Building our Mountain Cabin

Finish line in sight

2012-06-13T19:50:00.002-07:00

Today we spent a couple of hours at the house walking around and trying to identify a final 'punch list' of things that we wanted to have done before we consider this house ready to move into. Today was the first time that we got to see the exterior of the house completely done, the interior pretty much done including seeing the floors without protective covering for the first time.

Here's a nice shot showing the kitchen cabinets with the hardware finally installed looking out into the dining room & great room.

This one shows the hardwood floors taken from up on the catwalk.

Here's the catwalk with the finished floors

Finally here's the front of the house with all stain applied, roofing on and timbers installed. We still need to figure out what to do with the landscaping, it's a bit barren right now as you can see.

Almost there

2012-06-07T17:11:00.002-07:00

T minus 4 days until our final inspection in the mountains. We ran up there today with the whole family to drop off the new cabinet pulls for the kitchen. After spending a bunch of time thinking about the ones we had previously bought and dropped off at the house last weekend we decided that we didn't love them. We ordered a new style and they showed up earlier this week.

The front of the house finally looks almost complete. All of the timbers are now installed and just about all of the steel siding is installed as well. The metal has been installed on the flat part of the shed roof and still needs to be installed on the gable roof above the front door.

You can also see the exterior lighting in this picture on either side of the front door and to the left of the garage door.

This picture is an additional detail showing the timbers (still need to be stained). The cedar siding above the shed roof still needs to be stained as well, that should happen tomorrow.

Inside the mudroom, the washer and dryer are installed and sitting next to the sink / cabinet.

In the kitchen, the hood is installed and so is the range. The range is operational - we ran all the burners and they seem to work great.

On the other side of the kitchen, the ovens and beverage fridge are also installed and look great.

Out back, the stairs are complete and you can see another of the exterior wall sconces installed just left of the dining room door.

We also have a dishwasher.

All the speakers both inside and outside are now installed. I didn't have any audio gear with me so I couldn't test them out but hope to try next time we get up there.

Fireplace is also trimmed out in our master bedroom. I think the gas is also hooked up but I didn't know how to turn it on.

The upstairs linen cabinet is also installed including the hardware we picked out for it.

From the back, things look just about complete except somehow we ordered two less wall sconces than we needed so we have to order those and install them on either side of the great room windows when they come in.

Final inspection is Monday followed by a full, deep cleaning of the entire house. We have furniture showing up in a week or so, it's really going to be down to the wire.

Small steps forward

2012-05-28T11:12:00.001-07:00

After my midweek visit, we had pretty low expectations for our trip up to Breckenridge on Saturday on Memorial Day Weekend. There was actually a fair bit of work done and we're really excited to be so close to the finish line.

On the front of the house, we finally have all the cedar siding installed on the second story. This was held up waiting for the flashing to be installed between the front wall of the house and the shed roof over the front porch. Now Bob's team will come back and stain the new siding to match the rest of the siding that was already stained.

Around the back, the deck is almost complete. The railing is just about done and Mark was working on the stairs that will lead from the deck down to the concrete patio below.

In our master bath, we brought lightbulbs with us and were able to put them in and also attach the lamp shades on each of the bulbs. We hope to order the custom mirror on Tuesday and get it installed sometime in the next week or so.

Bob's guy also got the rest of the interior staining done. The catwalk and stairs now pretty much look as they will when we move into the house.

But does the carpet match the drapes?

2012-05-24T10:24:00.001-07:00

Well...not really because we don't have any drapes. In fact we don't have any window covering of any sort. We do, however, have carpet as of a couple of days ago.

Here's a picture of the carpet in our master bedroom.

This one shows the transition between the hardwood in the hall / great room and the carpet in the master bedroom.

Carpet in the girls' room :

The guys finally got the flashing installed properly between the house and the shed roof which means that Mark can get back to work on the siding. He got four or five courses installed and we expect the rest to be done before the weekend. Hopefully the roofers will also get the galvanized metal on the shed roof as well this week.

Finally, the lighting is working in the roof overhang of the garage :

You light up my life

2012-05-20T08:27:00.006-07:00

It's been a couple of weeks since I've updated the web site. Last week the painters finished all the interior stain and painted all the walls & ceilings. At the end of the week, we met with the painter and confirmed colors for the exterior stain.

