After the storm.

Even though the national news made it sound like the state was under a weather siege, it really wasn't so bad here in the Denver area. We got 14 inches of snow on Thursday, but as of today it is pretty much gone.

As I mentioned in Thursday's post we needed to pickup the refrigerator, during the storm, so I could haul it up on Friday. The drive up normally takes about 2.5 hours, but this time it took four. The additional hour and half was spent in traffic trying to get through the remains of the blizzard in Monument Pass, which is between Denver and Colorado Springs. The hold up turned out to be two CDOT snowplows attempting to get a third out of a ditch. This is an indication of how bad is was during the storm.

Having lived on Colorado now for three Winters, I think I can say that they should spend some time with the Minnesota DOT to see how snow is handled. Granted there are mountains to deal with here, but my observations are based on watching it here on the Front Range, which is not all that different from the upper Midwest. To a great extent snow removal in Colorado is due to the "Solar Snow Shovel" and as long as you can make it through a storm, the next day will usually see it melt or evaporate.

Back to the house.

We had about an inch of white stuff when I arrived on Friday and that was gone by mid-afternoon. I figured that since the ground was still frozen I would get the truck up to the back door and slide the Refrigerator in to the utility room.

Even one inch of snow (about a tenth of an inch of moisture) can turn the ground into a muddy mess.

Derek and a couple of friends were coming over on Saturday to help move it and the interior doors in, so I saved them a little work. We did though haul the bookshelf door up and that makes up for the refrigerator. We also had an interior door for every hole in a wall that required one.

The kitchen cabinets are pretty much done. We are only waiting on the panels that will enclose the refrigerator and the dishwasher.
The cherry cabinets going in the master bath also are getting drawer fronts and doors to match the three rail Shaker style of the kitchen.

We still have not heard when the countertops will be installed. I am giving them until Monday, due to the storm, before I call again.

The built in is in, but there is a trim strip that still needs to be installed along the counter back and sides. Mike, out painter, fixed most of the scrap makes from its install today.

While Mike and Shawn were painting today Marlys and I sanded and sealed all of the base and case trim wood. It was in the 60's and a great day to be outside. When we started the house I ordered sample wood finishes from a number of suppliers. I applied all of the samples to scrape wood to select what would look the best. It turned out the winner was no color at all. We are using satin finish Minwax poly on all trim, door and ceiling. I even used a Minwax Sparpoly on the exterior glulams.

Ginny and Martha dropped by to the see the progress on the house just as Mike asked us to come in and look at the color we had selected for the lower level. There is no polite way to but it...it was radioactive yellow. I think in fact Jenny may have been speechless. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture for fear of equipment damage.

Mike will be repainting in next Sunday a nice "Malted Milk".

On October 24 it had been five months since we started construction. I hope to have the CO before we reach the six month anniversary.

Guess what we get to do today?

What with a snow storm hitting the front range you would think folks would hunker down in their abodes...at least for a couple of days.

But no.

We need to pick up a refrigerator today, then haul it and the sauna to the house tomorrow.

We are entering into some very real time compression on finishing up the house in the next three weeks. I wish I could get the counter fabricators to feel my pain.

BTW: this picture is via my cell phone.

Another One Day Swing

We were in Gunnison for Western State's Family Weekend on Friday and Saturday. Derek is becoming quite the rockhound, from both a study and climbing perspective. His hair has now taken on a black with red tint, vs. the black with blue of last weekend. As long as there are no tattoos or body hardware (visible) we can't complain.

The house now has a complete interior lining. Jesse has done a real nice job on the great room ceiling. We spent most of Sunday removing all of the plastic from the glulams and sanding them in preparation for finishing.

A couple of items have now become apparent; there is a thickness difference where the glulams meet any drywall and the ceiling liner needs to have a finishing piece added at its ends and sides. Jesse came by with his family and we talked about the possible solutions. We are going to use 1X that is chamfered for the drywall finish and beveled quarter round on the liner.

The window stools will also have a chamfered edge and the apron will have a 10 degree end cut to match the door head casing.

