ILoveRed. I'm in IL too and I'm hoping to have a wrecking ball hitting my house in about 2 yrs when this sodding place is paid off. Everyone says I'll be sad b/c we've put so much work into this house, but I will dance a jig in the street to watch this thing come down.

We, too, are planning to have a sledgehammer party prior to the big equipment. Tear it up y'all! Good luck on your demo and build.

The roof plan was sent to the truss engineer on Friday. The rest of the plan should be ready for me on Monday, along with the updated pricing. I hope I don't choke when I see it. LOL. We got the updated survey, and figured out the problem with the driveway. It actually is better now.

I must say that each change I've wound up making, especially ones because something wouldn't work because of the city, has led me to a better designed house. But at this point, I'm ready to get moving on building the darn thing.

Happy to hear you have been able turn obstacles into opportunities. I'm looking forward to your build starting, also---especially the updates and pictures.

Red - We decided to go with the Anderson 400 windows with oil rubbed bronze exterior.

We discovered yesterday that it appears the transom was missed on our front exterior door. We don't have a lot of extra room on the wall to try and add a separate transom window. I am not sure if this is something that can be added, can't imagine having to reorder the door.

Amy79... I gotcha. Not sad at all. I understand. The 2 yrs will fly by..

cp..a truss plan, now that is progress.

Midwestgal...if you have to reorder the door..can the other one be returned and is there a re-stocking fee? If so, who pays it.

Our builder is going to figure out what happened on Monday. We are already over the allowance by $800. We were pretty disappointed.

Week 2 progress...

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Here is my April update for our new house. Cant wait to move out of our temporary apartment. I now truly appreciate the freedom and privacy of home ownership.

We're just getting started - currently in the 'study period' with a closing date set for June 8. Interviewed an architect and a design/build firm on Friday, with plans to interview a few more. We are buying a fairly level lot overlooking a pond in a golf course community here in Virginia.

Footers are are in. Starting the forms for the basement today

midwest gal--I had to post because our transom window was forgotten on our front door as well! We've been waiting for over a month to to hear whether our builder is going to fix the mistake. Transoms add so much character to a house!

OMG so much going on with everyone's builds! We moved to NC from Highland Park, IL so I'm dyin' to know where you IL people are!

Jason that is one stunning house. rmverb what a lovely view!

I thought this was fun to show progress. Here's google Maps of our property right after we bought it.

And here is the current google map, although it's not the current state of the build at all - garage and house are both up. But short of buying a drone I have no way to get an aerial like that! have to wait for the Google satellite to update.

DLM- Do you have a county GIS site? Ours (Greenville County SC) updates a lot more often than Google.

Thanks, folks. Everyone's house looks like it's coming along fast! We're well behind up here in New England, kind of a late spring. But at last, the daffodils are out.

DH is coming home from the hospital today, the land survey is done and looks good, time for the logger.

I met with the banker, who says the bank (actually a small savings and loan, Norway Savings) keeps the final mortgage as a portfolio loan, which is kind of unusual these days. They also do owner-builder loans, FWIW. We are arranging for monthly draws, which I prefer and so does my builder.

I had a picture of our land to show you, but Windows does not recognize my (ancient) phone. I'll take the iPad next time.

Finally... I can join in! They started excavating last week! We are building a walkout ranch empty nest home on a prairie view west facing lot.

I'm off work the last week of April, and will go up to my build to give a hand (for 3 of those days) in painting.

But anyhow, last weekend's visit:

The house proper... the only visual change out here is the flashing over the windows. But I like looking at it.

The trim is now around doors and windows. That's the fire door to the garage, which will be painted in the near future. Trim will be stained.

Below, you can see the two walls at the west and north of the kitchen. While the wall to the left has a blue tone in this photo, the color is actually a warm white (SW Canvas Tan). The green accent wall to the left is SW Meadow Trail. Cabinets will appear on that Meadow Trail wall, and that Canvas Tan wall will boast shelves for cookbooks. The next photo after this is more accurate regards the Meadow Trail color

Kitchen, south wall -- sheetrock is Canvas Tan again, and NOT blue! The prep area will be under the window to the right, the Induction range is center-photo, and I'm getting very excited about all this!

Here's the guest bedroom: Yes, this pet-free zone has it's own escape hatch!!

Oh, here are the lights I want in the master bath -- flipped the other direction for increased usefulness..

Ceiling insulation, cathedral ceiling regions -- in this case, taken from the LR region of the house:

In the vein of "a picture paints 1000 words," here's the progress on our house:

April 8 -- footers in, but it's too windy for the foundation forms to be set...oh well!

April 15 -- basement floor is poured (and deck footings, too)

April 19 -- Progress on the backfill and, drum roll please, basement framing has begun! Floor trusses are due on site this week, but I expect progress will soon stop due to rain. All to be expected, and we're extremely pleased with the way everything is shaping up. Couldn't be happier w/our contractor, he calls/texts daily with updates! Lots to be grateful for =)

Thank you all for allowing me to share our April progress.

Yesterday we walked our house to see if they had started taping & mudding which they had...and then we noticed that the entire house had been fitted with bullnose corners instead of the squared we specified in our contract. Yikes!

We gave them two choices: rip it all out and put in the square bead, or we'll live with the round corners if they'll upgrade all of our baseboard/door trim AND install full window trim (our contract is for just drywall finished windows and basic baseboard trim) throughout the house. We're still waiting to hear back what they decide, but I think it's pretty labor intensive to replace the bullnose with squared since the drywall edges have a gap between them so they'd have to cut out and replace sections of drywall. We're okay with either decision... maybe even secretly hoping they'll agree to upgrade our trim so we won't have to do it ourselves later on.