This week, we visited the house on Saturday and were really happy with the progress. Believe it or not, it was hailing little tiny "dippin' dots" when we got to the house although it had been 85 in Denver on Friday. Two weeks in a row, we've had bad luck with weather on our site visits.

This first picture, through the hail, shows the finished stain on the garage. We have a natural stain on the cedar shingles and cedar siding and a darker stain to accent on the garage door cross members and facia boards.

Around back, you can see that same dark stain on the trim around the doors and windows. We also chose to keep the timbers natural colored to better show the wood grain. Here you can see the roofers finishing up their work on the shingles. They expect to have the roof complete in about another week or so.

The deck railing came out great - below is a detail picture of what the railing looks like up close. The grid is called 'cattle fencing' and the railing is similar to what we used inside the house on the railing for the stairs & catwalk.

Inside the house, we were happy to see how great the hardwood floor is looking. Roughly 1/2 of the main level is now covered in the hardwood flooring and we expect that to be completed this week before we visit again. We used a 7" wide, hand scraped product which gives the floor a very rich feel and will hopefully be very durable.

The lighting is also mostly complete. Here in this picture you can see all the cans in the kitchen plus the fixture over the breakfast area and the pendants over the eating bar.

Up the staircase, these sconces look really great - a nice mixture of modern & mountain feel.

Looking up at the roof peak in the great room you can also see the finished catwalk railing and some of the lighting way high up in the ceiling. The ceiling fan also made it into this picture as well as the chandelier in the entry way.

Finally, the finish plumbing is complete. This picture below is the second shower head (handheld) in our master shower.

No pain, some stain.

2012-05-05T21:18:00.002-07:00

Bob and his guys finished staining the interior woodwork before we went up to have a quick visit this morning. He wanted us to confirm we liked the color before he did the 'finish' coats that will make the wood look more glossy.

This first picture shows the build in cabinet in the mudroom next to the doorway into the kitchen.

Here's the underside of the catwalk. The pine took the stain very nicely as did the fir (timbers) and the alder (trim).

This next shot shows the built in cabinet to the left of the stone fireplace in the great room. This is where we'll have the audio / video gear as well as games and other fun family stuff.

This view of the catwalk shows how the finished stair rail looks as it leads into the catwalk.

We were really happy with the way the built in benches in the kitchen eating area look. The alder looks just beautiful with the stain on it and will look even better after it's been lacquered with the finish coats.

We reviewed the exterior colors with Bob today as well and he's going to work on some samples that we'll review when we're up next Friday. By then, the rest of the interior painting will be completed. We're closing in on a completed project and it's really getting exciting.

We decided to have an excavator come back and do a little more dirt moving in front of the house. We decided to flatten out the hill that sits right in front of the front door. We weren't really happy with the drainage after the snow melted with the hill where it currently sits and it also blocks the view of the front of the house from the street.

Heavy Metal

2012-04-29T15:14:00.001-07:00

We've had the design for our house since last winter when the architect finished her work. It wasn't until today that we finally had a chance to get a sense of what the finished outside of the house will look like because the last piece of the puzzle - the galvanized metal siding is finally starting to be installed.

This first picture shows the metal installed on the front of the house under the shed room. We're thinking that we will stain the trim around the door and windows roughly the same color as the front door.

Here's another picture of the front entry showing the finished timber framing, the tongue & groove cedar underneath the soffit and the metal down below.

This interior picture shows the finished stonework around the fireplace and the custom cabinet to the left. The TV will hang on the stone to the right of the fireplace.

Here's a picture of the stonework around the gas fireplace in our master bedroom.

Our master bath is just about complete - this picture shows the tile on the floor and then the floor of the shower where it meets the floor to the left.

On the back of the house, the truss framing is complete as well as the tongue and groove cedar underneath. In addition, you can see the chimney which has been covered in the same galvanized steel material we're using on the low part of the exterior.

This last picture shows Mark working his way around the garage installing more of the steel. Hopefully next time we head up the hill we think the metal will be completely done.

They'll stone you just like they said they would

2012-04-22T17:35:00.001-07:00

I wasn't entirely sure about heading up to the mountains today - I was afraid it might not be worth the drive if there wasn't a ton of progress. Turns out I'm glad I made the trip - there was a lot more done than I had expected.

This first picture shows the progress that Brian made on the finished stairs. He has the newel posts, balusters and railing up. I was really happy with the way it looked. We're waiting for the stair nosing from the hardwood flooring company that is backordered before the stairs will be completely finished but you get a pretty good sense of it based on the work he's done.

