@Jay Walsh It's a little hard to break out what the cost of just the Control4 hardware is but I can tell you that the cost for the entire Control4 , audio/video/data distribution for the entire house, and security came to about $50k for the parts alone. There's a lot of stuff in that package since we have speakers in 6 rooms plus a surround sound setup, 9 cameras and sensors on all exterior doors plus motion detectors, data drops in every room, networking hardware, and A/V distribution hardware on top of all the Control4 hardware.

Our control4 is nowhere near that price but then again we're going more basic. It all depends on what you want and where.

Fireplace is mostly done. Still needs the hearth to be grouted. I just watched him lay the last 10 or so bricks - to get the herringbone just right was a major lesson in geometry!

Beth...very nice.

Cp...please give me the source for your fp tile. I have to get this done and I might do something like you did. If I can find someone to design it for me. Thanks!

windows and doors get delivered Monday. Have to rent a telescoping boom fork truck. Hey - what's $750 between friends?

In looking at the window crates in storage / figuring out we're we'll put them, etc I noted that these things were delivered in 2013 (custom order). Granted we were a little aggressive in ordering them... but....

Let that sink in. I am 4 FREAKING YEARS INTO THIS!

My big boss at work noted that I am now officially a terrible project manager. (Happily - it's not what I do for a living! LOL)

The next time someone decides they 1) want to do something "different" and 2) be their own GC / builder - think about the above.

Rookwood tile! Love their stuff. Not cheap but they have some beauties and if you give them your measurements and what you want, they'll design it for you. They have folks who do that. I picked the tile I loved, gave them a rough idea of what I was looking for and they laid it out for me.

Let that sink in. I am 4 FREAKING YEARS INTO THIS!

I think you just made me feel a bit better.

Let that sink in. I am 4 FREAKING YEARS INTO THIS!

I would lose my mind! We decided to list our house for sale around this time last year - we didn't actually list until late Feb '17. House sold in 8 days... we have been in an apartment since April.

For those of you that are years into your builds - kudos to you all for hanging in there!

You know what they say, if you can't be a role model, at least serve as a warning to others!

Let that sink in. I am 4 FREAKING YEARS INTO THIS!

I think you just made me feel a bit better.

I think you both just made me a little more nervous.

Remember when everyone thought my build would go easy since before the build had so many headaches? Nope! It looks more and more like we won't get our temporary CO this year which means it will cost us a bundle in taxes over the next 10-20 years. On top of that, my builder is refusing to fix the door issue. We wouldn't have a door issue if the window and door headers had been put in at the correct 96" from the floor and not the 94" that were done.

However our roof is going on finally 6 months after it should have originally gone on.

Yikes. this November thread feels like a 'warning thread' - however, I will continue on in blissful optimism :) We have started framing this month....in the rain, but whatever!

Thanks CP..just spent about an hour on their site. Great tile.

The last truss went up yesterday, the low one just above DH on the ladder. (It's the transition between the house and garage roof.) Now we just have to square it all up and add the missing purlins and ceiling joists and varge rafters. That is gonna take some time. It is extremely doubtful the roofing steel will go up at all this year. But for 2 practically senior citizens I think it's not a bad job at all.

Not much new to report. House has been at a standstill for the past few days. Final grading did get done. Interior trim still not finished. Still waiting on wood flooring for a 4x4 section that didnt get done because they ran out of flooring. Grrrrrrr. There was a beautiful redish glow over the mountains the other evening.

Oh, CP, sorry about the doors and timing, but it is looking great.

We're in! Still a number of punch list items and boxes everywhere. Finally, the fence was finished today and the dogs are loving the (muddy) back yard. S It may take as long to unpack as it did to build. No pictures up yet. I'll add a few mor shots as we go and have a full reveal later, but here are a couple of teasers:

CP - your house looks great! Sorry about all the builder issues. Maybe somehow they can pull off a miracle and get you in by Dec 31.

Mojomom - Congrats! I love your fireplace.

Vinmarks - what a beautiful view.

