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PM sent Swans man :)

Sparky - Basically we threw our comments back at the builder (just minor stuff like don't need double doors into master, don't need all that stone on the front of the house, why are they cutting us 80sq/ft short on the garage since we're allowed up to 1200 :) , etc), so they are making the adjustments. Sometime next week they should have the next rendition done, along with costing. After everything is settled with that, then we sign the contract with them, pull permits, stake the property out, and hopefully start digging around 3-1.

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Good for you man! Not many people will take the time to plan everything out themselves instead of doing the normal cookie cutter houses. What builder are you going through?

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http://mitsustyle.com/forums/showpos...&postcount=345


Oh fo sho!!!

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IS your wine cellar really gonna be the crunk juice storage?

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Plans look awesome. Not sure what size place you're in now but, having recently moved into a 5-bed, 3.5 bath, 3500 sq. ft. home myself, it was shocking just how much space it actually is. As you said though, it's great for guests and a growing family.

You may already know this, but I'd say don't skimp on windows and doors. We have dual-paned, double-hung windows with real oak trim, solid core doors throughout, and an insulated garage door. Between all of those things (and spray foam insulation) the house is super quiet and super energy efficient-- our home costs less to heat than my brother-in-law's 2600 sq. ft. home built just two years ago but with lesser windows and doors.

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Got the "final" plans today. It's always still open for change, but this should be 99.99% what it will look like.

The theatre room will be unfinished, we'll do that ourselves in the coming years. The wine/cellar area will also be unfinished, but that's ok as all we plan to do is just install a couple light bulbs and shelving and that's about it. Also the wetbar was going to cost around $3500 to build + $300 to rough in, so we are having them leave it just roughed in and we will build our own using pre-made cabinets from Lowe's or whatever for under $1k hopefully.

Attached the final plans in PDF. I also attached a little JPEG showing how I imagine the garage will be utilized, because that's what people really care about :)

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So now we are moving onto other stuff as well. We need to make an appointment to pick out appliances, lighting, and flooring. We've narrowed down the flooring that will be in the kitchen/dining/foyer.

We also picked out all cabinetry to be Poplar with the Chestwood stain color. All trim will be Natural colored Oak. Here's a pic of the cabinet, trim, and flooring next to each other. In the first pick, you can see the poplar on the left (cabinets) and natural oak on the right (trim and doors). Flooring, we're leaning towards the one on the left, but still considering the darker one as well.
http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1329264247
http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1329264496


Also we need to pick out exterior colors, and window color. Here's the current colors we're looking at. Left colors are soffet and fascia. Bottom 2 show the white or beige window option. Right colors are the vinyl siding that will be on rear and sides. Front of the house we can pick pretty much anything since it will be painted
http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1329264247

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Looking good!

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Clean on the outside, cream on the inside!

Bathroom should be done here in a couple weeks, finally go the tub in, but still need to finish hooking up plumbing exit tubes and over flow and then put up the walls and sheetrock, then floor.

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Shhweeet, I can't wait to take a dump in your new bano!!

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I went through many of the same things recently so hopefully I can offer some considerations in attempt to be helpful (I know I welcomed tips when I was shopping).

- darker wood will more easily show dirt and scratches

- after shopping around a lot, we got all of our kitchen appliances at ApplianceSmart. We went with the whole suite of Frigidaire Gallery appliances in stainless steel. For fridge, micro, oven, and dishwasher, we paid as much as we would've for just the fridge and dishwasher somewhere else (ie, basically got the microwave and oven free)-- and that's even after updgrading to a french door refrigerator and double oven. And definitely spring for the french door refrigerator-- it makes a surprising difference.

- check out Steve's Blinds for window coverings-- best prices I've found and good quality

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I see a fail in those plans, no NSX parking. :(

lol, looks good bman.

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We both have bottom freezer fridges in our current homes and really like them, so thats what we will get. They come in regular and French, we will just get whatever we feel ends up being the best deal for us.
I definitely know about appliancesmart, its where I got my current washer and dryer from. Great prices. We will be checking out all of our options.
Thanks for your insight.

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Gotta think in 3D man... under the Lexus :)

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:PIMP:

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Lot is staked!

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I think I know where that is.

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Sweet website to get ideas from! http://www.houzz.com/

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Closed on the lot yesterday. It's officially ours. Should start digging next week.

Decided on the Acacia flooring (the lighter one in the pics above). Went to ApplianceSmart and they didn't have anything for us unfortunately. We picked out the house exterior colors. Attached pic points out some of them.

