They cut the gas line to the gas lamp so Fire Dept and the Gas Company is here hoping we don’t get a ticket.

S CD - we also are building a ~modern~ house in an area where folks basically only build tract homes and ran into a lot of problems trying to find a contractor. Best of luck to you!

di0spyr0s - that looks like a great spot for a pond!

Missi - It is nice to see progress post water issues! I know that has to feel good.

S-CD - are there any other custom homes being built near you? Any recent builds with even remotely the same or otherwise 'unique' architecture for the area? You might have to seek out builders in different ways. I left notes on people's doors with my number to get the names of some local builders. Also-Don't rule out commercial builders. We almost used one that does mostly commercial - he doesn't advertise, but does sometimes do residential builds (of very high quality).

Every ones photos look great. We are finishing up a new build on one of the southern gulf islands BC/Canada.. on my page under idea books , New build Gabe are some photos. we got our final a month ago,but have not moved everything in yet, as hubby wants me to go through the boxes before they get moved in from the shop..have been doing some of the smaller boxes that are easier for me to move around.

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/107080130/list/new-build-gabe

My poor drone has been out of commission because of some sand stuck in the fan, but it's back! Also 2 weeks of rain really sucks when you're building, but our house is looking like a house now!

Wait until the craftsman details (a roof over both the triple windows) and porch gable go on, it's going to be stunning. This is literally the love of my life (sorry husband lol).

We're also building in a hay field but the view is towards the woods which are kind of hard to see with the ridge of scrub brush in front. But DH attempted to take a photo through my future kitchen window the other day. This is my view until we clean up some of the scrub. DH says the woods are referred to as Michigan Lowland Mix; cedars, maples, poplars, spruces, pines, tag alders, ash, birch, etc, essentially a mix of hard and soft woods that don't mind water. And boy it's been another wet year so far!

But tomorrow will be another hot dry day and so far less windy so at the very least we'll be able to put up more exterior siding if not roof panels. Just give us 5 more dry, windless days, please to finish the roof!

Hope all is well Claudia! At the least you have some lovely, mature trees to show for all the excitement:)

Buzz you have a lot of beautiful trees! I hope you get those dry calm days. Cheryl I love all of your rustic wood! Claudia did the nursery forget to have the lines flagged? I hope you guys are ok. Our house is framed!(photo is back of house) Waiting on backfill, sand and concrete garage floor. Unfortunately our contractors lift broke down so not sure when backfilling will happen? Love that our calves are our closest neighbors.

Stone mason arrived today with our rock for exterior accents and fireplace. Montana Moss Rock. Excited to get going on this tomorrow

Hope all is well Claudia!! I would love to have a couple trees that size in our yard. We have woods behind, and across the field, but have hum-hawed around for 5 years on trees. I keep telling DH if I'd planted them when we moved, they'd already be 5 years old. He can't decide "exactly" where they should go! :shrug:

Cyndy, good thoughts! Especially about putting notes on people's doors, I know of a few I'm going to do that with. We lucked up on one contractor-- when we were interviewing him, he showed us photos of a house very similar to ours he's about to start on, only it's, get this, 15,000 sqft! I can't even imagine. We also met with a friend last night who is construction-adjacent in his job and he gave us some names and also some do-not-hire names, which is equally as helpful.

We should have an address number in the next couple weeks! I hope it's a good one haha.

We are on the last few days , hoping to close Tuesday. We still have paint touch up and paint detached building, metal roofing on porch and over garage, and gutters . Oh and gravel going back to building. Been a long process.

Claudia hope everything worked out for you with the gas lines, yikes! Can you show us a picture with the trees planted? Bet it all looks wonderful!

KH love the calves. Everyone has such beautiful land for their homes.

Lindavana I bet that fireplace will be so gorgeous when it is done! Please post a picture.

S CD and Cyndy thinking good thoughts for finding the perfect builder for you both. Always good to get the "do not use" list.

kennedy12 you must be so very excited. When do you plan to actually move in? Next week is July 4th already. Can you guys believe how fast time is moving?

I am so happy for everyone who sees progress in their builds and especially for those who are so very close to the end. Either way, we are all going to get there. each phase has its exciting times (and some disappointments).

Glad to have you all here to help me get through it all.

Our cabinets arrived just a bit ago so waiting to go see how they look. DH said at first he got scared because the perimeter cabs looked white outside but once he had them inside the color looked more like what it is supposed to be. lol

Hoping they start putting them in tomorrow or Monday.

