Congrats, @Chandllerin. Here's hoping a job offer comes in soon. And @Liz888 and @Kyla McSweeney, that hurts. The inflated prices everywhere make me feel sick, especially when in some cases, there seems to be no connection between the economy, supplies and pricing. We are shopping for a new car. The last time we bought one, it was about 20% more than the last "same" model we'd purchased. This time, even with an equal number of years between purchases, it's 110% more. Really??!!

@Chandllerin That great news!

@worthy @Kyla McSweeney @Liz888 So sorry to hear about all the budget overages!

We're still making progress. Sump pump has been installed and almost done backfilling.

We're thankfully coming in under budget on dirtwork because we did less digging, but that's going right into siding because of unanticipated siding replacement and they forgot to quote the window trim.

Well, so far so good.

bricklayers started this week, and the painter needs one more week and then hopefully flooring and tile can begin.

Bought appliances Nov 1, right when zline’s black friday sale started.

I’m with y’all on the overages. I removed 30 linear feet of cabinetry so mobilize some cash to spend on flooring……my net cabintry savings was a paltry $100. I was grumpy for a week.

p.s. if your contractor requires buying from build with Ferguson, I called them and asked them to please price match Amazon for my cart and they did. That saved me $450 on faucets. (It all adds up).

I’ve also had some good luck with open box items from Ebay, that saved me $1500 on hardware.

I must give another shout out to OfferUp.com when you are looking for building supplies. I needed a wall mount Toto bidet toilet and was about to buy from Ferguson Showroom here in Santa Monica. I always check Offer up (and Costco.com) before making a big purchase. Sure enough there was a guy selling the top of the line Neorest Toto toilet bowl/bidet seat, a $17,000 setup for $5999. I low balled him for $3000 he said OK! It was more than the $2500 I was expecting a new toilet to cost but the square Neorest is a damn nice toilet.

I drove out to his storage container in Agoura hills and find out he's a Malibu contractor that works on luxury homes. Unfortunately, it turned out that what was in the open Toto toilet boxes was not the Neorest toilet but rather a new basic Toto model. I was about to walk away then I noticed Graff bathroom fixture boxes sitting on a shelf in his storage container.... then I see two Bromic 50" outdoor heater boxes on another. I was trying not to show excitement when I negotiated a deal for all those new items for $2400 including the toilet!

The Graff shower head and the arm alone are are over $1800! My in-wall shower valve is Graff but I hadn't planned something this fancy. The two wall-mount Bromic 220w outdoor heaters are something I was dreaming about for my roof top deck... I even ran a 220 line out there for these exact heaters to get sometime in the future. It was crazy these two things were there. Funny thing is that all the boxes had the contractors name written on them, which so happened to be the same name as the street I live on. Synchronicity!

I love OfferUp.com

Great seeing everyone's progress! I concur with the frustration about costs. The inflation doesn't make sense at this point I think a lot of it is price-gouging somewhere along the line that gets passed on to us.

We decided where to put the septic tank, the propane tank, and the generator this week. Trench has been dug for the water line.

The pantry cabinetry layout become sort of a headache until we decided to go back to a pocket door. That makes it much easier to fit the full-size fridge I'm putting in there. But I have a question for you all. The pantry is a walk in, and at one end there's a tall closed cabinet (the rest is open shelving). I want the interior shelves in this cabinet to be adjustable. I have two different versions here. In one, the designer eliminated the corner shelves entirely and instead made two sets of adjustable shelves inside the closed cab, but i think the bar running down the middle and the buried ends will make it harder to access. In the other version, one of the corners is inside the cabinet, and the shelves are fixed. I want them to put in a divider so i can have some adjustable shelves in there, separate from the corner that has to be fixed. They say the interior corner will be too hard to access. I think that is still probably the better option. What do you think?

Corner inside cabinet:

long shelves, no corners:

Everyone's homes are looking amazing! @worthy congrats to your newlywed daughter and SIL on their new home. @Kyla gorgeous cabinets! @Liz888 (my Chicago neighbor :) ) love your exterior choices. @bmanning and @Carissa wow - beautiful locations and homes! And @Paul F I've never used Offer Up but holy moley you found some great things for your bathroom!

I haven't posted for a bit about my remodel, because we moved during October (on our own - yikes) and have been settling in. Was able to sell some of the big pieces that I didn't keep (dining room set, armoires, treadmill, etc.) and the recipients each got a steal, so win-win.

