ghatta - Thanks. Here is my pantry vision. Mine will be more than just for food items like shown below, and for bulk items. I will have a smaller pantry or cabinets inside the kitchen for breakfast items, often used items.

I have a Change Order procedure question. Our builder has a spot that says “estimated delay in construction.” But here’s the kicker. Our last one was a credit in the amount of fill and tree clearing, on which they ADDED 10 days! I told them I thought it should actually REDUCE the construction time - wouldn’t that make sense??? And I still fail to see why certain things would add time to construction, when anything administration wise ahead of time would long since have occurred before the implementation of that change. I have an email I’m about to send out about that, but I don’t want to build ill will with our builder. Please help me understand this. I ran a law practice for years, and I very well understand paper work. We billed by tenths of hours (and not for support staff), and these should take support staff maybe at the most 2 hours to draft the change order and the accounting ledger they send. Thanks for helping me understand where they’re coming from.

Would have loved that shead! Couldn’t justify the cost. Have double upright freezers on other wall of pantry. Chose that instead. With Covid I’m glad to have extra freezer space. BUT, I didn’t realize they would be so loud. Could close the door I suppose. It’s a pocket door so doesn’t take any visible space.

We are going to let builder install the wire racks in the closets and then we will have the closet company come out and install our closets once we are in like inspio pic Our pantry, I have ask for the builder to add nothing, leave blank walls. We will be installing a cabinet base and countertop as this is where the microwave will reside and the cabinet will hold toaster etc that is used not as often—see inspiration pic—Luckily we have a local cabinet maker that is much less expensive than builder pricing. I can’t believe the markup in some items.

How did you decide what size pendant lights to buy for over your island? We’re doing two lights over our 7.5x3 foot island... but have no idea how large/small we should be looking at?

So far have not found the “how many and what size” articles to be all that clear so if you have a good resource please send it my way

For 7.5 ft long, I'd probably just do two pendants. My island will be 10'6" long and I had the electrician wire for three but now kinda wish I'd only done two, but on a larger scale. We have 10 ft ceilings. I ended up using these pendants.

https://www.overstock.com/Lighting-Ceiling-Fans/13.25-Clear-Crackle-Pendant-Glass-w-Plated-Gold-Chain/30885444/product.html

I had originally ordered much larger pendants (Savoy House Alden Pendants 18") and found them to be very overwhelming. I'm hoping the crackled glass and gold will give just enough texture and softness to the space.

My SIL's island is 10 ft long and she used two 16" lantern pendants and I really like that a lot. I'm kinda wishing I'd done that :/

I found inspiration on Houzz - we are building on Turquoise Trail, and I loved the vintage lights. I’m not going overboard on the turquoise, but little splashes here and there. I found something similar - will do 2 of them on our 4 x 8 island. (I had to do screen shots, because you can’t tag your saved photos, I don’t think.)

Ah thank you both. I guess I was thinking with doing two we’d need much larger size. We will also have recessed lights throughout so plenty of light. I think I’m going to stick with the globe light look and try and find them around 12”. I love the one you linked Shead, wonder if they have similar with clear glass.

@Alicia, I think they did have the clear when I ordered mine. I mainly went with crackled because I thought it might hide dust better....lol.

So true....

I did 3 smaller on my 4x6 and I wouldn’t want anything less. And while you are thinking about that, you absolutely want to think about what color temperature and lumens for your lights. In the whole house as well as your island. It makes a HUGE difference.

@Alicia

we did 2 on our 4x8. so for sure 2. Pretty sure they're 12" WIDE

here's a pic to see scale

@shead 10.5 wow. drooling.

Perfect!
We’re going over to the house today, we changed the kitchen a bit from our plan so I’m not even entirely sure our island is 3’, it seemed narrow chalked onto the floor so I just assumed that’s what it is.

@Trish Walter, I actually had 11'3" planned but the largest slabs we could get would fit a 10'6" island without a seam, which was very important to DH. We had 10'4" at our Franklin, TN house and LOVED it so we definitely had to have a big island again :)

We have 10' ceilings, and our island is approximately 10'x5'; we're going with two of these 17" pendants:

@shead I specifically chose my quartz countertops very early in the process, so I could determine how big a slab I could get, and told my architect to make my kitchen island that size--I dislike seams in the island!

good call on no seams.

Back to closets.....I think I have ours figured out. DH and I each have our own separate closets approx 8 ft wide by 10'8". I will be using a Lowe's Easy Track tall shelving unit with drawers and another Easy Track tall shoe unit along with two chest of drawers from IKEA (Songesand). The rest will be double hanging rods (trim guy). I can always upgrade in the future. I really like the PAX units, but the components needed to have drawers would cost a lot more than the two chest of drawers (8 drawers total) and the drawers would be a lot shallower than the chest of drawers. One reason I like the Lowe's units is that they are off the floor for easy vacuuming.

