We failed our electric and plumbing final inspections.

Our success rate with inspections continues.

We failed the electrical inspection due to the lack of a GFI outlet for the washing machine. This is needed because of the machines distance to the utility wash tub. It will be corrected today and hopefully re-inspected tomorrow.

On the plumbing it was the master bath tub. Because it is free standing the supply lines need to be "lifted". I believe that this means they need to be flexible, but I am not sure yet. It was also mentioned that the country of origin had something to do with the requirement. The tub is from Portugal.

Randy passed away.

Those of you who are weekly readers of this blog will remember when I wrote about Randy Dugger suffering a stroke during the Summer.

Two weeks ago today Randy passed away as a result of that stroke. He was 44 years old. Randy left behind a family of three; Ilene, Brooklyn and Grant. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them.

I did not know Randy very well, having only talked to him maybe half a dozen times. Randy though, through his work as a builder, has left a lasting impact on the Autumn Creek Community.

In the little I knew of Randy, I know of one item we had in common, our favorite beer.

So here is to the lifting of a cold Fat Tire, in your memory Randy.

Its Done..kinda.

Last week turned out to be the push week to finish the house with different people in and out of it everyday.

We now have only three items left; the lower bathroom vanity, the baseboard on the upper level and the plate to cover the three holes in the granite couter top where there was only suppose to be one. All of these items will be done this week.

We though did have Thanksgiving Dinner in the new house.

The kitchen has turned out real nice.

All of the lights and electrical work is done.

The Sat TV is in and working.

The carpet has been laid.

It looks great, and once we are done with folks walking through it, I think it will be more like home.

All of the leftovers of construction have now been cleaned out with the porta potty and rolloff removed just before Thanksgiving. Derek piled the leftover lumber that we are keeping in back out of sight, and the Marlys has washed the floors to the point that it doesn't seem as if she is just re-arranging the dirt anymore.

The swinging bookshelf door was quite the hit with the DTV and carpet installers.

Here are some quick shots of the rest of the house.

The lower level media room (or will be if I get a big screen sometime in the future).

The stairway.

The master bedroom looking toward the bathroom.

By the way the bath tub fit.

The fireplace put out enough heat on Thursday to heat the house to a "Marlys temperature", which is beyond that endurable by normal humans.

Next weekend the XMAS tree goes up...and the finishing work continues. I think we could spend a whole day walking around with touch-up paint to cover the nicks and marks of the final construction work.

Herding Kittens

This is "Push Week", meaning lets get it finished up for inspections next week. I tied to schedule each sub into the house so that there wouldn't be more then two at a time. That way they wouldn't be falling over each other.

So much for that idea.

Today when I showed up the tile setting and grouting was not done and even though I called the company twice and was assured that they were on their way, by 2:30 I still had not seen them.

All of their tools were still in the kitchen (as you can see) so I have to imagine they will be back. They don't have much left to finish.

The backsplash is looking good, but still needs to be grouted.

The refrig and dishwasher now have their wood trim. The D/W will need to be raised to align with the cabinet line.

The hall bath has a free standing basin on frame. This was a piece of work getting into the house at the top is a single chiseled piece of marble. There is a shelf that goes below, but it won't be added until the hook-ups have been made.

Mac from Johnny's showed up to start the finish plumbing and worked around the one are that will hold him up the hall bath. The plumbing fixtures showed up mid-morning and we were short a few things that Mac will pick-up in the morning.

Jessee the Trim Carpenter arrived about 2PM after a morning appointment so we could go over the closet layouts, special trim items and doors. He will be starting up tomorrow AM.

Conceivably we could have four trades in the house tomorrow, plumbing, trim, tile and possibly Scott and Norma, from Bright Light. Scott was thinking about holding off until Friday which would be good, because Mac will finish tomorrow and Paul (tile setter) I hope will too.

By the time we get back up there on Sunday everyone should have cleared out and we can start cleaning up in prep for the carpet layers next Monday.

Marlys finishing of the glulams turned out real nice. They looked great when wet, but they kept their look now that they are dry.

Until next week...sometime.

Getting Ready for Push Week

The snow moved in this morning and by the time we headed out at 12N we had about 3 inches of snow. Lucky for us everything going on this weekend was inside.

This was our last opportunity to get things ready before the final work starts tomorrow. We had to have everything the plumbers, electricians and trim carpenters would need on site and ready.

I concentrated on the handrail and electrical items, Marlys sealed glulams and the bookcase door.

Oh yah we had a couple of beers at the end of the day on Saturday. We tried out some chairs to see if this is the direction we want to go with the decorating. I don't think these are going to make the cut.

We also had to go through and place the electrical fixtures in their locations and draw out the closet layouts on the floors for Jessee.

The kitchen is looking real nice.

Except for the three holes drilled in the granite for the sink faucet fixture.

Why is that a problem you ask...we only needed one.

