Big Four Sub's are selected.

Neal and I went through the proposals received for a number of the subcontracted parts of the house.

What was suppose to be the big four selection (framing, concrete, electrical, plumbing) actually turned into the big six:

• Framing will be done by David Jones, Florissant
• Plumbing - Johnny's Plumbing, Canon City
• Electrical - Bright Lights, Golden
• Foundation - Toma Construction Services, Evergreen
• Flatwork/Excavation - Fremont Concrete, Canon City
• HVAC - Clearwater Enterprises, Denver
• Color/ Material Consulting - Carol Maslow Sage, Canon City

Marlys and I will be the waterproofing, french drain, painting(?) and sanitation (Porta John)contractors. We plan on putting in the french drain after the footing pour tomorrow and the stem wall forms have been set, but before the pour. Tim Longsdon at Fremont Concrete will then cover the drain with gravel, and we will waterproof the weekend after the basement walls are poured a week from tomorrow.

No one services porta johns this far out, so John (no pun intended) at Canon Rental is setting us up with a 'john' and a trailer, that we will tow up to Pinon Rock. When it needs servicing (hopefully, the crew will be on a low residue menu), we will tow it back to Canon and swap it out.

I can tell that the synchronization between the different crafts is going to be a major challenge as we progess, in some case Marlys and will need to fill any gaps. That's OK as it gives us an experience-based understanding of how our ideas are turned into a paper design, then people and parts, and finally into a home.

Pat

The Mystery Guests.

Yesterday morning walking out to get the morning paper I noticed a fox sitting proudly in the neighbors driveway. She did seem concerned and watched me walk out, turn and stare, then go back inside. I have been hearing about the fox walking the fence in the back, from the neighbor, but this is the first we had seen her. The neighborhood has been hoping the new guests would apply a little population control on the exploding rabbit population.

BTW: the Colorado Department of Wildlife wants me to get a picture of the black hares (different from a rabbit) with the whiskered ears up at Autumn Creek I asked them about a couple of months ago. I think they are doubting my observation, but I am not the only one that has seen these big 'spooky' looking hares. For those of you in Autumn Creek, Marlys and I have seen the Hares between Eric's and the top of the hill before turning downhill to the front gate. They don't seem easily intimidated and will stay in place even if you stop to observe.

Back to the "Mystery Guests". For the last couple of days there have been strips of cloth by the front door in the morning. At first I though it may have been the ruminants(?) of the neighborhood kids making tails for kites, because of the time of year and size of the strips. Well this morning the mystery was solved. Turns out that "Mother Fox" has three kits and their home appears to under the living room overhang on the front of the house.

I opened up the door to get the Sunday paper and all three were rolling around on each other and playing tug of war with the cloth. By the time I got the camera only one was still there.
They are pretty cute. Don't know what if anything we should do about them. For now we will just enjoy watching them grow up.

Pat

Prom is over!

Yesterday was a loooong day. Getting ready for Prom, getting the couples to dinner, then to Prom and finally After-Prom. It turned into more then Marlys and I planned. We thought we could stay through After-Prom, but by 2 am we were out of gas and snuck out. Still we were up by 7am. The couples really looked great.

Derek and Aisha were a cute couple. Aisha true to form made her purse. You should see her duct tape purse (What a girl!).

Derek cleans up nicely and turns into the perfect gentleman in a tux.

Everyone met at our house. Don Ward and I rented Suburbans and chauffeured the groups around. Don decided to be a 'real' chauffeur and showed up in a suit and tie, so I had to quicky re-attire. I haven't wore a tie in almost a year.

They were a great group and seemed to have a good time. At after-prom, which has about a 2/1 turn-out as compared to the actual prom, it was funny to see all the young ladies in their jeans, shorts, PJ, etc., but with hair, nail and make-up done to the 9's.

Pat

Ufer Ground?

Well, the first concrete inspection had only one deviation. We didn't have a Ufer Ground attached to the footing steel. Pat Toma's crew took care of it after consulting with the General Contractor for the job...me.

If you have never used Wikipedia your are missing out on a great resource. It had a complete explanation.

A Ufer ground is something we don't normally see in damper clims, where grounding rod(s) will have good electrical contact and transference capabilities with the surrounding soil due to moisture.

The Ufer ground was developed during WWII in the southwest, when military construction was booming, but the engineers could not get a good safe ground for electrical systems, because of the arid nature of the area. The Ufer ground uses the entire surface area of the footer to establish a grounding surface with the surrounding soil. The extensive surface area is needed to safely pass the possible grounding loads. It does this by grounding through the steel put into the footers of a building and into the surrounding soil.

Look it up on Wikipedia, it will explain it much better. Then try out Wikipedia's random page feature. Its like letting a book fall open to a page and reading, it to see what you get. I now know what a "commonwealth" is after exercising this feature the other night.

Skiing Days!