Around back, Mark finally declared victory over the rear gable truss that has been causing him to say a lot of bad words. This week he'll be putting the exterior finish on the chimney then finishing the siding and the soffit tongue & groove under the gable.

In the kitchen, Al was hard at work on the tile backsplash behind where the hood is going to be. He's going to run it all the way up to to the top of the cabinets.

In the great room, Pablo and his team were hard at work on the stone around the fireplace on the North wall. They were probably 75% done today and expect to finish tomorrow. The stone is quarried in Telluride, Colorado.

The raised hearth came out really nicely and is capped by a large piece of stone similar to what Pablo used for the mantle over the fireplace.

Countertops

2012-04-15T08:57:00.002-07:00

Candice's brother Tom and his wife Anne are in town from Iowa and we took a quick drive up the hill yesterday to check on the house and show them around. It was also good timing because the Breckenridge Brewing Company was sponsoring a "Beer Festival" with lots of other small breweries in and around Colorado.

Walking into the kitchen, I snapped this picture of the kitchen island. The small, under-mount prep sink is installed and it looks really great. The countertop has a slight 'veiny' look that you can't really seen in the pictures.

Across from the kitchen island is the space for the cooktop.

Separating the kitchen from the dining room are the long countertop that holds the kitchen sink as well as the breakfast bar top. We were really happy to see the finished product here - we'd only seen it in drawings and are happy with the way the curve came out. We figure we can fit four stools at this bar giving us plenty of casual eating space.

The sink looks really great - we made the decision to get a single bowl sink and are really glad that we did.

On the other side of the kitchen is the little 'bar' area. Again, we're really happy with the way the curve looks at the edge of the countertop that faces back into the great room.

Brian has also been making fast progress on the finish carpentry. He's finished with all the built ins downstairs and has started working on the stairs & catwalk. As of Saturday, he had set all the large 8x8 newel posts up the stairs and on the catwalk. This week he'll be working on the alder skirt boards and the iron balusters as well as the handrail. The hardwood floor we chose is backordered so he's working around having access to that material for a couple of weeks.

After the house visit, we made time for a short stop at the beer festival.

Built Ins

2012-04-09T13:49:00.003-07:00

I drove up to the house this morning to drop some materials off for Greg. The front of the house is looking more complete - the gable over the front door has the timbers completely installed with the metal brace on the outside. The tongue and groove cedar is also complete above the front door which is looking very cool.

Inside the mudroom, the finish carpenter has made a lot of progress. On the right side of the door in between the entry door and the washing machine is a small bench (below).

On the other side of the mudroom is another bench and a tall cabinet. This cabinet will also have a bunch of moveable shelves. The finish carpenter matched the look of our kitchen cabinets by using a stile and rail construction with panels.

In the kitchen, he was starting to make progress on the rough structure of the built in seating area. These will look a lot like the kitchen cabinets as well when he finishes the finish work.

Also in the kitchen, the carpenter built some open shelves.

In our master bedroom closet, the shelves are complete on the left side :

Also in the master closet, the right side has a built in cabinet with shelves and also an area that will have upper & lower hanging bars :

Trusses on the house

2012-04-01T18:46:00.004-07:00

Progress continues and although it feels like it's slow we are happy with the way things are going. Today we went up to Breckenridge to check on progress and make some measurements so that we could order all the lighting fixtures.

The first major change that's visible on the front of the garage is the timber framing (truss) connecting the corbels. We are really happy with the way this came out.

On the back of the house, the timbers have also been added that brace the horizontal framing. These also look great and allowed them to continue the siding up the back of the great room. Before the siding can run up to the roof peak, another timber truss similar to the one over the garage will need to be installed here along with the tongue and groove cedar in the soffit.

On the back of the garage, most of the diagonal framing is complete (1 piece is still missing that will connect the roof peak timber to the blocking in the middle of the cedar shakes. In this picture you can also see the satellite dishes are now installed for both television (Dish Networks) and for internet (Exede / Wildblue).

Finally, in the front of the house, the timber framing is taking shape under the large front door gable. This one includes some really cool ironwork that is partially installed in this picture.

Corbels & Tile

2012-03-24T16:31:00.002-07:00

Today was a perfect Colorado spring day. It is 75 in Denver and the sun is shining. I headed up to Breckenridge where it was about 60 degrees in town and around 50 up at our house. What a gorgeous day for a drive.

