Well we thought we’d be moving in by now. Let’s just say… not quite… nowhere close… I’m in a general state of despair because it feels like our entire life is kind of on hold until we can move, meanwhile life just continues on at lightning speed all around me 😩

We are trying to figure out the furniture as we want to get the core pieces locally made. Should have started sooner, it’s a lot. On one hand it’s fun going through so many fabric samples and options but on the other hand it’s not so fun doing this all at once in a time crunch while also dealing with construction crap that our GC really should have figured out a long time ago. You know what they say about failing to plan…

Slow but Progress..
The Amish guys came back and started finishing the cornice and all of the exterior trim work they left us on last year. All of the returns that were not done on the main house are complete. Next up for them is back porch trims, front porch trims then dormers. Then they will move to the garage and build the cornice, trim dormers and install siding there. Our interior trim guy has been at our house probably a total of five days. He got the front door and back door up, so all of the window jamb boards. He still has five more exterior doors to install. He had a tooth pulled Tuesday and didn’t come back. He should be back Tuesday. The masons (who were supposed to to start two weeks ago) still haven’t come. Hopefully this week. We are about to spend so much on labor the next couple of months. We have purchased a lot this summer as well. A lot left to spend. It feels like we will never quit right now lol. My husband finished running all of the ductwork under the house. We worked out a deal for him to run the ducting and the HVAC guy to do the rest. I hope HVAC makes it out this week. I’ve been ordering beadboard, interior trims and gathering quotes for columns. On my list this month to do as well - order a sample of the cabinet knobs I’m considering for all cabinets and nail that decision down, wallpaper for bathrooms, tile, and paint schemes.

pipe is in backflied and the driveway restored.

This 3 top tree had to go, too close to the house and in the driveway path. It was hard to do.

Despite havimg taken down thousands of trees over my career, I am a tree hugger at heart.

We took it out first so we could try to save the yew tree hiding in the other firs in our bedroom.

See it? My gardener brother saw it.

Yew revealed. It was symbiotically grafted to the fir so I don't have lot of hope, but we moved it into the hole left in the branches when I removed the first tree.

We put in offset stakes and I stripped only the grass, about 2"

Then saved the topsoil which averaged 18" deep.

I tossed it back a couple of times and high stacked it out of the way. It is over a hard clay/glacial till layer that is good only for fill.

The left corner is about basement grade here.

What a STUNNING house & view, 2rickies! Bet you're excited to finally get in there and start living.

Indeed!

A home that recognizes where it is, integrating native materials with traditional forms.

Love the juxtaposition of the stone and black metal. Amazing to find masons willing to tackle that. Enjoy!

thank you so much @worthy and @BPMBA! The masons have been incredible; the stone is my favorite part of the house. It has been a looooong process, and I can't wait to be able to actually sleep there!

@izzieo: I totally feel your pain. I hope things get on track for you. We’re 20 days from supposed move-in, and we even pushed that 2 weeks later than our contractor said, because we all know how nothing they do happens when it’s supposed to. Their remaining to-do list is very long, and I honestly think they’re going to be working on our house as we’re moving boxes and furniture in. GC told us to expect twelve months for completion and it’s now been EIGHTEEN. This isn’t a mansion we’re building here. We’re just tired and we’ve had enough.

@izzieo, I really get it. When we have our walk-through it will be 21 months since we broke ground! it just goes on and on. We were supposed to be in Feb! then March, then May, june, july... I stopped believing we'd ever be done. And i'm sure we'll still be doing random stuff for the next year even after we move in. I have no furniture except beds (half of them still to be assembled) and a dog bed, LOL. I finally bought some cheap lawn chairs online so we'd have something to sit on! Good luck--you'll get there!

18 months! 21 months! Gahhhh.

@2rickies - wow, your place is looking incredible. I like the new quartzite better, the subtle pops of brown looks so good with your masonry and cherry cabs. The exterior masonry is absolutely incredible, expensive but what a dream. I usually hate new builds with masonry as it looks fake… yours looks so authentic though because it is! It seems difficult to get a beautiful old stone house vibe like that on a new build, yours looks perfect and such a nice juxtaposition indeed with the modern design. Stairs look perfect too! Ours turned out so bad and I have a handrail crisis now 🤣

@A C - lol yes, I’ve scheduled a mattress delivery and I also feel like we are still going to be finishing some details after we move in which will be kinda annoying to have people in our space but whatever.

