much of yourselves you've put into your projects. how can they turn out anything less than LOVELY?

We got some updated pictures from our neighbor. I know that the cabinets are going in now and they are about to build the rear deck. The latest is to finalize the wall colors. Since we can't be there to try out the colors in situ, we'll have to rely on the paint lady and, perhaps, ask our neighbor (a realtor) to give her opinion. I like her house, so I would trust her opinion.

Here is a picture of the front with all of the siding in place. It must have been a foggy morning, but we can still tell how lovely the flagstone on the floor of the terrace looks

This is the high wainscot in the dining room:

We tried to mimic the the wainscot with the stairs to the lower level:

This is the master bath steam shower pre-grout. We're thrilled with this porcelain tile (12" x 24" format) that looks just like silver travertine:

Kate - it's more nerve wracking than I probably let on, but it's going well enough.

Jo Ann

Everyone is making such great progress! Jolsongoude, LOVE the fireplace!
Aduncan81, I can't wait to see your exterior as it progresses, I just love the style of your house. Sunny, thanks for sharing your white kitchen, I could look at them all day. Looks like you'll get a lot of sunlight, very pretty.
Drjoann, I knew I was going to be drooling over your interior, the arched doorways, the waintscoting, love it all!
We've had a little progress, sidewalks are in, I cleaned up the floors, master bath is finished less mirrors, the deck is finished. I had to close most of the blinds because the electric bill was CRAZY and we don't even live in the house. I've decided to hire a window washer though. I tried to clean them myself and they look awful, streaky sawdust everywhere.
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Not quite finished in this pic
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We're at the tail end of our 14th month with this build. If I don't have a C.O. by or before the September thread is started........ugh.

rookie2010

Can you tell me the type of stone and color of siding you have on your home? Thanks--it is lovely.

Hi Gooddogs,
Thanks! The stone is El Dorado Shadow Rock in Teton. The siding is Hardie board in moss.

Rookie - what is that stone on your front porch and stair treads? Looks like bluestone in color but I don't see the cut marks for the seperate tiles . . . very pretty!

Thanks Athens,
It's bluestone, there's a local place that cuts it from giant slabs. My husband gets all the credit for the front porch and mostly everything else on the exterior. I got to be the boss on the interior. He used to make fun of me about being on the forum too much but now he asks me to read him any comments or questions about the exterior :)

thank you rookie

I am glad to see that Hardie color on a house. We are going to use Nichiha siding/stone base probably with a brown shake on the bottom and a green lap siding on the top. We may have to match that color Hardie. Good luck finishing your home.

rookie--I changed my mind in the nick of time on the stair treads. We're going with the bluestone as well with our Sierra ElDorado. Glad to see what it looks like with stone--stunning!! Looking at your patio in the back---is that pavers or stamped concrete? Looks AMAZING!!! This week, we are getting shingles, windows and doors! I can't wait---one day I'll post pictures, when I figure out how to post pics!!

Thanks Gooddogs74, we're only a hair from finished!

Swhite, I can't wait to see some pics of your place! The sierra stone is really pretty, good choice! Those are pavers in the back. Under the deck are blue stones with river rock in between, that's what we came up with to use the leftover pieces. I love, love. love bluestone. We did the plain old side walk because we didn't want it to be too busy but we might add some belgian block later.
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We broke ground mid-May on our 8.8 acre plot of land~half of it is field and half is wooded and borders a pond. Building has been slow, but that's okay because we haven't sold our current house. Our GC thinks we'll be in by the first of the year. We should get shingles, windows, and doors this week! Cant' wait to see it!
This is the original drawing, courtesy of www.coolhouseplans.com

Swhite,
I LOVE that house! Are you doing the vertical siding in the "A" or are you replacing it with the shingles?
It's looking great and I agree, the lot called for a walkout. It's such a great way to add square footage.
I'll be looking forward to your updates on the September thread, the windows and siding happen so fast!

Rookie--I love the straight edge shingles for the gables and the planks for the lower part. I don't want it to be too busy, but I have seen a similar built house that had the shingles and vertical siding on the gable and the planks everywhere else. That house looked amazing, but the pitch of their gable was bigger so they had more room for it. We'll see what my contractor comes up with, as far as trimming it out. He has awesome ideas and is extremely detail-oriented. He's just as excited building this house as we are!

We've got about a week to go on our rural Wisconsin build. A bunch of final grading had been done when we got there this morning, and the rest was figured out for tomorrow. Tile work still looks like crap - we'll see how that gets resolved. Latest disappointment was the discovery that at some point, I wrote down the wrong model number for our fancy-schmantzy special-order German sink... We'll live with this one unless I can find one in stock somewhere and have it overnighted to us. On a positive note, the enamel job on all the millwork is fantastic, and the wall colors look terrific to us.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Today's photos begin here

I totally feel like I'm doing things in the wrong order, after seeing all the progress everyone has made. And so very beautiful!!! I don't have a good experience to judge the proper "route" of progress, since I basically had to step in as GC the first time we built on this land. Rebuilding after Feb '09 tornado, and have a fantastic GC this time, so I've put all my trust in him.