Last weekend one of the neighbors swung by to see the hole. As we were catching up on the happenings in the area, he mentioned the number of skiing days he got in this year and it re-enforced one of the reasons Marlys and I have decided to make Colorado and Autumn Creek our future home. If only we could make our avocations, our vocations sooner.
Pat

Excavation is done. Footer forms going in. Prom

Tim Longsdon (Fremont Concrete) finished the initial excavation work on Tuesday. Luckily (or unluckily) it didn't rain as was forecast on Sunday. Neal Smart (Castle Timber Homes) and Pat Tomas (Tomas Construction) will be on site today strategizing on the logistics for the footers and stem walls (basement walls). The plan is for the footer forms to go in tomorrow with the inspection on Monday, then the pour. The stem wall forms will then be placed the end of next week, with the inspection and pour (probably pumping) of the concrete coming the week of May 8.

Our design calls for a 9' basement height. Because of this Tim was not able to do that portion of the work.

We will also need to decide on the penetration points for the water, electric and sewage during the stem wall form setup. So my next trip up will be next Friday.

This weekend is planned out as Derek has Prom and I am the chauffeur. Derek picked up his tux last night at Mens Warehouse. He goes through quite a transformation when he puts it on. Our little boy really is a man.

A couple of interesting data points on the tux business for Mens Warehouse (currently one of only two national rental providers);

• Tux's are 'built' in a 1M sq/ft facility in Houston. There is also a complete in house cleaners and laundry on site)
• Tux's are on a 3 week rotation between rentals to accommodate the return, cleaning, re-build and delivery to the store.
• Tux's are picked up at the store on Sunday (after the promers, grooms return them). Then the trucks turn around and deliver the next weeks tuxs to the store for Wednesday deliver to the customer.
• The largest number of tuxs out of one store for one weekend is 900 (Phoenix). The Park Meadows store is delivering 400 for this weekends proms.

Till next time.

Pat

We have a hole!

Marlys, Dusty and I went up to the Rock this weekend to inspect the hole. The house seems a lot bigger then it did when we staked it out (even taking the 2' foot over cut for the footings). The excavation didn't finish up until today, with the digging of the frost and wing wall footings. Let me take you on the dirt tour.

Here is Marlys standing in the garage or kitchen depending on the floor.

This is the view from the lower level looking WSW out of the prow. The exexcavation for the prow was not completed until today.

There will be a deck across the entire front of the house. The deck will be cedar railed, but have a composite decking. The UV at 8200' MSL can be brutal on materials. We have gone with composites where they look 'natural' and lower the exterior maintenance needs.

The rear excavation wall is about 7' feet. We will have 9' basement walls, which will give us a 2-3 foot basement exposure on the rear before the final grade. This should allow for a 1/10 slope away from the house on the back (toward the slope). We are still debating the installation of a french drain. Most houses up here don't have one, due to the arid nature of the area, but I think this is a Marlys and Pat job for one of the next few weekends. We have also decided to do the basement waterproofing ourselves. This should make for some good stories as long as Marlys and I don't end up divorced from the effort. Look for the pictures, you will be able to tell how it went by the color of our hair, if mine goes gray to black, and Marlys' red to black you can probably assume it did not go well. We have worked through the division of labor on tree removal, so that now moves along fairly effortlessly. I'm sure this will too.

Here is Marlys on the throne (or where it will be).

Here is the plan for this week:

• Finish excavation (done as of tonight)
• Foundation Contractor sets footing forms on Thursday.
• Inspection next Monday (they don't inspect on Friday).
• Select Framing Contractor
• Get Porta Potty on site (actually this is a high priority item).

We have a number of bids coming in, and we are staying very close to the projected budget. But with the start of work, so have the draws on the construction loan.

Hopefully, we will have enough left so I can get one of these. The tractor.

It was a pretty busy weekend with the projects we needed to get done and talking to neighbors describing what the dirt hole would be in the future. Even Dusty had to entertain all the dog neighbors that came visiting. By the time we left on Sunday he just crawled into the back seat and crapped out.

I will try to post a couple of times this week to update the schedule and describe the summer encampment' during the construction period.

Pat

Beetle Kill Trees and Furniture for the House

In the area we are building, a number of the Ponderosa Pines have been killed by beetles. The beetle attack the weakest trees. During a drought period the weakest trees are not able to create enough sap to close in the holes dug through the bark by the beetles. A fungus then is able to grow within the tree and cut off water movement, ultimately killing the tree. There is not much that can be done to guard against this force of nature, that thins the forest, but cutting down the infected trees before the beetle can move on to the next meal.

Last year, Derek and I cut down a number of beetle kill trees. We used a portable Hudson Sawmill to mill them into lumber. This lumber has a blue streaking to it caused by the fungus that killed the tree. In many areas of the country this type of wood is sold at a premium because of the coloration.

We had originally thought of using this wood on the interior ceiling lining of the house, but the additional milling needed made this too time/money consuming. We have decided to use it to accent areas of the house, e.g. fireplace mantle, handrails, etc., and to make furniture out of it.