DH is using an IKEA dresser (6 drawers), a tall shelf unit (either IKEA PAX or custom-built) and double hanging rods (trim guy). All in all, we should come in around $1500 (hopefully less) for both closets. The kids closets will be a combination of Lowe's Closetmaid components and cheap IKEA chest of drawers inside their closets.

Slow progress for us as our builder continues to wrap up another project. The kitchen cabinet boxes were installed this week, along with the rails for the loft and some additional trim work.

Here is the pull we decided for the master bath. The cabinets are painted SW "Stamped Concrete"

View of the loft from the family room.

Kitchen cabinets and island are in. Waiting for doors and drawer fronts.

My wife is very excited about the pull-outs on either side of the range. The left side is set up for utensil storage, the right side for spices

@SBDRH love the color you picked for the master! I also like the cabinet pullouts next to the rang. What a great idea! Trying to get a recliner or something else for the living room during the Labor Day Sale. They have a recliner and love seat in a fabric that will work for my living room but we have a sectional in there already. What would be best... just the recliner or both?

Help!

DH and I have been super busy the last two days. But I'd like to mention that we did indeed CLOSE! We now only own one house though it's still mainly just a shell with floor joists. Once the movers come, either tomorrow or Wednesday, and I do massive cleaning, we will be out of this house. I sure will miss the stone fireplace and knotty pine walls, it's been a great 20 years here, but on to our final adventure!!

@SBDRH Keep the pics coming - you get me excited for our version! Love the pulls and pullouts too. @Buzz Solo in northeast MI YAAAAAAAAAY!!!! Finally you can do the happy dance!

We're hoping framing starts today but the beam for the basement was delayed to tomorrow last we heard. No new photos yet.

So happy for everyone's progress and @Buzz Solo in northeast MI what a huge load off. Can't wait to unload ours. Had it inspected and eeek....need to have a mold specialist and structural engineer. Prayers appreciated that it's all minimal $$.

You guys are probably sick of my kitchen but to celebrate last day of August, I thought I'd post more. LOL.

Cabinet maker came out and took pics...

In last pic, the bottom cabinet to left of ovens is giant pull out spice cabinet. I love it.

Definitely need to start planning backsplash...ideas??

I like the honeycomb or picket ideas....but not sure...and grout?

@K H i would vote just the chair. hard to tell, but i think it would get crowded with sectional loveseat and chair.

@Trish Walter Your kitchen turned out so nice. Have you had much of a chance to cook in it? It seems like a really functional layout. I’m thinking of doing our layout much the same.

@bytheriverbank

the ovens were just hooked up yesterday! ha. but i've been using the induction cooktop [loooooove]. And I baked cinnamon rolls this morning...

so far the only annoying thing for hubby as he's the diswasher unloader [we also love our bosch 800 dishwasher]...is how far away the mugs are in the coffee station...i use 2 mugs a day ha ha [1 for am 1 for pm].

and i'm getting used to having a prep sink...not sure how necessary it really is for cooking but it's great as it's close to the coffee station...i could just use the fridge water but takes longer to fill [bosch 800 fridge...love and best part is the ice maker heaven].

my other kitchen that I had for 20 years was laid out with the island the opposite direction so I only needed the one sink...so it's a little different. i like having the big prep space on island with cooktop and ovens behind though...that will be nice once I get in the groove.

Sigh. Just had a guy come give us an estimate on redoing a bathroom in our current home. It's the only original bathroom left in this 22-year old house--we've redone the other 2.5 in the 10 years we've lived here--so it sticks out like a sore thumb and needs to be updated before we put this house on the market. Does anyone else hate the idea of spending $ on a house they're about to sell? I just keep thinking of the things I'd rather spend that $ on in the new build...

@K H Do you plan to leave the furniture against the far wall (across from the sectional)? If that furniture can be moved or rearranged, I would get both. I could see putting the sofa against that wall (or pulled out from it a little bit), Then, the recliner angled either facing the sectional or to the side of the sectional near the front door, facing into the living room. Hope that makes sense! Do y'all plan to put a TV in the room? If so, where will that go? We have never put a TV in our living room so I wasn't sure if you was in the same boat or not.

@SBDRH Looking good! I have very similar pullouts beside my range and LOVE them! They are super handy and we've only been somewhat in our home a couple weeks (had a vacation in there so didn't count that week) and they are already proving to be very handy.

@Trish Walter Where is your pantry at in your kitchen? Is it near the butler area I see a glimpse of? Your kitchen looks great! As far as backsplashes go, are you leaning towards neutral tones or a color?

