Brandie May, it looks like the other side isn’t in, anyway. I agree. That’s a permanent things, so short term pain for long term gain. If it drives you crazy now, it always will. Ours are similar to yours.

@Keepthefaith MIGirl Thanks! You are correct the fireplace is glad in hot rolled steel

@Brandie May I'm in the order them and suffer now. They could probably do something to make it appear correct with trim but it will still always be not quite right. I would also make a big stink about the mistake and have your builder pressure the window company - especially if that is where the error occured

@Brandie May I would personally reorder the windows.

@Sherryl In a weird coincidence, the lights to the side of our garage got left off our plans as well. DH caught it during the rough in finish walk through with the electricians last week.

Did y’all have a checklist to go through to make sure things, like electrical, are being considered? That would have prevented two things left off of our plans, including the lighting on the outside of the garages and the undercabinet lighting.

Sheetrock gets delivered today. Finally at the point we can close up the walls. Our do-very-little contractor calls it a Christmas miracle.

How long does Sheetrock usually take? We are around 3700 sq ft and it’s mostly on a single level.

Our handbook says 1-2 weeks one place and 3-4 another place, depending on size. Our Sheetrock is next and we were told there is a delay in delivery. Great that you got it!

Thanks for everyone's opinion on the windows, we are reordering. Our insulation guys start next Monday and they are estimating a full week.

@bytheriverbank Our house is a tad larger in square footage with vaulted ceilings in family area and our drywall guy said it would take about 3 weeks for ours to be completed.

@Sherryl Thank you!

We spent all weekend getting the house cleaned up from the mess left by the plumbers and electricians. We had to haul away a truckload of junk left in the house. Our GC has gone MIA. My husband had to arrange for Sheetrock since the GC said his guys couldn’t meet our standards.

We were supposed to start Sheetrock on the 15th-18th so the material has been ordered for a few weeks. That might be why we didn’t have a material delay.

By the riverbank and everyone who’s interested, here is a photo of that part of our contractor’s manual about these stages:

Wow that manual is awesome, we have nothing like that! I have no idea when things are happening. We are currently starting HVAC...what comes next?! If you could share more of that manual I would really appreciate it!

Here is the whole Section II. The first section is all the pre-construction stuff, and section III is about warranty, etc., so I’m only including Section II.

Here are the other pages of Section II. Section I is pre-construction and Section III is warranty, etc.

Thank you!!!!

@bytheriverbank, my sheetrock installation took 3 days in a 3800 sq ft. home. Then give them another two days for taping and sanding.

Shola - that would be a week - 5 days; their timeline includes taping and floating. They always say the maximum, because they don’t want you coming back and says, “you said this would only take . . .!” LOL

@Sherryl My architect and our builder have been really great at keeping us on top of the details. Reviewing the electrical plan with us and then leaving us with a copy to re-review as we wish for example.

Doc5md - they gave us the electrical plan with our plans and asked us to review it, which we did. But it would have been really useful if they had given us a checklist of things to look for and consider, like the undercabinet lighting and the lights on the outside sides of the garage doors. I wonder if would rather make change orders, though, because they make money on change orders. Am I being unfair?

A shot from our south hill looking back at the house.

@Sherryl not at all unfair. We actually sat down with our architect and went through where he thought things should be and what things we might want (like an outlet in a closet, etc). Then he produced that plan set. Then we sat down together again and reviewed every single light, switch, and outlet one by one. It cost architect time, but I like knowing we have really considered everything thoroughly. This has been the process through most of the build

That would have been nice; we used the builder’s architect, and he was in New Braunfels so we didn’t meet in person. But a checklist of possible options at every stage would have been nice, but particularly electrical. It turns out I did write to the architect and asked about under cabinet lighting. He said that gets added at the electrical walk-through. Well, it was overlooked and now is costing us $700. My husband was starting to do them (he’s an electrical engineer and has done plenty of our own household electrical work), but the builder said it would void the electrical warranty, so we have a change order that costs that much. Like I said, the builder like change orders, and this was easily preventable with a checklist. Your house is looking great! Where is it?

We are in north, central Pennsylvania- Sort of near Williamsport (Little League baseball world series).

@Shola, your room to the left when you walk in your front door, what color is your accent wall and other walls? I saw the answered somewhere but can't find it. Thank you in advance.

@Shola Akins Thank You for the timeline. We have a Sheetrock inspection scheduled for Thursday so at least I know it will be hung in the next 3 days.

@doc5md Your land looks so private and secluded. Very nice.

We actually had furniture delivered today. We will move stuff in over the holiday weekend and hopefully be able to move ourselves in as well. We still have about 2 weeks left to wrap everything up but the main living floor is done. Just waiting on the finished basement which needs floors, doors and trim. Then I get a couple days of painters, then onto the punch list.

I didn't take a ton of photos but this one came out pretty good - Still waiting on the rug - featured here is our lovely rug pad.