Buzz Solo - I am enjoying watching your videos. It is fascinating to me to watch those trusses go up.

We are still waiting on the Master bath to get finished, but the tile is here. Hopefully monday it will get finished. Also waiting on the builtin entertainment system.

Electrician still has punch list items to finish. I just don't understand why when they know they have a full days work at a job they only allow 3 hours. Yep, they will be back for a 4th time to finish up - maybe on tuesday.

I'm still picking away at our place, over 2 years after it was 'finished'. I got the drywall up, primed, and painted in the basement. I still need to do the trim and the doors, but it's progress. We built a bedroom, bathroom, and a storage closet in addition to drywall on the rest. The inspector shouldn't have passed us with all of the exposed foam of the ICF walls, but they ignored it. I'm going to put a suspended ceiling in the open part of the basement to be able to have access to all of the pipes and wires in the floor joists. The bedroom has a drywall ceiling.

We finally have a backsplash in the kitchen! The big problem was deciding what to use, so we went simple with white subway tile with a chair rail molding to cap it. We went against the grain on the Kitchen sub-forum with the trim, but regular bullnose just kind of died into the background, and didn't have the vintage look we were after. Light gray grout to give it a little texture. What a pain that little bit of tile was! It seemed like every other tile had to be cut for something. The window trim is on a 45 degree angle, so the tiles that butted up to it had to be mitered as well. Now to figure out what to do with that range hood....

^^^ love the tile choice and the trim tile - I am over plain white subway.

How would you feel with some custom / homemade hammered steel on that hood? I would have said black, but maybe something to complement the counter and sink?

Not a lot has changed house wise (still decluttering after the move and settling in) but our little girl decided to join our family (a little early) Monday night after being admitted late Sunday. We literally got some of the last things (that had to be done prior to her arrival) done that weekend, even up until a couple hours prior to leaving for the hospital. We got the rocker purchased and hauled in Sunday night, after about an hour I told my husband that I thought we better head to the hospital, he looked at me like I was pulling a fast one on him. He finally got the hint after I called the midwife so up we headed. We’re home and settling in, thankfully she’s a very good baby and we’re both doing well.

I would have said black, but maybe something to complement the counter and sink?

My first thought was black too!

BK congratulations! What a cutie.

BK congratulations! Beautiful baby.

Oh what a sweet baby! Congrats BK!

Yay for babies!!!! So glad she has arrived and you are home with a new rocker. :)

We are moved in!!!!! Well...we have tons of boxes everywhere and a few projects and finishing touches but sooooo glad to be in!!

BK...be still my heart. She is beautiful and precious. So very happy for you.

Congratulations BK! I am glad that you managed to get into your house before she arrived. She is beautiful.

BK- Congrats, she is a very cute baby!

Our November update isn't the best:

1. After the walls were completely done and painted, the finish level was horrific. Tape lines, texture issues. So they are redoing all the drywall in the entire house. Puts us back about a month. We were supposed to move in by October, then it was December. With this delay I'm hoping we will be in by March.

2. I was having nightmares about my wood flooring I ordered, so I decided to set up a time with the store we ordered all our hard surfaces through and go look at everything in the warehouse. They didn't want to do it and said it was against policy. I insisted, good thing too, they ordered close to 3500 sq ft of the wrong color wood floor. My special cement tile, was also scuffed in several places. I'm waiting to hear how they are going to solve these issues. I'm just glad it was caught now while they have time to correct things as the drywall gets fixed.

3. Good notes: My driveway, sidewalk, fence barrier, entry sign and fountain were all poured last week. We have a lot of cement, it all looks really good.

4. Gutters were installed, and they look nice. Hopefully exterior paint will happen soon before we start to get too much snow.

5. Back yard landscaping is in progress, fence, sprinkler, and sod getting installed.

Speaking of snow and paint... I’m being told my porch columns can’t be painted until spring because the paint won’t melt properly if it’s too cold. I found paint products that say that they work in temps 35 or above but alas te painter still doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Anyone run into this?