Anyway, our remodel is pretty much done and we're in! I posted some before and after pictures here. Best wishes to all of you for happy holidays... hopefully in your new homes!

@keenb. Don’t worry about the warranty. They can’t start it until it’s actually installed. My LG fridge died almost 5 years to the day we bought it. Except we “bought’ it in May and it died in October. The month we moved in. LG said they honor warranty for builds because they understand they aren’t installed yet so go by the installation date. It was covered 100%

@2rickies If I am looking at your drawings correctly, in the longer cabinet with the center post, the right side will cut into counter/shelf along right-hand wall? And the other will have a counter to the right of it? If so, will that hinder the use of those counters? or the space under them?

I do think if you have a divider in the center of the second design, you will have trouble reaching that corner because opening/plus angle will cut it off from larger items. But wouldn't the longer version with center divide have the same issue on both ends? My feeling is the adjustable shelves outweigh the blind corner in either design. You can store the things you use the least in those nooks.

I don't have corners in my current, deep pantry cabinet, but even so I hate mucking around in its depths. I have to yank out so much to get to anything. And the way they were installed I cannot use pullout shelves. I wonder if anyone makes pullout shelves that deal with a blind corner?

In my laundry I have shallow cabinets with doors which keeps the dust out, but items are so much easier to find. I now want as many open shelves in new pantry as possible, and if closed, I want them shallow.

@Keen B, thanks for the analysis; it's very helpful. I wasn't sure if by the "2nd" design you mean the one with the straight shelves inside and now corner turns? I think you're right, both designs make the corners hard to access. In the one with the center divider and the long shelves, I think it's probably worse--there is more corner space on both sides that's impacted. In the one where there's one corner turn inside the cabinet, I'd put the vertical divider as close to the corner as possible, rather than in the center. I'm thinking I'd have ~30" adjustable shelves, so a little narrower than the width of the doorway, which would also make them easier to adjust. If the divider is toward the corner, and only on the uppers (the lowers won't be adjustable), I hope that will make what's on the main set of shelves more accessible. As you say, adjustable is important, and I've been pushing for more adjustable shelves everywhere! Right now that cabinet has 5 adjustable shelves and 3 fixed.

I only have a countertop on one side of the room, and that's to the right of the closed cabinet. I don't think the design with the narrower cabinet will impact the countertop too much. The only corner pullouts i know of are the ones that require a deep corner. I'll have one in the kitchen kind of like this. I don't know if they make them for smaller/shallower cabinets: https://www.woodworkerexpress.com/skin/common_files/images/how-to/blind-corner-cabinets/582-18-RMP-02.jpg

I totally agree about shelving that's too deep! The most useful depth for me is around 10". I've tried to measure what I plan to store, and I may not even use the full depth of some of the shelves (I have a feeling a lot of it will be empty for a while!), but I do have some items that are larger. The open shelves in the room are all 8, 12, or 18" (lowers) except over the fridge. Inside the cabinet they're 12" and 15" (lowers). I have some large bulky food items that I want to store inside a cabinet, rather than in the open, which is why I made the cabinet the depth that it is. For example, big bags of dog food will fit on the lower shelves, and they could be partially shoved toward a corner and still be visible.

Okay so I think I'm convinced now that I prefer the design with one corner inside the cabinet rather than two.

Here's a photo I like because it reminds me of shop class (where I couldn't make anything that looked like it was supposed to...):

We passed our blower test! CO inspection scheduled for next week! Movers scheduled for Dec 28 (though we are not really moving in til we reiire.)

Sigh of relief, though there are still MANY things to do, like landscaping, Laundry and pantry design.

future backyard views

We finally got a driveway! Lucky for us, the weather has been pretty warm for this time of year, so they were able to do the asphalt.
@janet - love your future view! Here’s ours- Torreys peak and the continental divide. Can’t wait to sit on the back deck with a glass of wine to enjoy this!

bmanning - beautiful!!

Wow... @janet and @bmanning you both have amazing views. My 'burbs view is nothing compared to this.

Would love to see pictures of people’s “backyard” views. So many gorgeous spots. I live East of St Paul on the Minnesota/Wisconsin border near the Wild and Beautiful St Croix River. This is my backyard in Summer. We moved in 5 years ago in December. Still working on doing our lower walkout level. Slow going as we are doing it ourselves.