I think I finally understand what people meant when they said the finishing stage takes literally forever and is extremely frustrating. We are so close, but relying on so many different people it’s a bit of a mess. Tile guy finally started, we wanted him to start on the entry/mudroom floor so at least we could deliver the rest of the cabinetry and get the mudroom installed while he was working on floors/bathrooms upstairs. Of course, he starts upstairs so we had to push cabinetry delivery again. Then he had to go off to finish another job yesterday and today, leaving our site empty for 2 days. I selected the countertop for our primary bathroom vanity like in the winter and then confirmed they had a remnant available back in June. What do ya know, they sold the remnant to someone else. All these tiny delays add up and before you know it, you’re months behind schedule.

@agbhw - I seriously don’t understand how the people you hired just left last year and only came back now. What?!

@2rickies - wow, your place is looking incredible. I like the new quartzite better, the subtle pops of brown looks so good with your masonry and cherry cabs. The exterior masonry is absolutely incredible, expensive but what a dream. I usually hate new builds with masonry as it looks fake… yours looks so authentic though because it is! It seems difficult to get a beautiful old stone house vibe like that on a new build, yours looks perfect and such a nice juxtaposition indeed with the modern design. Stairs look perfect too! Ours turned out so bad and I have a handrail crisis now 🤣

@A C - lol yes, I’ve scheduled a mattress delivery and I also feel like we are still going to be finishing some details after we move in which will be kinda annoying to have people in our space but whatever.

I think I finally understand what people meant when they said the finishing stage takes literally forever and is extremely frustrating. We are so close, but relying on so many different people it’s a bit of a mess. Tile guy finally started, we wanted him to start on the entry/mudroom floor so at least we could deliver the rest of the cabinetry and get the mudroom installed while he was working on floors/bathrooms upstairs. Of course, he starts upstairs so we had to push cabinetry delivery again. Then he had to go off to finish another job yesterday and today, leaving our site empty for 2 days. I selected the countertop for our primary bathroom vanity in the winter and then confirmed they had a remnant available back in June. What do ya know, they sold the remnant to someone else and only now decided to mention we need to pay $3k more for the full slab, after already agreeing to an invoice with the lower price based on the remnant they sold months ago. All these tiny delays add up and before you know it, you’re months behind schedule.

@agbhw - I seriously don’t understand how the people you hired just left last year and only came back now. What?!

@izzieo, glad you like it ! tbh, the masonry was not too expensive b/c we didn't have to buy the stone! The masons obviously did a ton of work, though. Labor on this project has driven the cost way more than materials. We still don't have our showers totally grouted b/c of this one stupid layer of stone that frames our otherwise porcelain tile niches. The fabricator used the wrong glue and it stained the natural stone "frame". At first it looked like the stains were fading, but now they're back in full force, so the stone people are going to have to replace that part before the tile guys can finish grouting. Especially annoying b/c i didn't even really want stone in there, but the architect convinced me it would look better (he's probably right, tho). And we couldn't get our shower doors installed until they re-leveled the floor after piling too much drywall in one spot and causing it to go out of level. I think the doors go in this week? Also just learned the dog fencing will go in next week, which is a big relief, i thought it was going to take longer. The only thing I'm bummed about is the farm gates will be black b/c no one has galvanized right now and we'd have to wait several weeks for that. I'm hoping it will just "disappear."

@2rickies: We’ve been selling a lot of our existing furniture as we’re packing up to move. We now have an empty moving box that serves as a coffee table. 😂. New coffee table was ordered last week and won’t arrive til mid December. That was disappointing to hear. I should have ordered it much earlier. Same with our chairs. We will be moving in with a couch and some lawn chairs for the living room. Should look fantastic…. LOL.

We moved in in July. Finally. There’s still a couple of small things left to do. The electricians installed lights upside down in a bathroom, and so we are waiting on wallpaper in order to fix that room. We purchased a few pieces of furniture and things, but we are mostly using what we had. I’d like to settle in a bit more and save up some more money. We also have not completely moved out of the old house. It’s been so hot here, but now football season has started. I may have to hire some young people to help me finish since my DH isn’t doing it.

