What Goes Around Eventually Comes Around ........ Finally!

HI!

I think one of the first posts I did for the construction of our home was a picture and a video of the diggers clearing the lot and beginning to dig the hole for the foundation of the house.

Reprise March 5th, 2014 ......

Breaking ground and digging the foundation.












And, here's a sure sign that we are getting close to the end of the construction phase of our home project .....

Final grading was completed this afternoon. That's 239 days after ground breaking! Tomorrow, the surveyors come in to confirm that the gradients in the yard are correct and according to the approved plan. After that, Douglas County will be called to provide approval of final grading and the Erosion Control Engineer will come to help us understand what we need to do over the winter to keep our soil in place until next year.

The electricians are almost complete; they'll probably finish tomorrow. Their final test - the Douglas County final electrical inspection - will probably happen on Monday.

The plumbers have been hung up for a while waiting the finishing of the floor of the main entry level. We're going to have a stained concrete floor, so the company finishing the floor will do the grinding on Monday, stain application on Tuesday, and final urethane coating on Wednesday. Steve the Builder is trying to get the floor guys to finish the bathroom on the main level first so that the plumbers can get in and set the vanity, sinks, faucets, etc. ....... so the tile guys can come in and finish the tiling of the bathroom - the wall they evidently forgot to tile the first time around. So, Tuesday or Wednesday the plumbers will get their shot at completing their work.

Deb chose some rocks - boulders really - for the landscaping in the back yard. They'll be delivered tomorrow, taken around the back and dropped over the wall into the North Courtyard by skip loader. Fascinating processes to watch!

As soon as grading, electricians, framing, and plumbing inspections are completed, we'll get the CO -  certificate of occupancy. It's our signal to move in and actually live in the home! We think that'll happen around November 17th ...... two days before the shipment of household goods is supposed to arrive from Alameda, CA! So everything has to go well ...... or we may be paying to have a North American Van Lines truck sit idling in the maintenance area of Roxborough Park until they are!

Wish us smooth sailing for the next three weeks!!

Cheers! Hope you life is going well, you have your health and you are looking forward to celebrating the holiday season with those you love.

27 Days and Counting ........... Down!!

HI!

It's 27 days from CO date. CO is Certificate of Occupancy. Until CO, we can't move anything in and we can't appear to be living in the home.

Before we broke ground, I took some pictures Dakota Ridge of our lot. I know, it doesn't look like much, but it is sort of idyllic ...... all that open space to explore; the bears, foxes deer, elk, and mountain lions to call neighbors; and dear friends close by and always ready to do something that interests you both! In this picture - of the bare lot - it's hard to see where the house would be ....... but, watch the brown, hilly patch near the middle of the picture.

See! Our home is clearly visible ..... sort of. From this distance, it's still a little hard to see, but it's now there, filling the lot, backing up to the open space, a part of the Community!

Here's a little more of a closeup ........ and, a bit of an update:

The master bath tile is going in; floors are done and walls are in progress. After that's done, the sauna can be completed.

The laundry room cabinets that we re-purposed are installed and the cast iron farm sink base is in and ready for the sink to be installed.

All of the wood windows and the baseboard trim has been stained, as well as the garage doors. We had a bit of a challenge with the painter: he wanted us to tell him what stain to use (by manufacturer and stain number), and we wanted to tell him what the end product should look like - the difference between process and outcome in action! We won that battle!

The upper deck is done, the stairway is complete and Deb purchased patio furniture to use around the fire pit. Today was an 82 degree day and we took a little time before our hike on Dakota Ridge to enjoy the warmth and the view. We just discovered today, as we tried to get the top cap purchased and installed on the fire pit, that the supplier of the pit ordered and brought up the 42" model instead of the 48" model. That'll get solved tomorrow!

The North patio is complete - buff colored Colorado sandstone. There's a walkway from the dining room doors (here) around the back of the house to the BBQ are and stairs up to the party deck. Lots or work still to be done on this area. The bare dirt between the patio and the walls needs to be cleaned, tilled, have manure added, tilled again, raked smooth and have a layer of hay added before any more rains cause the dirt to be added to our neighbors' yards.

We have beer, wine, rakes and shovels. Y'all come!

The Hickory hardwood floor is installed, and yesterday / today they sanded it and applied the first coat of water based polyurethane. They will screen (sand with a very fine grit) it again just before Steve gives us the keys, and put another / final coat of urethane on it.

The first coat looks great, and tomorrow morning we'll be able to walk on it. We'll take pictures for a future blog.

The stairs and the railings are in and somewhat stable. There are vertical cast iron balusters for the stairs, but they haven't been installed yet. Enough of them are in to stabilize the railing, but there needs to be a "shoe" on the bottom of each rail to bolt it into the stair tread, so Steve the Builder wanted to wait until after the staining was completed to install the balusters so that there wouldn't be any re-work.

Deb has found pieces of art for the niches ..... seems we now have quite a collection of seed pots and water jars from the Acoma Pueblo near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

And, the fireplace in the great room is finished. The screen has been installed, and it looks like they are ready to begin testing! Just in time for cooler weather: even though it was 82 today, the nights have been at or below freezing. We'll see if this is the beginning!








Running out of room on this blog entry, so ....... more tomorrow.

Cheers!