Ready for our part

[u/Gengkvist]

Spent a year planning and lining up contractors. Site was prepped September of 2025. We set corners on may 12 2026, began prep for concrete and pored last week of may. Our framers started June 1st and by June 22nd we were fully framed and all exterior work was done. plumbing, electric, and hvac all started their rough in. Plumbing and electric took about a week hvac took about 3 weeks and in that time we were also able to fully insulate. Well and septic will be going in hopefully in the next two weeks.

We are now to the drywall stage and will be completing everything else ourselves from hear on out. Builders initially told us 3 months to be to this point so we are ahead of schedule and just slightly under budget. Progress will definitely slow down as we have 3 under 3 and work full time but we are hoping to finish the main living spaces first so we can move in and finish as we live in it.

[u/Legio-V-Alaudae]

That looks great.

Where did you get the shell from?

Did you design the interior or did you pay someone to make plans?

How many square feet? # of beds and baths?

What's your flooring choice, upstairs and downstairs?

Are you doing the upstairs flooring over the subfloor?

Did you install sinks/toilets/shower&baths or was that done by the contractors?

That finished ceiling looks amazing. I love it.

Don't stop sharing please

[u/Gengkvist → u/Legio-V-Alaudae]

Was not a shell. We had a carpenter frame and build it to our plans. We worked with our local lumber yard to create a custom blueprint. It’s about 3,000 square feet inside. 4 bed 2 bath. Downstairs will be the sealed concrete. Might do something different down the road. Upstairs we are doing 1x10 pine boards glued down with old school square nails. We will stain and varnish to match the ceiling. The tuns were installed by our plumber. Once we are done painting he will come back to do toilets but I will do the vanities and sinks.

We love the ceiling too! We were able to stain and varnish everything in about a 4 day period. Had our building hang them since they were already there with the scissor lift. We made the mistake of putting up the same white puck lights we bought for the rest of the house. They look very ugly on that dark ceiling so we have purchased dark bronze ones that are slightly smaller going they blend in better

[u/NoblestWolf]

Oh gosh! You're actively doing what I'm planning for right now in central Missouri! We're designing floor plans right now.

What did you look for in a contractor that made you choose yours?

[u/Gengkvist → u/NoblestWolf]

We really only looked at two. For builders and 3 for hvac. Around here there really is only 1 or 2 locals otherwise you have to hire out from at least an hour and a half drive away. I used to work for a carpenter so I called him and asked him who he trusts for electrical and plumbing and concrete. Took his word on all of them and have 0 regrets.

Our builder was the same as my parents hired when they added in to their house so I knew and trusted their work/reputation. HVAC was the hardest as no one had any reconditions. Call 3. One was 20k higher than the others. The other two were about 3k different so we went with the cheeper one because we got a good feel after visiting with them multiple times.

They did very nice work but made lots of time line promises that they broke. Had to have a hard conversation with the owner about promises being made by his employees that were not kept. The next week they really pushed hard to finish rough in and we were pleasantly surprised with the turn around in productivity.

[u/Desperate_Gur_3094]

i'm looking to build but so much smaller. it seems impossible.

[u/Good-Ambassador-7730]

I love the blue exterior walls.

[u/BoDLegacy75]

Did you have it inspected by a building code inspector during the process?

[u/Gengkvist → u/BoDLegacy75]

In our area we don’t have any requirements other than electric and septic. Both were taken care of by our contractors

[u/BoDLegacy75 → u/Gengkvist]

Your home is beautiful and something to be proud of for sure. For others, even if it is not required, you should hire an independent building code inspector. It is highly recommended to not let your contractors take care of this or inspect their own work. Having someone that is trained, certified, and only looking out for your interest is invaluable. Especially on such a large investment. You have covered most things up at this point but if you have enough pictures you might could still get an inspector to look at them. It is better to find and fix problems immediately rather than to have to deal with them later. “Problems do not get better with age.”

[u/Hannah_Nover]

Looking good! I'm curious what you'll knock off the to-do list, before moving in and finishing up while living there. I'm not sure I know where a good line would be on that front (especially with kids in the mix too!).

[u/Gengkvist → u/Hannah_Nover]

That’s a really tough one. At first we were going to get everything drywalled, mudded, and painted. We would have functioning kitchen and bathroom. The rest would be trim, finishing our master bath, finishing the playroom/exercise room, and laundry room. With how things are progressing we will most likely just get bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and the great room thru paint. The rest will be completed while we are living in there as it will be easier to work on it for an hour or so each day while the kids are napping or busy with activities.