This first picture shows the corbels that are now installed on the front of the garage. The guys were also working on the 'truss' timbers that will make sort of a triangle connecting the timber at the roof peak with those at the midpoints below.

In the mudroom, the cabinet is now installed that will hold the sink and sit next to the stacking washer and dryer. Candice worked with the finish carpenter to lay out the built ins (benches and cubbies) which he will build to match the finish on this cabinet.

In our master bath, Al got the bench installed. It's made out of Cambria which is a solid surface quartz material. It's the same style that we're going to have in our kitchen on all the countertops. He just needs to finish a little grouting and then caulk everything and he'll be done with all the bathroom work.

For the master shower floor, we selected this natural 'pebble' material and it came out really great.

Upstairs in the guest suite, this bathroom is really coming together as well. The cabinet color looks great with the floor tiles.

Here's another detail showing how the corbels hold up the timbers on the exterior of the garage.

Here's a llama.

Deck Framing & Roof Shingles

2012-03-17T12:51:00.003-07:00

We spent last weekend skiing at Vail and couldn't manage to find time to make it up to our place to check on progress. I wasn't sure what to expect when I made a quick run up the hill this morning to see the house. The good news is that there's been a lot of movement since our last visit two weeks ago.

First, the roof is shingled! This is a pretty big step since it required all the facia boards to be installed on the exterior and the drip edge. It looks to me like the shingles are maybe 75% done so my guess is they'll be complete this week.

This first picture below shows the shingles on the main roof and on the connector roof. It also shows the detail of the drip edge on the garage roof (near where the ladder is leaning).

There has also been significant progress on the tile work. This first picture shows the master bathroom shower. The large tile has been set and Al is going to work on the accent tile today and tomorrow.

The pony wall has also been built out. This is where the bench will be. Al says that the countertop company will measure for the bench this week since we're getting it from them.

Upstairs, the guest master bath is nearly complete. The tile is installed & grouted and it really came out great. There is paper over the floor so I didn't get a picture of that.

In the guest suite, Greg installed a couple of the doors and trimmed them out. After the bathroom is complete, all this room will need is paint, stain & carpet to be wrapped up.

It is a beautiful day up there, sunny & warm. Mark and Shane took advantage of the great weather and were working on getting the deck framed. They had the exterior framing / posts completed and were working on the joists. They were probably going to get the framing mostly completed next week and start installing the Trex.

Tile? Smile!

2012-03-06T09:19:00.001-08:00

We made a quick stop at the house on Saturday on our way to visit friends of ours up in Frisco. The girls stayed in the car watching Madagascar which gave us a chance to walk through the house and see some of the progress. We also brought Bailey into the house for the first time to let him have a look around.

The main area of progress has been interior trim and tile. This first picture shows the girls' bathroom with the tile mostly installed (not yet grouted) in the wall. Natalie & Isabel are especially excited about the "sparkly" tile that we used for the accents.

This next picture shows the interior window trim in the office.

This next picture shows the floor tile in the guest master bathroom.

This is the shower floor in that same bathroom.

I realized that we haven't posted a picture in a while of the exterior of the house so I made a point to take this picture and post it. You can see that the team has made a lot of progress on the siding. Just about the entire house is completely covered in siding with the exception of a few areas on the front (you can see here between the two gables). Also missing is the metal that will be down below and on the bumpout. That won't be installed until it gets a little warmer, probably in April.

This detail picture shows you what the completed exterior finish looks like including the timbers, the tongue & groove cedar under the roof and the facia boards capping the roof ends.

Kitchen taking shape

2012-02-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

A quick run up to Breckenridge today and some definite progress in the kitchen to report. Here's a picture showing a side view of the kitchen island. Next to where I'm standing is where the wine fridge will sit under the counter.

This next shot is taken from roughly the same place but it shows the view of where the sink / bar will be opposite the island. The gap you see is where the dishwasher will sit.

Next this picture shows the cabinet which will hold the ovens and again the gap for the wine fridge. The cabinet to hold the wine next to the fridge came out really nicely. The cabinets above the wine fridge currently have temporary plywood which will be replaced by clear glass when the finish work is done.

This is another view of the island taken facing the mudroom. The stove will sit on top of the double drawer cabinet where you can see the gap.

Finally, this picture shows the drink prep area (at the end of the counter next to the wine fridge, closest to the great room). This is going to look really cool when the countertops are installed.

