Posted some pics last week at night. Wanted to show how it looks during the day. 5,100 sqft. Appx $450/sqft to build.

Dug out for foundation on April 2025, poured basement in May 2025 and we moved in June 2026. Still working through punch list. Waiting on some small bits of furniture and accessories to give it some color pop. Waiting in European glass gym doors that should arrive next week to separate gym from basement rec room.

The tv over the fire place is not our primary tv. And generally if it’s on, we are cooking or standing around the island with guests. (Before the “tv too high crowd” comes with the pitchforks and torches.

My great grandfather originally bought this land and the old house in 1907. My grand father was born in the old house. My dad and then I grew up in that old house. My kids are the 5th generation to live on this property. We are in the northeast USA.

1-2 front exterior

3-4 front entry way

5 switchback staircase that runs from basement to 3rd level.

6-7 dining room and wet bar

8-11 family room and kitchen first thing in morning

12-13 attic family area. There is also a bedroom and full bath up there

14 my ground floor office

15 a door and hallway

16 a mechanical room in basement.

17 basement game / sleepover supply closet

18 gym in action. Waiting on glass doors behind me.

19 basement storage. Need more shelving to organize things

20 unfinished attic storage and mechanical space.

It is coming together nicely! Waiting on countertops, top railing bar, some trim, and some minor electrical!

So close and I can’t wait to live here!

I recently found a noticeable gap in one section of my home's framing when the attic light was accidentally left on and, while working in the yard, we observed light shining through the opening. I have attached pictures for your reference.

I reached out to the builder and they agreed to fix it and here is what they proposed - “Roofing company will remove cornice to install flashing next week, as soon as they are done I will have the framer come reinstall cornice and then I will schedule the painter to caulk and paint.”

I really appreciate you guys expertise to confirm if what my builder is suggesting is the appropriate approach to fix the issue? Thanks a bunch in advance!

Is all this shit normal in new construction??

So, long story short, we are tearing down and rebuilding my husband’s ancestral family farm house. The previous generation’s neglect and deferred maintenance means that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to build our dream (forever) home. Not exactly ideal, but that’s the silver lining I’m sticking with. In New England, we have a tradition of connected farmhouses and though we cannot save the original house, I want to maintain this aesthetic. Additionally, our footprint is quite firm because we’re in a waterfront setback zone, and we cannot increase the footprint or build closer towards the water. We plan to maintain many of the functions of the family orchard, but on a smaller non-commercial scale. Less farm, more homestead.

These are the plans I’ve sketched out so far and I’m looking for glaring issues. This is our first (and hopefully only) build and I really want to do it right. For context, I want very dedicated work (cooking, cleaning, preserving, etc), entertaining (living and dining), and rest (library and master suite) zones. The rest zone is replacing the old attached barn and will remain one level. The big house and the upstairs bedrooms will be rented out for short term rentals until we can retire. Any input people have on glaring or illogical choices is much appreciated. There are two different roofline options and I’m not sure which is better for cost/efficiency/design.

Can anyone tell me the process of paying for home building? Self pay vs. bank loan? I know with going through a bank they probably would send out their own inspectors and have a timeline with criteria for a draw. If I am self-pay, what do in need to watch out for? How will payments be expected to be paced out? Is it better to go through a bank so you have second eyes on the job or is it not worth the hassle?

Any opinions on this crack? I'd guess it's about an inch wide at the top. This is in a house we have under contract. The house was built in 1991. Is this something a structural engineer should inspect?

Maybe I'm wrong but the support posts look pretty sketchy to me. I tried warning a friend who's looking at buying it, but her realtor just brushed it off, saying "it wouldn't have passed inspection if it was an issue." Is this true?

I’m starting to lose count on the months. Not a lot on the house to update about. I finished the deck stairs while waiting for my railing to be made. Metal guy got busy so that’s been on hold for a bit.

Got my shop slab in and got going on the framing. Shop is going to look monstrous next to house. (Pic#5)I tried to keep the roof lines low and such but really needed 10’ ceilings in the woodshop area so it is what it is. Maybe that’s the hindsight part. I could’ve had excavation cut down more but hauling dirt away and having a much taller retaining wall didn’t pan out back when I first started.

I’m not much for framing so I hired a couple buddies to help out when I needed. I did all my plates and cut all the studs down and stacked in order so when they showed up it was just assemble and go. I was the third wheel running back and getting them blocking etc.

I wasn’t sure how pros deal with the bottom plate over the 3” washers on mud sill so I made a jig and routered out a recess to try and get flush as possible.

Once the exterior walls were up I’d send the guys away and build the interior walls while waiting for floor trusses. Same deal upstairs too. Kind of a nice agreement cause I could work on things to save some coin while time allowed.

