A Sunday Walk Up Qaundary Peak

Since we started on the house last year we haven't had the time to do one of the things we like most about Colorado, and that is to roam around...roam around with a destination in mind.

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday we noticed that the list of items left to do were now of a less then critical nature and were more of "nice to dos", e.g. plant cactus in pots and arrange on patio. So a break in the proceedings could be scheduled.

We hadn't been hiking in a while, and had been talking about going up another 14'ter for a couple of years. The last time we had hiked one had been been Grays Peak (14,270') in 2001.

That one was no problem so why not another one.

This time we picked Quandary Peak (14,265") just south of Breckenridge in the Mosquito /Ten Mile Range. This image is from http://www.14ters.com/ and is from Hoosier Pass.

It was fairly close, has easy access to the trail head and Herb Zimmerman, one of our neighbors (another Minnesotan), had been talking about going up it too. So a date was set 9/2.

When going up these peaks just about any time you need to be concerned about changing weather and the possibility of rain, snow and lightening. Keeping this in mind we established our start time as sunrise, which this time of the year was right around 6:30AM.

Trip reports on the web from others who had gone up in the previous couple of weeks seemed to indicate that the climb up would take about three hours and the walk down just a little less. We were going up using the East Ridge Route, which would mean about a 6 mile round trip and an altitude gain of about 3200'. Spending a little time on top that should put us back at the trail head by about noon, hopefully before the clouds overdeveloped and the chance for rain and lightening increase. It probably goes without saying that being caught above treeline on wet rocky slopes and lightening looking for a rod is not safe.

To reach the tail head by 6:30AM, we left Autumn Creek at 4:30AM.

After a coffee and rest stop in Fairplay we were on the trail at 6:20AM. The alpenglow in the valley provided plenty of light.

Although I would put us in one of the early groups heading up we were not the earliest, which became real obvious once we summited (damn gave away the plot). We were led by Herb and Halle, the Black Lab, who proved to be the masters of the mountain.

The early part of the climb was a nice walk through a park like forest to treeline at about 11,500'. Halle had point. A good hike to get the blood flowing and hopefully find a pace and rhythm. Mine is slow, but I had already warned Herb.

Water always plays a big part in these hikes in that not only are you working hard, but as the pressure drops fluid respiration increases (I slept at a Holiday Inn last night). Marlys and I each had 2 liter camelbaks knockoffs and carried another 3 quarts in bottles, by the time we reached the bottom we would only have one quart left.

It was cool when we started and the group was clothed to match, except me. I knew I would be glowing quickly so I only had a light fleece on and convertable pants. I am noted for being able to work up a sweat just walking on a sub-zero day. This is another reason for carrying a lot of water.

According to some of the other trip logs I had read the most difficult part of the climb was suppose to be reaching the summit ridge shoulder just above treeline. For this group that would turn out to be total BS...unless the summit ridge shoulder was the false summit about 5 minutes and a fairly level walk from the true summit. The classification of this climb seems to be in question, just like ski trail difficulty. Most sites rate this as a Class 1 climb (easiest), LocalHikes has it at moderate, but Summit.org rates it as an advanced climb. It was more difficult then Gray's Peak is all I know.

By the time we had made it above tree line and gained the summit ridge we were an hour into the climb and needed to stop and shed layers. I was soaked. The sun was coming up over the eastern side of the valley, which put the terrain in to sharp contrast and focus.

For those of you familiar with the Autumn Creek Area, the mountain on the horizon in the very middle of this picture is Black's.

Please don't mind the dates on the pictures, as I had to change camera batteries and didn't have a set of reading glasses with me so I could reset the date.

Other then a layer of dissipating clouds, probably remnants of activity from the day before, it was a going to be a bright sunny day. Our fingers were crossed that the clouds would hang around for a while to keep the direct rays of the sun from baking us during the already hot task of getting up the slope.

After what would come to be thought of as the most pleasant portion of the climb on the crotch between the summit ridge shoulder and the climb to the false summit, what for me came the most challenging part of the climb. I would literally not look up to see how far we had to go and just concentrated on how far to the next stop to catch my breath. By the time we were about a third of the way up the face to the false summit we reached the two hour point.

A cool breeze had also started to come up and layers were being added back, except me who was still soaked.

I was bringing up the rear. I like to think it was because I wanted make sure we all made it up, but with the looks from my partners it appeared they were more worried about dragging my butt to the top if/when I collapsed.

3 hours and ten minutes into the climb we reached the summit. Although we were one of the early groups there was a crowd already there, signing the summit log, taking pictures and resting before starting down. Everyone was in great spirits after achieving the goal, there were many offers to share energy bars and M&M's (Vitamin M). Some guy even started up a small camp stove to make coffee.

Marlys was looking for a private spot, but none were to be found on this rock pile.

The mountain masters didn't even look stressed.

Halle had some water, then it was time to head down.

To use on old saying "Getting to the top is optional, but getting down is not."

We started down to lines of folks heading up. This made for a stop and go type of progress. Groups within a 1/2 hour of the top would be greeted with "You don't have far to go now." Beyond that point you just said "how'ya doin", because you didn't want to break their spirit by telling them they had quite a way to go.

Speaking of spirit breakers, were the folks running up and down the mountain, and the guy carrying his child in a backpack. We passed him going down and he repassed us a little while later on his way down. Boy, did I feel old.

We weren't much below the false summit when cumulus clouds began to appear. These would portend the rain and lightening normal in the afternoon in the mountains this time of the year.

On the way down we continued to pass groups going up. These people were chancing it with this late of a start. An unscientific observation was that the later the group started the less prepared they seemed to be for the climb ahead. They tended to be in light shoes and only have a bottle of water. We even passed a group below tree line headed up when the sky had already become dark and ominous just before noon.

Although the downward trek is easier on your lungs, the knees and thighs take a beating. Part of this I think is because on the way down you don't stop to rest hardly at all because you aren't winded. Virtually the entire hike had been on loose rocks and large rock steps, I couldn't imagine doing them in the rain.

We reached the truck around noon, and collapsed into positions that would be hard to move from within minutes. The rain hit us within 20 minutes later as we drove over Hoosier Pass. I sure there were at least a hundred people on the mountain. Later that day a camper would be killed from a lightening strike.