After some discussion we also finalized the interior window trim. Here's an example of what it will look like in the picture below. This is the small, high window on the North wall in the girls' room.

Interior doors

2012-02-12T08:52:00.001-08:00

We visited the house again this weekend and were a little disappointed with what felt like slow progress over the past couple of weeks. The good news is that the interior doors and cabinets are on site and look beautiful.

The front door is actually installed - in the picture below you can get a sense of what it looks like. It's a 3 panel knotty alder door, 8 feet high and 3 feet wide. It's pretty substantial - we opted for the thick panels which really came out nicely.

Below is an interior door in it's frame. Also 3 panel knotty alder doors with the thick panels. We went with 1 3/4" thickness on all the interior doors versus 1 3/8" which is pretty typical. This gives the doors a more substantial, solid feel.

The picture below, taken from 'head on' gives you a sense of the glaze on the door and how it gives a feeling of texture.

The cabinets are also on site, below is a picture of one of the kitchen cabinets after we tore away some of the protective plastic. I think this cabinet will hold the double oven but I'm not 100% sure.

Pretty dry walls

2012-01-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

After a 2.5 week hiatus between work travel and a great week long vacation in Mexico, we were very excited to get back up the hill and see what kind of progress was being made on the house.

On the outside, the biggest change is in the siding on the south side of the house as well as the corbels that have been installed. The real changes are on the inside where :

- The drywall has all been hung, screw inspection is complete

- The walls have all been taped, textured and are ready for sanding & painting

- The beams have been installed across the main level and at the roof peak

This first picture shows the timber that's at the peak of the roof overlooking the foyer and great room

This next shot is taken from the end of the kitchen right about where the bar will be back into the kitchen / breakfast eating area.

There actually was some progress on the exterior siding, this picture shows the siding & cedar shakes on the back of the house around the dining room slider.

Here's another pic taken from roughly where the kitchen island will be out into the great room.

Finally, a picture in the master bedroom. This place is really starting to look like a house. Next, the drywall guys will finish the texturing, the tile guy will begin laying tile in the mudroom and the bathrooms and the doors and cabinets will be installed. Stay tuned.

Baby it's cold outside

2012-01-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

This Saturday, we made an attempt to get to Breckenridge only to be turned back at the Eisenhower Tunnel by the second huge traffic jam we ran into that morning. It was a very windy day with wind gusts in excess of 100 MPH which seems to have really snarled things up. We finally made the smart choice to head back down to Denver so it was very reassuring to show up today (Monday) at the cabin and see that it was still standing with all pieces in tact!

Not only was the building still standing but Greg and his team have made some serious progress since our last trip up the hill. First, in the garage they have finished with the drywall installation and are awaiting the 'screw' inspection so that they can tape & texture the interior of the garage next week.

The other huge change is that the gas and electric meters are now installed as well as the pressure tank for the water system (see below). The good news for the construction crew is that the heat is now on and the slab is heated up to maybe 60 degrees which is a long way from the freezing cold they've had up to now.

To help out with the radiant heat that's now running, the insulation is now also installed on all interior and exterior walls as well as the ceilings. This, of course, gives the house a much tighter feel and although the girls are bummed that they can't walk through walls anymore it's nice to see the flow of the space as it will be when it's done. In the picture below you can also see the bathtub for one of the upstairs bathrooms that's been delivered and should be set in the next week or so.

Here's another shot of the insulation in the ceiling above the dining room as well as the wall that separates the upstairs guest room from the great room. It was an 'option' to add all the interior insulation but we felt it was important for better soundproofing along w/ the 5/8 inch drywall instead of the 1/2 inch drywall that you see in a lot of homes.

Also completed this week was the heat tubing for the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms. In the picture below you can see the heat tubing in the guest suite upstairs. On Wednesday, Greg will pour gypcrete over this heat tubing to provide a slab for the heat tubing to warm for the upstairs heat.

There has been additional progress on the siding as well - this picture below shows the back of the garage which now has the siding complete on the lower section as well as the cedar shake shingles up top.

Looking good, Billy Ray

2011-12-18T20:39:00.000-08:00

We took a quick run up the hill yesterday with the whole family, minus Bailey. He's not our top choice for a guest after his last trip where he got himself lost for 6 hours and ended up wandering around Hoosier Pass covered in snow.