I'm pretty overwhelmed by how amazing the house looks. I keep waiting for the real new owners to show up ;) I feel super lucky and so relieved we are close to the end.

Just beautiful!

N Kay, so peaceful and quiet. Your home and the view is restful and stunning. Love the fog. I want to plop down with a cup of coffee and gaze at it. Is your view a vista or mtn range? I don't remember.

I'm so excited! Yesterday I stopped at a plumbing supply showroom my friend just used in her build. I was checking out their marked down fixtures (floor samples, discontinued, etc.) and guess what I found! We are doing a freestanding tub, but I wanted air jets...this is so much better, its a Jason microsilk. Not even close to budget as these tubs are $5000+, my plumber gave me an allowance of $1500 and this magical unicorn had just been marked down to my allowance! I still can't believe it and wonder if it was a mistake but I bought it. We start framing a week from Monday, so I will have to find somewhere to keep it for a few months until we are ready for it.

Great buy! It’s similar in lines to the tub we are getting, but not nearly the deal, or quality that you have found.

NK - so pretty. I know you are excited!

I posted some comments to others a few days ago, but see that they have not gone through. I don’t know if this post will or not. We are nearing the end of our beach vacation. Wi-Fi service is terrible here. Temps in the 60’s. Nice to get away with grandchildren, but ready to get back home to see house progress.

@N Kay, your home is beautiful! That fireplace is to die for! Your floors look very similar in color and style to mine and I am loving mine so far.

Happy New Year, everyone! May 2021 bring you the home of your dreams!

@jbeth joy WOW do you have any more pics or know the style name? I chose a Jason without ever having seen one and your photo got me excited!! We are getting microsilk too 😍 the stalling out on windows issues has me dreaming of a nice bath. I need to find a canvas or something to put on the wall to look at. Maybe an electric fireplace? A small one would be lovely....hmmmm......

@nkay what is your fireplace surround? Is that metal? I love the look!

@Keepthefaith MIGirl don't laugh at this other pic, my friend made me get in and send this pic to my husband as incentive to say yes to buying it so early, lol. The model is me553ps-m-wt 1201.04.61, hope that helps! My friend hung a TV on her wall to look at, her tub has all the bells and whistles though so she may never get out of the bath. The only thing she is missing is a wine fridge next to it, lol. I'm going to need one after finding out our lumber package jumped $9,000 in the last 3 weeks. I wanted to lock in the pricing and buy it out 3weeks ago but our lumber sales guy wanted to check a few things and kind of dropped the ball.

@N Kay Your Great Room looks wonderful. Everything came together perfectly. I think I've said this before. You and I have similar styles. I'll have to search back through and look for more of your pictures :)

Hello structural steel!

Jbeth joy - That photo reminds me of when I tried out a tub at Ferguson. I really did not want to, but the rep, and my husband, pushed me to do so. I am still recovering from 10 broken ribs after almost a year. They hurt when making certain moves. Well, when it came time to get out of the tub, I had trouble pulling myself up. The rep and my husband had to pull me out.. I was mortified and very sore for days afterward. :(

@N Kay Gosh you home is amazing! Would love to see more pics. :-)

@jbeth I'd never laugh. Kudos to you for sharing! I climbed into several in store and yep I'm not graceful getting out either. I did find though that the Jason tubs have a more reasonable well width. The others I really liked had great lumbar support but a width of 17-20"at the bottom. You look very comfortable in there! I might need a foot bump though to brace myself as I think I'm shorter than you. Otherwise I'll drown lol 😆

ooooo, a modern mountain home?! Yes, please, more please 😍 looks like an elevator shaft?

@Keepthefaith MIGirl, no elevator shaft, it's just the space between some of the supports. More here, plans here.

J Beth joy: don’t feel bad about the lumber price jump. Ours had gone up $21,000 between our contract in May and delivery in September—and our price was 75% of the cost hike; builder paid 25% per contract. In their 30 years in business, nothing had gone up more than 25% that the builder pays that they had to pass that cost on to the homeowner.

@Sherryl that is so crazy. These material prices are just killing us. I heard lightning is expecting an increase in Jan, possibly sheetrock and metal products.

JBeth joy - let’s hope not!

My phone said 364 posts, so because there's 365 days in a year and this being new years Eve, I felt we needed one more post. May we all experience good health, and successful, joyful, fruga, and timely construction in the new year!!

@Sherryl is there any way you can send me your guidebook? I’m just getting started on my build - we broke ground earlier in December. My contractor didn’t provide anything like that to me. It would be a huge help.

The January 2021 Build Thread

Jeremy-yes—how and where do you want me to send it?

@Sherryl I just opened up my profile so you can PM me :) Thanks so much!

Jeremy—will do when we get home and I have my iPad. We’re on our way to our new home under construction.

Jeremy - I don’t see how to send you anything from your profile.