New house starting

[jinman]

Hey Mike! Thanks for the house tour and property tour yesterday. The map to get to Hwy 77 made our exit much easier. We made it home by about dark-thirty last night. Our kitties were all good and wanted to go outside, but we are making them wait until today. We are lookin' forward to coming back for the TBN get-together in the Spring.:thumbsup:

 

[dmccarty]

I had three years of drafting in HS. Which made me an architect. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Ever since then I have always wanted to design my own house but I was not crazy enough to design AND build it.

I would constantly design houses even when building was not an option. But finally we got some land and we built the house I designed. It has ADA spec bathrooms. All doors are 36 inches or wider. Limited hallways since a hallway is wasted money and space. But the hallways we have are over 36 inches wide.

Living in our house for six years now. Hard to believe it has been six years. There are a few things I would change but they are nits. Like I did not run a coax for an antennae to the TV location. Lots of coax for cable runs to that spot but not one for an antennae. The sparky asked if I wanted one but I said no. I also should have run Cat 5 to that spot. I will be putting in both over the holidays. I wish I had put the thermostat in a two feet away from its current location. :laughing:

I would likely have changed our window specs slightly. And I wish I had watched the HVAC guy when he was installing the system.

Basically a bunch of nits. Which is pretty danged good for building a house. :thumbsup:

Hopefully we will live to a very ripe old age in this house. That is the plan. And there is something special about living in the house you designed.

Later,
Dan

 

[mikim]

quick update -- stone is done, cabinets are in, interior paint next week, they're still going really fast on it. can't hardly catch a breath.

 

[irvingj]

Looks really neat. (Merry Christmas!)

 

[mikim]

Kitchen, living, dining is one large area. Here's a couple of shots of it. It's coming right along. We're getting propane tank today so tomorrow we'll have hot water and heat in preparation for flooring.
----omg---I just noticed my join date for TBN ----10 years ago! ...:confused2::thumbsup:

 

[jinman]

----omg---I just noticed my join date for TBN ----10 years ago! ...:confused2::thumbsup:

HA! Me too. That must make us TBN kin.

Your house is looking really nice Mike. As you come to the finishing up, I think of all the decisions for everything from doorknobs to mirrors and the gazillion different finish hardware items you have to make decisions about. I was working and my mind was in a whirlwind on my house, but between you and Bernice, maybe this is all fun instead of chasin' your tail like it was with me. I think your place was far better thought out than mine from the beginning. From what you've told me, your contractor is far superior to the goofball I had too.:thumbsup:

 

[EddieWalker]

That sure is a nice sized kitchen. I love all the counter space you have!!!!!!!!

Eddie

 

[mikim]

Yeah Eddie - we do too. The island is an antique I found about 7 years ago. I bought it before I even had house plans drawn up. Bernice asked me what it was for and I told her it was our kitchen island (no way would any island fit in the current kitchen) she looked at me like I had lost my mind then I told her "for the new house" and she really knew I'd lost it. BUT here it is -- just like I had it planned in my head about 10 years ago. It originally had a butcher block top and was just 32" tall. We had the counter top material put on and I had added casters and the skirt to raise it to 36".

 

[mikim]

Jim -- all the hardware decisions were made before we even hired a builder. Once we settled on the builder we took all our research, samples, 3 ring binders with photos and magazine cutouts, etc to him and he just gaped at us. He said he'd never dealt with anyone so pre-prepared. It mostly worked out except where items were discontinued during the year or two from when we found 'em til when we were ready for 'em. We've had very little last minute scrambling to do. It kinda upset the builder a bit though, cause he'd say something like "well my supplier might have that" and we say "oh no, you don't understand, we have it bought and sitting on our shelves". It took a bit of adjustment on his part, pricing wise.

 

[bindian]

Mike,
Awesome house there. I will try to stop by on my next trip to or from Austin.
hugs, Brandi