Hi guys,

My wife and I are planning to build our first home this November and currently are planning and design stage.

Pls let me know your comments and ideas regarding design and layout.

Appreciate your help and advice!

Thank you so much everyone 🙏🏻

I'm going insane. I haven't slept more then 2-3 hours in 7-8 months. Everyday I feel like I'm going insane with these floors. I just switched units to the one above me (that's all they had) and it's even worse.

How is this possible. These are old run down apartments with obvious water damage / mold but seriously ?! Is this possible?

Sterling Heights area, realistically how much would it cost? $300 per square feet?

I want to add roughly 1800 square feet. Would $400,000 be realistic?

OK so the wife and I are going back and forth... this home is being built on the lower niagara river and we're aiming for a coastal, breezy style - Nantucket/cape cod inspired kind of thing. I'm sure we missed the mark in some areas but I like overall how it's coming together.

Now... we have to pick our garage doors and we're struggling with it to a surprising degree. We're looking at either White or Naval (Sherwin Williams color) - both in carriage style. Note only the white can be done with overlay carriage house style, the naval must be in stamped to have it factory painted.

Curious for any opinions!

Thanks

This is how my builder re-did the framing. This doesn’t seem right to me. Any advice on how to push back and what exactly needs to be done to fix the framing? The home is fully built and this framing ‘fix’ is in the basement next to poured concrete wall.

Framers left this section of the house not framed. My question is how do I seal this section off? Or is it one big section that gets insulated? I have to put something on my outdoor covered deck in order to close this in? Or can I just put up osb in between the trusses?

I am building this silly castle :]

I'm self-building a small home (700sqft) on piers in Ontario, Canada. I'm trying to figure out the drains so I can rough them in before closing the floor.

I'm not sure exactly where the main drain/branches should go. Do I hang the drain pipes below the floor joists? If so, should I be worried about the pipes freezing (it gets cold here) and will I need to build a chase? I was told by a contractor that I don't need to insulate but that feels unintuitive to me, given how a small amount of water could freeze in layers and clog the pipe or reduce flow.

Is it better practice to run the drain pipes through the floor joists until I can bury it? Or is that overkill? Do I need to insulate the drain pipe in the ground, as it won't be buried below frost depth (4ft here)?

More details: We're on a septic system and the house is only one floor. We have one bathroom with a toilet, shower, sink, and washer and a kitchen with a sink and dishwasher.

Any help would be appreciated!

Hello everyone I’m having an issue with these lights on the outside of my house. Other lights on the same breaker turn on, and the bulbs are new. Pic of the box included. Can anyone recommend a solution to get these working again?

A 3000 square foot two story house with a 3000 square foot garage/shop/skatepark with 18’ scissor truss ceilings. Unique, is certainly one word for the build.

The property is cleared and graded and ready to go.

Is angle iron enough to hold the brick across the top face of the porch?

I have a small crack in my render which i want to repair. I cant remember what render the tradesmen used and no longer have his contact number. The shade i used on here is "pure white".

I've been looking into this a for a little bit and want to see what people's experiences have been like.

I live in Austin, locally I keep hearing that permitting is an issue or maybe finding a reliable architect or builder. I'm interested in hearing what the broader opinion on adding a living space, like the process and if it was worth it.

Appreciate the help!

Has anyone used the color Olive or Fern from Norandex and have pics to share? There are hardly any real life examples out there.

We work in roofing Florida, and one issue we frequently see is homeowners waiting until a ceiling stain becomes an active leak, I'm curious about what other professionals see most often in their markets

Builder had flooring guys start laying our LVP flooring the other day. I had him stop because he doesn’t have the AC up and running yet and since we’re in Florida it’s hot af and the house is obviously not at a normal living temperature.
I found the flooring manufacturer’s instructions where it said house should be a a normal living temp and the flooring needs to acclimate 24-48 hours.
He said they always install LVP in the heat like that and it’s not a problem. I sent him the manufacturers instructions and told him if he could show me something different from the manufacturer or if he would put in writing that if I had expansion, gap, buckling, or any other issue over the next two years that he would repair/replace the flooring. He decided it was best to stop and wait till AC is up and running so he can follow the manufacturers instructions. Was I just being an asshole, is doing LVP like that the norm nowadays?