We figured that at the rate of one 14'ter per year we will all be past the century mark before we finish. We are starting with the easiest ones first to get in shape.

Pat

End of Summer

Haven't had a chance to catch everyone up much this Summer and now it will be over in a couple of days. Seems as if we have hardly been up here, but we are here virtually every weekend. I still have a couple of weeks of vacation to burn so there may be some additional days scheduled for fall.

Summers are fairly short in the high country, but Fall can be incredible. I am expecting this years to be, because of the amount of water we have had this year. Or is that a rural myth (vs. urban myth)?

The sun can be intense as my sunburn (multiple times) head can attest to, so we do have a number of shade creators around. More on the sun later.

Soon we will need to change the tea time beverage of choice from margaritas and Corona, to wine and Fat Tire. Oh, the problems of seasonal change overs.

Heck, even the grass is coming up in the front yard (ha!). I may even have to take the lawn mower to it.

I suppose I could wait for the cattle (proper term for cows, heifers, bulls, etc.) to trim it and deposit the clippings, in their own way...on the patio.

Marlys has adopted deck/balcony maintenance as her own. Last year she did the first waterproofing, and this year she is following it up. She believes a six foot scaffolding would be a good investment and after watching her stand on the VERY top of the eight foot step ladder, I have to agree. It always looks like an accident just waiting for the proper time to happen.

We still have a number of things that didn't get done over the summer, but there is always next year.

The biggest project in the carryover category is the rear deck.

And as a friend of ours says about projects her husband undertakes, "Abracadabra, and two years later its done!"

I am still in the planning stage on the deck.

As you can see the temporary idea didn't pan out. It was a carryover from the trailer era.

BTW the burn mark in the corner is from getting a Terra cot ta fireplace too hot and having it start to scorch the plywood. You would think we would learn after having the SAME chimmera (sp?) burn THROUGH the deck back in Minnesota.

Its not like I even need to buy materials. They have been on site aging for a year now. You know you don't want to use lumber until it decides its ready.

All of the trim painting is complete, except the garage doors (I guess then it isn't complete.) and that should be done in the next few weeks.

I almost became a human lightening rod during this project as I could only paint out of the heat of the sun, so that meant early morning (before sunrise) and when clouds would provide some shade. Sometimes those clouds also provide some lightening.

I keep think we need a dragons head or something for the prow. Kinda like the prow on a Viking longboat. Maybe we can get our son the artiste to do something. But probably only if we provide a commission in some amount, as if school isn't enough.

We had gutters installed. After last winter that became a priority before the flakes fly this season.

The snow would melt and refreeze on the deck/balcony, then drip on to the patio and refreeze again right in front of the doors.

Then of course it would snow on top of the ice, and I would do the slip, slide , plop mountain two-step.

We also installed retractable screen doors in green.

Even though the mosquitoes are pretty rare up here, flies can be a pain. I have reduced the population using a fly trap that utilizes a bait the smells like...well crap, or as Mike Rowe would say "poo" (Dirty Jobs).

It seems to really attract the flies, since it needs emptying pretty regularly. Its called a Fly Magnet and I got it at Lowe's.

Remember for every female fly you trap you reduce the potential problems by thousands.

We still need to touch up the white brackets, but they work real nice.

It has also become obvious that we need to tint the prow windows. This will be an inside undertaking when the temp drops a bit. We are going to go with a gray, non-reflective 35% tint. About the most we can go with the double glazed windows. I am looking at getting the film from Concord Films.

The road is amazing. Tim widened it to 16' and adding packed down road base. It is almost a shame to drive on it. Now I need to get the plow for the ATV.

You probably can't see it, but right in front of Dusty is my $300 coffee table base mistake. I gave the fabricator the wrong measurements and it is too small to support the curly redwood slab top. I have decided to forget the steel base and go with matching curly redwood leg and stretcher base. Should have gone that direction in the first place.

We are going to use the mistake base as a bench bottom. This is going to be an expensive bench.

We have also added another toy in that we moved the hot tub up in July and it is connected and ready to go.

The nice thing about being in the middle of nowhere is that soaking commando is not a neighborhood eyesore.

Its got a great sound system built in, only problem is that we can only get one radio station (too lazy for CD's) and that's the "River Rat" out of Salida. Its OK, but I am going to need to hook up a FM transmitter to the IPod for tunes.

Tootles, til next time.

We work in the city, but live in the mountains.

Sounds like a "duh", but in fact after moving into the crash pad last weekend it has become pretty obvious. Even spending 4-5 nights a week there doesn't make it home, more of an extended stay hotel.

It is convenient though in that everything is only a few steps away...other then taking Dusty out, which is four flights down.

Thats a Croc of ....oh they do feel good!

I have been one of "those" people who have made quiet fun of grown-ups that wore Crocs. Well maybe not that quiet ask Marlys. Crocs being those new-age earth shoes straight from some folks (at least originally) in Boulder, Colorado (where else). This article in Slate captured well my state of mind concerning these "things" (http://www.slate.com/id/2170301/nav/tap1/).

Imagine my surprise when I saw the leader of the free world wearing a pair! Now GW had not gone all the way by wearing ones in lime green , but understated black.

So they must be OK, right?

Now you need to understand I have been a wearer of clogs (Scandinavian influence of living in Duluth, MN) , another niche footwear, since the late 70's, but never, ever in public.

My current set of Simple's are becoming long in the tooth and I have been on the look out for another pair of house/yard easy-on, easy-off shoes.

Friday evening while walking through the local mall I made a major error in judgement...I tried a pair on.

These were not ordinary Crocs the size of small snowshoes, but the Croc Off-Road's (arrgh, more power). These are so big and light I should be able to walk across swamps (Croc Pun). They even have Velcro to snug them down when extra support is needed for off-road control.

They do feel good.

It has been a while

Since I last posted about the house quite a bit has happened.

The painting on the exterior, e.g. the trim has been completed. I rented a lift to get to the fascia.

The barn has been repainted to match the house. This involved priming with an etching primer so that the paint would stick to the baked on factory finish applied to the metal panels.

Fireplace trim has been completed, using the curly redwood. I am also using another plank of the curly redwood to make the coffee table for the great room.

Our house in Parker in under contract with a buyer and we have rented an apartment downtown Denver.