Here is a picture of the second piece made from this stock. It is a card table (non-folding) made from Ponderosa Pine with Purpleheart for the border and stretchers. The Purpleheart turns a brownish color over time, but if you put it in sunlight it reverts to a deep purple. This location for the table will require a rotation every once in a while to keep the color even.

The finish is tung oil with a couple of coats of wax.

I hope to make a few more pieces before the house is finished.

Pat

We're digging a hole!

Finally, we are going to start work at the site. Today, we let Tim Logsdon at Fremont Concrete know that he can start prepping the site for footings. The foundation contractor (Pat Tomas) is scheduled to start the footing on April 26.

Marlys and I are trying to decided whether we want to get our hands dirty this early in the build by doing the basement waterproofing and installing the french drain. Could be a nice weekend project if works with the schedule and the weather.

I also had a learning opportunity today with the construction insurance (builders risk). I had called my current insurance company back in September, when I was assembling the budget details, answered their questions and was actually quoted a premium price. Yesterday, I called to say start the coverage and was informed that it would need to be reviewed by an underwriter, because of the fire protection coverage. The fire coverage question was not new, since we had gone through this back in September, but it seemed to be a bigger deal this time around.

Here is the learning; Things change, so give yourself time to work through any situation before it becomes a "crisis". I was going to wait until next week to order the porta-potty for the site, but I better get on that now, because I don't want to deal with that type of crisis.

Pat

We got our building permit!!!

We got our building permit!!!

Pre-Delivery Schedule

Here is our current timeline. As you can see we 20 days behind schedule. If we can get the excavation started by next Thursday we will make up a day. Also if the framing starts within 6 weeks, we could actually be ahead of schedule. If you click on the schedule picture it will open in another browser frame. From there you can roll over the image and an enlargment icon will appear in the lower right corner.
Pat

Pinon Rock House Floorplan

As promised yesterday, here are the floorplans for the new house. The black line about 2/3 of the way down the page are from the scanner, so please disregard.

Although it is a pretty standard mountain type house it has a few interesting touchs; the fireplace is a pier type viewable from three sides between the dining room and great room, the stairway to the lower floor is open so that the built in bench/archway is viewable at the real of the great room and a hidden book shelf door is planned for the office.

The lower level will have a sauna orstream room in the bathroom. Marlys wants a steam room and I want a sauna.

The area outside of the lower level windows going out beyond the deck stairway will be a stained concrete patio with a built in firepit. Again here there is a slight difference that needs to be ironed out in that I want a gas fueled firepit and Marlys want a natural wood fueled pit.

Tomorrow I will try and post the pre/post materials delivery schedule.

Pat

Building the House @ Pinon Rock

Marlys and I have owned 35 acres in the mountains of Colorado since 1997. We have always planned on building a home that we would live in once we retired (or before if we can swing the schedules). Now that many of these moons are aligning, we have decided to take the step and build the house.

We have been planning the house since we 1997, when we first looked at the property. In the 9 years since we have gone through many different revisions. We started with the a Lindal Cedar home, then went through the process of looking at many different layouts and building methods. When all is said and done we are building a Castle Timber Home with a classic mountain home layout. The design revolves around a central high peaked section sporting a six foot prow and two wings; one for the kitchen/laundry and the other containing the master bedroom. The lower level will be a walkout, since we are building on a significant incline, with a multipurpose room, garage and a couple of more bedrooms.

Even though the house will have large glulam beams, to a great extent it will use mainly engineered products, in that the sheating and subflooring will be plywood, joists will be veneer beams and engineered wood I-beams and the siding and trim will be Cedarmill Hardiplank for lowered maintenance and fire resistance.

Marlys and I plan to document the building on the Pinon Rock house. This post shows the site after we have removed our travel trailer, small shed and deck. The house has also had a rough stake out for the excavation which will start ~April 20, 2006.

Pinon Rock is located 35 miles from the nearest town at about 8800'. The house will be looking to the WSW. Over the years we have put in many of the infrastructure, e.g. well, septic, power, phone, road and a metal pole building.

The pictures posted are facing to the West and standing behind the back wall of the, to be built, house. The bedroom wing will be to the left and the kitchen to the right of the great room/prow section. If you look close enough you can see the stakes with the attached orange surveyor tape.

According to our plan we are currently 20 days behine schedule. We have been as much as 59 days behind during the design/structural engineering phase of the project. If we start framing within 6 weeks (fingers crossed) we will have made up the delay and actually gotten ahead of schedule. Right now we are looking at a late September, early October timeframe for a CO (certificate of occupancy), according to the schedule. If we get in by Thanksgiving we will be happy.

So to date this is what is done:

• Design preliminary and final.
• Structural and Foundation engineering and stamps.
• Building permit application.
• Construction financing.
• Power, phone, septic and well in.
• Site cleared and staked.
• Sub contractor bid packages sent out (major 4; foundation/concrete, framing, electrical and plumbing)
• Site review with Excavators.
• Interior Designer retained (Marlys and I are color selection challenged).

Did I mention that we are General Contracting this ourselves, with the help of Castle Timber Homes.

I will scan the design and post them in a later blog.

Pat