Starting New House Finally!

[Alan L.]

Alan,

sure feel great to get in doors and windows doesn't it? Must be the camera angle but it looked like the roof of the porch was sloping towards the house. I am sure that can't be right and it jsut must be the camera angle. Do you have a name for your spread/property/house?

Rox, I guess we don't have an official name for the place yet. The slope of the porch ceiling looks the way it does because of a crooked photographer (me). It is flat and level. The floor of the porch actually slopes away from the house.

Here is a picture of the front showing the posts. They put the decorative braces at the top of the posts today. The siding on the dog house is hardie plank. We almost put the same cedar siding up there as the back porch, but decided against it because of the sun exposure this area will experience.

The front door is new, but also will have a shelf under the windows and some window light dividers that go on it.

The balcony on the rear is holding things up. Before it can be finished, a pan has to be made out of sheet metal and then ligh-weight concrete poured on that. They came and removed the temporary bracing (from floor to porch overhang) and put braces back to the wall, so that they can finish the floor. Basically its a big piece of flashing upon which the concrete will be poured.

We just had a third rain since the roofers left the ridges uncovered, which is really hacking me off. I don't know why they didn't cover them temporarily. One of my wood windows got wet on the lower sill. I dried it off and it appears OK, but raw pine is not supposed to get wet.

It took 4 trips to get the 28 pallets of brick delivered (14,000 brick). The turn into my property was too sharp for the big brick truck to make it, and they had to turn around and came back once a day or a several day period.

The electician is supposed to be here Friday and the HVAC contractor Saturday. They delivered a bunch of flex duct and metal plenums today. He is putting in 2 Trane 16i units, plus an auxiliary minisplit in our bedroom and an energy recovery ventilator (to bring in fresh air).

I am still debating on the insulation between open cell completely filling the walls and cathedral ceilings vs close cell foam 3/4" only to seal with lose fill dry cellulose netted into the walls and same on ceilings. Price probably about the same - $8000 for the house. I am not doing the entire envelope but opting for a vented attic with radiant barrier.

 

[rox]

House is looking GREAT! i'm not understaning about the pan before the cement. if oyu are not to busy couled you elaborat eon that. Is it the floors of the house? Is it outside underneath the balcony? Why do you pour thin cement?

Can't wait for pics of the brick. What color did you get? really enjoying your project thanks for sharing.

 

[Alan L.]

House is looking GREAT! i'm not understaning about the pan before the cement. if oyu are not to busy couled you elaborat eon that. Is it the floors of the house? Is it outside underneath the balcony? Why do you pour thin cement?

Can't wait for pics of the brick. What color did you get? really enjoying your project thanks for sharing.

Rox, in the back of the house there is an upstairs porch, or balcony. Below the porch is part of the downstairs porch. There is a bedroom and loft upstairs, and there are exterior doors on both that lead out to the balcony, which is 6 feet deep by 23 feet long. The balcony is covered with a shed roof.

Currently, the floor of the balcony is 1 1/8" tongue & groove plywood, the same as the floor of the second floor inside. Obviously that will not hold up to weather. So the plan is to put a sheet metal "pan" on top of the plywood. they will then pour light weight concrete on the pan, so that the floor of the upstairs balcony will be concrete and weather proof. The light weight concrete is to reduce the load on the structure holding it all up from below.

I found today this metal pan installed is going to cost about $800, and the concrete will add some more cost

The brick is "Regal Oak" from Acme Brick. Unfortunately they don't have a picture of it on their website, so I attached a picture of a commercial building that has both the brick and the white mortar (and white sand) we plan to use.

Thanks for your interest, its fun posting our progress.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks for your interest, its fun posting our progress.

Thank you for posting, it's fun to follow your progress!!!

You're building a really cool house and doing some new things that I'm not familiar with. That alone makes it very interesting. I especially appreciate your replies and reasoning for your decisions. With all the thought and planning that you have put into your home, it's been a very informative thread.