This is my backyard view. My husband is working on building our fence, which are those posts. We are in the middle of the woods, but in a suburb. Our land goes far back into those woods, part if it is conservation land. Obviously we haven't done grass in the backyard yet, that will get done in the Spring, since we have frost (and had a tiny flurry the other day). I am in Massachusetts, a suburb to the West of Boston.

I can't post just one...my backyard...I think I've sprinkled these here over the last few years, end of a sand road, with a very small backyard, but state forest in our front yard.

Our back yard - a city lot in Charlottesville, VA - foothills of the Blue Ridge there in the distance. Our build is almost complete, but I haven't taken a backyard photo since the Spring!

I like seeing everyone’s views too. I didn’t get a great picture when the leaves were changing this year. We’ve got floor framing going this week. So good to see progress!

I love to see everyone’s views! So different and all so beautiful!

Things are finally starting to move along, after months of nothing. We got the roof on a couple of weeks ago. We managed to get zero rain during the framing process which was nice. Came in a good bit under budget with the framing package. Had first meeting with the electrician & plumber 2 weeks ago and have a meeting lined up next week with the cabinet maker. Got the front doors ordered and expect them to be finished in a month or less. I'm in a complete panic over choosing hard finishes like tile, grout and countertops. While I have an idea of what I want, I am super worried about how it will all look once installed together. Does everyone feel that way or am I being over dramatic? Those kinds of items are so permanent... It makes me nervous thinking of how I won't be able to change it even if I hate it at the end.

@A C Yes, I definitely felt that way and I had plenty of time to make those decisions. We are owner builders, so no one else was rushing us. Still...Many of my choices were not made til I was forced to do so by scheduling.

Some of my choices I love, love, love. Some, not so much. I spent tons on paint samples, trying to get the exact color I wanted on my house. I'm learning to accept what I have, but look forward to the day it needs be repainted. I love all my tile and grout choices except in one bathroom shower.. The larger tile, once it was installed looked like a bunch of black worms on the wall. (Noone but me will admit this, so maybe I am being dramatic too.) The samples didn't suggest this at all. On another floor, I do love the finished look, but each tile is so varied in colors, and ultimately there was so much more brown on the whole floor, than I saw on the several samples we received. (They were mostly blue with a little brown.) It still works, but seeing it all laid out first might have made me choose something else. My advice (which someone else echoed somewhere around here), get a box of whatever tile you are thinking about, lay it out, before you commit. Even if you return the box, or are forced to keep that one box, it's worth the money. I ended up doing the same with a blue grout I was using, and bought two different colors to see. (There were no samples to check...) I'm glad I did because one was much grayer than any of the online pictures.

Another tough choice was the kitchen countertop. I was looking for something very durable in white, but hate quartz and corian. Either way, in the end, we realized we have so many counters, white would be too overwhelming. So maybe, if you can afford a "designer for a day" someone can help you narrow down some of the things you are thinking. Designers work with these things so often that they are often familiar with products, and have studied color theory, so they can imagine how everything works together so much more easily than I can. Like they would know the color "intimate white" would actually look quite pink in a small room...I just lucked out that way...

For picking finishes, if this helps anyone:

I used the free advice on maria Killam’s website mariakillam.com and bought her undertone color wheel (best $29 i spent) and e book that explained how to pick different whites and creams (i think it was $27) which had advice and specific color suggestions for both sherwin williams and ben moore.

I searched her blog by subject ”backsplash tile”, ”granite”, ”hardwood” and went topic by topic and honestly it was very very helpful (and free!!!) and removed so much of the stress of picking these pricey finishes.

I would have had a hard time convincing my husband to spend $$$$ on a designer when we are $45k over budget with the build but $56 to help pick colors and finishes the way a designer would was a no-brainer and made it much less exhausting and much more fun.

@A C, oh, the decisions!!! I'm usually good at details and decisions, but so far I seem to be the queen of second-guessing and revisiting. Current dilemma is exterior paint. Blue is my favorite color, and I've spent tons of time looking for a blue that will work. I keep going darker because lighter blues don't look good with the stone or the roof color. And now that the roof is up, I have a sinking feeling that blue is not the right color at all for this house. The hardest part is finding something that works with the stone that's going on half of the house. A shade of gray is probably the right choice, but DH hates gray and refuses. Meanwhile, the architects would make the whole house black (or dark gray) if we let them. They want to put black or dark gray metal cladding on the west end of the house, which is under an overhang but will still get lots of strong sun in season. I'm sure this will somehow resolve itself.

