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.