Build - Day 50 - September 2, 2011

Yesterday we had a great turn-out for our Dusty Shoe Open House. Between 5:45pm and 8pm we had a steady stream of guests. We handed out little cards with our builders info as well as the URL to this building blog so anyone who wants to can continue following the progress and read-up on our decision-making processes. Thanks to those who took the time to visit our dream house!

Today they are pouring the concrete floors. We have a number of them: the front porch, back porch, garage and basement floor. Keeping with our Universal Design principles, the front porch will be made accessible for a wheelchair. Our original idea was to use the back porch into the inlaw suite as an accessible entry, but then we thought of our lovely North-East Ohio winters...

The covered front porch is much easier to clear than a whole exposed walk-way to the back. Don't really want to tell our wheelchair guests to sit out in the car for 15-20 minutes while we shovel/plow that entire walk-way. Also, if something happens to one of us--especially if Jen hits her head again and has mobility issues--redoing the walk is one less thing we have to think of during that stressful time. Some people might think it looks a bit odd, but anyone having difficulty with steps (e.g. bad knees, arthritis, hip-issues and of couse, wheelchair-bound) will find this quite welcome and sometimes even required.

Today they just did the basement, front porch and the garage. The steps/ramp/driveway will come later in the build when no more heavy trucks need to pull up anymore... ;-) The back porch will be stamped concrete. Jen picked out the pattern and color yesterday. That will be done at a later date since we need to keep at least one entrance to the house available while the rest of the cement dries.

Big cement truck, we had 3 today.

The concrete starts to flow

Basement poured.

The fans help with the drying and moisture levels

On to the garage...

Smoothing out the garage floor

Garage floor finished

We had to wake him up on his 1st potty training day, but it was worth it. We've dedicated the house. Welcome to the 'Daniel'!

Kitchen decision... made

Remember that little post saying we were going to announce the winner of our 'kitchen cabinet contest' the next day. Well, we kind of forgot to put that post up... And the winner is...:

Yoder Cabinets out of Fredricksburg, OH.

Yep, we went local and we went Amish. In the end it came down to two suppliers. The shop that already was awared the countertop job and our Amish supplier. The countertop supplier was literally $3 lower than our Amish supplier on the kitchen pricing. Not 3%, no, $3... okay, and 32 cents.

The supplier out of Medina was more than 100% over the median price so that was elimination 1, the supplier out of Akron pretty much doubled their quote over the initial estimate so they got booted after that, the supplier out of Copley was in the ballpark price-wise and had a good quality product but we simply didn't connect so they came in 3rd.

In the end, the final decision was fairly easy; for the same price as a semi-stock cabinet ordered out of North Carolina we could get a local, full custom, Amish-made kitchen. Both suppliers had a great product and were the only two that understand what we wanted, took the time to listen to us and connected on a level we needed to feeel comfortable with for the items which will be the focal point and most used in the whole house.

Our Amish supplier recently started his own company after learning the trade for 15+ years at a fellow Amish cabinet maker. He doesn't yet have a showroom so he invited us into his home. It's a rare and very much appreciated gesture to get invited into an Amish house with the family at home going about their business. From the outside it appears completely modern and at first glance, the inside also looks just like an 'English' house. Until you see that the lights are gas-powered and a solar panel is powering the few electrical tools they can have.

His family was so welcoming to us and he connected with us on a personal level it made us decide he would get the job even if he would be a bit more expensive. When his price came in dead even with our 2nd place finisher it took all but 1 second to make the final decision.

In return for his business and hospitality we are also very happy to offer him a showroom for about 6 months when our dreamhouse will be used as the model home by our builder. This way both parties come out ahead and -- rant alert: unfortunately we don't see too much of that shared effort in our country lately -- end of rant alert.

Build - Day 9 - July 20, 2011

First of all, I have to say that I am blown away by our construction crew. Historic flash flood lifting our dinette off the foundation? No problem, just a three hour delay. Record breaking heat wave the next day? No problem. Hard at work, as usual. I am seriously in awe of their ability to work THIS fast in such energy-draining conditions. There may be a popsicle delivery sometime tomorrow.

We had expected today to be a nice, slow day mainly letting the basement wall concrete cure. But, much to our pleasant surprise the crew started on the non-ICF walls today under the front and back porches as well as the garage walls.

When we arrived around 9 this morning, they already had a great start on the garage.

Cement quietly curing.

When we left, about 10 minutes later, these guys were getting blocks ready to start the front porch.

Back before lunch, the front porch is done, and the three-car garage was almost done.

Men at work.

View from the driveway, at 5pm.

Garage is done, and I can finally start to see the size of the house in proportion.

Getting ready for the subfloor!

Our future front entry.

Back porch foundation is done.

Coming up: sub floor.

Last-minute framing changes

One other thing we discussed with our builder yesterday was to discuss the latest 'insights' (otherwise called - another round of changes...).

We discussed our ideas and our builder pretty much agreed that those were all very good ideas and advised us to get the construction plans updated with those changes since it would be a bit much for the framers to remember.