Visually, the addition of the cabinets had the biggest impact on the interior. There are still a couple of pieces that need to be fit, but it is looking great. The counter should be templated tomorrow, so that will put the counter install sometime week after next. I am again tentatively looking at the week of the November 13 for the CO inspection. Who knows maybe we can have Thanksgiving in the house.

The house is looking less like a construction site and more like a home, so we are now starting to think about turning down the construction site. The next time the satellite goes back we will not return with another one. Also the rolloff will be leaving us in the next ten days. At that point Tim will come back in to re-grade and gravel the road.














Remember this picture:








Well yesterday we couldn't even sit through one beer before we were too cold and had to retreat to the trailer. The sun now sets behind Waugh(WSW) at about 5:30.

Midweek Update

Its nice having enough things happening to warrant a mid-week update.

After talking with Jesse last night the ceiling is almost done, but there is a concern that there may not be enough pine liner. We will know for sure by end of day to day.

We went over the next items for him on my list, namely "door hanging" and I found out that I need the tile floors grouted first. That will put this off until at least the end of next week. We will also need to get the base/case and window stools finished quickly, because he wants to do that at the same time. This is looking like a 3-4 day job to complete.

It does though again point out the critical nature of the Kitchen counter. That needs to be installed before the grouting begins because of the tile backsplash, e.g. the tilers want to do all of the finish work in one trip (as every sub does).

The good news is that the Kitchen cabinet work will probably also complete today , so the counter Fabricator can get going.

We did have a few items not ship with the cabinets; filler strips, refrigerator right side panel and the front panels for the refrig and dishwasher...oh and a couple of other things...the master bath cabinets. Seems as if that part of the order was missed. Knowing that it took 6 weeks for the cabinets to arrive that does put us in a timing bind. The solution from Jack at Persnickity is that we will be getting Cherry cabinets in the master bath with a finish that makes them all most identical to the Maple/Chestnut finish used in the Kitchen and for the build-in in the hall. The Cherry cabinets will be here in a week. Go figure on that one the high line Cherry cabinets are stocked vs. the lowly Maple ones.

Also got an email from north of the border (Canada, not Wyoming) that the sauna had shipped. I need to add this to the "to do" list, as I have identified "Pat and his merry band of man", as the installation sub for this project.

A One Day Swing

We were only at the house for about 8 hours today. Leaving at 5am and getting back here at 5pm.

The stonework is complete, even on the inside around the fireplace, it really adds to the both the exterior and interior.


I will top the fireplace and the stoop seat in wood. Sometime in the next month, after I finish the handrails, finish the base and case, etc.

We don't have to worry about finishing the interior doors though, because that is what we did today.

We thought it would be at least a whole day job, but once we got started it took us about 3 hours to do ~16 doors. I have to say for pine doors, once finished in poly, they really have some character. We used the HVLP sprayer again. That is why we were able to progress so fast. The Scotch Brite finishing pads (fine) were also a real labor saver as compared to regular sandpaper.

Next weekend we will haul the doors up to the house, and place them by their openings so the trim carpenter can hang them.

Mike and Shawn finished the upstairs painting today and will complete the downstairs next Sunday.

I still haven't gotten the "good" camera fixed so these are not quite up to my normal professional standards.

Activity starts to turn up again this week. Monday the kitchen install starts. Also on Monday Jesse will be working on the ceiling liner. Thursday the counter fabricators will be in to make the templates for the granite countertops (kitchen, island, master bath).

BTW: the house is now locked up.

A neighbor stopped by this afternoon, who hadn't seen the house since Labor Day (pre-drywall), she was amazed at the progress in the last 5 week. This makes us feel better because we would have liked to have seen more progress during that time, i.e. last weeks post.

I'd be lying, if I said...

I'd be lying, if I said...
...It was just as exciting seeing the build today as it was back in April.
...Every sub has delighted me.
...There have been no problems.
...I enjoyed the drive up every weekend.
...Everything is moving at the rate it should.
...I haven't missed items during the build.
...I didn't think I could do more then I really could.
...I remembered to put batteries in the camera so I could show you some pictures this week.

