Christmas in the new house with Becka and Peter

Becka and Peter came up from Salt Lake City to celebrate Christmas with us in the new house. We ate and drank more than we should have, but what else would you do for the holiday?

Here's a photo of us enjoying mimosas in front of the Charlie Brown tree...

Mostly done and mostly moved in!!

In a mad crunch to get moved in before Christmas, we worked double-time to wrap things up and get moved in. We finished some last minute plumbing, installed the clawfoot tub, got the propane cook stove hooked up, and built some bathroom closet shelving.

It has been a very long and tiring process, especially towards the end when we both started working. But so worth it!

We still have lots to do, but the rest can be done at a more human pace. We need to a bunch of paint touch up, organize the kitchen, get the bedroom carpeted, and do some organization in the basement. The house is very liveable meanwhile, and it feels great to be in!

Kitchen mostly complete but still a mess. We just ordered more IKEA stuff to make another shelf to the left of the window, and to add some rails and hooks to the right.



Dining room. We are going to add a small desk to the left of the table, we have the countertop but need to find some cabinets to put it on.



Living room. Need a floor lamp and rug but looking good! The stove cranks out the heat and we've had more trouble with the house getting too hot.



Bedroom - not quite finished yet. Still waiting on carpet, and need to build closet/shelves. Color is very off in this photo, it's much more blue.



The shower rules! Lots of space, feels roomy with the shorter wall and window, good light, plenty of places to set your beer. No overspray over the short wall so far.



Still hard to believe we fit a clawfoot tub and decent sized stall shower in this small space, yet it doesn't feel cramped ... at least we don't think so!



Bathroom closet shelving I built with leftover bamboo flooring.

Kitchen

Ben, Elissa, and Dan came out from Bozeman last weekend and helped us finish the kitchen, stain windows, and install the last of the trim. As you can see, moving the fridge was a blast! The kitchen turned out really cool, at least in our opinion - we like the commercial feel. We have some final plumbing details to take care of, but we're very close to moving in.

Getting close!

Been too busy to post anything lately, but it will make our progress seem all the more substantial! We're getting close and hope to be moved in before Christmas. Sean has finished almost all the trim, except for the bedroom - we ran out of wood and we're going to use a different color. The shower is tiled, the toilet is installed, and we've begun working on the kitchen. We still need to plumb the bathroom vanity and install the clawfoot tub, trim and carpet the bedroom, and finish the kitchen. As you'll see below, our kitchen is very unique - the metal shelving instead of cabinets saved a ton of money and we actually like it better. It gives it a somewhat commercial feel. We'll be topping them with butcherblock counters to tie it into the feel of the rest of the house.

Paint, floor, and stove

Finally feels like we're making headway. Over the last 5 days, we've got most of the the main floor painted, with a special thanks to Sean's girlfriend Donna - who was a huge help and painter extraordinaire. Sean has made fast work of the bamboo flooring and is well over half done. Now that the floor is done and the walls painted near the stove, we were able to move the stove into place and hook up the chimney. We haven't fired up the stove yet, but will in the next day or two!

FINALLY!! Taped and textured.

It's been a while since we've posted anything, but to be honest not much has happened in the recent weeks. We reached our first snafu of the whole process - the drywall taping and texturing. We got some friends to help us, but not being professionals it was taking too long. After two weeks, we were still not done and it became clear we had to call in reinforcements. On Friday, the pros finished up and today we sanded and did a LOT of vacuuming. From the time the sheetrock was hung until the texture was done took three weeks - so we easily lost two. BUT, things move on and Sara and a friend are starting to put on primer this afternoon. We should have the painting complete soon, and then (in theory) things should start going pretty quick.

Propane installed and first snow!

Mysteriously, our neighborhood picked up about a foot of snow, while there was only about 4" in Stanley, and much less in Ketchum. It was good to see the house and yard covered in a blanket of white. The snow made it easier to drag our propane tank up the hill. We will use propane only for our cook stove, so a tank this big should last a while.

Main floor sheetrock almost done

Sara and our Stanley friend Jake cranked on the sheetrock last week and got the main floor almost done. We rented a sheetrock lift again and did most of the basement ceiling this weekend. Hopefully by the end of the week, things will be mudded and taped.

Siding done for the winter

The siding was a much slower and labor intensive process than we envisioned, and we ended up running out of wood too - possibly, maybe due to a miscalculation on my part? We ended up with a lot more waste than I imagined as well, with all the cutting around windows. Anyhow, Bob and Sean got the two hardest sides of the house done, and the ones you see from the driveway. We'll probably have to wait until spring to finish, but what's completed now looks great.

Plumbing inspection passed!

Congrats to Sara for passing her plumbing inspection! I've come to realize that plumbing is way harder than wiring. Here's a photo of our new water heater, thrilling I know. But the exciting part is that we have a hot water outdoor spigot.