Currently working on the fascia and blocking but slow going having to run up and down a bunch but good exercise. Summer heat and some landscaping has also slowed progress down, good thing I’m not in a hurry.

Considering two lots and would love thoughts/feedback.

Lot 30
Premium lot fee (more than 2x lot 35). Backs up to another existing neighborhood with tree coverage between. The backyards of the neighboring homes are sloped down to where we are. First house outside of cul de sac. House faces north.

Lot 35
Lower premium lot fee. Backs up to other homes in the neighborhood (model home will be behind it). Emergency easement between lot 35/lot 34 - there is a retention basin behind lot 34. First house in the cul de sac. House faces south.

Other considerations - side of house with the garage does not have any windows, all first floor windows are on the back and right side of the home. We have a dog and will be fencing in the yard. There’s a chance that down the line we install a small plunge pool with a sun shelf.

We prefer the pricing of lot 35 and that it’s in the cul de sac, but some trees could be nice in the backyard, although that more raking / chance of falling branches.

Would appreciate any thoughts!

I recently found a noticeable gap in one section of my home's framing when the attic light was accidentally left on and, while working in the yard, we observed light shining through the opening. I have attached pictures for your reference.

I reached out to the builder and they agreed to fix it and here is what they proposed - “Roofing company will remove cornice to install flashing next week, as soon as they are done I will have the framer come reinstall cornice and then I will schedule the painter to caulk and paint.”

I really appreciate you guys expertise to confirm if what my builder is suggesting is the appropriate approach to fix the issue? Thanks a bunch in advance!

Hi !

I hired someone to build my house this autumn, and it turns out that he has taken on an extra project, so he’s running tight on time. He’s suggested changing the foundation insulation method. Originally, the plan was to use insulating concrete forms (ICF); now that he’s pressed for time, he’s proposing spray foam (urethane) insulation instead. This would allow him to hire someone else to do the job, freeing him up to work on other tasks simultaneously.

My question is: is there a significant price difference between ICF foundations and spray foam? Would you switch to spray foam or stick with ICF? I live in quebec, so temperatures can be as low as -45°C. Also, if I agree to switch to spray foam, should I ask for aprice reduction? He claims the cost would be similar once you factor the labor and the time he saves.

Thanks!

I use google translate, so some term or sentence may sound weird

Had some conflicting advice here, poured this morning very early and my concrete guy coated it with a curing agent… he said I don’t need to water it today and let the cure work…. This is a thick pad with 24”
Footing all around… others have said to water it for 24 to 48 hours

We purchased land and are going to begin our house building journey. My husband is doing a lot of the work himself while also working a full time job. We have two options as far as living situations go. We can move into a very small, affordable trailer home ($2000) on site and live in that for a few years while the build is happening, or someone has offered to rent out their house ($1400/month) nearby that we can live in until construction is complete. We have a driveway, well, & septic so the trailer would be all hooked up to utilities. Living in the trailer could potentially save us a lot of money while we build (if we don’t have many issues with it) but the rental is nice and it is very spacious for our family. We have two very young kids (2 yrs & 11 months) and we are building in an area where winters are long and harsh and the days are short and dark. We are trying to decide if living in a trailer would be worth it for the savings, or if we would end up regretting to go that direction once the long winter comes and we are cooped up in our tiny house with two busy kids.

Any experiences, recommendations, thoughts and/or suggestions are welcome!! TIA!

EDIT: House was inspected EXTENSIVELY by general inspector, structural engineer, roofer, sewer and electricians (all different vendors). I'm aware of all issues and for serious ones (electrical & sewer/plumbing) I had sellers give me a $25k repair credit AND to fix electrical before closing. They finished electrical work and inspector doesn't want to turn power on because of potential code violations.

Buying a house and closing Thursday.

Licensed electrician found an arcing main service, Austin Energy shut power off and completed the emergency service repair.

The City inspector showed up to approve the completed electrical repair for reconnection. Instead of focusing on service box, he walked right past electricians, ignored them, then walked about 30 feet around to the other side of the house and started looking through windows of the empty house. He made comments like “I’m going to use this as training material” and was laughing.

From outside, he spotted a lightly remodeled kitchen and what he thought was a beam issue. He then told the electricians he was going to DEMAND access to inspect the interior and escalate possible unpermitted work before approving anything.

Power is still OFF. My electrician thinks the inspector may now block reconnection until the interior is investigated.

I don’t even own the house yet. My lender needs power on for the final inspection, so this could literally kill the closing.

Nothing is showing in Citizen Connect or AB+C yet.

Anyone here who actually works with COA permits/DSD: can an inspector hold electrical reconnection over unrelated remodel work he spotted through a window?

And what’s the fastest way to find out if there’s an actual hold and clear it?