Another shot of metal roofing going on . It’s starting to come together . We plan to start moving this weekend, builder said we could but stuff in the detached garage if we wanted . That way when we close next week . We will already be ahead.

Oops the photo didn’t post .

Nice kennady12!! It is long process. I gotta tell ya though, the process continues, just in smaller spurts :) Good luck with move!

kennady12, do you happen to know the spacing of your vertical siding?

[houzz=https://www.houzz.com/photos/new-build-gabe-phvw-vp~115930502]

ours is done on 16 inches

https://www.houzz.com/user/kirsten-eloise

Thank you, Cheryl! Our is going to be on 24 and I have the auto cad rendering but it is still so hard to visualize!

I believe ours is 16 inch

Kennedy double triple check with you metal roofing. 2 of my awnings leaked. Your home looks so beautiful. I wish you had built before me so I copy you

Had a delay getting rocks for the fire pit. Finally ready for some s’mores tonight!

Again, a little too much wind to roof today so we finished siding on the rear garage wall instead!

Rain again tomorrow, maybe we can do a little roofing on Saturday.

wysmama: Very pretty fire pit and patio!

Buzz: Hats off to you for the self build.

lindavana: Love the stone; look forward to seeing the final product

kennedy12: So exciting to see you are almost ready to move in.

Claudia, Kelsey, NewEnglandgal and so many others: Great progress all and I pray for your successes.

Not too many good updates from me since we've been away for a couple of weeks in Spain/Med and we almost felt like moving there, so pretty and so clean and although larger properties are comparitive in price, and apart from gas, life is so much cheaper there. In the end USA is still #1 and can't beat being here in our beautiful home.

Before I left on vacation I broke or rather put 1/2 cm holes in outer glass of both panes of our wide double casement master bedroom windows facing the front, yep, from more that 60' away, with my riding mower. and then if that was not enough, a week later I smashed my SUVs tailgate window, you guessed it, with the same mower. DW was not amused. I could have ordered just the casement window glass however after discussing with the local Anderson repair guy, discovered its not an easy task to replace the glass, especially getting the seal off etc. hence ordered both complete sashes ($$$$ not good) which I received yesterday and intend to install soon. SUV glass will be replaced this Saturday. Moral of my story is I need to mow counter clockwise to avoid additional expensive disasters. Heck I never break anything, I make/build new stuff unless this is a new phase in my life :) Really can't remember the last time I broke anything signifcant except perhaps a tumbler that fell on our kitchen tile floor.

First day without ugly supports on the porch! The columns aren’t quite finished yet on the install but it’s starting to take shape!

Lou Myers, that's a pretty house.

@ Buzz Solo. Thank you! It’s our scaled down version of an old southern plantation style home. When we purchased this property we did not plan on building, only remodeling. However the home that was here was not worth saving, so in order to cut costs, we committed to a rectangle shape and pushed our imaginations to make it look like that was what we meant to do. So fingers crossed it will look as good in real life as it does in our heads haha!

Ondrea- thank you , I think your house looks great , I like the black windows . We wanted them but at the time opted for saving a lil with white . It was so early on we had no idea how budgeting would be . Thanks for the heads up on the roofing , I’ll keep a close eye on it

Kennady we wanted black windows too but they are so expensive! I opted for sidelights on my door instead. I would have loved to have a transom over the door too but that was and additional $900 when you included prefinishing. Lou I love your scaled down plantation I think it will look great! We have a similar design but opted for an additional window instead of the evenly space windows. Here is a pic of our house front framed. Are you putting in dormers or leaving it as is? What roof pitch did you end up going with? That was the hardest for us to choose because our house is a bit deeper and we didn’t want a massive roof since we are building one level with a basement.

Ondre’a.....is that leaking where they did that funky caulking job?

Wow, lots of posts to catch up on this morning! I especially like seeing the pictures of the wide open spaces so many of you are building on. Enjoying those last few days of vacation right now and looking forward to seeing all of the changes in our home when we return next week. We move in two weeks and I have a lot to do before then.

I’d love to know y’alls recessed lighting choices. Electricians standard is 6” white baffle trim, but I am hoping for 4” flush gimbals (awaiting pricing).

KE; we used the 4 inch flush gimbal in the black, as we have a T&G fir ceilings in all the main areas. You can go & check out my page under idea books New Build-Gabe
there may be a few photos there.

