Construction

We built our BDH from the ground up with a national builder based out of Pennsylvania. We picked the floorplan, modified it like crazy, picked the lot, wiggled the house around on the lot and hand picked every single paint color, tile, and fixture that would ultimately go inside it. We signed the contract to build our house on April 21, 2012 and closed on March 26, 2013. Chronicling the 11 months in between when construction started and finished are the main subject, and the original purpose of this ridiculously girly construction blog.

THE SPECS:
The BDH has a European architectural style, with one turet in the front and one in the back. The BDH's exterior is painted hardy plank siding and field stone. Many homes in our subdivision also have ledgestone and siding, which is more of a crafstman architectural style, which is very popular these days. All of the exterior paint is in varying shades of light brown, with a black metal accent roof over the front porch and black shudders.

The BDH is 4,800 square feet with 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. Living spaces include: a family room, kitchen, kitchen sitting area, breakfast room, dining room, formal living room (aka "the lady cave"), wine cellar (unfinished) and media room (unfinished). Most of the first floor has 10 ft ceilings, which does wonders for us in terms of not feeling cramped. The family room, foyer and formal living room have 20 ft ceilings, while the breakfast room and library have 14 ft ceilings and the upstairs has 9 ft ceilings.

The master boasts its own seperate sitting room and a 32 ft. long, pink master bath and, most importantly, a 22 x 6 clothing closet and an 8 x 10 custom shoe closet. The BDH sits on a 0.7 acre lot permanently bordered by woods on the left and rear, our street on the front and our awesome neighbor's gorgeous craftsman style house on the right.

THE BACKSTORY:
We searched high and low in Raleigh for our dream house, but just couldn't find it. Our poor realtor was probably about to jump off a cliff (by the way, if you're looking for the most patient, fabulous realtor in the world, we highly recommend James Hutson of Century 21). Either we didn't like the area, the closet was too small for me, the house was too old for Ross's taste, the floorplan was weird, the ceilings were too low, or something just didn't feel right.

We really didn't want to build, mostly because we were very anxious to be homeowners, but we felt it was the only way to get exactly what we wanted. We were apprehensive of the building process, which ended up being way worse than we ever even could have feared, but at the end of the day there's nothing better than living in your barbie dream home that you built 100% to your liking.

The builder told us that it would take 7-8 months to build our home. Why it actually took more than 11 months, we still don't know, but at least it gave us more time to blog about it, right?  The path to BDH ownership was speckled with exciting milestones and big decisions and plagued with speed bumps and road blocks. On more than one occasion we thought we would never actually get to move in, but thankfully everything finally worked out. Thanks to my fabulous pink iphone, I was able to capture almost every step in the BDH's evolution from a pile of lumber on a wooded lot into the home of our dreams. :) Click on any of the words below in peach and you will be directed to the post on that stage of the construction process!

The BDH's Evolution in Pictures

Our construction timeline 

Order of construction activities


The posts below describe our construction journey (in chronological order), which started with lot clearing, ended in chandeliers being installed, and these posts cover every nail and splinter in between.
Lot clearing - part 1

Lot clearing - part 2

Placing the home on the lot

Driveway poured!

Ground breaking

Foundation construction

Crawlspace construction

Framing - part 1

Framing - part 2

Framing - part 3

Framing - part 4

Plumbing installation

Staircases built

Siding installation pictures

Exterior siding and our pre-drywall recap

Selecting our Granite!!

Insulation going in!

Cabinet installation

Cabinets, trim and windows

Finishing up drywall

The beginning of drywall!

Front doors, banisters, master bath and paint post!

Paint, crown molding, exterior stone and chandeliers

Pouring the driveway, chandelier installation and running water

Chandeliers and lighting installed

Finishing construction touches

Landscaping!