Here's the house with roof almost done:

I love seeing all of these amazing settings! Here's one view of mine, from that side with the big overhang:

Picking finishes is overwhelming. I am happy with all I have picked out so far. I was nervous about our primary bath tile but I really love it. We picked most things out in May 2021, because our build was supposed to start in June 2021. There are things I can't remember that I picked out. Like the vanity tops will be a suprise! On that topic I got an email from our builder on Monday afternoon that when they went to cut the primary bath granite for our vanities it fell apart in pieces. It was a remnant and discontinued so they wanted us to come down a select a new one. I had to be in the office on Tuesday and it is a big drive (about an hour) to the stone shop. My husband went down and I was super nervous, but he sent me pictures and we ended up with a white quartz with veining. I think it will be great.

If anyone wants a virtual designer consultation, I have a friend who does that as well as in person. Just message me. She is super reasonable and everyone I have recommended her to, love her. She is on the 3rd space in one friends house.

I typed this a couple of weeks ago and apparently never posted.

I’ve been busy picking out all of our plumbing fixtures. I went through Ferguson initially, but PDI gave me SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper prices on every single thing. I saved hundreds. I have all plumbing bought except for toilets and kitchen faucet. We had electricians working on the rough in, they’re almost done. Paid almost entire bill. I still needed to decide on tv placement for an outlet in living room, so they went to another job for a while to give me time. I have to have a babysitter to really work on things up there, and that’s not always easy to find. We are very busy finishing up harvest and having four little kids, so we just got to walk through last weekend to see what they’ve done, what we need to still have done/changed. There is quite a list. I hope they come back soon to finish. The masons have our rumford fireplaces built except out of the roof. They have their trailer of scaffolding still at our house, but they just will not come back! They’re coming once day every two weeks to work on the stinking fireplaces. The plumber can’t come until I get my stuff in, should be in within the month. My Amish crew worked on my exterior cornice two days then left. They told us they’d stay on us/our job til completed. HA! They haven’t been back, said it’ll be a week or so and they can come back a few days to work on it. Very unhappy with them. So basically we’re waiting for masons, electrician and trim guys to come and finish their jobs before we can have others started. HVAC waiting on us.. roof is waiting on those chimneys and cornice.

Our Exciting Backyard.

Oh well, there is a half-acre and we have to plant 13 trees as per the building permit.

***********

Installing front porch hydronic heating.

And in the basement. (The line in the middle carries concrete being poured.)

A combi boiler will heat glycol for the exterior and water for the interior.

Sharing the views of our backyard here in GA. I’ve loved seeing everyone’s backyard views.

Drywall started yesterday. Interior doors were just ordered. Cabinetry is currently in process. Selecting finishes has given me so much anxiety. Glad to see that I’m not alone and thanks for all of the advice!

@Keen B, thought I'd tell you the conclusion of the pantry layout "saga." I ended up eliminating the tall enclosed cabinet and making everything open shelving of different depths, except I enclosed the space below the countertop on one wall and made the shelves inside into roll-outs. Glad to be done with that, and I'm satisfied with the outcome! Thanks for your input, it helped!

I spoke with a local civil engineer and he sounds like the guy for the job. I'll be drawing new site plans with the new driveway location and scanning those on Monday to send him. I may go make a video on the property, describing the cuts and fills I have in mind for that. I have pioneered lots of roads in by eye so I can see what I want but I need to convey that on paper.

The driveway is 580' long and we will be proposing concrete runners with vegetation between, to reduce the impervious surface area.

He wants to address the future shop impervious area now, as I have suggested.

Me again. So excited our countertops were installed last night and today he worked on the backsplash.

@Kyla McSweeney They look fabulous! Congratulations.

@Kyla Sweeney, everything looks beautiful!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 🦃

Here's our septic tank going in:

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! I love everyone's backyard views!! Mine's just my neighbor's backyard so nothing to see. :(

@kyla mcsweeney - love all your selections! So jealous that you are so further along. When do you expect to move in?

@2rickies - glad to your pantry dilemma worked out. I was trying to follow your design delimma but couldn't follow. I'm glad @Keen B was able to help!

@chanderlain - you are already at drywall? So jealous!!!

We are moving along albeit slow (in my opinion). We are at an insulation stage and drywall will follow after.