Eddie

 

[rox]

Alan,
What a coincidence, your brick is exactly the same as the brick we used on our last home. one thing about red brick is that it never goes out of style. in Milwaukee there are a lot of brick homes old ones and new ones. What we did was drive around an look at brick buildings and homes. you could see the yellow color bricks that were used in the 60's and it dated the homes. one thing i determined is that a red brick home will never get dated because red brick always looks good, 100 years from now your home will still look attractive and contemporary. Not meaning contemporary as in design but meaning contemporary as being in this era. Other colors come and go and you can date a hme by the color of it's brick but a red brick home is ageless.

Traditional is red brick with white shutters and green accents. I think your house is going to look awsome. It's all brick if i remember right isn't it? I can't wait to see the pics of the brick going on, that will be fun to see.

Thanks for the explination on the thin cement and the pan. You are really building this house "right"

 

[Alan L.]

I spent all day today taping up my Tuff-R joints. Thats the 1/2" rigid foam on the outside of the OSB. Probably not necessary since we are going with spray foam, but it is now (before bricking) or never. Also caulked some doors on the outside.

The HVAC contractor's crew was here all day and its amazing what they got done in one day. Both air handlers are in and most of the duct run. Looks good.

The trim guy came back last week and shimmed the windows, and the gap between the windows and doors and the rough opening will be insulated by the spray foam contractor.

 

[Alan L.]

Well, not much to take pictures of recently. We have had lots of rain and cold weather and the upstairs balcony is holding up the works. Can't install two exterior doors until the balcony floor is poured (lightweight concrete), so can't insulate the house or do drywall yet. Hopefully next week sometime.....

Meanwhile, the HVAC guy is done with his rough-in, the elctrician is about done (have a few changes to make), and the plumbing is roughed in. We had $8500 in our budget for all the custom cabinets, but they are coming in at about $11,000. Going with knotty alder in the kitchen and master bath, paint grade in the other two baths and mudroom.

 

[EddieWalker]

Going with knotty alder in the kitchen and master bath, paint grade in the other two baths and mudroom.

Alan,

I'm not very knowledgable on my woods. When you get a chance, I'd love to see what the Alder looks like.

Was that the price for just the cabinets? Are they finished? Will you still have to buy hardware? (knobs and handles) What type of counter top are you going to use?

It's sleeting here with a few reports of snow. From what I'm hearing on the news, it's allot worse in your area. I sure am glad you have the roof on and have the house sealed in as much as you do!!!

Eddie

 

[Alan L.]

Mrs. Alan L.spoke with the cabinet guy and if we do paint grade in the utility room and 2 of the baths we can get it down to about $10K. This is cabinets only, there is no hardware other than hinges which are included. The hinges allow any door to be removed easily and repaired if necessary. There are really quite a bit of cabinets in this, and she wanted lots of drawers in the lower cabinets, which costs more than doors.

The counter tops are not included. We have a $3500 budget for the kitchen only, probably some sort of solid surface or granite.

Alder looks sort of like pine, but is a harder wood.

Other than the door leading into the garage from the house (its not in yet) and two upstairs doors, the house is in the dry and sealed up. The upstairs door openings each have a 4 by 8 sheet of Tuff R rigid foam insulation nailed to them to keep out the elements.

 

[KentT]

Here's some alder cabinets showing different finishes. As Alan said, it is much harder than pine -- some consider it a substitute for cherry. It is very versatile, and can be used to match pine, maple, cherry, mahogany, etc. -- basically most common woods other than oak, which has a grain all of its own...

Alder Cabinets by Fashion Cabinet

I'm considering using alder cabinets in my retirement home, since it is much less expensive than some other woods...

 

[Alan L.]

Thanks for the pics. Mrs. Alan L. came home today with some wood samples (whole doors), both Alder and Ash. The Alder and ash are about the same price and oak a little bit less. I like the alder because I like pine. All of our windows are pine, the trim will be pine, and the ceiling of the kitchen and dining room will be tongue and groove pine. the floor will be medium stained oak. So even though the ash looks good too, we are still leaning pretty much to the alder. Its her call, I can live with any of it.

She found that she could cut it down to our $8500 budget by cutting out some of the special custom options she had them do, but I told her this is her area and she should get exactly what she wants in terms of functionality or regret it every day. So we'll probably go over a couple of thousand.

