Moving along...

Forgot the camera today (unfortunately!) but the cultured stone is in, cabinets are halfway done, and trim has begun!

Here are two pix from my phone.

What do you think of the stone?


LOVE my cabinets!

Granite

New Giallo Veneziano

Pictures - Finally!

Framing is almost complete! Just one-two more days... Here are pix:

The lot/driveway

The elevation and rear:

The front door I ended up choosing:

My favorite part of the house--the nook!

The master bedroom:

The walkout basement

Great Lakes Superior Walls

It's almost time!!! We got the building permit and are just finishing up last second drafts of the site plan and stuff so we can begin excavating and building! Hot dog!

We're sort of excited about the basement. We are seriously considering going with Great Lakes Superior Walls, precast foundation that is finished in a matter of hours! So let me try to explain it; instead of pouring foundation and having to wait a week for it to set, Superior Walls is foundation that comes in blocks of concrete that are ready, and are simply put into place in a matter of hours!

The even better part is that your basement is nearly finished when you use it; just add drywall and carpet and you'd have a finished basement! So if you think you will finish your basement in the n ear future, then the superior walls is a great investment.. We got some quotes and it seems that it would cost us somewhere between $1000-2000 more to use Superior Walls, but we think we are going to go for it! Will let you know if we do, and how we like it!!

Straight from the Superior Walls website,

For superior new home comfort, Superior Walls foundations are custom-designed and built to demanding specifications to be dry, warm and smart. Superior in every way. When your new home is built with Superior Walls, you can enjoy increased building efficiencies—with your assurance of superior living.

For a list of advantages of going with Superior Walls, click here.

Choosing a front door

Been thinking a lot about our front door. Our builder told us to start thinking about the kind of front door we want. He guided us to the Therma-tru website to help us design the door we want. We knew a steel door was out of the question for us. At first, I designed this beautiful mahogany door, and had our builder get us a quote--it was almost $4000!!!

We had to decide what was most important to us. Three factors affect the cost: How close it is to wood (real wood is most expensive of course, then fiber-classic that can be stained like wood, then smooth-star that can only be painted); How much glass; And the glass detail (the more intricate the more expensive).

For us, having glass was most important, as well as privacy. For this reason, we are leaning towards the Smooth-Star line; it's cheaper in general and so we'd be able to get a lot of glass while staying within our budget ($1000-2000). Smooth-Star can't be stained like the Fiber-Classic line to look like wood, but it can be painted. We also would have liked a transom (the arched glass above the door), but our budget wouldn't allow it.

I really liked the Thermatru website because it lets you design the door you like, then you can also check how much privacy the glass you chose can afford you. The only thing I don't like is that you can't get the price estimate from the site.

The door above is the one I am leaning towards now. It's exactly in our price range and I love it! On the privacy scale rating (where ten is most private) it rates a 8. It's important for us that we have a lot of privacy, but don't need blinds on it, because I think that's ugly. What do you think? What color should I paint it? Do you like the glass design or should I choose a different one?

I'm just a little worried that the door we chose might not match with our red-brick theme. I am considering getting the same door but in Fiber-Classic if we can get it at a decent cost. That way it can be stained to look more like wood.

Change in plans

We've had a few changes made to our plans, nothing major. We added some flair to our original elevation with some cultured stone and a break in the huge wall of brick on the left side. (We also got rid of the wing walls, don't remind me!) As for the main floor, the main difference is the larger foyer to make room for the now L-shaped staircase. There were a few other adjustments, but nothing major. And finally, all we changed on the second floor was our walk-in closet, we removed the wall in the middle. Since the staircase is now L-shaped, we also gained some space on the landing.

Here are the pdf files for the elevation, the main floor, and the second floor.

On another note, we're getting the building permit on Monday!! Hot dog!

[We haven't decided yet if we are going to completely finish the bonus room, i.e., the space above the garage. Actually, I have decided, lol, I want it done! But I'm still trying to convince the hubbby. Basically, it would be cheaper now to finish it than later, and we might as well, it would be a nice workout room/game room for the kids. I plan on putting our elliptical in there, and then when the kids grow up we can put them a desk and chairs, instead of them going in our office downstairs. Hubby wants to know exactly how much it would cost to finish before he decides. Stay tuned.]

Flooring - to hardwood or not to hardwood, that is the question

Deciding on flooring has been difficult, to say the least. Let me explain...

So my dream kitchen has been like this: dark, rich hardwood floors, stain-less steel appliances, dark granite countertops, dark wood (maybe cherry maybe maple or mahogany) cabinets. This has been my dream, and now that I'm building our "dream house," well it only made sense.
But my husband and everyone else have been trying to convince me otherwise. Just about the hardwood. It's hard to maintain. It chips and dents, especially with kids (we only have one now, but who knows?) It gets ruined by water.

