Building Our Home From the Ground Up -Shingles, Tile, Wood Flooring, Painting, Exterior Stone and More!

Kevin here! Ok, we have failed the mission! BUT that doesn't mean we can't finish, just a little delayed in our posting. We have been so beyond blessed in this season of life but we have been so busy. You may not know the news, we are having a BABY BOY and we are so excited -- and yes, our house might be already built - sssshhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell anyone.

Shingles:

The day has come: our shingles are getting installed. In Florida, installing shingles is less about “just roofing” and more about building peace of mind. Between the heat, daily humidity, rain, and wind that shows up fast during storm season, we treat every shingle roof like a full system—not just a finish.

Previously, we had the home “dried in” with two layers of Florida-approved underlayment. Because our home has concrete fascia board, also known as “Hardie Board,” we had to wait for the fascia to be installed by our siding contractor so we could properly install the drip edge over the fascia. On houses that have standard aluminum fascia and soffit, we do not have to wait.

Paint Priming:

Ahead of interior finishes, our painter will prime every wall and ceiling and complete the final ceiling coat. Starting this step early keeps the project moving smoothly and creates a clean, finished look like you see in the picture below.

Tile:

In our home, we have all-tiled bathrooms, meaning a tile main floor, tiled shower/tub walls, and a tile shower floor. In some cases, our customers may opt to run waterproof luxury vinyl plank into some or all of the bathrooms. We have a lot of tile in our home, so we spent many hours selecting tile at the beginning of construction.

The first step to tile work is waterproofing! In our home, we used concrete backer board and Red Guard. Showers and tub surrounds all receive the same treatment, so we have a waterproofing membrane behind the tile. Liquid-applied waterproofing, paired with proper slope to drains and carefully detailed corners and penetrations, keeps our homes water- and mold-free.

In all of our showers, we decided to go with a “no-step” shower and used the main-floor large-format tile to run into the showers for a seamless look—and less grout to clean. Once everything is waterproofed and the sloped concrete pan is completed, tile installation takes place. Most of our bathrooms have a 12x24 tile or similar, excluding the master bathroom, which has a subway tile back accent wall. You can expect a shower to take 2–3 days to tile, unless you are using something like subway or more decorative tile that takes longer to set. Once the tile installation is complete, our subs grout the walls with the specified grout selection.

Wood Floor:

We had a lot of tile—and guess what? We also have a lot of wood flooring. Following the completion of the showers, we started the installation of our wood flooring. We chose an engineered, glue-down wood floor in a lighter oak tone.

Ready for a story? Kaitlyn and I chose a wood floor during our selection process that we were really excited about. It was exactly the color we were looking for. Then the day came for the wood floor delivery! We took a piece out of the box and… WHAT? This isn’t what we chose. It’s so dark. Where is the natural oak look? We brought a piece back to Orlando to compare it to the sample, and it looked nothing like what we selected—not even close.

Moral of the story: it happens to the builder, too. Sometimes, during the manufacturing process of any material, there can be issues or unexpected shifts in color. You may not realize it, but this happens more than you think. Our sales rep made a few calls, and in this case—because the color was so far off from the sample—we were able to return it and make a new selection. What do you think? And no, this is not an HGTV stunt to make you nervous that the house won’t finish in time—it really happened. Sample on the left; what actually arrived on the right.

Before any flooring goes in, we complete what’s called “slab prep.” This is where our flooring contractor fills low spots or grinds down high spots in the concrete slab. There’s no such thing as a perfectly level slab, so we take this extra step to make sure any highs or lows are taken care of.

Concrete Floor Preparation

Glue-down wood floors are installed with—you guessed it—glue! The flooring contractor does a lot of measuring and chooses the best place to start the wood floor based on how the customer wants it run (most commonly front-to-back or side-to-side), depending on the home. You can expect a wood floor to take 2–3 days to install, unless the home is very large.

Exterior Stone:

Alright, Kaitlyn had specific look in mind that she saw on many houses on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Don't get me started on social media and house building. It took a long time for us to find the right stone. Man oh man did she nail it though!

We used a man made stone or "cultured stone" for the outside accents. Today, unless your wallet is deep, most homes you see with a stone accent have a cultured stone product due to high costs of real stone. When we completed the stucco process we installed a "scratch coat" over there areas that stone will be installed. This allows the mortar and stone to properly adhere to those areas. Just like real stone, culture stone goes in "brick by brick."

Stay tuned as we make our way toward the final reveal of our home and model home for future customers!

Thinking about building your own custom home? Contact us today to learn more about our process and how we can make your dream home a reality. Hit the sign-up button in the top right corner if you’d like to stay up to date on our build.