I have had a few threads asking for advice about everything from appliances to footings. I figured since this is only supposed to take about 2 months I'll post the progress here. As some of you know I got divorced almost 4 years ago. You guys have lived through it with me in some of my threads. It took me a while to figure out the woman I'm with now is the right one. I moved in with her a few months ago and we are building a house together. We've been together for a bit over a year. I figure at 49 years old I can afford to take some risks rather than wait forever to get my life going again.

So the house is a ~2500 square foot colonial. It's on the side of Mount Wachusett, a small mountain with a ski area here in Massachusetts. We will have 7 acres, a thin lot with most land behind us. The view are great. We have upgraded the kitchen to go where the family room would have been. It's going to be 18 X 16 feet. If the eating area is included it's 18 wide by 28 feet long. I'm pretty excited.

We will have propane for heat, hot water, cooking. We will have a Generac generator connected to propane to go on automatically. Lots of other good upgrades. I'll post pics as we go.


I'm sort of making this thread to keep track of it. I'm not a builder. Just bought the lot and house from a developer/builder. But I'll answer any questions people may have if I can.

The lot...



Footings poured...


Foundation forms are up. Foundation will be poured Monday. Framing to start Thursday. The first picture shows my awesome view.




This is the rear of the house. The left side is the kitchen, which would have been a family room.



A better view from the rear. Basically the back is kitchen, open middle and then at the front is living room. It will all be open.



Right side of the house.





ETA: This is the rear again. Over on the right you can see where the garage is. Master bedroom will be over the garage. We also will have a walkout basement to be finished by us later (already have 3rd heat zone and rough plumbing for bathroom going in).



I'll post updates as this is built. We are scheduled to close March 5th.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: frayedends,

I had my house built hope the weather holds out for you just make sure if their any changes made make note on the original contract and both you and the contractor initial it dont take anybody's word. at the end of the day if isn't in the 4 corners of the contract it doesn't exist

Instead of just running Cat6 and TV cables to each room, I would be running conduit with pulling line left in place for future cable pulls.

Also would take careful note of where electrical, water lines and such are run.

One opportunity to take note of things now.

Wife and I built our house 25 years ago. I was at site every 2 to 3 days and took pictures of everything during all phases of the construction. Took pics of electrical, plumbing, and HVAC runs before the drywall went up. This might help if do remodeling or if something breaks later, then you’ll know what’s where behind the walls and won’t have to try and remember. Unless you have some super construction folks, timeline on a house build is about 5 to 6 months, depending upon weather and other construction events; poured foundation in mid-March, and moved in at end of August.

Also being here in the Commiewealth, did you consider electric for hot water? It seems to run cheaper than propane to do it. Just asking before you get finished.

Those your solar panels?

That's a nice sized array. Big enough to run your house.

A few answers...

Any changes are written on a change order. I think at this point we've upgraded all we can afford to upgrade.

We will make note of where everything in the walls is placed. We plan to visit the site at least every few days. The builder is aware and okay with this as long as we stay out of the way of workers.

As far as conduit I'm not sure we could do that at this point. We are above budget. We also aren't even sure we will have cable available. I'm working on Comcast now (another story entirely that I had a thread about). But most everything we have now is wireless. With 5G coming I'm not sure it's even something to be concerned about.

Build timeline is 60 days. Both houses next door (builder had 3 lots) were done in 5 weeks. There could be minor delays due to weather. Once they get it framed they won't be delayed by weather more than a day for a major blizzard. Keep in mind they aren't subcontracting to a lot of folks. It's a family business and they run tight timelines.

The water heater is on demand propane. I can't imagine electric being cheaper. I'm not sure how electric on demands are, if they are available at all.

Last, the solar panels are not mine. That is the neighbor's. We will be putting up a privacy fence (plan a pool in a year or so). Also I will plant more privacy greenery.

That's awesome for you/you guys. Congratulations.

Great spot. I love mountain living the most. 7acres isn't small, either. Is shooting legal?

quote:

Originally posted by kimber1911:
Instead of just running Cat6 and TV cables to each room, I would be running conduit with pulling line left in place for future cable pulls.