I thought long and hard, and I think they've convinced me. We are still going to do hardwood floors in the foyer and hallway, but I think I'm going to go with a dark (to hide dirt) ceramic tile in the kitchen (take a look at the picture, isn't that beautiful? and it's not hardwood!). What do you think? Do you have hardwood, is it hard to maintain??

Yesterday we also considered the possiblity of hardwood in the den, dining and living rooms, but specially the den. Take a look at our main floor plan to see why we are considering this.

I still want the stain-less steel and the dark cabinets. Not sure which color of granite I want though! I've been taking a look mostly at this website for granite countertops, but also this one. It's really hard to decide without seeing in person, I think we will go looking at some model houses or something to make a better decision.

July 17th, ETA: Okay, back to square one! I want hardwood floors in the kitchen again! I am just concerned that I will constantly be worried about it, what with kids, spills, water, etc... I am so confused now! I know that my dream is hardwood, but ... I found these two kitchen flooring that I like.

Brick and stone

So I've been doing some research on brick colors. We know that we like the reddish tones more than others, and we especially don't like the very light brick. I did some searching online and came to some websites that helped, that show the brick color, and when clicked, show a house with that brick. We also drove around and took some pictures of houses whose brick we liked. In the end, we liked this house's brick the most!

What do you think - do you like this color??

We are also trying to decide about whether or not we want to use any stone. Stone is A LOT more expensive than brick. Check out the stone to the left! Beautiful, I know... But expensive.

Whereas, the house above, if you see, above the windows there is a white arch, that is made from limestone. We've decided we want to do the same thing, that way the house has stone but it's not too costly.

Our builder also suggested having the front door be surrounded by cultured stone. Cultured stone is basically fake stone, so it's a lot cheaper, but still looks pretty nice. It comes in a lot of different shapes and colors, but we haven't yet decided exactly what we want. We are going to do like the picture to the left with cultured stone around the front door, but we need help choosing a style!

Also, we decided to have a boxed window in the dining room, which would be the front of the house. Unlike the bay window, it doesn't come out as much so it's cheaper, but it still gives the house some character from the outside.

Demolition and building permits

Just as anything in this country, lots of paperwork and hoops to jump through to get to the actual building part. The anticipation can kill you!

Since we're demolishing, we also had to get a demolition permit. To get it, we had to talk to several utility companies to make sure their service was turned off at the property. That wasn't the hard part. We had to ask them to send a letter stating that their service was off. Sounds easy huh? Well, it wasn't. We had to talk with four companies - AT&T, DTE (Detroit Energy), CE (Consumer Energy), and Comcast. CE charged us several hundred dollars since we weren't customers of theirs. But it just took forever! AT&T had us directed from department to department, we kept having to call back and check up on the process...It finally worked though. Was a pain! We turned that all in.

We still haven't gotten the building permit. The guy at the city in charge of it only comes in on Mondays, so it's pretty inconvenient. To apply, we had to finalize the plans of the house...which I'll talk about in another post. Hopefully, we'll be getting the permit soon so we can start with the exciting part!

Once you get the demo permit you can demolish, but my brother wanted to wait until we had all the plans and blueprints ready. That way we can demolish then start building immediately after.
So the next step for us was making preliminary plans.

Introduction...

Hey There!

My name's Ranya and I live in Ann Arbor, for the time being that is. My husband and I recently bought an old, run-down, and abandoned foreclosure house that was torn down just yesterday!

My brother (a professional builder) is building us a house on the property, and we are so excited! I plan on using this blog as a way to update the house's progress (with pictures, hopefully) and comment on the entire house-building process! I probably should have started this months ago - before we even bought the house - but I was pregnant and didn't think of it til now! Will try to post at least once every two weeks, but knowing me, it'll probably be more than that! At least in the beginning while I fill you in on all the details that we've already decided on.

Thinking of building a home yourself? Let me tell you, we've only just started but so far it has been extremely exciting...and I know so much more about houses now. It's hard for me to see a house without thinking, "Hmmm.. is that a hip roof, or a gable?" Or, "Wow, check out the stone on that house! But wait, is that cultured stone?" and my newest obsessions, "Look at that front door!" and "To hardwood or not, that is the question."

So for the next week or so I will start at the very beginning. And the adventure begins! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :-)

The pre-building stage includes:

-Deciding to build

-Finding a lot

-Picking a builder

-Demolition and Building permit, if applicable

-Preliminary plans

-Meeting with the architect

-Demolition, if applicable