Thanks to The Owner-Builder Book for having such a great forum! Scott in Germantown, MD

Finishing Up the Odd's and ends.

Posted to Bobs-Blog by Bob in New Florence, PA on 4/8/2008 10:59:50 PM

Been awhile since I have posted. We have been busy enjoying the new house, well at least the inside. The past two weeks the mason has been coming by when the weather is nice and he is finishing the brick work on the pillars of our back deck/patio. Of course in Pennsylvania it could be 55 today and 30 with snow tomorrow, so it really is hit or miss.

We did figure out that it was easier to build our house than it was to get cable and phone believe it or not. My job requires that I have high speed internet, so we made sure during our year of pre-planning that we went to Comcast and made sure we'd be ok, since we are in a rural area. Of course they said we'd have no problem. Well no problem if we wanted basic cable and nothing else. It seems that our lines on the road are old and they support very little. So finally after about three weeks I got cable internet, but we scrapped the cable TV. We decided to go with DirectTV. That was a whole different kind of headache altogether. My one word of advice is DO NOT GO THROUGH THE NATIONAL DIRECTTV SITE...Go through a local dealer, trust me. After about three weeks we finally got it and as a sports fan I love it.

We wired the house for every known possible need that we could ever have, well almost. I did not realize that if you had a DVR with the DirectTV it requires two co-ax lines. So they had to phish another through the wall. While doing so they messed up my phone line somehow. The phone line was totally messed up, we have three lines home, office and fax and somehow they got messed up. I really felt like the tech from Verizon was an ass and he tried to be as minimally hands on as humanly possible. I was very pissed about the whole situation. Now I still get some static in my office line and of course they act like it kills them to help you out.

We are in the process of getting another appraisal so we can get the PMI knocked off our loan. We came up 5,000 short the first time on the required percentage we needed to avoid it, but that was based solely from our plans. The plans changed and we added a lot more value so I don't foresee any major problems. But that will knock off a lot of money from our loan.

We got all of our furniture, TV's , etc...I took pics, but just haven't had time to post them as of yet. Hopefully the brick work gets done this week. We have to pour the driveway and patio and our masons will finally be able to leave.

The bank is still very impressed that it took me and my wife six months and six days to complete the house. We're a little proud of that. The excavator is coming out next week so he can finish the grading and we can get grass planted and begin landscaping.

Updated photo's

Posted to Bobs-Blog by Bob in New Florence, PA on 1/27/2008 11:16:38 PM

Here are some updated pictures

Photos

Front door trim.	Thermostat	Attic door.
Main bath trim.	WROUGHT IRON TOWEL BAR	Granite countertop in main bath
One of the glass closet doors in kids room.	Attic wall insulation.	My office
The Cabrio washer and dryer.	My wife with the most important piece of paper we own the occupancy permit.	Our dinette painting against the chocolate accent wall.
My wife had the idea to put myself and my two sons baby sketches up in the hallway.	Shower curtain in masterbath	mirror in masterbath.
The half bath	We found this unwanted vistor in a tupperware container trying to eat some coffee beans.

Finally, we made it

Posted to Bobs-Blog by Bob in New Florence, PA on 1/27/2008 10:53:04 PM

A little over six months and we've finally made it. On Friday, we received our occupancy permit. We still have to have the inspector come back in the Spriung forthe final grade and for our deck railing, but we have the go ahead to finally move in to our dream house. What a long strange trip its been.

On Thursday, our lender came by and informed us that out of all the people who have ever borrowed money from their bank to build a house we are the first couple who has adhered to thier draw schedule. That made us feel pretty good. We started with $20,000 cash that was for the two acre land purchase, clearing and purchasing materials prior to our loan. We borrowed $230,000 from the bank and when all is said and done we finished with $800.00 to spare. The lender fully expects the project to appraise between 300-350K That felt so good not only did we finish in a reasonable amount of time, but we also came in under budget. I can honestly say myself and my wife worked our tails off. I can't thank my father-in-law enough for everything he helped us do through the whole process.

Ironically, our inspector who was with us through the whole process was not the inspector for our final. Talk about being nervous, we learned how he operated and now we had a new guy. My poor wife barely got any sleep the night before, but it was all good.

Last week, our plumber and HVAC sub came in and finished all the faucets, dryer, washer, disposal. The electrician got all his stuff done. He also installed the garage door openers and we wired up my wole house MTX stereo system. The speakers are MTX the receivers are Kenwood and Pioneer with a Sony and Kenwood CD player and Mintek DVD player so far. I'll be adding more at weeks end.

The security system folks (Dynamark) came in and finished our security system and then they tutored us in how to use it.

TheAmish finished all the trim and then they put the soffit and fascia under the front porch and under the deck.

The counter top folks came by and finished the kitchen, they had to do the island and knee wall. We did the WilsonArt HD Butter Rum on the counters and the black with a solid surface edge on the island and knee wall to break up the color. The also brought our main bath granite counter.

We did  a bunch of little odds and end type things to get ready.

The inspector arrived at 11:30am on Friday and after a few hours he passed us and was amazed at how well we did for being owner/builders.

Friday night and today it was cleaning time. We had a bunch of family over helping us clean. We wiped down all the wood with Murphy's oil soap. I love the smell. Cleaned all the cabinets, trim, doors, walls, ceilings you name it we cleaned it.

We also cleaned up the basement and burned what we could and we finally filled up our dumpster for the first time. We got our mirrors, pictures and art work all done. We evened out all the cabinet doors and finally got to break out all our new stuff for the kitchen. We started washing dishes in the new dishwasher and washed all the towels. We also started moving as much of the small stuff up here as we could.

