Good news----concrete work (porch, sidewalk, long driveway) done, garage doors installed, tiling (bathroom & laundry room floors, shower, and bathtub surround) is all laid. Just needs to be grouted. Cabinets and interior doors delivered, and cabinetmaker is installing the cabinets this weekend. Granite and quartz ready to be fabricated once cabinets are installed and they can template. Bad news----I've been sick and haven't been able to go over and see all this. DH promises he will take me over this afternoon so I can see everything.

We're officially under contract with our builders!

Nice, pool!

We have had a lot of progress, mostly on the inside.. but they did finish the windows and such on the outside. They added the pillars for the porch. They should be painting next week, they are just caulking the areas they need to caulk.

Greenwood, beautiful cabinets.

Russ it's moving quickly. Looking real good. One question? I assume the porch columns will be a bit "beefier"?

DLM, love the brick and the sill.

Nah, those are the posts they will be adding. We toyed with the idea of actual cedar posts (i.e. cedar trunks stripped) but the wife likes these posts :P We may add some stuff to the bases of those afterwards though to make them a little "beefier"

cpartist thanks! :)

Surprised to see someone question a build decision. That's not the normal etiquette for this or any reveal thread.

Russ, I see why your wife liked those posts. We are going to do the same thing to maximize the view/light from the windows.

Greenwood framed, pretty cabinet colors!!!

Week 16. Some re-grading going on. Finishing up exterior items. Interior is coming along despite the incorrect guest bath countertops and shower pan tile being installed. Arg.

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Wayland your place is looking good so far as you and everyone will have some trouble, most minor, but set backs. It all works out! Nice open kitchen look and your shower tile looks great!

Ken

Congratulations, Mushcreek! Best on the new job.

DH and I are on the coast of Maine, taking a vacay before his next (and hopefully final) operation. After that, we re-start the project. Deciding against building new, selling old, and undergoing operations all at the same time was definitely the right move. Like, duh.

Anyway, this is an inspiration gathering vacay, of sorts, so here are a couple of pics, if I can get this to work. This place is on Granite Point, between Goose Rocks and Fortune's Rocks. The salt marsh is behind the cottage, the sea is across the street.

From the kitchen, through the dining area, out to the marsh:

The sunset, the pine, and the cottage, a bit dark:

The salt marsh at sunset, between the barn and the cottage:

The barn next to our cottage:

Scone.. where's the Jacuzzi?! That awesome view begs for one.. lol ;)

^ True dat. You should see the ocean view. I'll try to post that tomorrow. In the daytime. ;)

My Son in law works in concrete. Those guys know how to work. The heat here in the Midwest is unbearable and the concrete co at our site are working long hrs in this heat. They don't seem to blink an eye at the heat. I don't know how they do it.

Lots of progress in the last few days on our seawall and boathouse. This may go faster than I thought.

Footing for front of boathouse and new sea wall going in.

Retaining wall behind back of future boathouse.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr! Our builder just pushed back our closing another month! This has been the most frustrating process!!

Sail away, hope you feel better.

Hello! I'm excited to join these threads. I've been mostly lurking and posting a couple of times with specific questions. Our plan has been finalized and we're in permitting stage now. Our story is that we live in Dallas in a typical neighborhood. We've lived in this neighborhood for 10 years and we love it. It's got lots of trees, close to a lake, close to downtown (our jobs), and has large lots. We renovated our current house significantly after we bought it (gutted down to the studs, added 2nd story, etc), so we're familiar with construction and renovation. The house next door to ours has been a rental property for at least the last 30 years. The owner finally sold it to us this past spring! It's in terrible shape so we always knew we'd tear it down. It had a leaky roof, parts of it were falling off the foundation and it was horribly flea infested! We did salvage from bricks from the fireplace and some ship-lap that we might reuse. Some friends took some interior doors and some windows. We tried to salvage the floors (oak) but they were so dry that over half of them split when trying to get them up. It ended up not being worth our time. Kitchen cabinets disintegrated when we took them down. :(

Our plan is to build a custom home and then when done, we'll sell our current home. If it all goes according to plan, we won't have a mortgage at the end of the process!

Well, demo day finally happened today! I'm so excited to be rid of that ugly house!

Missi Smith, funny question...how high is your vessel sink? I've never had one and we're building a basic vanity for one in our powder room. Not sure how high to make the table and how high the vessel sink is supposed to hit!

Ilovered, Thanks! I am starting to feel better, but this has been a tough spell. I evidently caught both a cold and the stomach flu at the same time. Never happened before, and I sincerely hope it never happens again!

The progress at the house has cheered me up, though. We have all the cabinets installed, the granite is in, and the tiling and all of the backsplashes are done, as well.

Looks like we are going to see the first physical progress this week. Lot was staked for excavation Monday and equipment in place yesterday. Digging is scheduled to begin today.

Mojomom, congratulations! So exciting. Looking forward to watching your progress. :)

Mojo...great view.

Thank you, Ktdh and Red. Our daughter sent this pic around noon. By the time we get back out there at the end of August we are hoping that foundation will be poured. We are now officially underway!

Stairs are stained. Vanities delivered. Counters measured and we laid out the placement on the slabs today. Now onto moulding...

Will this be the month that cpartist finally breaks ground? Stay tuned!

Nope. :(

Permits were supposed to be approved this past week. Hoping we get them this week. Stay tuned.

Cpartist, I know how frustrating that is. Good luck!

Sold our house to the couple that looked at it yesterday. They would like to be in before school starts. Is that even possible?.. Uh boy.

CP...we will probably be starting our houses about the same time.

New photo of the front. The inside is not very exciting.. so, you only get drawings/renderings...