We journeyed to a mecca for Eagle Fans - Hotel California while spending a week in Cabo San Lucas. We also signed the door to prove we were there.

We are going to be tied up with moving for the next couple of weeks, but the next two projects will be the installation of retractable screen doors and a native stone retaining wall off of the garage wing wall.

Parker Home on the Block

After four active weeks of prep, yesterday we listed the our current house in Parker for sale.

The number of items completed during that time, put us back in the construction mode.

During this time besides the cleaning normally done we did a few other things:

• Painted the family room, master bedroom, master bath, laundry room and Derek's Den.


• Replaced three windows, where the seals had broken.


• Removed the furniture... a few times.


• Sold the dining room set.


• Refinished all of the hardwood floors.


• Recarpeted the entire house.


• Removed a tree in the backyard.

We ended up even sleeping on the floor in the office one night when the floor refinishers became fairly aggressive in their taping to keep us out of the house and off the floor (we had been big stepping between the garage and stairway for the previous nights).

But now its for sale, and we will wait and see.

Next weekend, Pinon Rock and relaxing...wait, I need to re-do the rear ceiling trim, move in the new couches, etc. maybe we can sit around for a couple of hours on Saturday anyway.

Waugh Mountain

The mountain that provides our main view is called Waugh. It is 11,710' tall and is highest peak in the South Park Hills Range.

I am not sure where the name came from. I understand "waugh" is a exclamation comment that was common to mountain men, and there was also a Frank Waugh that was instrumental in the set up of the National Forest systems. If anyone knows the origin for "our" mountains name please post.

Here are a couple of interesting links on Waugh Mountain. The first is a trip report by a group that snowshoed to the summit in 2005.

http://www.ryananderin.org/11ers/02.20.05_waugh.html

The other provides some stats on the peak. The ones I find interest are that although it is not even in the top 300 highest peaks in Colorado, it is 55th on the most prominent and it is the 79th most prominent in the lower 48 states.

http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=16613

The mirror, sauna, snow, tv bracket and Derek's plans

It has been a very busy weekend, but every weekend seems that way.

On Thursday night, I headed up to so I could get the trailer and take it to Pueblo for sale on Friday. The forecast was for thunderstorms-snow to move in so I wanted to get it loaded up and out of there before the roads got sloppy.

It took me a couple of hours to get it disconnected and hooked up to the truck. I was watching the clouds move in the whole time, so I didn't take the time to clean up the area once I was hooked up. I just hit the road.

The drive in was pretty nice and in fact this was the farthest the trailer had been towed since being bought in 1998 and hauled out to Pinon Rock. In 1998 when we towed it out we used our ½ ton Tahoe and although it was within the weight capacities it was not a relaxing 19 hour drive. But I have to say that when towing with the ¾ ton Ford it was a much better experience.

Once I had it dropped off I headed back to Parker. It looked pretty lonely sitting there.

The plan was to spend the weekend in town and clean up the yard and other things in prep for listing the house.

I got on a conference call for work on the drive back north and arrived about 2pm.

Marlys had spent the day at home so that the window repairman and carpet measurement people could swing by. She also raked and cleaned the yard.

By The time I got there, there was nothing left to do.

I checked the weather and saw that it was going to rain Friday night and Saturday. We decided to head back up to the property, as there were something's we could get done even in the forecasted rain and snow.

We accomplished a couple of thing this weekend.

We hung the mirror in the upstairs bathroom. It turned out pretty good. This has been a 2 month ordeal, in the ordering, the delivery of a broken mirror, the return and the resend.

I built a bracket and shelf to setup the TV in the office.

I tested the poly solution on the fireplace pieces and guess what...it worked. Oh, and if you read the label instructions it said to stir before using.

The fireplace pieces have not yet been mounted because they cupped because I had only finished one side...added moisture. So I finished the underside to try and recover.

I also replaced the high temp limit on the sauna which has been cause problems since the install. Marlys and I could only hold out 30 minutes in it now since we could get the temp all the way to 180 degrees, and that was after standing on the patio, in the snow, midway through to cool down for a while. Next time we will try a real Finlander temp of 195 degrees.

It’s hard to believe it is snowing again this weekend. Last Saturday we took a hike down to Pete and Dana's and most of the way I was shirt less (so those of you wondering what the big albino elk thing was, it was moi) to get a start on a tan for the trip in May to Cabo.

We then sat for ~3 hours on the patio and drank Margaritas. I had 3, which was the most I had ever had. Marlys had become very good at making them.

We also got a call from Derek who got a summer job in Gunnison, and will not be coming home when school ends on May 4.

Life changes so fast. I wonder if he will ever live at home again.

The Satin Poly Mystery

Did you know that satin polyurethane is really glossy? Let me explain.

We have finished all of the natural wood surfaces in the house using Minwax Satin Polyurethane. Seemed to be no problem initially. We were getting the expected results.

BUT when we would put on a second coat it would result in a very glossy finish that would get glossier and more plastic looking with each coat.

We though we maybe had gotten a bad batch of poly so we bought additional cans, but got the same glossy results. It had gotten to the point where I would steel wool the finish after it had dried to get rid of the gloss.

This morning while re-reading an American Woodworker magazine for the umpteenth time, I spied a small letter to the editor asking about the exact glossy poly dilemma we are experiencing.

Turns out that there is no such thing as "satin" poly.

Satin poly is really a glossy poly that has had a dulling agent added to cut the sheen. If the poly is not mixed prior to each use the agent settles out. I have seen this in the poly we have used. I thought it was cured poly from not sealing the can well between use.

Mystery solved. If you are using "satin" poly mix it before each use, but let the bubbles settle out before use so they aren't transferred with the poly to the finish.

Getting the Parker House Ready for Sale

Well we are back into the role of getting bids and coordinating sub's.

We are getting the Parker house ready for sale.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been moving items up to Pinon Rock and filling one stall of the garage with "stuff" that we will sell during the All Stonegate Garage Sale.

I thought we had gotten rid of most of our garbage 4 years ago when we moved from Minnesota, but the it appears that we have accumulated a whole new layer. Some even appears to have been moved with us from Minni.

We also have one "un-named item" that always seems to sit at the back of the closet, that has made the move from Minneapolis to Omaha to Eagan to Parker and still when I asked about throwing it out the answer was no we may use it sometime, so it will move with us again to Pinon Rock.