Here is the list of items we are changing (from the 'permit' plans) and why:

• Removing the separate entrance for the In-law suite: creating more wall-space in the in-law suite, allowing more room in the in-law suite bath and cutting some cost since it eliminates a fire door, framing for it and it removes a break in the thermal mass. 
• Switch from the U-shape kitchen to a double island design: allowing better traffic flow into, out of and through the kitchen, it cuts cost since we are removing some square footage on the couter by removing some bar space and cutting out a part of the U. It also reduces the distance to walk from the kitchen to the dinette.
• Moving the pantry door: the current location at the 45-degree angle doesn't provide an ability for a 3 feet door (max 2.6 feet) due to the location of some support posts. So we'll square-up the pantry and put in a pocket door between the support posts. It will also provide a more useful lay-out in the pantry.
• Window size changes in the dinette: we are enlarging the back wall windows from 3x5 to 3x6 to allow bench seating and we are reducing the 2 3x5 windows to a higher-placed transom window with 3 frames to allow our hutch to fit underneath.
• Swapping coat closet and hall bath door: To prevent looking into the bathroom upon entering through the front door we will move the coat closet to the front wall and move the hall bath door further back.
• Fireplace location: we are moving the fireplace back to the back wall of the great room to avoid an ackward decision on where to place the firewall on the east wall. It will also allow for a better traffic flow between the 1st and 2nd floor.
• Remove the door between the master bath and closet: Since we have a door between the master bedroom and bathroom and the closet location being off the bathroom there is no need for a door, especially since only Jen and I will use it... Also cuts the cost of a door and the framing for it.
• Create a play nook in bedroom 4: A (toddler/tween/teen) boy doesn't need a 4,5 x 8 closet so we are taking part of the closet to create a little play nook for a hidden castle or other exicting imaginary hide-away to play in.

Another change is that the spray-foam insulation for the attic might not happen simply due to the cost of it in North-East Ohio. They charge between $3 and $5 per square and with a 1700 SF 2nd floor the extra cost is at least $5000 over an R50 cellulose insulation. Yes, the foam works better but the energy savings between R50 cellulose and the spray-foam is simply not enough to justify the minimum $5k difference. Maybe we can see if we can add a radiant barrier instead. Unfortuately we do have a budget...

Home Designer (Chief Architect)

One key element in the process of designing a house is the ability to visualize the structure before it is built. For me, that isn't too big of an issue but for people who lack the ability to instantly 'convert' a flat, 2D floorplan into an active 3D walk-through--i.e., Jen--it becomes a lot more of a struggle. One option is to find an architect that does 3D modeling as part of the design but that isn't always available or it might be cost-prohibative.

Enter 3D tools like Chief Architect's Home Designer. It's the consumer version of their 'Premiere' line which is a tool aimed at the actual architects, but Home Designer has a lot of the features for 10% of the price. Plus, once you have the initial software, you can always upgrade until you have the features you want.

One of the cool things about Home Designer is the auto-generation of 3D motion based on your floor plan. It will take a couple of hours to (re-)create your plan(s) but once created, it looks very nice. Below is a little screenshot of the trial-version and 90 minutes of work based on our floorplan. I would have played with it longer but it's the wee hours of the morning and we have an 8:30 am showing tomorrow (fingers crossed and prayers said!).

Just 90 minutes of work yields some impressive results including a first crack at modeling the latest kitchen idea, but I haven't even played with styles or textures yet....

I think we'll be buying this little gem so I can show my wife whatthe latest changes will actually look like and what the impact will be on the rest of house. The before-mentioned ability to create a 3D walk-through will make that so much easier for Jen. With 1000s of library objects (furniture, windows, doors, etc.), ability to import pictures for texture and colors and a dazzling area of other designer options, I'm a fan and will gladly pay for this over a free tool like Google Sketch-up. Just take 15 mins and look at this video to see how intuitive and impressive this software is for home owners.

If you're paying multi-$100k for a house, this a must-buy and one of the best $200 spend in the overall budget.

Making changes to your design / floor plan

Current Elevation

Original Elevation

As we speak, our designer is putting together the final plans for the house. Even though we had a very good idea of what we wanted when we first met with him, we still made numerous changes and after every change we thought we had the plans done. Good thing plans need to be submitted to the local authorities to get the proper permits now, or otherwise we'd probably be making more changes still.

Don't get us wrong. We didn't make our designer go back to square one with each change. More like tweaks. It sure is nice to be working with a custom builder that helps you create the house that fits your family's unique needs, and then gives the flexibility to make those changes. FOr example, last night, Jen and Sue (Charis' interior designer) were talking up a storm as Sue was helping Jen visualize how she would use her kitchen and pantry to make sure the layout makes the best sense.

The changes we made were mainly minor tweaks on the inside of the house, but we did change the front stone facade to a more contemporary craftsman facade, and are now changing the smaller screened porch with composite wood to a larger covered stamped concrete patio that stretches from the dining area to the end of the house and giving the in-law suite direct access to the patio as well.

Because our dream house is in a very lively neighborhood with lots of kids and very social neighbors, we wanted to incorporate a nice 'outdoor living space'. With the change of the front facade we already have a nice front porch and this last change will give us a large outdoor space in the back of the house as well for lounging, grilling, outdoor dining and outdoor socializing (while the kids are playing in the big, open back yard).

Later today or early tomorrow we'll add the full set of (final) plans to the blog. Getting closer to putting the first stakes in the ground. Maybe as early as 2 weeks from now...