I have a young son, and I think that’s been the hardest part of all of this. He had surgery in July too and is now in a toddler bed. It’s been a lot of changes for him. It’s hard for me to pack or unpack with such a great little helper around. I’m posting the one photo I found on my phone, which is of a closet. lol. My son out his stuffed animals in “jail.” Poor Santa.

Oh I can definitely relate to the shower niche struggle… yours sounds incredible though 2rickies, it is hard to visualize with the stone so do share pics!

HUGE win finally, since we started looking at furniture we found one small local company available at a retailer here and we will get a giant sectional from them. It is all bench-made so high quality, 0 VOC materials, infinite fabric options, etc. The best part? They are one of the makers for white label furniture for Restoration Hardware! I had no idea but apparently RH just gets different small shops like this to make their designs and so essentially we are getting RH quality for a fraction of the price. Just FYI everyone if you don’t already know, RH prices are a scam 🤣

I have moved ~1 million pounds of material to get to this point.

I slicked it off at +0/-2" this morning, we laid out the plumbing and got that ready for inspection, and laid out many of the footing digs.

Daisy the neighbor dog helped.

I am waiting on electrical inspection and getting everything else in under the slab tomorrow, in preparation for an epic work day Saturday. 2 neighbors are coming to finish the plumbing and set the forms, another friend will operate the 120 and put in the final grade gravel with a neighbor here running grade for her.

Operating friend of 34 years will sit on this nice newish rental dozer and grade out the 150 tons of 3" minus that I will be hauling in.

Sunday an ironworker friend is tying everything that will be ready.

Wednesday I set this culvert pipe and a sleeve at daybreak, and got the rock compacted just in time to take delivery of the ICFs.

Low-slung house on a flat lot does not enable water to drain, especially on the clay soil; water ponds instead. So we connected all eight drops from the flat roof to a system of hard perforated ABS pipes feeding two 8'x8'x7' deep drywells.

A reminder that our lot was part of an area known as the "Wetlands" when first developed in the 1960s.

"Trench warfare"

Gravel underneath the perforated piping.

One of two dry wells; landscaping fabric is placed on top, then soil.

Nice @worthy! We are thinking of doing something similar with buried pipes mainly just so it can go under pathways without interfering. Bit different on a big rural property, also we are on a slope which makes it easier, but it’s still interesting how you can strategically direct water and then landscape around it. Are you planning a garden for the area on top of your ‘dry wells’ ? Seems like 2 great spots for some nice native plants. Something we are thinking of designing is buried perforated pipe under garden areas so it can passively water from below.

How I envy everyone building on acreage, unbound by multiple fences and restrictions!

Gardens can only survive here if completely surrounded by wire mesh fencing. This is not called Raccoon City for nothing! (Let alone fearless foxes; and coyotes feasting on small dogs and attacking children.) I would prefer native natural in the backyard. Along with the 13 trees we are mandated to plant. When we've runoff roof drains in better soil, the grass is amazingly green along the drain line.

Note cleanout (pipe with cap to the right) that enables the snaking of leaf blockages.

Scuppers at the roof top have screens, but they aren't 100% effective.

Things are moving right along. Saturday was fabulous work party day. At one point there were 7 of us working it,

Teresa has a 35 Kubota and this was her first go on bigger iron. She knocked it right out, got all the gravel in and graded.

My friend and neighbor brought a buddy and they got the forms done.

Mike ran that new D3XL and I hauled in 9 loads of material.

Sunday my ironworker friend tied all the mats and bar.

Monday I hauled the strippings from the road work down to the borrow pit and just about deleted that, and got two more loads tailgated out and laid down with the dozer.

Yesterday we put down the heat sheet insulation.

today it was the pex and the last details before pour tomorrow.

What is the "borrow pit"?

It reminds me of our elevator pit (centre). Once drained, the rebar mat to the left was placed inside and the pit was filled with concrete.

(Our "work party" days consist of me dishing out mucho moolah.)

we made it hard and gray today. I moved the excavator on site on August 22, built a 550' long driveway, 500' of utility trenches, hauled in 150 tons of gravel products, foundation and electrical conduit inspections. We have been a busy bunch.

"What is the "borrow pit"?

It is any hole you dig in the ground to "borrow" material. The lower level of our property is ancient river bottom with fine gravels and rock to giant river boulders. It is ideal road fill, and I dug out ~200 tons of it to build that road up to the upper level the hard way, one box at a time.