The hood over the stove went in on Saturday with minimal scratching, on my part, in fitting it.

You can see the difference in the two greens we are using upstairs in this picture in the rear corner. This is by far better then the original mustard yellow and lipstick red. Our first paint color mistake.

The built-in ironing board also went in the laundry room on Sunday.

This and the hood had to be put in so that Scott and Norma could wire them the end of the week.

We also have a slight problem with the mirrors in the master bath. Looks like we will need to put in oval mirrors to clear the switch box.

I can't wait for the plumbing to be completed as we have an active septic tank, in that we have been using it for a number of year with the trailer, and the smell is coming back up the stub piping put in during the rough-in. It is especially bad in the lower bath.

The hand rail (your picture Maureen) is turning out real nice. I would have finished it except the plans called for a 5" separation between the balusters and I ordered the needed number accordingly.

I later switched the separation to 4", to be in IRC compliance, and ended up two short.

I had planned on cutting the balusters on Saturday using an angle grinder with a cutting wheel. I say I was planning on it, but as with all plans it hit the wall once reality intervened. I had 4 cutting wheels and went through one cutting three balusters. I needed to cut 62. I was going to come up 50 short.

I called Mike, one of our neighbors and asked if I could borrow a metal cutting bandsaw. When I got to his shop, and explained what I was doing, he recommended a chopsaw (isn't experience amazing). He even put a new blade on it. What was going to be a all day ordeal with the angle grinder turned into a 90 minute job. The chopsaw was the ticket. Thanks Mike!

The railing will be capped in Maple or Cherry, so it will be darker then the Cedar. The middle post has been sealed, so that is pretty close to the final color.

BTW the shoes for the top of the balusters have not been seated and locked in place, that is why they are sitting just above the twists.

Well the place was pretty clean by the time we left today.

I will probably go up on Wednesday to check the progress this week.

Its looking like Turkey Day may happen in the new place...keep your fingers crossed.

The Coundown (actually one of the countdowns) Begins!

Less then two weeks.

By Thanksgiving we should be done with one of the three finish dates:

1. Certificate of Occupancy Finish Date.
2. Mortgage Finish Date.
3. Our Completely Finished Date.

Each has its own escalating level of completeness.

Here is the punch list broken down by applicable finish date:

• Done - Fireplace-Heat n glo Pier & Built in vacuum
• Done - Countertops Install
• Done - Kitchen install
• Done - Buy garage lights, utility room and Bath Temp Lights
• Done - Buy Stair Hand Rail, Quarter Round, Shelving/Cleats, 1X Trim Boards
• Done - Check for Floor/Door Transition & Entry Door Tile
• Rear Door Rail
• Stair Rail
• Backsplash & Grout Tile
• Finish Plumbing
• Finish Electric
• Trim Carpentry: Hang Interior Doors, Install Base/Case, Closet Shelving
• Water Filter Install By Rick's
• Finish Inspections - Electric & Plumbing
• Final Grade
• Check Inspection Punch List
• Certificate of Occupancy Inspection
  

• Remove Plastic from Windows
• Fireplace seat and cap
• Plate install on glulam
• Carpet Install
• Master Bath Mirror
• Order Shower Doors
• Install Shower Doors
• Sauna - Install
• Re-Trim Garage Doors
• Caulk DTV Cable Entrance
• Remove Roll Off
• Return Porta Potty
• Clean up site
• Restack Lumber to back of house
• Insurance
• Mortgage

• Re-Paint Fasca
• Road Work
• Lessons Learned
• Done

Marlys and I spent a couple of hours last night picking up the miscellaneous items for the finish work scheduled for next week. These are the items listed in the two completed "Buy" lines on the list. Things that seem small (e.g. closet shelving, light bulbs, etc.), but in fact when you do the plan tear-off's for materials it ends up being quite a load.

By the time we left Home Depot we had two material carts and a shopping cart in tow and were +$1000 lighter in the wallet.

Interior Protective Coatings are Complete

Wish I could say that a lot has happened in the last week. Today the interior painting was completed. Doing away with the hideous yellow downstairs color and replacing it with "beige'.

I set the bookshelf door in the office. It is going to work out nicely. Marlys stained the interior of the exterior doors, ridding them of the basic tan look.

The stone work is now complete also.

I guess as we near completion there will be less and less to tell you all about.

Next week only two items will happen. The fireplace and vacuum install will be completed and the countertops will go in.

This has been the slowest two weeks in the whole build.

Week after next the house will be jumping as the grouting is completed, and the finish electrical, plumbing and carpentry takes place. Then on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving Week the carpeting will be installed.

I hope to also get the finish Inspections done Thanksgiving week.

Soon we will be wrapping up the Camp and selling the trailer.

The Jayco has been a good home away from home for the last 9 years, but it will soon be time to move into the new digs. We are even starting to plan what furniture we will move from Parker to Pinon Rock.

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.