Before you mention it.. yes, it is a barrier island, no, we are not changing it.. lol

We are going to watch and see if they do a better job of painting the outside. We paid 1300 extra to "paint the trim" and were surprised when that did not include the vertical corners. They are painted in the 2nd picture, but that is because I slipped the guys doing it 100 bucks. IMO, when you pay 1300 (now 1400) bucks to "paint the trim" it should also mean the trim under the soffets and the corners. EVIDENTLY, it means the outside of the soffets only...

We will be debating that and we WILL get it painted before we close...

Oh.. and yes.. the posts looked better natural.. but mama wanted them white.. so mama got them white...

And with some of the other trim painted...

I think they missed some spots and I can guarantee it needs a second coat of white on the posts.

Cpartist and Red -- we may have a little bit of a head start, but given our climate and 14 month timeline, you'll surge ahead in no time.

Red, congrats on the sale! Our vacation house closes next week (knock on wood). All deadlines have passed and earnest money is hard, so hoping for no last minute glitches.

Thanks every one. I know it will happen but it's frustrating especially since we've already closed on our loan and we supposedly have one year to complete our build. This is FL. No way it will be done in a year. LOL

Russ, I like the painted columns. I liked them natural, but like them even more painted and now the width of them doesn't bother me anymore.

Sorry to hear about yet another delay, cpartist. I hope I didn't jinx you with my comment at the start of the month! The wheels seem to turn very slowly where you are, but that's not always bad. Around here, you can get a permit on the spot, but there is very little planning, and many of the tract homes are poorly conceived and executed. I fear our area is going to become like FL was 40 years ago, with cheap subdivisions springing up like weeds.

CP - toughest part. We have been at this for two years and 2 weeks. You have to find the fun it it. I promise it will be worth it in the end. We decided not to be "those people" when we started this and not stress over the time, but rather the details. You'll have plenty to stress over when it starts.. heh.

Oh, and the 1yr deal with the HoA.. they never really hold you to that, so do not stress over it.. just keep them informed of the attempts you are making and they will totally understand.

R

Thanks I'm not stressing and You didn't jinx us mush creek. My better half is stressing. lol.

Russ it's not the HOA. it's the bank that has the one year time period.

Aaahh well, even easier.. they can't back out. What they are after, same as a HoA, is to make sure people do not drag it out. They will be fine, they just want to see a good effort to get it done. They lose it all if it is 1 month from being done and hits the 1yr mark... and they go "yer done!"... it will be fine.

R

So much going on! Demolition and retaining walls and grading - oh my!

mojo did you ever think heavy equipment would be that good looking?!

greenwood I love the colors of your vanities - and that stone - wow! What is it?

Russ your house looks beautiful and sorry - have to agree with mama on the posts - they are better white.

cp, what can I say - it'll happen.

Cpartist- We are going to be building in the next couple of years. (We will be begin talking to architects in the fall). I read on another thread that you sold your condo and are currently renting while waiting for your build to begin. I hope you don't mind my asking why you sold your condo so early in the process. I have been contemplating how this will work for us when the time comes. I really would not want to do a double move if at all possible.

Well, a day late and a dollar short, as usual, but here are some pics of coastal Maine, near our land. Staying there for a week has totally changed my ideas of color and light-- the paint samples that looked fine in New Hampshire look downright dingy in the clear white light of Maine, even when it's cloudy. It's a profound experience, I can see why artists are drawn to it.

Scone...those pictures are beautiful.

I know it was a hot market and I still get calls from realtors looking to buy in the neighborhood we used to be in, and we sold ours over a year ago. We decided to sell first and still it took us 6 months. We had 3-5 people a DAY coming through most the time, but all they wanted was granite counters. We paid to have those swapped out, and we sold in like a week...well, were under contract.

Had we take on another house payment, we could have ended up in a major debt issue. No way we could do both, so, now we are renting an apartment till ours is done.

It is the safe choice. Not always the best or easiest.. but safe. And safe, wins most the time.

R

Thank you, Red and Russ. My husband and I have 8 months left on our mortgage. Our current neighborhood is quite desirable, one reason being because of the schools. To avoid two separate moves, we will most likely sell when our home is completed. It will be the less costly way for us.

I read on another thread that you sold your condo and are currently renting while waiting for your build to begin. I hope you don't mind my asking why you sold your condo so early in the process

Thankfully, we could easily cover two mortgages but that wasn't the reason.

Our market in FL was hot last year and the year before and with the election etc. we felt it was better to sell when we knew the market was hot, rather than wait.

Additionally in our downtown area, there is a tremendous amount of building going on. Seven new condos are going up around us and the general rule is people prefer new even though those familiar with our area, know that our building is one of the most desirable and well run in the city. Plus with all the new condo's going up, we think there's going to be a glut on the market.

We also lucked out that we were able to rent one of the condos in our building that didn't sell, so moving was relatively easy.

Thank you, CP.

Week 17. So much rain the property is starting to look like Jurassic Park.

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Appliances being installed.

Carrara Marble master bath counter turned out nice.

Thumbs up on your new home Wayland!!

What is the counter top in the kitchen?

Ken

I'm enjoying all the photos while I catch up with everyone's progress. I can now officially join the club for those of you experiencing delays. Misery loves company, right? We have some big fires close by, so construction is on hold for at least a couple weeks because it's too smokey. What are the odds....

Omelet

I agree with you about the comment on someone's build.

We have progress!!

Look at all this sod (Yes we are in one of those semi-cookie cutter neighborhoods lol).

Very nice, notalotta! Who cares where home is, so long as you love it ;) Like that nice big yard!

R

You are absolutely right Russ. Yes, we LOVE the backyard. I foresee a lot of landscaping in our future.