The Real Estate Agent has gone through the house with us and the items we will be doing before selling is pretty much what we had planned on:

• Paint the basement, Master Bedroom, bath and some high traffic areas.
• Paint the trim on the exterior. House had been painted in 2002 and has a three color scheme where the lightest trim color has not held up as well as expected.
• Re-carpet. Even though we re-carpeted in 2003 the color Marlys and I picked out is bad.
• Re-finish the hardwood floors.
• Replace and windows with broken seals (fogged).

The interior painting was finished yesterday and the exterior painting is scheduled to start tomorrow. Carpet measuring is scheduled for Friday, along with the windows. The floor re-finishing will be from done between 4/2-6.

The good news is that we will be moving our hot tub to Pinon Rock. We bought the tube in 2004 and it is a top of the line Beachcomber. We have been real pleased with it and had planned on buying the same thing for the Rock. According to the REA the tub would only add a few thousand to the house so we have decided to excluded it and move it. I contacted the tub movers and it will cost in the range of $500 to disconnect move and reset at PR. We had the electrical run and the concrete poured in anticipation of this last year, so this will another project for this summer.

We hope to list the house right around 4/15. If we sell it by the end of summer we will be happy.

Jekyll and Hyde Fireplace Top

Saturday saw the work start on the fireplace cap.

This began by finding two slabs of redwood that had at one time been one. A template scribed and cut to match the FP top was used to find the pieces that would work.

The template was made by laying a piece of scrap of aspenite on the FP then scribing and cutting it to match the stone. The wall edge became the reference edge for the work.

The pattern was screwed on to the slabs, then using a router with a template plate I cut a groove to match the template one inch deep.

The next job turned out to be the work of the day, in that the area needed to routed out in side the groove. The largest router bit in my vast inventory of 6 router bits was only 3/4" in diameter. I made a lot of sawdust (router dust for the purest) over the next two hours.

The crack between the two slabs was glued up and the template was then screwed back into the inlay (routed) area. It was clamped up and left over night to dry.

The top surface was had been sanded with a belt sander and the dust from this process was saved in a box for later. This was the first time I have used a hand held belt sander and I can tell you that my shoulders are still sore.

On Sunday the top was pre-fit to see how it would look.

We decided on a design change was needed.

The kitchen side would remain a "live edge". This became the Mr. Hyde side (wild). I still need to do some work with the wire brush before it is ready for finishing.

The great room side needed to look more "finished". We scribed an arc across this front. This is the Dr. Jekyll side.

To cut the arc became problematic as the glued up slab was so large and I wanted a clean cut. This meant the bandsaw would not work, due to the manuvering need to make the cut. The rotozip was too small (need a 3" cut depth) and the same was true of the router. I thought of using the saber saw, but of course that was in Parker. I was going to attempt it with the recip saw, but I was uncomfortable with what I saw (pun) the result being. As you can see my thinking was very "Norm" (New Yankee Workshop), in that if it wasn't a power tool it didn't even come to mind.

Then I remembered the portable power plane that had been gathering dust in the barn for a couple of years. It had a 3" width and gave a nice finished cut. This could be used to cut the arc to within 1/8", or so, of the scribe line, then finish to the line with the 3" wide belt sander. This would be the ticket.

The planing of the arc only took a few minutes. The edge were squared using the nifty jointer fence included with the planer, but never before used The was then sanded to size. The pile of shavings was impressive.

The top could have been finished, if I had only had some super glue. The slab still had a few imperfections, e.g. the crack in the front edge that needed repair. The plan was to use the sawdust collected during the surface sanding to fill any divot or crack, then drip on the super glue and sand it down. This trick was learned from a TV program called Woodworks, which you should look at if you get a chance. David Marks makes some of the nicest (and expensive) furniture I have seen.

Next weekend I should be able to complete the top. I plan on finishing the Redwood with a Linseed and Tung Oil mixture.

Glulam to Sheetrock Trim

We finally figured out a trim style that worked for the area where the glulams intersect the sheetrocked walls.

We have tried beveled pine strips and quarter round without really being happy with the results. Either the color of the trim wood was too light or the shape didn't not blend well. I think if I was doing this over again I would have had the sheetrockers continue the bullnose edge up over the glulam, but I didn't so here I am.

But it was a beautiful day on Saturday so I spent some time sitting around and taking in the view.

The snow is melting, and another week of this weather should see it gone.

Hard to believe that just a week ago folks were having a had time even making it down Autumn Creek Drive. I even got stuck a couple of times with the truck.

Don't know if it is visible in the picture, but the beer is approriately named "2 Below".

Back to the trim.

What has worked was to replicate the bullnose profile with wood. In order to do this I needed to find pieces that were the same species and color as the glulams. Luckily I grabbed every scrap end of glulam material, during the frame-up, and stored it in the barn during construction, so I had a source.

After sawing to rough size then squaring them up on the jointer, I router an edge with a 1/2" roundover bit. This profile was close but not quite copacetic with the sheetrock bullnose edge, which is probably a 3/4" profile, but the nearest store was a couple of hours roundtrip away. So I did it by hand.

I used a small plane to trim it to match. BTW: I used a small apron plane made by a German company named Rali. The nice thing about this plane is that it has replaceable blades. SO, no sharpening and honing, another thing I am not good at.

Once I had them formed to match and mounted the pieces were finished to match the glulams. I think they look great, but you be the judge.

As you can probably tell some of the items done to finish the house and get the CO, now on second look we are modifying.

Working the Fireplace

To complete the trim on the fireplace I need to add a cap and a stoop/seat cover around it. The cap is needed because this is a pennisula fireplace and there will be a TV located on top of it.

The stoop/seat will allow people to sit in front of the fireplace, on the great room side.

These items will need to cover the top of the stone veneer that has been applied.

With the types and colors of wood in the house we have decided on a darker wood for these pieces. I explored going with the native/natural beetle kill Ponderosa Pine, but the blotchy nature of stains applied to softwoods made me hesitant. We also looked at a stained Maple, but we have three Maple varieties already in the house.

So we started to look around.

Then another idea presented itself and that was to have a "live edge" on the seat portion versus a sawn finished edge. Live edge means that the natural edge of the slab is used. In this case minus any bark.

