panthersny lookin great dude, happy for ya. i know this kind of thing is a dream in the making. hoping to be able to build one of these days.

9/8/2013 1:13:46 PM

yeah gg to panthersny. Coming together nicely. Doing your own landscaping is a bitch. We went through this with our 2nd home.

9/10/2013 5:40:27 PM

7 days to OP! Seeding friday

9/18/2013 9:36:51 PM

master vanity



frameles glass on shower:




kids bathroom:



still working the custom built in in the family room:



laundry:



kitchen in progress





front door:



still working this built in too...finish tuesday on it



upstairs railings

9/19/2013 10:54:08 PM

Seeding and straw done @10am today...just in time for the rain....which had not.washed it out when I checked tonight

9/21/2013 9:35:53 PM

2 questions

1 front loads on the floor?

2 why bring the kitchen hood so low ?

9/22/2013 6:14:56 AM

^code maybe? It looks about normal height if you had a microwave/hood combo. I think the ducting makes it look lower than it is.

9/22/2013 11:45:10 AM

If my washer/dryer were any higher (drawer underneath) then I wouldnt have a countertop to fold clothes on.

height of hood to range is a code thing in our county, along with sizing of the fan/moter (air movement since we have such high BTU's) Also keep in mind the actual fan sits 6 inches up from the bottom of the hood

[Edited on September 22, 2013 at 11:54 PM. Reason : ]

9/22/2013 11:53:43 PM

10-4 I was just wondering

We are having ours in stands with cabinets above and mill workon the opposite wall for folding.

The hood thing is just preference I like a little more room to work. A real working hood tho is 1000x Better than a microwave that barely moves air. I'm sure your builder knows this ut be sure to screen the thing to keep the critters out the factory dampers get propped open y birds and squirrels a lot.

I'm new to home building but oversee a most of wake counties renovations / new construction.

God bless our builders I feel bad for them when they get to MEP systems.

9/23/2013 4:04:16 AM

I like side-by-side front loaders with a counter on top. If I had more room in my laundry, I would have done it.

9/23/2013 11:25:00 AM

Going for OP Tomm! Wish us luck

9/25/2013 10:22:41 PM

How'd it go? I've enjoyed your thread. It made me realize the wife and I did not realistically have the time to build right now.

10/1/2013 11:55:01 AM

is it just me or is the fireplace slightly off-center? it looks like there's just a bit more marble on the right than the left

10/2/2013 10:18:58 PM

I see that too. Hopefully it's just an optical illusion from the shadow.

10/3/2013 12:07:46 AM

anybody interested in "rent to own"?

i will work with your manufacturer and set you up with gorgerous property in Wilmington.

trolls, do i lie?

10/3/2013 4:29:32 PM

btw im about to get permabann because the admin in oldschool has the intellect of a fluffer so if you want a long lease on some sexy wooded land in Wilmington (Wrightsboro township) leave your contact info IN THIS THREAD WHERE I CAN SEE IT. i wont be able to access my inbox.

10/3/2013 5:41:28 PM

We moved in on Monday...crazy week....pics to come in a bit once we settle in


And fireplace is symmetrical .....I measured

10/3/2013 11:36:08 PM

Lots of pics to come

10/17/2013 11:37:46 PM

so....pics?

11/13/2013 9:52:33 PM

haha. I was gonna post the same thing a week ago. Definitely interested to see the finished product after tracking this thread for a while.

11/14/2013 7:08:54 PM

Apologies for the delay...had my gallbladder go south and struggling to recover

11/19/2013 10:07:38 PM

you're gallbladder is like a migratory bird? Goes south for the winter?

but seriously, MOAR PIPCS!!

11/26/2013 7:50:12 PM

So about those pics.....

12/28/2013 10:10:15 AM

any more updates here? I didn't go back and read the whole thread again but I can't remember if you mentioned final $/ft2 (if you are willing to share that) basically because a lot of the energy-related things you did are very much in line with the level we would go to if we built. We would love to do MORE, but you hit most of the items that have a noticeable difference for a "reasonable" cost increase. (Such as R-50 in the attic, some form of continuous exterior insulation, focusing on airtightness etc.).

Also, did you mention what you ended up doing for the windows (U-value and SHGC - per exposure if you varied)?

4/25/2014 8:41:40 AM

looks like you finally grew out of b0rk4ing shit up. nice work.

5/1/2014 1:59:07 PM

are you still around?

still curious about ^^

Additionally, how is the zoned HVAC system working out?

7/15/2014 9:31:50 AM

My zoned ac works great!

I built for between $80-$85/sqft

7/24/2014 7:56:24 PM

cool. I'm still considering building downtown where we live. For everything I want I think it will end up being between $100-$125/ft2 at least talking to a few GC friends of mine but we'll see (~2000 ft2). We still don't have a lot yet though. I'm trying to design a few house options first to make sure they potentially fit on some of the lots we have been window-shopping (old houses that would be tear-downs).