Except for the additional trim painting on the fasca. The exterior is done. Marlys finished the door painting on Saturday (even on our front door which we finally replaced on Saturday).

The stone work looks great.

The well in now pumping water into the cistern, thanks to the replacement of a fuse.

The telephone line has been buried and the service wired into the house. I could though use some advice on cross connecting the line to the house extensions using a 66 block.

We setup the sawmill on Sunday and rough cut the interior railings. We also squared and jointed a number of them. The mound of sawdust and shavings in front of the barn was impressive.

Mike and Sean painted the kitchen, bathroom, utility and great room, but they couldn't finish due to the humidity (because it was raining). The temperature was in the 40's so the windows were closed. They will finish up those areas next Sunday, then move on to the lower level.

We went through the trim requirements with a new trim carpenter, and will hopefully get him started this week. Although this is the second time a sub has let me down, this one is very disappointing.

The kitchen starts to arrive this week and installation will start at the latest next Monday (knock on wood). This is the critical path in the remaining work.

And it sucks, that after getting up in the middle of the night to watch the Chinese and Japanese F1 races the last two weekends, that Mike Schumacher saw his chance to retire with an 8th championship evaporate due to a engine failure and not racing Alonso. On to Brazil.

And no I don't think the 25 crashed the 48 on purpose. He tried to be the good teammate and got pulled into the draft when he moved to follow Jimmie. It looked like Jr. tried to shut the door and got caught.

I/We are ready for the house to be done.

3 Beautiful Days Let Us Get A Lot Done.

Sometimes it is had to believe that just over 5 months ago we were just digging the hole for the house.

From one perspective it seems so long ago, but from another the 5 months have just screamed by.

As we get closer to the end of the build it seems that there is never enough time to get things done, but this weekend much was accomplished.

M. M., "The Rainmaker" did not visit this weekend, so the weather was beeeautiful ;>

Marlys, finished the sealing of the deck. Yahoo!

And a project I have been putting off since July was finally taken off the to do list and added to the to done list...sealing the exterior glulams.

I wished I had done it sooner as the they look great. You can probably see the the paint is a little light on the fascia. Since this will be re-painted Essex Green to match the rest of the trim I didn't worry about the coverage.




The exterior stone work is also well underway.
Besides the Bodega style stone veneer we have selected a "dry stack" application. This means that all of the stone is placed "in contact" and there will be no tuckpointing between the stone. This gives the rustic look we wanted.

The fireplace stoop and cap will also be veneered in the same way.

At the top of the veneer will be a ledger stone with the drip cap above that and tucked behind the siding. This seems to be one of the few color selection we have made that works great.

I won't even go into the interior paint that the painter (yes, we have decided to bring in a professional) tested on the wall and said we may want to do something different. Luckily, I didn't take any pictures of the experiment as I don't think the camera would have survived.

The interior went through a few small changes this week. First was the completion of the installation of the hardwood floor. Which Marlys and I immediately covered in rosin paper to protect. So these pictures are the first and last time the floor will be seen until we are near completion. It turned out great, thanks to Paul and his crew.


They were also able to complete almost all of the tile setting. The only area remaining is the lower entry door and the top row of the master bath shower. They will complete the tile setting when they return to tile the backsplash in the kitchen. That will be sometime the third week of October.













Much of what happened this weekend was getting the interior pine ceiling ready to be installed next weekend.

This was a real production and with the weather cooperating, so we did it all outside.

We had a sanding station.












We had a spraying station.












And we had pine boards drying everywhere.

Of course, Dusty signed the house by walking across some of the boards leaving paw prints. I haven't figured out how to explain those...if any one even notices.








We finished the finishing on Saturday, so I had time to set a couple of doors on Sunday morning. These were the first doors I have ever installed. I read a number of books, researched it on the net and finally consulted a professional. They turned out ok.







We even had time to inaugurate the patio.