So the search was on, to find a live edge slab of a "darker" wood variety that would be large enough to encircle the fireplace. I check out a couple of places in southern Colorado; Collector's Wood specialties, near Gardner and The Wood Works in Canon City. CWS had what we were looking for but the price was way out of our ballpark and WW didn't have the type of slab we needed, but I will think about them for a future road gate arch project.

So I turned to a couple of sources used many times in building this house; Craigslist and EBay. After a few weeks of mining their sales and auctions I found some intriguing wood being offer out of Crescent City California. The slabs were gleaned old growth curly redwood. It seems that Dan at Curly Woods would remove wood and stumps left after the areas redwood groves were cut in the late 1800's-early 1900's. This was before today's forestry techniques and practices had come in to play, where virtually every part of the tree would be used and the area cleaned up before re-seeding.

After talking with Dan a number of times I ended up buying a large slab of curly redwood and the a 5' slabbed log, all 3" thick. Dan loaded it on a pallet and shipped it to me.

Once it was transferred to the pickup I was surprised that it still had an aroma.

Because of its age it has darkened to a nice color, but should lighten up a little after it is smoothed and sanded.

Now the work begins.

I will need to edge glue two slabs in order to form the cap mantle. These slabs will be edge finished on the outside with a few degree undercut.

Once it is the proper size and smoothed it will be set on the fireplace and the stone veneer outline will be scribed on the bottom. I then plan on routing out the scribed area to a 3/4" depth, that way it will sit around the top of the stone veneer.

The seat slab will be where I think most of the work will take place. The slabs measurements are in line with what I need, but the nature of a live edge presents the challenge to see if there is a better way to display it and if that way will cover the needed area.

After looking at it in the "flesh" versus a picture the best layout may bring it up a couple of inches to narrow. If that's the case I plan to cut the fireplace slot narrow and then scarf joint it on the exposed edge to gain the needed width. At least that is my plan now. This weekend I will template the seat area and then overlay it on the slab to see what works.

Once I get it to the right size, it too will be set, scribed and routed to sit down and around the stone veneer.

The plan right now is to finish the pieces with a Tung and Linseed oil mixture, that I tend to use on everything. I will keep you all posted as to my progress.

I will also use pieces of the redwood to trim the vertical fireplace to wall area.

Prostate Cancer Anniversary

Yesterday was the two year anniversary of my prostate cancer diagnosis. Other then a slight hiccup last year, everything has gone very well (knock on wood).

It seems so long ago.

I learned my diagnosis on a Friday morning. The weekend was spent becoming an instant expert, so that I could ask questions on the next Monday's session (90 minute) with the Urologist going over the options.

My PCa was caught from a life insurance physical.

It should have been caught from a regular annual physical.

Of course, that's something I never did, even though Marlys had been urging it for a number of years.

I can't stress enough that this is a very treatable form of cancer, if caught early. I would urge you that if you are over 50 years old, a member of a high risk group (African-American, 1st degree blood relative of someone with PCa), to get in and get a PSA test. It is a simple blood test! I now get one every 90 days (for the foreseeable future).

Pat

Front Range Morning Alpenglow

One of the benefits with commuting into the city each day, are the amazing morning alpenglows. Today was no exception. The entire Front Range was a great soft red. There was even a little snow blowing around in the upper bowls of Mount Evans.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

Sunday night I finally had to make the call to Mike to hire him and his frontend loader to remove snow. It has never gotten to this point before, but well...It's an El Nino Winter. The tipping point came Sunday when we were leaving. I nearly got stuck TWICE going DOWNHILL on the road from the house. For the last month (since Christmas) we have been breaking a trail with the ATV to make the it up and down from the road, but over time it is just been building up.

Friday nights drive in was very reminiscent of going up to Lutsen on the north shore of Lake Superior in that it was snowing (hypnotic in the headlights), the roads had not yet been plowed and it was -5F.

By morning the skies had cleared and everything was covered.

As the day went on the wind picked up and "snow devils" were evident everywhere. It was interesting to watch them kick-off down valley and then work their way toward us, ultimately engulfing the house.
By Sunday morning...guess what, it was snowing again.

Since we were in the house all weekend we actually got quite a bit done. Marlys was on glue patrol, removing adhesive from the hardwood floor. She has tried just about everything, but guess what worked...WD40.

We also had the bathroom mirrors and shower doors installed last week. They turned out good.

The drive home on Sunday was epic in that it was flat light and the roads from our place, out the 12 miles, to C9 were snowed over with an occasional drift from Saturday. If it hadn't been for the dirty tracks the cattle left in places I am not sure I would have known where the road was. The snow let up a little near the Springs, but started up again at Monument Pass.

I have to think this will help with the on going water shortage in the West.

Long Time No Posts...We've Been Busy.

So what has been going on the last two weeks? The answer is quite a bit.

The stair rail is finished, finally.

Caulking of the woodwork has begun. Using custom mixed caulk (done by yours truly) to match the paint color.

Finishing of the glulams continues, at least as far as Marlys is willing to go on the ladder (she is sometimes height adverse).

Mirrors and shower doors have been ordered and should be installed this week.

Touch-up painting on the interior is complete, until the next wall scratch.

Drawer pulls and cabinet handles have been installed, with only one mistake which I challenge any visitors to find.

The sauna was heated up (and used a number of times).

Oh, and Christmas and New Years.

You probably also heard about the snow here in Colorado the last couple of weeks. Well our street in Parker still looks like a goat path. We finally got a garbage pickup yesterday (first in over two weeks). The mail delivery since December 19 has been sporadic with a delivery last Wednesday again on Saturday, hopefully another one today.

And the "Solar Shovel" that is relied on to rid the streets of snow... well it was on holiday too, so we are hoping its back at work this week.

We also received a little snow (~12") at Autumn Creek which made for a real beautiful scene.

While it was snowing the electricity also went out up here, which a couple of years ago was not all that unusual, but can be real inconvenient in the middle of winter.

After about an hour I started to think of moving the generator from the barn to the house, and ways the fireplace (gas) could be lit without power. As I went through the user guide on the fireplace (which kicks out enough BTU's to heat the upstairs) it was obvious that not only wasn't there a way to manually light it, but it was designed (and mentioned so) to keep from being manually lit.