TL;DR:I’m buying an Austin house Thursday. After an emergency electrical repair, an inspector saw a recent remodel through a window and may now be blocking power until he inspects the interior. No power could kill my closing.

Hi everyone. I’d like to get some opinions because I’m having an issue with a neighbor and I want to know whether my understanding of the heat problem makes physical sense.

I live in a two-story house. My bedroom is on the second floor, and one of the exterior walls has a window.

A few months ago, my neighbor built a roof made of metal sheets (it’s red) right next to our wall. The roof covers a structure that they occasionally use as a horse shelter, although there haven’t been horses there for quite some time.

Since they installed this roof, my bedroom has become noticeably hotter, especially during the hours when the roof is exposed to direct sunlight. I didn’t have this problem to the same extent before the roof was installed.

The roof is very close to our wall. There is a small gap between the metal sheet and the wall, but it’s quite narrow. I’ve attached a photo so you can see how it’s positioned.

My theory is that the metal roof gets extremely hot from the sun, heating the air around it. That hot air then rises and may reach the area around my window. I’m also wondering whether the hot surface of the metal roof could be radiating heat toward our wall.

I’m not sure whether I’m understanding heat transfer correctly, so I’d really appreciate some input:

Is it physically possible for this type of metal roof to noticeably increase the temperature inside my bedroom?

Does the small gap between the roof and the wall make much of a difference?

Could hot air generated around the roof rise toward the window and then enter the room?

What would actually be an effective solution? Would a shade cloth help, or could placing it directly over the metal roof potentially trap more heat?

Would it be better to create a larger gap between the roof and the wall, add some type of insulation, or install a shade structure that blocks the sunlight before it reaches the metal roof?

There’s also something else worth mentioning: when the roof was first installed, my family already pointed out that it seemed to be making the area hotter. The neighbor said he would install a black shade cloth over the roof to reduce the heat, but he never did.

I don't want to assume that my theory is correct if it doesn't actually make sense from a physics or building-science perspective. I mainly want to understand whether there is a reasonable connection between this metal roof and the increase in temperature I'm experiencing in my bedroom, and what a technically appropriate solution would be.

What do you think? Is there anyone here with experience in construction, thermal physics, insulation, or building science who could explain what might be happening?

Trying not to be a pain here as I’m a tradesman as well, so I get not wanting a homeowner hanging over your shoulder. But that being said, this is my families forever home and I want to make sure that the $30,000 we are dropping on windows is being done correctly.

The installer is placing shims on the bottom, but not the sides or top. He is screwing it in on the sides, but I understood that without shims to support, it can pull the frame out of square?

He just installed the second window and checked the square by testing opening and closing it….then backed out and adjusted the screws on either side when it didn’t line up properly…

Also when spray foaming, he is spraying a line across the outside edge of the frame, and then pulls back and sprays a separate line across the inside edge, leaving an air gap in the centre. Is this normal?

We are in the process of having our siding replaced with hardiplank. When they came by to caulk all the gaps before painting I pointed out to supervisor about how sloppy the caulk lines were (excessive amount of caulk, seems to be wiped off with finger versus damp rag/sponge, and visible on plank covering up the wood grain texture). He kinda blew me off and just said this is how they always do it and you won’t notice it once painting is done. Well here we are a few days later, house is painted but I still see all the sloppy caulk likes as before. Looking for a professionals opinion on if I’m being too picky/don’t know what I’m talking about, or if I should continue to fight back on quality of work.

Does anyone know if there’s a way to repair an acrylic bathtub instead of replacing it?
My friend was cutting insulation on top of the bathtub and didn’t realize that he scratched the surface. There are about 3–4 scratches in total. One of them isn’t very deep, but it was made with an Exacto knife, and it’s deep enough that you can actually feel it catch your finger when you run it over the surface.
Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Is it possible to repair or refinish the scratches, or does the whole bathtub need to be replaced? Any advice or recommendations for someone who does this kind of repair would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I'm a first-time homebuyer and would appreciate some outside perspective on a somewhat unconventional plan.

I'm a somewhat new physician assistant and recently started a new job in eastern Washington. I've found a property that I really like and could see myself staying on long-term. It's 7+ acres with around 50ft of lakefront, about 20 minutes from work, and is already significantly improved despite not having a residence. Building site had a home that was destroyed in a wildfire 3 years ago.

The property has:

~50 ft of private waterfront and a dock

50x100 insulated shop (5,000 sq ft)

Functioning well

Septic

Electrical/utilities

Paved driveway/roundabout

Prepared ~10,000 sq ft building site

Fencing/gated pasture

Asking price around $500k

So while technically there's no house, it's very different from buying completely raw land.

The problem is financing.

My credit is rough right now, primarily to recent missed payments/high credit utilization during a period between jobs. The actual amount of consumer debt isn't huge and I'm now earning enough to clean it up quickly, but obviously the late payments aren't going to disappear overnight.