Also would take careful note of where electrical, water lines and such are run.

One opportunity to take note of things now.

Me, too. It's pretty cheap, and makes things so much easier and more flexible.

Put up a Webcam or two inside so you can catch most of the daily progress even if you can't make it onsite. During certain phases you can miss big chunks of you're gone 2-3 days, and betting a shot of that spare bedroom plumbing before everything else gets installed (or whatever else) can pass quickly. I never missed a day the last time I went through a build. I had thousands of photos of every damn detail, in about an hour per day.

Anyway, Webcams... if you haven't already. You can swap out the SD cards each visit.

I can shoot with 500 feet between shooting and a dwelling. I should be able to find a spot. Hoping to find a natural berm.

No internet yet so no way I can put a webcam. No cable on street yet. I could probably get a WiFi hotspot. That may be our only internet source for a while anyhow.


ETA: Some of the upgrades we've made...

Widen driveway to 2 car wide, add 1 car turnaround.

Add concrete pad and install Generac 20kW home backup generator.

Increase composite deck to 12X16, change railings to black with stainless wire horizontal rails.

Add propane line at deck for gas grill.

Add mudroom with closet.

Convert dining room to office (my GF is a realtor), close room with french doors, add closet.

Added a few windows.

Convert family room into kitchen, add 4x7 cabinet island with 1 foot granite overhang. Widen room by 4 feet (18X16), Add cabinet for in wall oven/microwave combo, vaulted ceiling, white cabinets.

Hickory floors entire first floor except mudroom and bathroom (tile)

Move laundry to 2nd floor.

Increase vanity size in master bath.

Add slider for basement walkout.

Plumb for future bath in basement.

Add 3rd zone heat to basement.

Oh and here is the granite we picked for the kitchen. It's gonna need 3 slabs. We have 3 that were all cut together. The warehouse pulled them for us to check.

Nice granite!

I take it you'll have concrete walls?

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Nice granite!

I take it you'll have concrete walls?

Basement walls? Yes.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Nice granite!

I take it you'll have concrete walls?

Basement walls? Yes.

Sorry for the stupid question but I'm curious. The forms look like they're significantly above ground level, so the basement will be sticking out of the ground at least partially?

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Nice granite!

I take it you'll have concrete walls?

Basement walls? Yes.

Sorry for the stupid question but I'm curious. The forms look like they're significantly above ground level, so the basement will be sticking out of the ground at least partially?

Yes, in the back. It’s a walkout basement. We will finish it. It will have a slider out the back. Hard to tell in the picture but the front is lower and there will be a lot of grading/fill being done.

Interesting thread--thanks for taking the time to make it and keep it updated all the time.

Your list of upgrades looks very well considered to me. IMO all of them will add to your enjoyment of your new home.

Regarding the wiring, I wouldn't spend any extra $$ beyond the Cat6. When I built 10 years ago, I had all kinds of wiring put in. Today, I don't use 95%. Most things are now wireless, with more moving that way all the time. For example, I can put a TV anywhere in my house today and all I need is a power outlet. Everything else is wireless. Same for sound, home automation, etc. etc.

I wouldn't bother with data cabling if you've got a basement. Wireless is getting to the point where other than the hand-off from your broadband, nothing else will even have a port. Put the WiFi router in the basement and your done. Do plan for a god central place for that, including the coax cable run, and power. That way you're not radiating wireless from a corner and weak on the far side.

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
I wouldn't bother with data cabling if you've got a basement. Wireless is getting to the point where other than the hand-off from your broadband, nothing else will even have a port. Put the WiFi router in the basement and your done. Do plan for a god central place for that, including the coax cable run, and power. That way you're not radiating wireless from a corner and weak on the far side.

Good point on the central access for the router. I’ll make sure of that.

Have you considered security? A walkout basement with slider makes an attractive target for break-in.

You might want to black out your new address on the first post so that all your invisible friends don't show up unannounced.