It’s the end of April and we can hardly believe it. The last 6 weeks have been a blur - the weekdays running into the weekends. Each day feeling long and short at the same time. We’re grateful that our family is safe, healthy, well-fed, and that we live in a place where getting outside without many people around is pretty simple. We’re lucky and we know it.
Read MoreWe found out on March 13 that the kids wouldn’t be going back to school. Whew. We know that we are incredibly lucky that mom and dad are still here to help with homebuilding, homeschool (aka Grandma School), cooking, and grocery shopping. My remote job is just as busy as it used to be, so having the extra adults here is so helpful. Many of our friends are managing homeschooling, new remote work, and running a home, so we fully recognize that we are incredibly privileged with our setup. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Read MoreMid-to-late February was all about windows! Yes! The big picture windows that we’ve been dreaming about for months and months have arrived. This was phase three of our window order. A bit of an unconventional approach, we know. But, doing the windows in different batches allowed us to be really thoughtful about the layout of the south window wall, which is arguably the most important wall of the whole house.
Read MoreMost years, January feels like it will last forever and ever. Well, not this year. January came and went in a blink of an eye. We have a feeling this will be the case for EVERY month as we push toward our deadline for our certificate of occupancy on August 5.
Read MoreAs you may have heard, we had about $4,000 of tools stolen between Christmas and New Year’s. Certainly not the best way to end the year. Our soon to be family home, which is already such a special place, had people in it who were not welcome and had poor intentions. It gives me the creeps. And, I hate that these strangers took things that were special and sentimental to us, like tools that belonged to my grandfather and had his writing on it. Ugh.
But, the Universe works in strange ways…
Read MoreHappy New Year from our family to yours!
Read MoreHappy Holidays! It’s a few days past Christmas and we’re still feeling festive as we head into New Year’s Eve.
For us Christmas is a time to take a breath, enjoy more uninterrupted family time, get some skiing in and this year...to start installing cedar in the entryway and below a few windows! More on that in a bit…
Last year, we were tarring and insulating the foundation exterior walls, so the cedar project is a definite step in the right direction.
Read MoreWe wanted to reserve this post to express our gratitude to our family, friends, and construction partners who have made it possible for us to reach for our dream of living a simple mountain life. So, here goes…
Read MoreThe southern facing wall in our home is one of the biggest architectural features we have, so we’ve taken quite a bit of time to ensure we get it right. There is a new neighborhood in our area that has a lot of mountain modern homes, so we looked there for inspiration, the new Christy Sports in Dillon has a cool window wall that we like. We learned about the Golden Ratio of design. Then, after researching, drawing, and noodling, we decided the best thing to do was to just start building, see how it looked and adjust as needed.
Read MoreIn Summit County, the building department has a moratorium on road permits between October 31-May 1, so it is super important for us to get the utility work done this fall. Like we talked about earlier in the month, we finally have power on site. Yes! And now we can happily say that the water line is done and we completed the sewer tap on September 23
Read MoreAugust and early September have been focused on trying to get the 9,290 home closer to being weathered in. The nights are getting cooler and per usual, we’re racing against the clock before we have to shovel snow again.
Read MoreWhen we last left off in June, the steel beams for the roof supports had just arrived!
So much has changed since that time and the full shell of the house is in place! One positive thing about waiting a few weeks to do a blog update is that it feels like we’re making a lot of progress! Please, no one take me from this happy space. Ha!
Read MoreAs you may remember, this winter was one of the snowiest winter in nearly two decades. Well, Mother Nature just wasn’t quite done yet when the calendar flipped to May. As the locals call it, “Mayuary” was in full effect.
Read MoreWell, they are here! The walls and roof arrived from our friends at Porter SIPs, direct from our beautiful home state of Michigan! They actually came from Holland, MI which is about 10 minutes from where Kelsey grew up.
Read MoreApril started slow. During this month we’ve experienced all sorts of negative emotions.
Feeling discouraged with the weather
Feeling discouraged that the SIP panel review process was taking FOREVER
Feeling behind schedule
But, as with most things the lull and the feelings of impatience and discouragement were quickly forgotten and we swung to the opposite end of the spectrum by feeling totally overwhelmed when we found out the SIP panel production and delivery would only take 2.5 weeks, as opposed to the original 6-8 week estimate. Whew. Let’s do this.
Read MoreThe day we've been waiting for is almost here!
Our SIP panels (structural insulated panels, aka - the exterior walls and roof) are arriving next week!
We'd be delighted to have you join us on the job site for a good old fashioned family home barn raising.
Read MoreMarch brought epic snowfall, historic avalanche conditions and big powder days. So, naturally our shoveling continued well into late-March. But, we also were able to enjoy some amazing skiing and since we can’t do anything about the weather, we decided to just keep shoveling and take the opportunity to play in the snow whenever we could.
Read MoreAnother great milestone! We finished the sheathing on February 26! Just in time before it started dumping snow in Summit County. Whew.
Read MoreBut, first...more shoveling. Our goal was to have the snow as clear as possible before the joists and sheathing were in place. As hard as the shoveling is, it would be even harder to do it with only 4 feet of head clearance!
Read MoreMaybe it’s just me, but I had NO IDEA that there were so many steps involved in creating a foundation for a home. I had always thought that you dug a hole, poured some concrete, put some more dirt around it and snap, done. Surely the whole thing only takes a couple of weeks, right? Well, surprise Cory, that’s not how it goes...
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