I am thinking right now about where I want to bring my internet cable into the house, where I will put my wireless router. Right now it is on top of the entertainment center above the TV, but I think I would like it out of the way, but close enough to the living room that I will get a good signal from my recliner. I am considering mounting it on the wall somewhere, maybe in a closet, or maybe up in the loft area. Any ideas here?

 

[Alan L.]

Great news! The balcony concrete was poured today!

The truck came, they dumped the concrete in buckets, placed the buckets in the front end loader of a John Deere tractor, and lifted it up to the balcony. I don't know how long it took, but it looks great, with a brushed finish.

Ended up taking the internet cable to the wall behind the TV. The guy that does our wireless internet said I should put the Cat5e cables all over the house, that wired networks are better than wireless.

I know all of that of course, but there are so dang many wires in the walls for this and that, there is no place for insulation, and the walls are almost covered with boxes, outlets, and switches.

So NO!, no more cables. I'm not using any wired network, all I ever need to connect computers together for is the internet. By the time I decide a wired network is needed, or someone else does, the cables will be obsolete anyway......

I called the A/C guy today and asked him to put a return air in the master bedroom. Called the electrician and added some more outlets and speakers on the back porch.

If we don't hurry up and cover all of this up with sheetrock, I'll think of something else, that I MIGHT need someday. This is running me nuts.

Or, someone will come in and say "Did you prewire for the ??????, you know it will be much easier now than later!" I don't want to put anything else in the walls but insulation.

Looked at appliances and chose mostly Maytag stainless steal. Then Mrs. Alan L. decides she would rather just use white, and after reading some reviews I decide Maytag is not the way to go. She goes and looks at appliances today and now says she wants stainless or black. I hate black appliances, or at least I think I do, and so I guess we are back to stainless. But it looks like the budget is being blown on this, the way it has been blown on other items, like the cabinets.

She also went and picked out a couple of alternatives for stair railings with steel ballisters. Don't know the cost yet.

I will feel alot better when all the costs are in, so that I can see what the damage is.

 

[jinman]

Alan, I actually lean toward black appliances because I like them better than white or finger-printed stainless. I'm told that stainless has been improved to not show finger prints, but why would I want to pay two prices just for stainless? In my opinion, stainless anywhere but the washer and dryer inside baskets does not add any functionality. Even so, the look of stainless is very popular.

Good luck with your decisions. When you build a house, you sure get to make lots of decisions. It can drive you nuts. Then two years down the "road" you will discover something so obvious you will wonder how you ever missed it. It's gonna happen; just do the best you can and be happy with it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Alan,

Nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out what you might need in the future and planning for it. I'm sure you have them covered, but just in case, did you wire for an alarm system? Hard wire alarms are much better and more reliable than the wireless systems. Did you put in speaker wire for your surround sound theater? Outlets for Christmas lights? Outlets for outside entertaining?

Sometimes you can get ideas by just glancing at the home books at Home Depot or Lowes. They are kind of basic, but it's always the simple things that get overlooked.

Who are you buying you appliances from? I used to get some really good deals at an appliance store in Tyler, but when Steph and I went in to buy them for our home, my regular guy no longer worked there and the son of the owner helped us. He wasn't willing to give us any sort of a deal, or even match what Lowes was selling them for.

I went to the Post Office and gave the guy at Lowes the Home Depot 10% relocating discount that they accepted for the appliances. This made Lowes the cheapest for what we wanted.

Steph wanted black and I was totally against it. In my mind, I thought they would look terrible, but this was "her" kitchen and that's what she wanted. I wanted almond myself, but now that we have the black, I really like it.

We looked at stainless, but it's a mess with fingerprints unless you pay extra for the special finish. One thing about stainless is that it's so trendy and popular that I wonder how long it will stay that way. Kind of like avocado green or harvest yellow. Sometimes new trends stick around and become classic, but they also risk becomeing outdated and out of style. Just look at Corian. Is anybody putting it in anymore?

Here's a picture of our kitchen with the black appliances before I finished off the backsplash on the counters.

Eddie

 

[scott_vt]

She goes and looks at appliances today and now says she wants stainless or black. I hate black appliances, or at least I think I do, and so I guess we are back to stainless.