Main issue to tackle this week: the stone column you see straddles the line between kitchen and living room; however, it's MUCH wider than I'd planned for when I started sketching the layout of my kitchen! I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and pull it down, so that a much narrower column can be built and rocked. (The column itself is structurally necessary, or I'd have a completely open kitchen/lvg rm, like last tme.)

Anyway, here's where we are: allowing for a few days setback with the column, the plan is to start sheetrock w/in 7-10 days. Everything went so slowly on my first build, because my GC bailed on me and from that point I was setting the pace. This time, I feel like I'm so far behind all the time! Haven't picked flooring, local cabinet guy is only just getting started on kitchen cabs - but I'm being forced to stop over-researching everything and just make decisions already. Oh - we're building on our pecan farm, about 300 acres, so we oriented everything around views.

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Jolson, your paint colors ARE fabulous and so is all your trim work! I don't think I've seen transoms quite like those before but I have to say, they're awesome! They add so much interest and character. Is that a built-in storage bench across from the shower?

Riley,
Your house looks beautiful! I read another thread where you mentioned your pecan farm and the storm. I felt like I finished a book before I was ready for it to end when that post ended :) We're having steady progress because it had to happen eventually after 14 months right? Lol, moving right along like molasses!

Thank you, Rookie. Yes, that is a bench/storage piece that we put in each of the bathrooms. In a effort to keep the overall footprint of the house down to 1750 sq ft, we distilled the bedroom/bathroom wing down as much as possible. The bathrooms became about as minimal as possible, but we still needed some storage and a place to set things down if necessary. These are what we came up with, and they seem like they'll work out really well. The 'seat' part is hinged with storage below, and the vertical part has shelving.

Jolson,
that bench is genius!

rookie - I'm touched that you remember our storm experience and all! It was really the drawn-out fight to get a fair settlement out of the insurance company that postponed things much longer than I'd hoped. But, here we are, looking at getting back in a home that's OURS just a hair after two years since the tornado.

This is the first time I've joined in on a monthly progress post, and I can't tell you how much I enjoy seeing everyone's beautiful houses, watching the different styles take shape. This is something I'm going to look forward to for the next "how ever many" months!

Oh, and Jolson, I second everyone's else admiration for the bench: we miscalculated and are now doing our master bath without a tub (not exactly heartbroken, as we aren't really tub pple). Something like that bench is perfect for the 5'x9' "wall" that makes up the center of the walk-in shower.

* There's an entrance on each end of the rectangular shower, w/a 5' wide expanse between them. It was supposed to be the "header" for the tub to extend from into the center of the bath, but we cut it too close and I can't handle a 5' tub, so voila ... no tub and now a fun area to experiment with! (Tomorrow is picture day, so I'll be well-prepared for September's progress post!)

Oh, and rookie? YOUR HOUSE IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING! It would look reaaallllyy beautiful on, oh let's say, a pecan farm? ;D

We are officially done today, but I need to clean before taking pics and I'm tired. I literally made my fingers bleed filling in nail holes on trim in the kitchen today. Ugh. We started in mid-April, so not too long and drawn out, but it was an exhausting experience nonetheless. And one I hope to never repeat. LOL

V

Congrats arkansasfarmchick! I exhausted too. It seems like moving in is just the beginning. Wish we could share a drink LOL! I'm in Missouri so not too far. Here's to a virtual drink-Cheers!

DH had to run up to SC because our neighbors sent us pictures on Sunday & there was a whole bunch of FUBAR-osity going on with trim & tile. (I think I feel a vent coming, but not in this thread).

Anyway, here's a picture he took of the front of the house. All we need now, are the white columns, the sconces and some landscaping to make this angle complete. (plus need to lose the 2 trees the builder told us to keep which will now cost us landscaping budget to remove. grrrr)

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Jo Ann

Well, with all of the cr@p that is going on, I'm trying to keep things in perspective. I just love our kitchen and keeping room:

The ceilings that are covered will be lightly stained wood - octagonal for the banquette & double vaulted for the keeping room. Also stained is the seat of the banquette and the tops of the bookcases that are the half walls. The cabinets and trim will be white & here is the granite for the perimeter:

It's all going to be beautiful. OM .....

Jo Ann

Well, our progress is a bit slow, but I'm so happy to have our new GC & get out of the nightmare we were in, I can't complain too much. Our project is an addition/remodel. We bought our home for the neighborhood and the location with intentions of remodeling some day. One of my goals was for the house to not look like a ranch with something plopped on top. I hope we've accomplished that.

The windows downstairs are being replaced with windows to match the upstairs...I hope.

Excuse the mess!! It's gone now. :)

Robinson, wow, wow, wow.. you were successful! It's just so much harder to successfully remodel than to build new, but it looks awesome!

Can't wait till tomorrow.. the new September thread will start and I just LOVE everyone's homes.. all are amazing!