Cheryl, that looks fantastic! And I’m glad I’m not the only one asking for gimbals - as my builder not so subtly suggested! Ha. I also LOVE those stair balusters. And the ceiling. Basically the entire space :)

@ KH thank you! We are not adding dormers. The roof pitch was also a concern for us and we ended up going with 7/12 and we are extremely happy with it. I also originally had planned for a transom on the front door but instead went to an 8 foot door as it was more cost effective. We also are putting 8 foot doors in the interior so it will be a nice flow. Front door and shutters will all be painted black. Porch ceiling will be haint blue and I’m crossing my fingers to paint that this weekend!

That’s what we went with too Lou! Our house is 36’ deep well 44‘ with the porch; what is yours? Started out with 9/12 but that could have fit an entire second story. Wish we would have gone with taller doors but I think I will be all right with the standard size; plus we are already framed up as you can see. I think my builder would kill me if I changed my mind on door height! I’m glad I had the windows set up high for a traditional look. How deep and wide is your porch Lou? Our whole house is 91’ so we added a cross gable to the main house to break up the roof line. It cost next to nothing compared to dormers. What paint color are you using for haint blue?

Final walk on Monday and closing Wednesday. It’s been a long road . 13 months , but for the most part the house turned out just as we wanted.

@KH our house is 32 x 52 plus an 8 foot porch for a total of 36 x 52. Haint blue color is SW astmospheric. Unfortunately no porch ceiling paint this weekend but hopefully soon! Still caulking.

Kennady absolutely beautiful I bet you and your family are ecstatic! Time to celebrate!

I debated posting this here cause it's weird, but still relevant! LOL. I'm 30 weeks pregnant with triplets and had maternity photos done on our land Sunday (first and last pregnancy, going all out). The photographer took a bunch inside our build as well and this was one she sent to me so far. I fought hard for that angled staircase because it was out of budget initially haha

Kelsey, that shot is gorgeous and you look absolutely stunning! Your babies will love being able to see the “right before” shot of their first home and themselves. Such a great idea!

Kelsey what a n amazing photo of you in your new build. What a fantastic idea! I am so glad you shared it! It must be so exciting to think of raising your babies in your brand new home. The staircase will be gorgeous, I am glad you fought for it. :)

When do you think it will be ready?

Kelsey, so beautiful! Prayers that you can carry all three as long as possible so you can avoid a NICU stay. I have three kids,(15, 7, 3) each premature with extended stays. I shouldn’t assume but you are probably considered high risk with triplets so if you end up having a stay in the NICU I wanted to point out some positives: it is wonderful to have the nurses’ helping hands while you guys “learn” and the best thing is that they help get the babies on a feeding schedule, which was tremendous! (My kids are so far apart I felt like I had to relearn each time lol!) Beautiful pictures and love the angled staircase.

Kelsey: Stunning photo. Bringing three new lives into this world, that in itself is an accomplishment. Well Done! Looking forward to possiblly seeing photos of the triplets after they are born of course.

NEG - We're hoping November/December for move in date! So we'll be stuck in our current 500sqft house with 3 babies for a few months, but it will be worth it!

Everything about this house is so sentimental to me/us because my husband is building it (FIL is the GC). Our wedding bands were made from a tree on our land as well. We never planned for 3 kiddos, but I'm happy they will have this property and house to grow up in (that their dad built from the ground up!)

KH - They will be delivered on August 1st at 35 weeks (due date is August 31st) if I continue to keep them in that long and will definitely have some NICU time. They warned us it's typically until their due date, but they could go home early if they're eating and breathing properly!

Kelsey , great picture. My wife had maternity pics taken with our three kids . You’ll be glad you did . My wife is also a labor and delivery nurse , she has told me a many of joyful stories of twins and triplets .

My longest pregnancy was 34 weeks; earliest was 29!! All of my kids have always caught up by year one. They each got out before their due date. I was at the NICU every day rocking, resting and feeding. Your already past the critical point. From here on out it’s eating and growing! So exciting to have a new house and new babies!

Okay, maybe it's not as exciting as having triplets, but I became excited today because we have a DOOR! The first of 3, this one into the garage. Next a little J-channel surrounding it and then wall steel and then..... our first window! MIght not be for a few days as the weather is getting iffy again, but a DOOR!!! WOOT!!!

And we did manage to put 2 more sheets of roof steel up on the backside as well. 6 to go. A GOOD day!

Dear All! Please post further updates in July 2019 thread, created a few minutes ago.

Here is the link to the new thread.