I filtered out the big rock as I loaded the truck, tossing them back in the hole as I loaded the truck. Example of the material. It has no organics and is great structural fill.

I backed up on it and dumped a box, and then brought the excavator over and pushed it out and repeat repeat repeat. The material is so good, I did not have a roller and it rained a half inch on it this particular morning and note the truck did not sink it at all.

We are in the fun stages of the build where lots of visible things are happening! Drywall took a long time, and the painter continues to be in and out of the house. Our walls are all going to be Chantilly lace white, so the paint already feels “done” even if there’s more coats and touch ups to do. We got AC turned on yesterday (yay!) to prep for the flooring install. They’re sealing our tiles, but unfortunately our engineered hardwood needs to be returned since it’s the wrong color. We had a miscommunication between us and the builder where we provided a sample piece from a box of engineered wood we liked, but we didn’t provide them the spec so a different one was ordered. Oops! It will delay the install that was planned for Monday, but as you can see in the picture of the flooring, the hardwood we received was WAY lighter than the one we expected and is too warm toned for most of the other design elements we plan for the house. Yesterday our garage doors were installed, and we got our siding delivered on Wednesday! Hopefully we don’t block up the work too much with our flooring mishap. Either way, the speed at which the house is progressing makes me want to hurry and pack up all of our stuff! For the US folks - mortgage rates are down! I’m hoping we can snag a sub 6% rate when we convert to a permanent loan, but you never know what rates will do!

Today we got some tile grouted and the remaining laid! We went with all marble and I’m very happy we did. The hall bath tile (cream) is soo soft to the touch. We also got our cabinets delivered, but they’re boxed up in the garage. Our covered balcony needed waterproofing since it’s above a portion of the “basement” (at that point it’s stick framed due to the slope), so the builder got that done today. Should be just a matter of time before we get the rest of our lights in and the floor finished up! Exciting times ahead. This weekend we’re going to pack up our house as much as possible just to get ahead of the game.

Primary bath grouted. Our range and dishwasher were delivered today, so just waiting for our fridge which is set for next month. I’m kind of nervous for that - we went with a paneled designer series sub zero and I’m hoping our cabinetry is spot on so it doesn’t stick out at all. I’d hate to spend more to get that look and not have it turn out. Once that gets done, I think I’ll have zero stress until move in day!

PS - where is everyone? I want to see some updates besides my own LOL

where is everyone?

After spending C$24K last week grading, trenching and adding drywells, it rained on Monday.

And behold!!

Still in the swamp :-(((

Re-grading tomorrow and removing the tree protection fence. Fingers crossed--over a pocket full of Robert Bordens!)

.............

Apologies for the entitled hyperbole in light of Hurricane Helene devastation.

Today was the big day. The concrete company was concerned about access so I made a pad this morning off the driveway to get the trucks backed to the pump truck. 11 tons of 3" minus and a few minutes tracking it in wth the excavator fixed that problem.

It went well. There were a few smallish leaks that I patched, not really blowouts but one could have let go. The door buck pushed in on one side and I wedged it back with a sledge and a 4x6.

We cruised around and plumbed the walls with the alignment system at about 2/3rds full and figured we were good to go.

We were setting in anchor bolts when I discovered the back wall had pushed in out of plumb at least 1.5" !! Yikes!

I think the vibrator and that last bit moved it in.

The ouside alignment system was useless to pull it back, and our efforts to build a triangle and push it out were fruitless as well.

I have done many strange things in my 35 years as an excavator operator, but this took the cake.

I had to knock down a 200 yard pile and then I pulled the wall back in shape, pulling on it in 3 places.

Please don't try this at home.

It was pushing the 1.5" offset string when we started. We got it done!

Nice illustration of the problems with building ICF--homes with a 100 year lifespan--and the all-purpose usefulness of earth movers.

Our demo/excavator uses his herd of earth movers for a variety of tasks.

Here today one holds up a sinking window well while another augurs a six-foot hole to be filled with 640 lbs of Rapid set into which a 12' p.t. 6x6 is to be placed and bolted to the well.

Good for 50 years.

(If the architect had thought about it harder, he could have speced the foundation to include the massive window wells in the first place.)

Oh well. In 50 years our children might live to see the house demolished for high-rise condos--assuming world "leaders" don't blunder into a nuclear war in the meantime. Woops!

See October 2024.