New Home Construction

[EddieWalker]

Again, it sounds like you got yourself a great builder. Thanks for the updates and information.

As for the lake, it's much, much larger than anything I've ever tackled before. In fact, it's on a scale that really is beyond my comprehension as a do it yourself project. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I have a few other projects that need finishing too, so if it's cold out or wet, then I'm puttering around the house or running errands. My goal is to have it dug out by the end of January.

I've done some rough calculations and figure it will take ten million gallons to fill it up. My water shed is still evolving as I'm changing the direction the water will run when it rains to funnel it to the lake. This is part of my road and building layout and how it all ties together.

There is a spring and I'll pull water from the creek with a Ram Pump. The rest will come from the rains. Of course, we're in the middle or a record drought, so again, it's anybodies guess at to how long it will take to fill.

This whole process is allot of trial and error. Hopefull I'll keep the error part to a minimum. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Eddie

 

[bmac]

<font color="blue"> As for the lake, it's much, much larger than anything I've ever tackled before. In fact, it's on a scale that really is beyond my comprehension as a do it yourself project.
</font>

I have no doubt that you will do a masterful job and it will turn out great. Look forward to following your progress.

 

[bmac]

They started on the porch roof this weekend. Obviously, they didn't finish.

 

[bmac]

Close up of the tin looking out one of my son's bedroom windows.

 

[bmac]

Made some progress on the wood flooring. Here is a view of the family room. All of these pictures were taken at sundown today. I had to adjust the brightness level on the computer which affected the color, sharpness, etc. I hope you can get an idea of how things are shaping up from these pics.

 

[bmac]

Family room, standing in the foyer.

 

[bmac]

Another from the foyer.

 

[bmac]

Last one of the family room. Standing in the hallway leading to the master bedroom. You can see the breakfast room in the distance.

 

[bmac]

This one is standing in the dining room, shooting across the foyer and into the living room. The rough openings of the doorways into the dining room and living are about 8 ft high and will have a 12" transom window across the top when finished.

 

[bmac]

I mentioned in an earlier post that the face nailing of this floor around the perimeter was being done with cut nails. For those unfamiliar with these, here's what they look like.

 

[bmac]

The upstairs hallway, looking toward the guest room end of the house.

 

[bmac]

And finally, the upstairs hallway looking in the opposite direction. As you can see, they still have a little more work to do. However, I think they ran out of wood so I don't know when they will return to finish the job.

 

[tjkadar]

The house is coming together in a big way. It looks great! I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Jagmandave]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Another from the foyer. )</font>

Really coming along now. What's that post doing in the middle of the room?

 

[bmac]

<font color="blue"> What's that post doing in the middle of the room? </font>

Holding up the 2nd floor. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Obviously, I would have liked it better if we didn't need the support of that column, but the engineer said we did, so there you have it. And, it's not really in the "middle" of the room, rather it is in line with the right hand wall of the hallway going back to the master bedroom. Photos can be a little deceiving.

 

[rox]

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L
Floor
Thanks for sharing that photo.

 

[rox]

BMAC,

I thought the same thing about that post in the family room. I even went back and looked at couple photos previous to visualize where the post was.

At first I thought it was kind of awkward, but then I noticed how it lined up with the back wall of the family room, so as to make a corridor into the master bedroom.

Something has got to hold up the second floor! Actually with furniture placement and decoating I don't think that post ill be much of an issue. It jsut looks kind of sticking up in the middle (not the middle if you look carefully at the photos) of nowhere so to speak. Once furniture gets placed I think it'll be okay.

 

[bmac]

One problem I have photographing the interior of the house with my compact digital camera is that the lens doesn't have a wide enough angle to get goot shots with the appropriate perspective. So, I find that in order to get the most area of a room in the picture, I have to position myself in awkward places.

I have a nice digital SLR at work. I think when the house is finished, I may buy a really wide-angle lens just to get better photos of the interior.

Also, my sister and sister-in-law are realtors (sadly, not in my area). I asked my sister about getting one of those virtual tours done where you get the 360 degree panoramas. Now, she is not the most computer literate person in the world, so I'm not sure if the response she gave me is 100% correct, but she said that the virtual tours must be located on a real estate web site and that there is a monthly fee to do that. And, that the service is only for homes listed for sale. I'll see if my SIL says the same thing. I think it would be cool to have one done and provide a link on TBN.

 

[EddieWalker]

bmac,

Did you find out what type of wood your using for your cabinets? Who's doing the finish? And when it's all gonna happen?

I'd be very suprised if the cabinet builders stain and seal them. I'd also be suprised if they were done before instalation. For the best fit possible, there's usually some modification, shimming and plain old forcing a cabinet into position.

Some cabinets need cutting to get them to fit, other times you have to cut the sheetrock. Until you get them in place, there's no telling what will happen.

Eddie

 

[bmac]

Hi, Eddie.

I actually addressed this in Steveinmo's thread. No, I don't know what kind of wood he is using. And, you guys may well be dead-on about the finish application being done on site. I've made alot of assumptions along the way (some of which rose up to bite me in the rear) and this is one of them based upon the fact that we had to choose the exact finish (along with door/drawer styles, hardware, etc.) at the time the work order was approved. As I said in Steve's thread, the cabinets are supposed to be ready by mid-January so we don't have too long to wait until this mystery is solved. Actually, if I think about it, I'll ask my builder. This is the only cabinet man he uses so he'll know for sure.

As alway, thanks for checking in and offering your thoughts. Its always good to hear from you.

BTW, the interior doors are being hung and the trim carpenters have been working the past couple of days. If time permits, I'll get some pictures of some representative trim work. We pretty much let the trim guy do the design after we showed him some pictures of what we liked. My wife and I went up yesterday to get an idea of what he was doing and we thought it looked pretty good. Once I get some pictures, y'all can chime in with your thoughts.