For your zoned AC system, do you have a variable speed compressor? 2 stage? And is the fan in the AHU variable speed as well? Are they heat pump or natural gas on the heating side?

[Edited on July 25, 2014 at 8:55 AM. Reason : ]

7/25/2014 8:49:22 AM

my humble apologies for not posting pictures of the final product. its been a crazy time in work and life.

Answer to some of the questions:

@CalledToArms - if you include the cost of the clearing/site work/septic/etc + house then it worked out to $81/sq ft. But that is accounting for total house sqft, not subtracting the unfinished. IF I took out the site work, and divided cost by only finished sq ft then it was $101/sqft

We finally got our final HERs rating (yes call it a BS rating system if you want), but we got a 43....our house is 57% more efficient than a standard new construction home. Our previous house was around a 130 on the HERs scale.

Our house has 3 times the sq footage as our last house, but our electric bill is actually less for cooling b/c of what we built into the house and our extensive HVAC planning. I do wish though we had natural gas instead of propane b/c of cost. The zoned system is working amazingly well, and we havent had any complaints. I will say though that be very careful of the brand/system you pick. Ours is working well, someone else I know went with a cheaper system and the electronics keep failing. I will need to pull the full specs back home for the AC, but we do have a 2 stage system, and the primary unit is a heat pump with a propane furance for assist. Let me pull my files.

Picture time in a follow on post

8/8/2014 7:38:46 AM

note these pictures are from when completed, I am trying to find the pictures with rooms furnished also:

Inlaw room:









Mud Room/Laundry Room (with laundry chute):



Family Room:



pocket door









Front entrance:



Living room:







Hallway:



Hall bath:



Dining Room:

8/8/2014 8:48:04 AM

Sunroom:










Kitchen:

8/8/2014 9:00:26 AM

more pics to come when I can get the system back up

8/8/2014 12:13:06 PM

Nice! Where is this again?

8/8/2014 3:24:35 PM

That looks great!

8/8/2014 3:27:26 PM

In north central VA

More pics now:

Kitchen:



notice the 2 dishwashers



Stairs



Upper Foyer:





Master bedroom



Master bath:








Kids bathroom:





3 girls, 2 towels per girl = 6 hooks...and we pre did bracing for hooks at the lower level and a higher level when they get older

8/9/2014 11:19:57 PM

Here are some spaces with furniture:











the couch is out and was replaced by 2 sitting chairs



living room:




When we built we left the pantry room empty so we could design something ourselves and make it what we want. I built this in 6 days start to finish:

(oh and I drilled EVERY peg hole into solid ply - not mdf)





our hen pen:



June 12th (tomatoes and sunflower plants)



and my home away from home, got to take the girls onboard recently:

8/9/2014 11:29:56 PM

No deck?

8/9/2014 11:50:21 PM

nope, no deck...by design

8/10/2014 11:42:11 PM

I have the same TV as you have in your upstairs foyer..... and it was great 10 years ago.

Everything looks great.

8/11/2014 3:47:26 PM

^hahaha yeah it is quite old....but that is for the kids to watch their movies...it gets turned on once every 2-3 months

8/12/2014 9:45:53 PM

I've always wanted two dishwashers. I figured you would need fewer cabinets. Remove dish from one, use it, place in second.

My logic is, everything you need is always in the damn dishwasher, whether it's clean or dirty.

8/17/2014 6:04:03 PM

^ its a nice theory but doesnt work for us. with 2 parents and 3 kids we go through a lot of dishes, especially since we make most things from scratch. We are pretty good about putting things away when the dishwashers are done. So far our max is 7 loads in one day when we had a day of baking.

8/18/2014 12:24:15 PM

nice place rob. Nice family pic too!

8/18/2014 9:22:42 PM

7 loads of dishes for a baking session. I'm flummoxed.

8/19/2014 10:48:30 AM

Yeah I fill up my dishwasher as it is when I cook stuff. I'd probably do something like a dish washer and a dish drawer or some such if I had a fully customized kitchen.

8/19/2014 8:33:39 PM

^droolllll 'dish drawer' I wanted one, but the cost for the ones I wanted were too high (wanted a commercial one for a quick 15 min wash cycle)

8/20/2014 7:54:05 AM

I looked at prices randomly the other day, because I was curious... They were a bit pricier than I expected. I think it would be worth it if I was building a place.

I guess you could always replace one of your dishwashers with a double dish drawer configuration. No cabinetry to fix, and gives you the flexibility to wash scaled loads.

8/20/2014 8:04:37 PM

not a bad idea ^

8/21/2014 5:42:36 AM