I did have a major issue with trim paint inside because it had already gotten cold and our heat wasn’t on and the paint actually bubbles in some places. We had to replace some panels in the fireplace after it was all done because it can’t be sanded and repainted effectively.

AlyandDrew - they painted our garage doors and it was 40 degrees outside - (just a week ago). They seem to be fine. Just as a reference we are in So. Maine.

BK: Congratulations on your new baby girl!

RE: painting in the cold. I just finished painting all of our LP siding/trim/soffit/ & fascia on the ground before installing because by the time we have it all up, it will be too cold to paint. I have to set the paint in the sun for a few hours and wait until it's at least 35 degrees or the paint just won't stick or "spread out" right. Paint just doesn't work when it's cold . . . . Believe me I know because I've tried LOL.

BK - Congratulations! She's beautiful!

And it gets worse. It seems they put Versatex under the rafter tails and on the trim between the hardie and stucco on the west side of the house. Versatex is an excellent product, except for one thing. If you use a color with an LRV value under 55 meaning a dark color, it voids the warranty. Already we're seeing the trim on the west side separating because of that. BTW: the LRV value of the color of my trim is 8!

BK -- Congratulations she is beautiful! I know it must be difficult settling in with a little one! DD and SIL have been in almost a month and while they have gotten a lot done and it's looking great, they are finding it much more difficult with a 7 month old even though he is a very good happy baby.

CP -- What can I say? I am so sorry and feel for you. I was so hoping you would have smooth sailing by now.

Our update: Fence is done and the dogs are loving their custom dog doors. Because we share a yard with the kids the dogs love visiting back and forth. This was the scene in our master tonight:

Other than hanging art various decor and smaller items, the master and master bath are almost is complete. Still need towel hooks etc in the bath. The living room is getting close except for blinds:

The rest of the house is a wreck! Tomorrow I hope to get the kitchen and dining area done.

Congratulations mojo. It looks wonderful. I hope you all enjoy your first holiday season in your new homes.

Chimney is finished - complete with chimney cap.

The roofers are waiting on the plumbers so they can finalize the venting. Then, hopefully the roof will be finished.

Vinyl man came and got all his measurements on Monday. According to my builder, changing the style from board and batten to Colonial beaded lowered the cost enough so that adding the frieze board everywhere is a wash.

I meet with the cabinet man on Monday to finalize the cabinet design. Alarm and phone companies will also be out next week to pull cables. Now if we can get the concrete guys out to pour our garage - they're a week late!

Basement walls were poured yesterday! Woohoo!

We are about two weeks from moving in. Exterior is almost finished but waiting on shutters, my door to be stained and some brick trim around the entry and stucco windows. My fireplace was finally painted yesterday and I just love it. It’s been a long road that we are hopefully almost to the end of!

Nothing too exciting happening. Electrician is putting in switches and outlets and soon the light fixtures. Trim is still ongoing(slowest trim guy ever). Well is in. AC platforms started.

I know nothing about wells. There is metal plate on well that says static water level is 80 and yield is 30 GPM. I have no clue if this is good. I guess I better educate myself about wells.

Vinmarks - our contractor and plumber said that our 20 gpm was good, so I would think your 30 gpm is good, too. I have no clue about the rest of it. I think it means your well is 585' and you have 80' of water (static water level), but I may be wrong.

Amber - your fireplace is very pretty!

CP - any updates on your issues?

DH and I spent 3 hours with the cabinet maker yesterday. We already had our layout from an earlier meeting, so this was to finalize selections. Cabinet maker wanted me to pick out hardware so they could order samples to make sure it's really what I want.

I wanted black hardware in the kitchen. After 2 hours, we finally settled on something from Top Knobs, the pull is black, but the knob is "matte black". No single manufacturer had a pull and knob in black that we liked... or if we found a pull we liked, it didn't come in black (that was the case for almost everything we found). They're ordering a sample of each plus the cabinet latch (we could only find black that we liked from Van Dyke's) so we can see them, but I don't think I'll be changing my mind.