They finally started framing this week. They framed the walkout part of the lower level, put the sill plates down for the main level. They prepped the steel i-beams, and the crane is supposed to be there Monday morning to set them. Nice to see some boards getting nailed together finally.

We have the brick done, and the first coat of paint up, starting to get really excited. up next, more of the fun things like shower tile, floors, counters (:

The only remaining places for me to blow a budget are shower glass and landscaping, which is a relief. Onto closing and locking in a mortgage rate

That looks great @carissa. We are so glad that we did a construction to perm loan so our rate was locked in. At the time we thought it was really high, but now with interest rates.

Thanks for all the nice words everyone. Can we have everyone's good wishes, prayers, fingers crossed (whatever you believe in) for a CO this week? We need to move out on Thursday and all the stars need to align for us to get a CO by that time. We have the HERS rating tomorrow and then the plumber and electrician need final inspections. I am not sleeping I am so stressed! We spent the last 3 days packing up our rental, well MH was building the fence for our dogs and our closet system from IKEA.

Our Landlord has hit his limit with us, we moved in here August 21 and thought we would be here for 4 months. Yikes!

@carissa thanks for the color tip. Choosing paint colors has been weighing on my mind. I’ve ordered my wheel and am reading the ebooks. Hopefully this will help to get it right the first time!

@kyla McSweeney I hope all of the stars align for you this week! Fingers crossed that you get your CO! 🤞

Just got back from a weekend at the build. We accomplished lots of little things

• sealed the kitchen quartzite, which stank to high heaven, but was so easy,
• narrowed our backsplash tile choice,
• bought washer and dryer on Black Friday and already had them installed
• hung the glass doors on upper kitchen cabinets,
• painted interior of front and back doors,
• hung privacy film on Primary bath window (our houses are so close together, and it looks fabulous, just like the windows came that way.)
• hung our address numbers (needed for CO).
• installed an embarrassingly large TV. Don't ask why I can put that in before CO but not real furniture...
• watched tons of college ball on that TV.

BUT, as always, I did not take pictures, except 1...my island lights. I love them (though not sure they fit the overall design.)

Keen B - those lights are fabulous!

Carissa- thank you for the tip on Maria Killam. Her site is full of great info!

I agree @Keen B the lights are fabulous. Can't wait to see other pictures.

@Keen B love the lights!

And everyone is making good progress! I'm also agonizing over finishes, but I try to tell myself I'm picking among many right choices. Currently picking countertops and I know why pricing is opaque, but it's still frustrating.

Front runners for the basement bath- Glacier white or new river white granite

Hall bath (aqua tile)+master bath(pink tile) slabs- I've fallen in love with Taj mahal like many others, but it's definitely more than the mid range quartz that was used for pricing. I'm waiting on pricing information.

Taj mahal

Lumataj quartz

it’s been snowing and soooo cold. We just got done with insulation and hope to start drywall next week

Front door will be installed next week. Slowly but surely get there

Third Floor: furniture, home improvements and, ah, your new three-membrane roof.

Sub-zero C. weather, coldest since March.

Finally we have some progress. It’s just been a month of waiting for us - waiting for the masons to come and build the chimneys.. waiting for the crew to install the rest of the cornice.. we needed both done before we can put up shingles. The cornice crew is suppose to stay on us all week, hope they get most of it done. My plumbing items should be in next week so the plumber is coming to do the rough in. I scored some great deals on lights during Black Friday sales. Y’all need to check out southforklighting.com - they were consistently the cheapest price last week. They have a code you could stack on top of the Black Friday sale prices. I have always met with two cabinet makers and have one quote back. Waiting for the next. I have one more cabinet maker I plan on meeting soon. That’s what’s going on at our place! Maybe we can really get going if plumber will finish, on to insulation and dry wall..and a roof… maybe!

Can you believe it's end of November? I feel like it went by slow/fast at the same time!! lol.

Hoping a speedy build process for everyone next month! Link to December 2023 - How is your Build Going?

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6415123/december-2023-how-is-your-build-going

My 99 year old house is about to be fully operational smart home. My fire was terrible but its been great to replace the infrastructure of my forever home with the latest technology. It's taken a lot of my life energy to do without a contractor but soon it will be just a fading memory of a bad thing that happened. Black Friday deals couldn't have come at a better time. Love you Costco!

Thanks, @Liz888 for starting the December thread. I have a tile dilemma...