I did though wonder about the two "D" cell batteries in a holder beside the electronic ignition.

After a few minutes of being frustrated with the situation, I went over and flipped the wall switch for the fireplace and guess what...it fired up. The battery backup was a nice surprise.

For the next three hours, Marlys took down the XMAS decorations, I read a book (couldn't use any power tools), it snowed hard outside, and the fireplace fired away providing atmosphere. All-in-all is was a nice afternoon.

Here in the mountains (vs. town, e.g. Denver, Parker), Chris was out plowing the roads before sunrise the next day. I used the ATV to break a trail out of our place to the road. I will need to get a plow for it sometime in the future.

We also inaugurated the sauna.

For me it was a little bittersweet because two years ago in December the friend who introduced me to this Finnish tradition passed away. With that in mind Marlys, Derek and I christened it Krank's Cave, in memory of John "Krank" Koskinen. He hated being called Krank, when we were sober, but it was a term of endearment.

It brought back memories of sitting in his folks Caribou Lake cabin sauna after a day of skiing at Lutsen getting heated up, drinking beer and then running out into the usually sub-zero weather and jumping into a snow bank. Or the time we rode the motorcycles to Hibbing and broke up his sister Jane's retreat with her friends, taking over his Grandparents wood burning sauna, on the dock by the lake, listening to Stevie Wonder on the radio, and reaching through the trap door in the wall for a cold beer, conveniently stored outside in a cooler. They got fed up with us and left for home.

He would be proud that in Finnish sauna tradition the door faces west (setting sun).

Until next time, when we will tackle the burning question of the need for a "Man Mall".

To General Contract Yourself or Not...That's a Good Question.

People seem to look at us questioningly when we tell them we "generaled" the building of the house. I thought I would explain our decision process.

Before going any further though let me get in some weasel words.

THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE A COMPREHENSIVE DISCUSSION ON THE SUBJECT OF GENERAL CONTRACTING, CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AND OWNER/BUILDING. IT IS FROM MY OWN LIMITED EXPERIENCE AND SHOULD BE TAKEN AS SUCH. KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN YOU FIND AREAS LACKING.

This is stream of consciousness, top of mind, normal blog level writing.

And now back to our show.

First we set a budget range for the house which dictated the size, type, fixtures, etc. As expected this was not enough for what we wanted so we looked at design alternatives, e.g stick built, off-sight construction, manufactured, SIPÂ’d, earth sheltered, log, post/beam, timber framed, etc. Once design alternatives were identified and accepted or rejects (many more of these). We decided on a hybrid, a post/beam and stick built house.

We looked at the construction method/process. The cost of a General Contractor would be in the range of 25-35% of the cost of the house, e.g. it could add $100K to a $300K house cost. For that sum the GC would take over responsibility for the construction of the house as designed and specified. In general, that means selecting the sub-contractors, scheduling and managing the work, paying the bills and ultimately providing a home, as designed, for acceptance by the owner. There is also the responsibility of pricing out the house to come with a budget. This is usually done utilizing a combination of experience, industry standard/area norms and discussions with their normally used Sub-Contractors, e.g. simple trim carpentry is $1/finished square foot.

The GC and their Subs will also estimate the type and amount of materials needed using the design and specification documents resulting in a "take off" list, think of it as a shopping list.

Some Subs will include the material cost in their bid, so being as specific as possible in the specifications is very important, e.g. type of shingles, efficiency of furnace, type of bathroom vent fans, etc.

In the end if the house is not built to the specs, it is the responsibility of the GC to make it right.

The scheduling responsibility of the GC is also sometimes given short shift. Their ability to keep the construction moving and the right materials on hand at the right time is one of the biggest keys to getting the house finished in the identified timeframe (if its reasonable) and reducing the exposure of the project to the unpredictable, e.g. weather, interest rate fluctuations (construction loan), theft, etc.

Good GC's will stage material deliveries and the actual placement on site for ready access by the applicable trade and understand the "critical path" in the construction process, e.g. what has to be done first (vs. next). This is important when building in the country as materials generally can't be order for delivery the next day.

Remember no materials no work.

Although you may think, thatÂ’s the GC or SubÂ’s problem since they have priced on segment of work, not by the hour, you need to understand that you have probably paying for the construction money by the hour (really day, but you I think you get it). So in fact this does impact you.

This becomes especially important if any of the materials are not considered "standard" and have extended lead times.

NOTE: If you are an Owner/Builder (folks that GC their own construction) you are also responsible as a GC would be for any materials that are required to be certified, e.g. trusses, plumbing fixtures, etc. Please read some on the earlier post on the “bath tub”. This one decision on where we bought the bath tub cost us one week in getting the final plumbing inspection sign-off.

Remember though that you don't want to overdue the lead time, because usually when ordered there will be an invoice which results in a draw against the construction loan and ultimately interest accumulation.

It also means that your materials are exposed to the elements, loss potential and possibly reduced site efficiency from crowding, re-arranging or distance from the work. Keep in mind the term "JIT", just in time.

Many Owner/Builders generally use a serial method of scheduling. This means that they wait for one trade to finish, before scheduling the next one. This is a simpler method to manage as only one trade is on site and needs to be dealt with at a time. But it also means that if a trade can't get to your job right on schedule or the materials needed arenÂ’t available, the site is non-productive.

A GC drives toward completion as defined in the local requirements for a "certificate of occupancy", acceptance by the client, and possibly any other requirements as defined by the area in which you are building or maybe the bank that will hold the long term financing on the home.

No matter how well the construction is managed there will be non-productive time. This time is money right out of your pocket whether you are an Owner/Builder or pay a GC. I hated it when no one was at the site.

Believe it or not, I used MS Outlook-Tasks (yes I have MS Project and know how to use it, but Outlook worked the best and would synch to my iPAQ) to manage the construction. Each morning I looked for the Task pops as to who was on site, what they would be doing, and the estimated completion date. I also needed to make sure I did the items assigned to me, so that I wouldn't be the "long pole in the tent'. Between my iPAQ and stamped set of design drawing I had a complete set of construction, bid, invoice documents with me, should a question come up.

An experienced GC will normally use another method of construction schedule management that speeds up the build, gets their money quicker and allows them to move on to the next job sooner. This method is simply overlapping activities whenever possible.