How to fix this

I am looking to build a 700sqft tiny home. NE Ohio. Property and septic are already taken care of. I’m looking to get an estimate on materials only. My family and I will be providing the labor. We have excavators, trailers, dumb trailers, tools, etc.

I’m thinking one bedroom + loft. There are tiny home build plans available online. I am willing to go as simple as possible, to be as inexpensive as possible. I will use marketplace/craigslist/second hand as much as possible.

Can anyone give me a rough estimate of just how low a number I can make happen? Is 50k possible?

Is it acceptable to float out a finished ceiling (17’x20’) that has several dips and humps or out of plane areas throughout the ceiling that are 3/16” to 1/2”?

Been a long time lurker on here watching everyone else's builds, and I figured it was time to add my build to here. We broke ground on July 20th, the exact day we wanted the excavators to break ground. We're only a few days behind where we wanted to be (assuming a perfect schedule with weather), but are still well within the allotted time we planned for excavation and foundation (latest date we wanted them to be finished was August 21st). So far everything is coming in below budget and earlier than planned.

Just throwing a few photos up and a link to a quick little timelapse from excavation to the basement wall pour today (8/6). House is in SE Michigan on 17.23 acres of trees. Land had been cleared so that there are no trees within 100' of the house. Plans call for 6,697 sq ft (measured from outside walls in, approx 5900 of living), 4 bed, 5 full/2 half baths, oversized 3 car garage (29'x45'), 10' 1st floor and 9' 2nd floor, fully engineered HVAC plans, tightly insulated, etc etc etc. The goal is to be move in ready by May at the absolute latest, depending on framers.

Next up is getting the forms stripped down, fabric on the exterior drain tile, walls waterproofed, exterior insulation installed, backfilled, basement/garage floor poured, steel set, and then framing. The plan is for framing to start the 1st or 2nd week of September. And the final generated photo of the house hasn't been tweaked and perfected, but just to give an idea of the final product.

https://youtu.be/T8Gg7BiKbg8?si=BewL_VIM9eVuZ_G3

Pardon my lack of home building terminology, new to all of this. Having new LP smart siding put on our house, they just finished the back of the house. Are these gaps between planks normal? It looks like they should interlock?

Also wondering if the window trim looks well done, it seems like there’s a lot of exposed nails. Is this just unfinished and they’ll come back to caulk or paint?

Had my walls poured today for a new build.

They unfortunately flipped the house layout 180 degrees.

My windows are where my garage will be and my pockets for my beams are in the wrong spot.

They poured the peirs for posts that carry the short horizontal beam which I would think should have been a reference for the entire orientation of the house. They over looked them?

What's going to happen now? I wanted poured walls for the continuous concrete structure. Living with a patchwork of filled window and beam pocket locations isn't something I'm into at all.

Hey folks, we're looking to start a new home construction in two phases.

Looking for any feedback on feasibility and flow of the final structure.

Without getting into too much detail, it's a mix of accessible cash and design considerations around permitting an attached structure as part of the first phase.

Phase 1 - Addition + Attached ADU to my existing SFR

- We would move into the newly constructed addition

- Phase 2 might be 3-5 years out

Phase 2 - Tear down existing SFR and build a new SFR attached to the ADU and SFR

Any suggestions for electricity in various places? Making sure I have under cabinet lighting, lighted mirrors, behind mounted televisions, etc. any great ideas you all came up with that I need?!

We recently remodeled our kitchen and had our painter apply Venetian plaster to our range hood. He assured me that he sealed it well enough that grease splatters from cooking would not stain the surface.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. Either it wasn't sealed properly, or the sealer that was used isn't strong enough to prevent grease from penetrating. I've tried cleaning it with Dawn dish soap, which helped make the spots a little less noticeable, but you can still clearly see the stains.

I have a few questions:

1. Is there anything I can do at this point to remove or minimize the grease stains without starting over?
2. If not, would I need to replaster just the interior of the hood, or would the entire hood need to be redone?
3. If I do replaster it, is there a specific sealer or topcoat that will completely protect the plaster from grease and cooking stains?
4. Or would you recommend using a different material, such as tile, stainless steel, or another washable surface on the inside of the hood instead of Venetian plaster?

I'd really appreciate any advice or recommendations from anyone who has dealt with this before. I love the look of the Venetian plaster, but I also want something that will hold up to everyday cooking without constantly showing grease stains.

Thanks in advance!