We were very happy to see some real progress when we drove up to the house. This picture below shows our first glimpse of some of the exterior finish work. On the front of the garage, you can see that the cedar shake shingles are installed above the garage door. In addition, the corbels are all installed (the large timbers) and they've begun installing a bit of the lap siding below the shingles on the left side (right above where I'm standing in the picture).

Looking a little closer, you can see that the tongue & groove cedar has also been installed on the underside of the roof. We think it looks really great and it's cool to see the way the outdoor lighting has been integrated. In the shot below you can also see the exterior window casing detail around the window in the attic above the garage.

On the North side of the house, you can see some significant progress on the 8" cedar lap siding. This will end up looking a lot like the garage with cedar shake shingles in the peaked part of the house and the horizontal siding below.

Some serious progress

2011-12-11T14:29:00.001-08:00

Lots of progress up in the high country since the last time we visited the house about two weeks ago. When I pulled up in front, I was really excited to see that the front of the house is finally looking like the architectural drawings with the big gable over the front entry and the shed roof just about done.

You can also see in the picture above how all the timber framing supports the shed and gable roofs and is starting to look pretty cool.

The first big change as I walked into the house was the great room windows are finally in! They look great and really open up the space.

I walked up close to the great room windows and took this next picture which shows just how amazing the view is out the back of the house. We'll have this view from our master bedroom, the great room, the dining room and the guest master upstairs. We are very lucky that the trees up in this area are all spruce & fir so we don't have any issue with the pine beetles that have destroyed many pine trees in the Colorado mountains.

Another unexpected piece of progress - the fireplaces are installed in the great room and our bedroom. The picture below is the wood burning fireplace that can generate 50,000 BTU of heat when operated at full capacity. We are really looking forward to burning this thing when it's cold up there which will be all winter long.

I hiked around back to take this last photo which shows the back of the house with all the windows & the sliding doors installed. We are really getting a sense of what this is going to look like when its done!

She's buying a stairway to...the 2nd floor

2011-11-26T10:23:00.001-08:00

We bundled up the girls and headed up the hill yesterday to check on things. Our expectations of progress were relatively low given the Thanksgiving Holiday but we were very happy to find a ton of progress. When we first drove up, we could see right away that the sheets of plastic were largely removed from the front of the house and there were a bunch of windows installed.

When we walked through the front door, right away we could see that we finally had stairs to the 2nd floor! This means no more climbing up a ladder 12 feet in snow boots. The original plans had these stairs as 'open' with no risers, just treads. We decided to close them in and use the space underneath for a coat closet.

The other major addition is the framing of the 'catwalk' which connects the bunkroom above the master bedroom / bathroom to the bedrooms on the other side of the upstairs above the kitchen and dining room. The catwalk is built with big timbers and will be covered by tongue & groove on top. In the bottom of the picture below, you can see Greg's two sons, Ian & Alexander carrying a large, mulled window into the master bedroom.

This picture shows three of those windows after the guys have finished setting them in place. You can't tell because of the glare but we have a pretty good view of Hoosier Ridge out those 3 East facing windows.

At this point the girls were getting a little antsy so we decided to play outside. Natalie looks surprised at the cold weather but is happy to be out in the snow.

Somehow this next photo looks to me like a Yeti sighting photo that you see sometimes. If only it were a little grainy. The girls had a lot of fun playing around in the snow. The backyard has a great sledding hill, if only we could figure out a way to stop the sleds before they head deep into the woods!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2011-11-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

After being caught in a freak snowstorm in Connecticut and without power for 3 days, we were enjoying being warm & cozy in our house back in Denver. That is, until I headed up to the frozen mountains to have a look at progress on the house on Sunday. It was a balmy 45 and sunny in Denver when I left, about 25 as I drove through the Town of Breckenridge and all the way down near 20 when I got up to our little place in the clouds.

Although it was chilly, the sun was shining and it really was a beautiful day in the mountains. Greg has made some really good progress since before we left for our trip. The roof is on and completely dried-in (covered with ice shield, not shingles yet.)

There was between 12 - 18 inches of snow on the ground where the driveway hadn't been plowed. The big changes on the front of the house for this visit are that you can see the beginning of the shed roof that will cover the porch taking shape over the bump-out breakfast area. Also, the timbers that will support the gable roof over the front door are installed and supported by temporary framing lumber.

Stepping inside, Greg and Linda (our kitchen designer) have laid out the cabinet design onto the floor so we can really see the size & flow of the kitchen.