An example would be scheduling the roofing contractor while the rough-ins are going on. Keep in mind that you can't do this for everything as some items need to happen sequencetually because of standard construction methods or possibly required inspection events.

An example would be the three rough-ins, tinning (done by the HVAC sub) is done first since there is little room for adjustment when putting in the vents. Next is plumbing (includes gas lines), because although there is a greater ability, to move runs it is still rather restricted and finally electrical because there is the greatest flexibility in running the wiring. Other areas that provide overlap potential are tiling, flooring, painting, finish work, site work, etc.

Keep in mind that if you ask a Sub about scheduling they will likely prefer the serial method as they don't have to deal with someone else on site at the same time. You will/should find out about whether this is going to be an issue with a GC/Sub during the selection process.

NOTE on Sub-Contractor Selection: Besides doing price appropriate work in the timeframe asked for, you are going to need to assess a very subjective but very important characteristic; does the person(s) respect the house and their work?

I can say that there were a couple of Subs that I couldn't wait until they were out of the house, because I felt as if I need to follow them around all the time. Don't get me wrong they did acceptable work, but they treated the house as just another job and not what will someday be someone's home.

That is one of the main differences between residential and commercial construction...that the end product will be someone's home. I want Subs that when looking at alternatives will select those that may not be the easiest, because that is how they would do it if it was their home, or suggest changes that they would like if it was their home.

Now I will climb off the soapbox.

The GC also needs to take care of many of the over looked areas of construction; sanitation, clean-up, dispute resolution (like how I buried that), inspections, inventory, trash removal, paying bills, budget management, insurance, dealing with the client (I buried this one too), telephone calls and the daily/hourly questions that arise during the build. Keep this in mind when thinking about being an Owner/Builder.

Now you may think, "What me worry?" (as Alfred E. Nueman would say) if you are using a GC?

Well if the GC isn't doing the job correctly it extends the period of construction and the amount of accumulating interest and postpones your use of your house.

So what are an Owner/Builders responsibilities, easy replace GC with OB in everything mentioned so far and you have a start. And yes the dealing with the client still applies ask Marlys or myself depending on the issue.

So is there something in between that can save you a few bucks, but also some of these responsibilities?

Yes, it is called a "Construction Manager or Supervisor". It basically splits the financial responsibilities from the actual building responsibilities. This bifurcation of responsibilities can be at a number of different points and is generally reflected in the cost of the CM/S. Residential CM/S range in the area of 7-15% depending on what you will do and what you want the CM/S to do, the bifurcation point. Keep in mind that this is only a general range and can vary just like a GC on the size, complexity, timeline, etc. of the project.

In most cases the actual selection and paying of Subs and materials and working with the bank is the responsibility of the Owner when working with a CM/S. The CM/S works with the Owner in these areas, but the ultimate responsibility is the Owner. The CM/S manages the "site work" and schedule. This can mean scheduling and working with the Subs, material delivery, purchasing and selection, issue resolution, permitting and inspections, questions, identifying options for the Owner, etc.

I have not given this the time it deserves in this post, but for those of you who visited our site and have seen Marlys and I dealing with trash, clean-up between subs, read some of my inspection posts, looked at the summary schedules and "to do" list can probably appreciate it.

So what does it take to be an Owner/Builder? I am not sure, but this is what it took for us.

The design, engineering and permitting phase took as long as the actual construction. We put our material deposit down on 12/9/05; broke ground on 4/24/06 and got our CO on 12/8/06.

Although we spent a considerable amount of time on our design and specification, in hindsight it wasn't enough. Understand that the more time spent upfront (to a certain point) the less time spent during the actual construction phase (read money).

We thought we had spent "enough" time on these decisions and spec's before breaking ground, but guess what we didn't and in the end we either had questions that needed answers on the spot, or we caused a delay.

BTW: you don't want change orders as this means the work is generally done three (first time wrong, second time to undo, third time the way you want it) times with the associated cost.

I would also mention that you should/need to look at all of the parts that will go into the house, this includes the actual fixtures you want in the house when spec'ing it and developing your budget.

Don't be susceptible to a budget drawn up with beer in mind, when what you really want (and will end up buying) is champagne. Be realistic in what you want and try to stick to it, even though there will be plenty of opportunities to re-visit the decision. Our philosophy was, don't skimp on the infrastructure and if you are going to do a trade -off somewhere else in the budget, document it, less it be forgotten via convenient amnesia.

I can't stress enough the need for research and thinking (not dreaming) about how the house should work. The information available is sometimes overwhelming, but I would suggest looking through it all, if you can. I found a book titled; "The Well Built House" by Jim Locke to be of great value.

As an OB you can expect to be making and taking call in the evening, when you use to relax. Sometimes even working issues on the ride to or from work, but remember it is a particular sticky item let someone else drive, ask Marlys.

Keep in mind that the plan is only good up until the point you start to use it, and then it becomes very dynamic, so be flexible.

I had 35 days of employee selectable vacation this year. By December 31 it will all be gone. The vacation days, along with 34 weekends, were all well spent at Pinon Rock and I still could have used a few more.

So would I do it again, you bet! Now that we are at the end I miss the daily interaction and challenges working with a great group of people. In the end the trade off was that we ended up with more of a house then we could have budgeted for otherwise. For us that was a good trade.

How Marlys found our little bit of heaven.

Starting in the early Nineties, Marlys and I began looking for a place to build our dream home. We new it would be in the mountains somewhere and our target area at that time was Sheridan, Wyoming. We had been to the Sheridan area on a number of hang gliding trips over the years and were impressed by the Bighorn Mountains. Prices always seemed reasonable, but the mountains themselves were out of bounds because they were National Forest. Only a few "grandfathered" homestead sites were allowed. The best sites all seemed to be on the plains looking AT the mountains. Although we kept looking in the area from Buffalo, Wyoming north to the Montana border we never found the "right spot". We started to branch out in the mid-nineties into the Billings and Red Lodge areas, never considering Colorado thinking the prices were out of our range due to the influx of people, Denver, the resorts, etc.