@Buzz Solo in northeast MI Congrats!!! Such a relief isn't it? Although, if you have been in the home 20 years, I bet that was slightly bitter-sweet. We was only in our last home around 5 years and I still found it to be bitter-sweet. We make so many memories in our homes & get attached to them. I can think back on various "firsts" with my kids in our last place and I can imagine you have many great memories in your last home as well, especially being there a longer time!

@shead Sounds like you have a good plan figured out for the closets. My kiddo's closets are a mix of rods/shelves the trim guys did (aka us! lol) and PAX systems from IKEA and it is working great. Our closet is all PAX from IKEA. I have never used PAX so I'm hoping it holds up okay over the years. So far, I really love it. (I did NOT love putting it all together...took ages!)

@Trish Walter I‘ve been trying to talk my husband into an induction cooktop. He really wants a gas Blue Star cooktop. Everyone I know who owns an induction loves cooking on it and would buy it again.

@bytheriverbank gas definitely is sexier but clean up is much better for me on induction. I was really upset at first not to have gas. Still a little bummed about fireplace

@The_Lane_Duo food pantry tucked behind main fridge across from butler pantry that you see. I'll get a pic when I'm home.

jkent9024 - I totally feel your pain! We've put about $30k into the house we are selling. We need to redo our master bath, redo our deck, reface our porch, replace the hot water heater and A/C. It's turning out to be a combination of trying to get top dollar in a hot market and having a 19 year old house where stuff just need attention.

@jkent9024 definitely having a hard time putting the money in! Luckily we did quite a bit last year before we were 100% decided on moving, so it doesn't feel as rough now that it's actually happening. We did put a few grand into our (Gravel) driveway last year-- scraped up the grass that was growing in and put down new gravel... well that damn grass is back already (yet it doesn't want to grow in spots on our actual lawn). Unfortunately we can't use a weed killer since we have bees, so it's just going to have to go on the market like this. I've been bent over pulling weeds all summer and it still looks awful.

We just have a couple other things we need to wrap up here prior to putting on the market, one is fixing the deck (its sunk down in one corner) we're still waiting on a quote from our handyman but don't think it'll be overly costly. The rest is mainly deep cleaning. These windows will be the death of me!

I agree that gas is much sexier but we are also doing induction this time around. We are getting a 36" Wolf. I'm really excited about it but a little nervous, too! I'm really into the cleanup factor these days and cleaning up our KA gas cooktop in our last house was such a PITA.

Shead, I have the wolf induction cooktop. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

@The_Lane_Duo

here are quick pics...not the neatest but getting there...

and here is from the food pantry to the 'butler' area.

and here's our giant spice pull-out just because lol...

Really nice, Trish! And I love seeing what other people have in their pantry. 😉 I cook 98%of all our meals and am a baker too.

@ghatta I haven't been able to cook for a bit so pantry is a little lame. lol

Trish, I get that. My pantry ebbs and flows. Since Covid, it looks stuffed because we shop so we don’t have to do it more than once in awhile. AND we got a Costco card so......

Since we‘re sharing kitchens ... 😄

Island! on the wall to the right will he the fridge, microwave, beverage fridge, and prep sink.

On the right wall will be the main sink, dishwasher, and range. The Dutch door straight ahead goes to the front porch.

@C W, that island is AMAZING!!

Last day of August! Should we post pictures of August 1 vs. August 31, for fun? It could be an interior or exterior photo. Just anything to show progress. :)

Lots of progress this month! Electrical and plumbing rough ins are done! Insulation almost done. Websites m Windows and doors done. Siding started. And several other things. Here's the garage. At the beginning of the month we didn't even have sheeting on the roof. Now it's almost done!

@C W wow!

Trish Walter - I think I am getting the Bosch, as well. Have a cousin that swears by it. I love the upper silverware tray!

C W - What a kitchen!!! I am also getting a Dutch door out to our front/side porch. What brand is yours? I am hoping to get a stain-able door. The top half of yours looks really tall. Is it because it's an 96" door? Would love a close-up photo.

@The_Lane_Duo no tv. I definitely need to and plan to move things around. I feel like I have all of my stuff all lined up on that wall and it’s terrible! Thanks for helping me see outside of the box.

Btw everyone’s builds are looking amazing. @Trish Walter I am sure your husband will adjust :) @Buzz Solo in northeast MI Congrats!

The chair and loveseat I like are super soft but the fabric sample they sent me home with shows they are close in color to the sectional but not exact. Maybe a leather chair would look better?

August progress made:

Exterior wooden porch ceilings installed

Exterior soffits, trim, columns, and gutters

Most interior trim work

HVAC up and running

Fireplace cladded

Garage doors installed

Grade work on yard

September thread:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5987447/september-2020-building-a-home-thread