Our furniture gets delivered on Tuesday. The phone company is supposed to be coming out at weeks end. We're hoping the cable company comes out as well this week. Today  we're going to move what little of big stuff that we're keeping such as two beds, fridge, freezer, end tables, coffee table, gun cabinet, etc..

Photos

My new office carpeting.	Materbedroom carpet and trim	The insulators finishing off the basement ceiling.
My office	The Island	The Knee wall
The doorbell.	Under the front porch.	The security monitor
The masterbedroom.	One of the kids rooms with curtains	Other kids room.
The kitchen sink and faucet.

Updated Photos

Posted to Bobs-Blog by Bob in New Florence, PA on 1/18/2008 10:17:25 PM

Updated pictures.

Photos

Office cabinets.	Corner workspace in the office.	Granite vanity top for master bath.
Granite top for main bath	Dishwasher.	Range
Better range pic.	Fridge.	My granite sink
Pedastal for half bath.	Th Whirpool Cabrio Washer	Cabrio
The Backyard.	Railing in the stairwell	Retaining wall.
Outside fan	Flexible heat runs capped off for future use.	Control Panel for the humidifier.
The Humidifier.	Rheem Tankless water heater

One More Week

Posted to Bobs-Blog by Bob in New Florence, PA on 1/18/2008 6:15:48 PM

The Amish worked the past two days on installing our poplar trim stained and dyed with Cherry and Mahogany. They have a half day of work left and then they'll be finished.

The plumber/HVAC put in the fixtures all the toilets are working. They installed the garbage disposal. They hooked up the hose bib for outside. The walk-in shower is looking great. The also hook up the heat pump and AC unit. They got the humidifier working and installed on the furnace.

The retaining wall is finally complete.

The electrician came in and wired up the under cabinet lighting in the kitchen. He hooked up the outside fans under the deck. The MTX speakers are in the walls and ceiling in the living room and in my office. He also installed the Range hood.

We made steps for the garage entry into the laundry room. Hung robe hooks in master, main and half baths. We installed doorstops. Changed over the new stove from natural to LP gas. Filled in the nails holes on the door trim. Used the crayon type stain sticks and the Minwax stain stick, both worked great.

Our appliances were delivered we got a Frigidaire dishwasher, Frigidaire Professional slide-in range, Whirpoll Gold refrigerator. We got the Cabrio washer and dryer, but the dryer had a dent in it so they did not send it. It is to come on Monday.

Our carpet was dropped off, it will be installed on Monday. We also bought a nice area rug for the living room.

Starting to come together, the wife and some of her family are going to start cleaning this weekend and we told all the subs they have to be out Thursday. We are shooting for a final inspection on Friday on next week.

Photos

Baseboard trim in living room	My office door with the trim around it.	Master Bedroom door.
Noah installing trim	Our range hood getting wired up.	The range hood.
My office closet.	Kitchen counter top	Newly installed countertop
My office desk.

More Updated Pics

Posted to Bobs-Blog by Bob in New Florence, PA on 1/14/2008 2:17:23 AM

Here are some more pics as we continue the final finish

Photos

Better look at the interior doors.	Kitchen knobs.	Kitchen drawer handles.
The microwave.	Father-in-law installing knobs.	Look into the living room. Stools for the kitchen
Newly painted stairwell.	Steps after they were poured	Our sidewalk.
Masons getting ready to pour the steps and sidewalk	Hard to believe this was our steps.

Almost There

Posted to Bobs-Blog by Bob in New Florence, PA on 1/14/2008 1:59:21 AM

We got all the wood doors hung there were 13 of them. The stain was a Mahogany and we really like them. The knobs were egg shaped and rubbed oil bronze finish by Schlage they are all installed as well.

The knobs are in all of the cabinets. We did the office, kitchen and both bathrooms. There were a bunch and it was pretty time consuming. We are now adjusting doors and then we'll be free of the cabinets.

The trim also arrived with the doors it is poplar stained with Mahogany. We wanted wood, but not a grainy wood so we chose poplar. The trim is bought, stained and installed for $2 a foot. The amish will be in this week to install it.

The masons are almost done with our retaining walls. They should start bricking the columns on the deck this week.

We installed all the floor vents and regsiters.

The HVAC sub installed the air conditioning unit.

We painted the stairwell to the basement and will install the railing today. The only painting left now is touch-up stuff around the ceilings and then the garage which i'll do in the spring.

The drywallers that we fired went nuts with the roto-zip and made most of the switches and receptacles in the house too big, so I went around and patched them all, then sanded them and repainted the holes and put the covers back on.

The amish will be in to finish the soffit and fascia under the front porch roof when they come in to do trim. We had to leave it off for the brick work. Then the outside of the house will be complete except for grass, landscaping, patio floor and driveway which will both be poured in a few months.

The electrician came today and hung the fans under the deck for the patio. he will be finishing up the rest of the stuff he has to do this week. Which is basically garage door openers, speakers, phone and cable stuff

The security company Dynamark will be in to finish the security system.

The insulation sub will be in to do the floor

Appliances will be delivered hopefully today.

So by weeks end we should be close to moving in. I have a trip to Mobile, Alabama coming over the weekend so in those three days i hope to miss the cleaning..lol

Photos

My mailbox. We love it and it is sturdy as can be.	Big bathroom handles	More bathroom knobs
Recessed lights in deck roof.