Mornin Alan,
I think we have the same refrig that Eddie and Steph have. It looks like a Kenmore black double door with a textured finish. I dont have any problem with that appliance. Eddie also looks like he has a black stove but it looks like it has the cooktop surface. That may be fine, but we made the mistake of getting a black stove and it is not the cooktop, its just black gloss enamel. It is the worst mistake I ever made !!! I wouldnt get that appl,iance if you paid me ! It constantly needs to be cleaned and never really looks clean ! DONT GET THAT ONE !!!

Good luck with your decision !

 

[mikim]

Our fridge was making a lot of noise so figured we'd need a new one soon -- happened onto a "scratch & dent" french door bottom freezer that I knew the wife was looking at for $680 (less than half price) Couldn't turn it down -- It is black texture on the sides and brushed stainless steel doors. We like it just fine and don't have any issues with finger prints on it. We probably would not have chosen that color , but at that price it was worth a try.

 

[mikim]

The guy that does our wireless internet said I should put the Cat5e cables ...Well -- I'd say he's wrong right from the jump --- Cat 6 is the newest and bestest right now ..... but how long will that last? You may be very OK with wireless -- if it changes you don't have a bunch of wires abandoned in your walls no longer good for anything. You just change out components.----

 

[Alan L.]

The house is not wired for an alarm system, never had one although its a good idea. However it is wired for surround sound and patio speakers, and outlets on the front and back porches.

There are Christmas light outlets in the eves, with switches on the inside. All of the outside lights can be turned on and off from 6 different locations. The electrician uses a special cable called "3-way" to help wire 3-way switches. He says he typically uses less than a roll. In my house, he used almost 3 rolls. I have never seen so much wire in a house. They also very neatly kept the wiring runs together and out of the way, leaving good storage areas in the attic. Ditto on the A/C ductwork, they took special care to push everything to the sides.

We are doing spray in foam in the walls. In the attic storage areas that have OSB on top of the joist for storage, they will spray foam on the bottom of the OSB. We have one 25 by 6 or so part of the "attic" that is being sealed in with foam and is a part of the conditioned. space. I am putting some shelves in there for little used items, but stuff that we don't want to get hot as in the other part of the attic. Also in there is the TV/Satellite junction box where all of the cables for TV go to various locations in the house, plus the rotor cable. The splitters and such will be mounted to the wall in that space and I can work on them without getting so hot in the summer. There are 3 RG6 (quad shielded) to each TV location - one for antenna and two for the satellite (so I can record two channels at once on TIVO).

The bedroom TVs are configured to mounted on the wall like hospital TVs. The living room TV is wired for a plasma to be mounted on the wall (there is a conduit from low on the wall to behind the plasma to hide the wires coming up from the satellite receiver and stuff up to the TV). Right now we are leaning to a DLP rather than Plasma because of the glare factor (and they are cheaper too!), but it should be tall enough to cover up the outlet and stuff designed to be behind the plasma.

I didn't bother looking back at this thread to see if I have written a similar epistle on the TVs already. Yesterday at work I spent about 45 minutes running up and down the office looking for the file with the February deposits I had been working on. One of the guys said "this ain't February", thus explaining why I couldn't find the file.

Tomorrow we are going to an appliance dealer in Dallas that my builder does business with, not a box store.

 

[Alan L.]

By the way on the subject of appliances, I think Lowes has a very misleading and shady practice on their pricing. There is a big sign that shows all these different brands they sell, and they state that if any other store beats their price, they will sell the item for 10% less. Sounds pretty good.

I brought them pricing on the Maytag stuff from the Maytag store and they barely beat the price in every item and were exactly the same on the double oven. The salesman stated that since their price was not more than Maytag, then the 10% did not apply on any item. I was obvious to me that he was setting the price on the fly to be barely below the Maytag price, so that his "price" was lower and thus he didn't have to go 10% below the price of the competitor. So basically this is a worthless guarantee.

 

[tallyho8]

Another way they get to advertise "the lowest price on appliances" is that they get the manufacturer to put their brand label on it. It might be made by Whirlpool but may be labeled Roper, Estate or any other name. Even though it's the exact same, they can sell it for more and still claim they have the lowest price on this brand appliance.