Wiring for the alarm system and cameras is finishing up today. Hopefully the other subs will be finishing up in the next couple weeks so insulation and sheetrock can start.

BethA Glad to hear 20 gpm is good.

What pull and knob did you end up with? I have a collection of all different black pulls and a few different knobs. I wanted black for the kitchen too and ended up with a pull collection. Some were too thin, some too thick and some just didn't fit what I was looking for. I ended up with a pull from ironvalley hardware for my kitchen. I did a mock up on the cabinet in our rental. Totally different cabinet and color but it gave me an idea how it looked on an actual cabinet. I'm hoping they look good on mine. I still need to find something for my masterbath.

CP - any updates on your issues?

Do you hear the crickets chirping? Yesterday the painters were there and the builder's handyman. The painting is looking wonderful. The handyman was working on the knee braces for the exterior of the house. No pool guys, no guys to finish the trim work, no guys to fix the Versatex trim that is separating, etc.

Today the only one who showed up was the handyman.

Vinmarks - I think the pull is Channing in flat black and the knob is the Normandy knob in patina black. We only have 2 knobs in the kitchen so I'm hoping the finishes aren't noticeably different.

CP - It's a shame that the subs don't want to try to get things done in a timely manner (or correct for that matter). We've been waiting on the concrete guys to pour our garage for almost 3 weeks.

CP - for your drawer pulls, where are you mounting the pull? On the top rail or in the center panel? My drawers will be shaker style out of pecan with the top drawer a slab front. DH wants them centered, I'm leaning towards the top rail. In the book "Bungalow Kitchens" it looks like historically, they did either one.

Our house isn't Craftsman at all, but I used the "Bungalow Kitchens" and "Bungalow Bathrooms" books for inspiration because I wanted the look of an older home in some areas.

I feel like I am on an emotional roller coaster. One day I'm enthusiastic about what is going on in the house and then a day later I'm down in the dumps and aggravated. The cabinet guy has got me aggravated. He hasn't been back to do anything since he put the kitchen cabinets in. The apron on the front of the island is crooked and thats still not fixed. I emailed the builder the other day to tell him to make sure it is fixed before the granite goes on because it is not as simple as just removing the one board. It is this big box like thing. Drawers are crooked. There's scratches and dented corners on some of the drawers. Gouges in the 2nd bath vanity. Looks like it was dragged across something sharp. Gouges in powder room vanity. They finally got the remaining wood flooring down in the missing section and on the stair landing. Trim guy was there again today doing stair treads and some additional trim. We are missing 2 doors and trim can't be finished until we have those 2 doors installed. Electricians were no where to be found today. We need to be out of our rental Dec 31st and things are not looking good.

Vinmarks

I told my builder " If our house is not finished by August 10 ( closing date of our house we sold) you are going to have 2 house guests until it is finished." I was serious. It was finished before our closing.

Zorros we actually did tell our builder that a few months ago. We walked through the addition he was putting on his cabin and told him Dec 31st we had to be out of our rental. If the house wasnt done he would have house guests and it would be 4 people because our kids would be home from college on break. Might have to bring that up again with him. We keep hearing "its going to be close".

CP - for your drawer pulls, where are you mounting the pull? On the top rail or in the center panel? My drawers will be shaker style out of pecan with the top drawer a slab front. DH wants them centered, I'm leaning towards the top rail. In the book "Bungalow Kitchens" it looks like historically, they did either one.

I did them centered in my last kitchen which was cherry shaker cabinets and I'm leaning towards doing them centered again. Like you say, both are considered proper.

Loved reading all of your updates tonight. Lots of progress. Love seeing pictures.

CP..I'm so sorry things seem to be going at a snails pace. Why aren't they working on leveling the floors. Are you going to allow any work while you are on your cruise? I spent time on your fireplace tile site. Nothing looks as good as yours. Can I just copy it ;-) Just kidding.

nothing pictureworthy on my end.