Lots of progress this week! Sheetrock is being mud and sanded "suppose" to be done Friday! Finally got LOTS of dirt brought in! We were hoping for a mid June move but probably going to be July.

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The weather has been great and the foundation is sprouting!

Cabinets go in tomorrow!! Trim, flooring and tile finished up last week, paint started yesterday. It's so surreal! I can't wait to see my kitchen cabinets!!

Our reclaimed beams were installed this week!

Missi Smith I love those beams! Can I ask what the sq footage of your house is and the kitchen and LR dimensions? Thanks!!

Missi, beautiful beams and shiplap. Can't wait to see the finished space.

Victoria - the family room/kitchen area is 38 feet long by 20 feet wide. It is a ranch with full basement. First floor is 2,480 sq ft as is the basement but we are only finishing 1,400 sq ft in the basement. The rest will be storage.

Omelet - Thank you! I can't wait to see the finished space either.

Sorry Victora - 2,840 sq ft. Mixed up the numbers. Yikes.

Foyer shiplapped and screen porch railing started.

Missi...love the ship lap and beams. May I ask where you are building? Your house has a farmhouse/coastal vibe. Nice.

Foundation waterproofing and basement plumbing for bath and wet bar.

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It's great to see everyone's progress! Things should start picking up now that the weather is starting to break. We have a decked out roof and will probably see our soffits and soffit vents completed this month. We're also almost finished with the studs on the inside and will probably get HVAC in pretty soon. Things for next month: Roof shingles, windows, rough mechanicals!

We have Porch-henge.

We should be about in the home stretch...meaning sometime next month we should be finally moving in. The light fixtures, granite and plumbing are being done. Gutters and shutters and columns still to go on outside. I can't wait to have this all behind us and finally live in the place that has occupied so much of our time.

I took this week off from work, in part to go up and perform some "sweat equity" on my build for two or three days. (In PART... a lot of other things happened, too.)

It turned out to be two days of "frost equity" -- I didn't sweat, as the temps were hovering around 40 F. I stained a batch of pine ceiling planks a color termed "light natural". You have to "back paint" to avoid painter-brush streaks. Each plank took about 15 minutes to stain -- most were 15' long. These planks will only need one coat; interior LOG coats will need a bit of sanding for loose log shreds, and will need two coats to fully absorb.

I enjoyed this work, despite my bad knee kvetching about the constant standing and hovering over the sawhorses. I'll be up again a weekend after this coming one, to do more of the same (or actual paint, if that's on the agenda then). I like the idea that however little on the physical level, I'm helping build my home.

And so... I really, REALLY can't wait!

Artemis- Make sure you check the window crank handle clearance with whatever you cap that prep station with. I discovered when trimming my first window that the handle would hit, and had to adjust accordingly.

It's looking great, though! It's amazing how a little stain really makes the wood color and grain pop.

mushcreek... thanks for that note there!!! I'll contact the builder and make sure that crank works ASAP. BOTH cranks... Appreciate the SAVE!

April showers are slowing the slab work but it's prepped, back-fill and grading complete along with lumber starting to arrive.

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Looking great, everyone! Our road opened, and then it started raining, and raining, and raining some more the next day. We did get the countertops in and the finish carpenters are close to being done. We need to close by 6/3, but concrete, septic, and grass are going to be very tricky due to mud. The upside is that the forecast is 60s and sunny all week (after tomorrow). Hoping it all comes together!

Another upside is that even though I can't get a CO, I could start moving a few things to get them out of my way to get our current house on the market (couldn't handle the stress of listing while a family of five, a dog and a cat are all living here).

Countertops in (bad pics, sorry) Caesarstone Piatra Grey (love!). I'm not in love with the brackets under the bar. They're not structural, so I'll probably switch them out myself.

Mushcreek...forgive me if you've answered this before, but I was wondering what the colors are on your front porch.

thanks, Bob

SW Pewter Green and SW favorite Tan. Accent color (not visible in porch pics) is SW Sundried Tomato. I have that on the front door and on the roof brackets. The porch ceiling is white pine with Minwax Pecan stain (very light) and satin polyurethane.

Im building up earth (clay from future basements) then am going to put in a small house. More fill dirt on the way shortly(added 8 small dump truck loads to footprint last summer, last year as this time youd be looking at a "small pond" with about 30 frogs in the foreground where the fill dirt was put (sorry frogs). Running down the left side of my property will be a stream with one or two incorporated koi ponds. I have an endless supply of free water(cistern/high water table) as the land is very wet.

Thank you very much. We're about to start our build and this color selection makes it to the finals for our choice. Now if we can answer the other 4,309,614 questions, we'll be done.

Thanks again....Bob

Oh man, things are moving along. We're not really a new build, as I've mentioned before, but are a gut reno of a 1855 townhouse, including a 3 story extension...so that's new enough for us!

We have rough plumbing in, all the concrete is poured (finally, thank god,) and we're finally starting interior framing! GC still is saying July move-in, but I don't know how that could be possible given where we are now. Either way, happy we're seeing lots of progress.

New skylight in- nice to see some natural light in the house for the first time since November (no windows yet)

"The Bunker" (cellar)

And framing upstairs!

Now just waiting for drywall...

www.greenwoodframed.com

greenwood this is last month's thread. Would you update on May's thread? :)

cpartist dear god, I actually thought it was still april. Renovations make you crazy.