One year later

One year ago this week we got started on building our home. We are very happy with how things have turned out. Along the way we found things we could have or would have done differently here and there but overall it has turned out great. We are not 100% finished, trim work, porch railings, interior stairway, and the need to additionally insulate still to come.

Build your own home - why? why not?

Have you ever thought about building your own home? Maybe you are the do it yourself type and you've done various projects, remodels, you feel like you are capable enough to handle the whole thing. Maybe you don't have the hands-on but would like to think with some help you could subcontract the work and maybe do some odds and ends yourself.

Building your own home is like taking on a second full time job added to the work week you now already have. The rewards can be great but you need to be sure you want to take on the management of a project that will be a big investment in time and energy.

If you decide to do it yourself the saving can be big. Hiring a contractor means you are paying someone else to manage your money and provide you with a finished product. The advantages if you hire someone good is that you don't work on it you just pay for it. You come out of the deal with a home you love and find no flaws. The disadvantages are that you pay additionally beyond the real cost to build in exchange for that persons expertise, time, and connections. What they provide will add up to about 20% of the final total price on your new home. Do it yourself and do it right and that 20% is in your pocket either in the bank or in savings that produce instant equity. As the real estate market has hit the downturn wouldn't you rather have saved the 20%and not have a home that is now possibly worth less than you mortgaged.

Think about building your own home. You can do it believe or not. Research the options and there are alot of them. Determine if it would be worth saving $50,000 for 4-6 months of your time. If you have questions on how to get financing or how to get started deciding what you could build, we can help. As an independent representative for Eagles Nest Homes I can help you build ANY home design you would like to live in. Send me an email.

Flooring/Packing/Finished Tile

Here is a finished shot of the slate tiling we did in the master bathroom. With the natural stone surface it doesn't matter how many times you wipe it clean with a wet sponge the surface would still give off residue. After you are finished grouting you seal the tile one last time with a gloss seal and the color comes out really well.

We are now working on laying laminate wood flooring. It is a Birch which happened to work out well with our Golden Retriever and his shedding blond hair. Mark Brackney came out for a few hours Tuesday night and helped me make some progress. The living room and kitchen should be finished tomorrow night and then we will work on the kids' bedrooms and the guest bedroom. We are doing the entire house in this surface besides the rooms we laid tile.

Our final electrical inspection should be complete tomorrow once the A/C contractor finishes his work.

Tonight Delinda packed most of the kids bedroom stuff and we will begin moving things in this weekend.

Exterior - Brick and siding complete

The brick and siding have been finished this week. I do need to have a mailbox built from brick but it turned out I didn't have enough to complete that part of the job. We are happy to have front steps finally. Once we are moved in we will start thinking about; capping off the posts on the front porch, adding white railing on the porch and down the steps, and we will add black shutters and paint the front door black.

Inside the house, plumbing fixtures are being attached. I am adding a picture of the one in the kid's bathroom that has been completed. We are also working on laying wood laminate flooring (which is much harder than it looks on tv) and anticipating our kitchen counters being installed one week from tomorrow.

Next post I will have to get a picture of the completed slate flooring. It looks great after having been sealed.

Completing exterior, master bedroom paint

The exterior of the house is coming together and looking very good. Tomorrow the brick mason is going to work on finishing up the garage end of the house and will build the steps we need to the front porch and to the back door that enters the garage. We are also required to have a brick mailbox. If there is enough brick remaining I would like to also have him build steps inside the garage into the house. In the picture of the back of the house, the glass door enters at the kitchen/living room area. We are planning a deck at some point so we are not building steps there. The white door enters the garage.

The siding contractor is going to do a vinyl beadboard type porch ceiling tomorrow. We had thought of doing that ceiling of real wood beadboard but the long term would probably be best served with vinyl for holding up to weather. We will finish things off with black shutters and we are going to paint the front door black as well. We will also need to pressure wash the porch and then apply a stain.

The plumber and A/C contractor both may be working tomorrow as well. The plumber is connecting fixtures and the A/C contractor is adding some forgotten venting and connecting the equipment.

I am also attaching a picture of the master bedroom paint colors. We are going to do crown moulding around the ceilings of the first story rooms so as you can see we are not worrying about being too neat with the paint where the wall and ceiling meet.

Tile, Plumbing, Siding, Brick

Today Delinda painted in our master bedroom. Three of the walls are a gold that we have used in the dining room and the bathroom. The fourth wall where the head of the bed will be is a walnut (brown). The two look great together. Sorry no pictures, we forgot the camera today.

Tomorrow we will finish grouting and sealing the master bath slate. The slate has a good shine after the sealer is applied. On Thursday the plumber will install the fixtures and we will have running water available inside the house.

The remainder of the siding, soffit, and trim work is being done tomorrow and that work may go on into Wednesday.

In the morning I have a meeting with a garage door company to determine how much further the door opening has to be framed before a door can be installed. We currently have a 16 foot wide opening but the height is greater than 9 feet which calls for a custom ordered door.

Our brick will be finished either Friday or Saturday. We plan to begin laying flooring by Friday.

Continuing tile

The half bathroom, the laundry room, and the kids bathroom are all grouted and ready to seal. We have been working on the master bath slate and have all of the full size pieces laid. Tomorrow we are going to do all of the cuts and plan to seal and grout over the weekend. We have the plumber scheduled to install the fixtures on Wednesday. Tomorrow our flooring arrives for the rest of the house. We are laying a birch wood laminate which has a blond color. We bought the flooring from www.simplefloors.com and saved a lot of money. The flooring already has an underlayment pad attached.

Yesterday we had work done on the soffits. I had to hire a siding contractor to finish the job for me. I couldn't get the high reaching work done by myself and don't have the time either. They are going to finish the siding and do the trim and soffit work.

Tomorrow a garage door company is meeting me to look at our door opening and tell me what we need. A standard door is 16x7 but our opening will be closer to 9 feet high. I also have to do some additional framing around the opening to house the track system the door will ride on.

David is pulling the final electrical wiring tomorrow and said he will have us ready for our final inspection by Monday.

Those of you who live locally are welcome to come volunteer a work day in the next three weeks!