In October of 1995, we did a Fall tour loop through Colorado, just because we had not been there in a while, other then hang gliding/paragliding, since we lived in Omaha during the early and mid-eighties. Our route to Telluride took us through Canon City and Salida in the south central part of the state, an area we had never really explored. We drove through on a Sunday morning and were seeing a part of the state that was not as commercialized as Summit and Eagle counties. The Sangres and Collegiate Ranges, the highest in the state, were dusted in white and surrounded, by what I have come to know as “parks” i.e. South Park. Even though this was post 1993 (the obsessive hang gliding/paragliding epoch) I still evaluated each locale based on flying potential, which was different then Marlys and Derek, who had a little broader perspective. We were impressed and even then started looking at realtor signs. We stopped at the park in Salida by the Hot Springs Pool. A place we would end up visiting a number of times since we bought the property. About 18 months later Marlys spotted a small classified ad in the Sunday Minneapolis Star Tribune advertising land in the Rockies near Canon City. We looked up the advertiser, Land Properties, site on the Internet and a number of their developments looked promising. Marlys gave them a call and the possibilities were narrowed down to Autumn Creek. I had to give a presentation on the future of Internet portals (I was no Nostradamus, but at least I got the community of interest part right) at the Colorado Convention Center in April of 97. Marlys and Derek decided to come along so we could go Spring skiing at Copper. We decided to take a run down to Canon to look at Autumn Creek, but we specifically agreed to not go overboard, just look.

We hadn’t even gotten to Autumn Creek only to the gravel pit pass when Marlys and I started to exchange looks indicating that this was looking like an area that had what we wanted.

After walking a number of parcels, we handed over a check and set a closing date.

So much for not going over board.

The next day Marlys broke her wrist on the first run of the day at Copper (so much for Spring skiing) and we headed for home.

Our next visit as a family was in June. It was alternating between raining and snowing. The roads were cut, but not graveled and we drove in a rented truck camper.

Autumn Creek was very much in development, but it was great.

I still remember sitting in the camper on a rainy evening listening to the Rockies game, out of Denver, on the radio (pre-DTV) and feeling that we were Coloradans. Although we weren’t “natives”, we had chosen to be here.

We're Done!

What a day.

I called for the CO (final) inspection yesterday morning and I wanted to be there for it today, so Dusty and I hit the road about 5am to get there in time to let me extend the stair handrail (I mentioned this in the last post).

When I got there I checked for the plumbing final sign-off from the day before, and wouldn't you know it, there was none. SO before I could start on the handrail there were a number of hectic calls to Johnny's to see what happened.

Turns out that Gary wanted to see the spec's for the vanity, that has not yet been installed, before giving the approval. Mac from Johnny's had put them with the permit the day before, but Gary had missed them. So after some quick faxing of the spec's to Gary, he assured us that he would sign the permit and just to let Dan know when he got there.

This did not make me feel good about get the CO approval today, and it was critical that I got it today, because I wanted to take it to the Bank by 4pm to close out the construction loan and close on the mortgage. Otherwise it would be another week before I could get up there to do it.

I figured there was not much I could do at this point, but go back to the original plan and get the handrail fixed and wait for Dan.

The handrail took me about an hour to splice together and although the plan is to remove the extension after the CO inspection it turned out pretty good. We will look at it again this weekend and decide if it stays, or if it goes.

After that project I went to the sauna to wire in the heater and realized it was going to need a little more work then I wanted to tackle today.

I moved on to installing the hardware on the kitchen cabinets only to figure out that the screws were too short. The hardware is European standard, (96mm vs 3") so I imagine that the screws will be metric. This may be another adventure in finding longer ones.

About this point I was batting about 250, when Dan showed up. The first placed he looked at was the utility room and what do you know... there is a problem. I need more fire block along the ceiling.

Some of you may remember this as the reason we failed the insulation inspection back in August, but I had fixed it then. Luckily I had some insulation in the barn so while he inspected the rest of the house I quickly added additional fireblock to the utility room.

I finished about the time he did, so he could re-inspect it.

Dan said nice house and gave me the CO approval. Except the actual CO would come in the mail next week and he was going to take the completed Building permit him with for the county records.

At this point I am thinking the closer I get, the farther things seem to move away.

What was I going to take to the Bank?

While I am thinking about this Dan is doing paper work which ended with him handing me a standard inspection report, but on it it said Final Inspection and the "approved" box was checked.

I now took a breath. He said to have the Bank call him if they had any questions.

YAHOO! We legally have another domicile.

I took the Inspection Report to the Bank, and by the way Canon National has been a great place to do business with through this entire build, I highly recommend them. Laurie said the IR was fine and handed me a pile of papers to take home for Marlys and I to sign and send back.

I have to say that the way to close on a house is sitting in you kitchen in "lounging" clothes and having a beer (or wine).

There are still some things to do, but the Pinon Rock House is done!

I am going to write up some lesson learned posts over the next couple of weeks, so look for them.

We hadn't planned on curtains, but...

We had a snow storm on Saturday, that cleared about sunset leaving behind a clear sky and a cold night. The new snow in combination with a full Moon made for a very bright night.

I tend to not sleep well on full Moon nights (no jokes), and on this one I found myself staring out the windows to see what might walk by. Although I didn't see anything, I noticed in the morning, when looking out of the throne room window, that a path had been worn in the snow behind the house going to the south around the master bedroom wing/side. I looked as if a herd of something walked by in single file. I need to get a game camera and set it up.

As far as doings around the house went, we finished the stair guardrail, added trim in a few places, patched and painted some walls that were punished by construction and finished the base/case and sauna (the last part Jesse and John finished).

Marlys sealed all of the wood including that on the "out of code" handrail, that I need to replace. The guardrail is capped with tiger strip maple.

For those keeping score there are three types of wood used in the house; pine/fir, maple and cherry (in the master bath).

Next weekend we hope to fire up the sauna for its inaugural burn in.

As part of our theft deterrent plan (along with the alarm system-TBI), Marlys setup the Xmas tree.

We have decided that this will be the location of record for this year, so the Parker house will get minimal decoration.

BTW for those of you who have asked; after much work and money the refrigerator and D/W cabinet fronts turned out real nice.

Inspection Update.

Electrical Final has now been cleared.

I was confused on the plumbing issue, in that the code now calls for "listed" (e.g. UL) not "lifted" supply lines on free standing fixtures.