The interior framing is all pretty much done now. this is showing the wall between the entry hall and the office / 2nd guest room which is above the kitchen. The left side of the picture is where the catwalk will connect the two halves of the 2nd floor together across the great room.

The stairs are going to be built next week but for now I was able to use a ladder to climb upstairs to where the bunk room is going to be. Here's a picture of Greg standing next to the West window inside the bunk room. It's a big opening, it'll be filled with twin casement windows.

Downstairs, standing in our master closet (beneath the bunk room) I took this picture through the master bath and into the master bedroom. The section of concrete that is lower than the slab is going to be our master shower.

Next week we plan to go up and meet with the electrician to confirm locations of outlets & wall switches. Greg should also have some of the windows installed by then which will make the house a lot brighter since right now the windows and doors are all covered by plastic.

Not much daylight left in the roof

2011-10-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

The framers have made good progress in the last couple of weeks. The house is mostly dried in now. All the roof trusses are installed and the OSB sheathing is almost completely installed. They were moving pretty quickly while we were on site today and by the time we left they had just about reached the peak of the main roof. They also framed the two front gables and one rear gable which is cool because now the house is actually starting to look like our design.

To give you some perspective on the scale, here's a picture of me standing in what will eventually be a large sliding glass door separating the dining room from the back deck. Above me is the gable on the guest bedroom on the second floor.

Another perspective shot is below showing me standing in the middle of our three master bedroom windows facing the backyard. These windows will actually be made up of large rectangular windows with square transom windows on top of them. The rectangles will be the operable windows and will be about six feet tall from top to bottom.

We're got some family travel starting the end of next week so we probably won't be able to get back up to the job site until the end of the first week in November. By then the windows should be at least partially installed and the interior framing should be almost complete. We finalized our fireplace selection this week. We went with the Heat and Glo Northstar unit for the wood burner in the great room and a slimline gas fireplace for our bedroom.

We are also close to finalizing the interior doors. We are going to go with Sun Mountain which was one of my suppliers when I had the door shop in San Francisco. The picture below shows roughly how our doors will look except they will not have grooves in the panel and there won't be an arch on top.

A roof over our heads?

2011-10-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

More progress today up in the hills. The crane was on site yesterday and the framers boomed all of the garage roof trusses as well as some on the house itself. It got very windy and they had to shut down the crane operations but will be hopefully finishing up tomorrow afternoon. They also used the crane to lift up some of the heavy wall sections that had been framed but were too large to be hand positioned. One of these is the back wall of the great room. You can see it in the picture below. The large header above the big framed opening will support the weight of the roof table since so much of that wall will be filled in with windows. You can also see some of the trusses above the guest room on the upper floor, left side of the picture as well as above the master bedroom & bunk room on the right side.

Below is a picture taken of that same framed great room wall from inside the house standing roughly where the front entry / foyer will flow into the great room.

This next picture is taken from the front of the lot and shows what the garage looks like with the OSB on the front and shows the height of the main house relative to the garage. There's still a connector roof that needs to have the trussed set (you can see them sitting on top of the framed front mudroom wall in this picture).

This last picture shows the scissor roof truss that will define the ceiling height / shape for the vaulted area above the great room / foyer. The height is going to be about 23' above the finished floor.

Vertical progress

2011-10-07T19:31:00.000-07:00

Things are really starting to get moving up at 11,400 feet. After a couple of weeks on the road, I had a chance to head up to the mountains early this morning to see the progress on the framing. It was very exciting to see the progress and start to really get a sense of the house taking shape on the lot.

This first photo is taken from the driveway standing about 100' from the front of the house. You can see that most of the first floor is framed and covered in OSB sheathing. The breakfast nook is between the garage door and the front door of the house. There was about four inches of snow on the ground this morning but it was a bright and sunny day today.

Walking around the back of the house, this picture shows the side of the dining room which will have a single swinging door and two windows. It also shows the back of the house with the framed opening for the large, 4 panel sliding door that will lead to the deck from the back of the dining room. The great room is still open in the back, the wall is framed but not yet raised into place because it's too heavy to do without a crane. The right side of the picture shows the three tall windows that are in the master bedroom.

This picture shows those same master bedroom windows taken from a spot inside the great room.

Taken from the same spot, looking straight out the back of the great room. On the floor in front of where I'm standing you can see the framed wall that will be lifted into place with the crane on Tuesday.