Yay Kat for starting the new thread.

June 2 hydroseeding

June 25

Timber landing and stairs to the carport sundeck.

Trailer load of rail building materials. That is next weekend and many more.

Hope the hydro seeding goes better than ours!

Looked great going on. However, it turns out the operator had just done a property with some sort of high weedy grass and hadn't cleaned out the machine before going on to us. (Not to mention the mess on the bottom of our stone walls that I haven't gotten to yet with a pressure washer.)

Anyway first serious showing today. Friend of the buyer of a new build across the street.

Our neighour.

Worthy, hope you got a discount, or your money back, for the weeds!

LOL! (This is the construction/destruction business, where your money is finders/ keepers, including everything on site.) Just had a new battery-powered hedge trimmer vanish with only drapery and security guys on site. Mysteriously, the camera system went down. Hmm.

Still looking forward to Kelly M's foundation adjacent creek.

you'll be waiting a while on that, @worthy

I am up against my permit and things that do not pertain to an occupancy permit are way back on the list.

Ugh our hydroseed was not a success - not inexpensive either, we have tons of tall weeds also? we have not done this before so wasnt sure what to expect (lakeside done in sod and that all looks great)

Still reporting in from the floor plan phase. Kelly M -- thanks for the note last month about designing from the site first. That's exactly what finally unstuck us. Down to two plans now, and for the first time the shortlist feels like we got there on purpose rather than by elimination.

Kat, the exterior color call sounded stressful. Glad the sage doors landed right.

Watching everyone else get into tile and trim makes the lobby feel a little longer, but at least we know what we're doing now.

Kat your house looks beautiful! I am trying to find the right white paint color for our house too. I had the painter paint samples of SW Natural Choice and BM Feather Down- they look awful- way too beige. I had thought I might use Alabaster for the trim. The front of my house faces just a tad north of west, so a lot of direct sun in the afternoon, but also a lot of pine trees around so some possible green reflection issues…
Back to the color wheel, and I might ask the talented Houzz color gurus for some suggestions.

Apparently our wood floors were installed last week, so that progress is exciting. I’ll visit the site again at the end of the month.

End of the month? I couldn't build with that much confidence in the building crews!

We rented in the same neighborhood and we were at the site first thing in the morning when subs were arriving and in the afternoon after they left. No one knew the plans better than I did and we quickly caught any issues. I also speak several languages, so sometimes I would translate for my GC when I could see the subs weren't quite understanding what he was explaining!

I also speak several languages

Farsi and Portuguese, perchance?

Yes, to the second one!

The framer and his son came out to put the 3x6 deck on the landing, and I am slowly getting up to speed with the custom fabrication on the handrails and barrier rails.

I had a conundrum with the slope of the deck and placement of the landing but I solved it at design last year. The 3x6 cantilevers out 8" or so, and is plenty strong for that duty.

generous 6'+ landing to bring things up if you are against using elevators.

Stair Rails are getting fabricated in place, removed and painted and installed.

The barrier is modular and also supports solar panel awnings.

A lot has happened on site in three weeks. Drywall is finished, all but one room has been painted (seven days of painting by me & my husband), master bath tile work will be done today, stone on the fireplace installed, rear porch deck finished. We're in a bit of a holding place right now though waiting on the siding above the roof line to be installed. This is preventing attic insulation, AC start up, and wood floor installation. I drug my feet on making a decision for the siding due to the HOA material limitations. Choose Mastic Everplank and received a call a week later that it was being pulled from the shelves due to delamination issues. Pivoted to Ascend composite cladding. We're hoping for installation next week, but this puts our wood floor install three weeks behind schedule, at best. Here are some progress pictures.

I hate it when you spend a bunch of time picking a product and then it gets discontinued!

Good they pulled the siding before you got to deal with it.

Why would siding install impact insulation?

@Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor we had a small amount of water come in from a heavy wind rain storm. We believe it came from where the siding is not installed on the side gable, specifically the most west one. We don't want to chance getting more water with an attic full of insulation.

@Chispa, it is nervewracking to be building a house from so far away. I'm not familiar with the vendors, I don't get any help from local showrooms when I want to just check on a product as their sales staff work on commissions and don't want to waste time on me! Luckily, I have hired my architect to help oversee certain items, and my builder is wonderful, he is easy to reach, and is great about keeping us in the loop. He also encourages us to visit as much as possible. Which isn't as much as we'd like.

When we knocked down our house in Florida, and rebuilt while renting a place ten minutes away, I had more trouble than you can imagine.

That builder installed the floor trusses between the first and second floor incorrectly, and refused to correct the mistake. They were hanging lower than the top of the windows! He wanted me to just make a little "well" in the ceiling by each window to accommodate the error.

(This was the proverbial last straw, I went straight to a lawyer, and we ended up firing him) Also under his "watch", the roof trusses were installed backwards. I was standing there and told the installation crew that it was wrong and the truss guys refused to listen to me and stop! I called the builder who sauntered in about an hour and a half later, and told me it was "no big deal" the inspector from the city would have caught it!

Later in the process, while installing countertops, I informed the crew that I was in the back yard and not to drill for the faucets until they came and got me.

Nope! Drilling wrong. On and on...So given that countertop experience in particular, I am planning on renting a place close by this build for the last 60-90 days of this project. Fingers crossed.

Strangely reassuring to hear that incompetents are so sure of themselves here, there and everywhere!

We're 99% done with them. But thefts keep showing up. Five designer w.c. brushes--yes there are such things--walked away. Keeping the missing hedge trimmer company, I presume.

Someone stole my nice new vacuum cleaner that I left overnight at my build once! I took it over to clean up some mess, didn't quite finish before dark and when I came back the next morning, it was gone.

Saw some really weird items deposited in the dumpster at the site too.

Accumulate enough debris on site to fill a bin. Then in and out with no freeloaders. Our security camera once caught the bin truck run over a temporary fence section the driver threw aside, saving us the $200+ fee for the damage.

(I started my working life at a supermarket with an armed guard at the entrance.)