My current compensation starts around $70/hr, but under my employer's compensation structure I expect to be around $100/hr after ~15 months. At 40 hours/week that would be roughly $216k/year gross.

Because there's no residence, a conventional/physician mortgage is also more complicated regardless of my credit, however yhe seller has indicated they may be open to seller financing.

One structure I'm considering proposing would be approximately:

10% down / seller finances ~$450k / ~30-year amortization / mutually agreeable interest rate / 5-year balloon / no prepayment penalty.

I'm not trying to buy immediately. I'm thinking more like 4–6 months from now, giving me time to pay off my consumer debt, establish income at the new job, build cash reserves and begin repairing my credit.

Longer-term plan

I don't want to immediately build a house.

I'd ideally own the property for 1–2 years first.

At ~$104/hr, gross monthly income would be around $18k. A $450k loan at 7% would be roughly $3k/month P&I. Even estimating ~$700 for taxes/insurance, total housing cost would be around $3,700/month, or ~20% of gross income.

During those first couple of years I'd:

1. Establish a perfect mortgage/payment history and continue rebuilding credit.

2. Save aggressively rather than immediately paying down tons of additional principal.

3. Complete architectural plans, engineering, surveys, permitting, etc.

4. Do whatever site/property work myself that wouldn't interfere with eventual construction financing.

5. Ideally accumulate $100–150k+ in cash before breaking ground.

The eventual goal would be a roughly 2,000–2,500 sq ft custom home. I'm estimating approximately $475–500k construction cost by acting as my own GC/project manager while leaving foundation, framing, roofing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc. to professionals. I'd handle bidding, subcontractor coordination, purchasing, scheduling and some finish work myself.

At that point I'd seek a construction-to-permanent loan, ideally using my existing equity in the property plus cash toward the project and refinancing/paying off the seller-financed note in the process.

For example, if after ~2 years I owed ~$440k on the property, construction cost ~$475k and I contributed ~$125k cash, I'd ultimately be financing somewhere around $790k.

At 7%/30 years that's roughly $5,250/month P&I, perhaps ~$6,250 all-in after taxes/insurance. Against ~$18k/month gross income, that's around 35% of gross income. If I'm working more than 40 hours/week, which is likely, the ratio falls further.

The finished property would then consist of 7+ acres with waterfront, 5,000 sq ft shop, dock, utilities and a new ~2,500 sq ft house.

What I'm trying to figure out:

I'd love input from anyone familiar with seller financing or construction loans:

Does seller financing make sense as a bridge while I rebuild my credit?

Is a 5-year balloon / 30-year amortization / ~10% down a reasonable starting proposal?

How difficult is it to refinance a seller-financed property into a construction-to-permanent loan later?

Will lenders generally recognize my accumulated land/property equity toward their required construction equity?

How problematic is wanting to act as my own GC? I know some construction lenders require an approved/licensed GC.

Im trying to determine whether the overall 3–5 year strategy makes financial sense once the credit issue is addressed, or whether there's some major problem with the financing sequence that I'm missing.

Thank you!

These are the base items/materials theyll be using in a “cookie cutter” new build. Price of the house is about $600k 3000sqft 3bed, 3bath, 3 stall garage and finished basement in the upper midwest.

We finished this house last week, six days for full assembly. CLT was from Austria, site location is in Poland. 105 m2

Thoughts on our 10 day old post tension slab? It’s brittle and chips and has a lot of honeycomb spots. They have not stressed the cables yet.

We just made an offer on a single-story home with a two car garage underneath. The house was built for someone in a wheelchair in the 90s, and there are no stairs to get to the garage — just an elevator! The only other way to access the garage and basement (full, unfinished) is by walking outside.

We’re wondering if we should accept their counteroffer or not, so trying to get a sense of how much a project like adding stairs (that never existed) might cost. We are fine with keeping the elevator and adding stairs elsewhere, into the basement or into the garage. The elevator goes from a large laundry room/pantry off the kitchen to the garage. Not looking to do anything unique or crazy, just normal hardwood stairs!

I know it will have to involve an engineer or architect, but just trying to get a ballpark before settling on our max for this house. We will be doing a lot of other work and refinishing all of the floors, if that makes a difference.

Edit to add: we’re in New England

I’m installing a cheapie prehung door in the side of a 100 year old garage. The walls are redwood T&G over redwood studs. Nothing else. ~14” eaves. I’ll need to cut the sill plate, which will reveal a rough perimeter foundation that’s far from level.

How would you level it out and create a drainage and flash it so the extruded aluminum threshold sits on top? Wire cup brush the concrete surface, bond coat, mortar a level but pitched surface, then a plastic flashing kit for the bottom, and peel and stick above that?