- Rear and sides siding will be called sandalwood (shown in pic).
- Soffit, Facia on the whole house, and the trim on the front of the house will be Shell color (shown in pic).
- Windows will be white (shown in pic).
- Front of the house will be painted in Sherwin Williams Bungalow Beige (not shown).
- Stone of front of house will be Tuscan Villa - Florentine http://www.coronado.com/media/instal..._InstallR1.jpg

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You said you got Frigidaire Gallery appliances? That's pretty much exactly what we are looking for. They had a decent deal but we didn't want the side by side freezer/fridge. We want a bottom door style fridge. The one we want is more $$, but they wouldn't let us upgrade the fridge to a different one for that deal. So we're going to look elsewhere.

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Sounds like a good choice in exterior. If your looking for gutters or have any questions on them PM me. The color Shell is a stock item for gutters the Sandalwood is a slightly off color to match but should be able to get real close. I would advise to make sure the roofers use proper Drip/D edge vs the ever so common siders edge which is worthless. Also might be worth checking into the hail/impact resistant shingles for an insurance discount; vinyl siding will cost slightly more for insurance as well.

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Yeah, Frigidaire Gallery in stainless steel from the location in St. Louis Park. We worked with a couple different people on different occasions and had no issues at all.

We were going to get the package of all new appliances but we were able to find scratch-and-dents with no obvious imperfections (we only noticed the imperfections after 4 weeks of owning them) for a only a slightly higher price; our dishwasher was the only new piece. That also meant we could upgrade to the French-Door fridge and double oven without hassle or useless upcharge.

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Brandon, I know you've decided on plans already, but I stumbled across this online and figured it might be worth a look:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...44618239_n.jpg

:D

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That looks good, Spaz, but why is the garage so small?

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LOL. Garage could double as a theater room too, its perfect!

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Retractable screen = drive in.

Done and done.

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Looks big enough for a dyno too.

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We have a dirt hole!

Also picked out a whole bunch of other stuff today. Carpet (the middle one), different carpet for the sunroom, Master Bath Tile, laminate counter tops for the kitchen, interior wall paint (light beige), we also switched the exterior paint to 1 shade darker beige. We are pretty excited!!

Apparently one neighbor came out yelling at the excavator about removing some of the trees they had to remove, saying he didn't want those removed. So our builder had to have a nice talk with the neighbor telling him sorry but it's not his lot, lol.

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Mowed my yard and trimmed my bushes today...phew, what a project! :D

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Anyone visit any of the parade of homes this weekend? I went to a few in Edina/Tonka/Plymouth to get some ideas. Always nice to visit some 1.8mill homes that I will never be able to afford.

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We went to about 20 houses this weekend in the parade. The $2m home in Chanhassen was unreal! I think we might steal their idea of putting a huge viewing window in the theater room, so people can watch even when they aren't in the room, the can pull up a barstool and sit at the viewing window at the bartop.

Here's pics of it.

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For 2 million bills, that house seems small!

Brandon why did they remove any trees at all? They seemed plenty far away from the house... Id spare all trees, since Blaine seems to have a shortage.

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Some trees were removed because they were where the garage will be. They are keeping as many as possible.

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aly and I stayed at a 2 of her aunt and uncles homes over the years watching there dogs. One was in deephaven they sold it for 3mill the other was a home was also in that area they sold that one for 5mill. I did not want to leave that one.
The 5mill house had a master bath that had a shower room 10x10 lol. The basement had 5 42in tv's and a 80in tv in the center with the others on the top and sides.
They moved all there stuff down to there home in HI after they sold the the last home.

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Sounds like you're gonna have at least one awesome neighbor Brandon. Haha

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One of these days I'll have to go check out the parade of homes. Since I just bought a house last August, I plan to refinish my garage. I'm planning to paint the floors and walls in the garage. Also planning on building my own work bench. No pictures other than the MR2 and all of my junk in there. I need to get the DSM over as well. It's still sitting at my parents house.

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So how close are you going to be to me Brandon? Is that just south of Brown's old place?

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Jet, we will be basically right off Lexington and 109th. So maybe 5min south of you?

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Small update. They started digging last Monday, had the footings poured that Tuesday. Work stopped for the rest of the week, I'm thinking maybe they were letting the concrete cure. Started back up this Monday, they have most of the walls poured. I'd assume they'll let these cure for a few days as well but no idea really.

All flooring/countertops/interior paint/tile/etc are all picked out. Moved onto lighting. The lady at the recommended lighting place sucked. I think 90% of our lighting is going to end up from Menards. But going to get a couple nicer fixtures for the main level/entrance area. Picked up matching lights for over the dining room table, and over the island.

Purchased all the appliances from the Sears Appliance store in Maple Grove. They beat everyones prices hands down. Ended up with the Frigidaire Gallery set.

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Looks like I will be moving to the Blaine/Lino Lakes kind of area in the next month or two also, I just got a job offer from the Lino Lakes Correction facility today. First day is April 11th and Our current lease ends May 31st. Mucho Excite!


what? you shoulda gone to Home Depot and hired some mexicans for $50! hahaha

Make sure it has more than 3 legs! haha Tom....