Ceiling sheetrock

I started work this week at the avalanche center, and couldn't think of a better way to celebrate my first weekend than by hanging sheetrock on the ceiling. Being inexperienced drywallers to say the least, can't say this was the easiest place to start. But I guess the ceiling drywall is ALWAYS done first...

We rented a sheetrock lift which was a godsend, or we just called it "God" for short. It took some getting used to, and the miracles it performed were always just shy of perfect. I guess we should call it "god" without the capital G. Anyhow, after two days we had finished the ceiling except in the bathroom where Sara's plumbing vents need to stay exposed for her inspection. I thought recessed lights were the best thing since sliced bread - easy to install and nice light. We figured out their downside when we had to cut out all the damn holes, and the trim doesn't allow for much slop.

You can see from one of the photos that we got our chimney installed a few days ago.

"Aerial" Shot

A week ago we had borrowed a lift used for tree trimming to install the siding, and I took the opportunity early one morning to take the lift as high as it would go (50 feet or so) to take some unique shots. Note these are older photos, and much more siding has been installed since.

Ex-siding!

Ok, my mom made me use that title...I would never be that cheasy. It's been slow going, but we're really happy with how the log slab siding is looking.

House construction flipbook

At the very beginning of this project, we picked a photo point on the property in order to create a "flipbook" of the house construction. A newer photo needs to be added, but I finally figured out how to add the slideshow on the blog. We'll keeping updating this as things progress...

3rd Anniversary

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary by having dinner on the porch at the house. I hooked up our stove and baked pizza and brownies which we consumed with lots of wine!

Porch finished! Window trim, siding, etc...

Sara returned home from her backpack trip in Yellowstone, so we have some pictures to catch up on. Sean and Bob returned and finished the porch yesterday...it turned out better than we had hoped. The siding and trim also arrived finally so there has been lots of staining to do. Bob and Sean finished the window trim today and will start on the siding in a day or two. We are doing log slab siding, which are 1-1/4" slices of a log - so flat on the two wide sides and the natural edge on the narrow side. These are screwed to the exterior, then chinked between the slab boards.

Sara will continue on her plumbing and hopes to get it inspected next Wednesday. I'll be continuing on the insulation and helping with the siding until Monday, when I start work!

Pressure tank plumbing and well control wiring I completed about a week ago.



Finished porch and roofing.



Finished porch.



Window trim.



Stained log slab boards for siding.

Lots of progress

There's been a lot of exciting progress happening at our place. Jay brought the excavator back over and we finished the boulder retaining wall near the porch, complete with a rock stairway. It turned out surprisingly good! My friends Ben and Lincoln from Bozeman, MT, came up for the weekend with tools and mountain bikes. It seemed like we got 5 times as much done as I can alone which gave much more time for recreation. They hauled all the sheetrock into the house, and we got most of the main floor walls insulated and almost half the ceiling.

Sean and Bob will be back tomorrow. They'll first finish the porch (roofing and a couple more logs) and then hopefully begin on siding...if it ever shows up. I'll keep plugging away on the insulation and installing electrical outlets and switches.

Water!!

After the pump got placed in the well yesterday, I plumbed the pressure tank today and wired the pump control/pressure switch. Flicked the switch...and water! At least at the frost free spigot at the well. Sara's is guiding a week-long backpack trip in Yellowstone, so as soon as the plumber gets back, maybe we can take advantage of the water indoors. Sara took the camera on her trip so unfortunately no pictures.

In other news, about 120 sheets of drywall and insulation showed up today. Looks like lots of hauling for to get the sheetrock inside.

Electrical past inspection!

The inspector checked me off today on the electrical rough in which was a huge relief. Still need to get the main panel wired. Sara is close to finishing the plumbing, and insulation and drywall should be delivered this week.

Porch almost complete

The deck and porch are almost complete and looking awesome! My dad and I stained them this past weekend. All that's left is to add the roof metal and a few more log details. We are really excited with how this turned out, and it adds a ton to the house.

Deck complete!

Yesterday afternoon we celebrated the completion of the deck by enjoying many beers on it with Bob and Sean, Jay (the excavator) and his wife Cindy, and a few other neighbors. Today Bob and Sean got the tie log up on top of the posts and soon will work on extending the roof over the deck.

First functioning circuit!

Sara and I continue to plug away on the electric and plumbing. Although it's been very challenging, based on bids we received, we figure we're saving $10k or more by doing it ourselves.

I have the main floor wiring almost complete and about a third of the basement. My parents are coming into town next Tuesday, and in order to get my Dad to help out with the house, I figured I better get the heaters working. He's a bit of a freeze baby after all those winters in Florida, and I'm not sure he'd enjoy working in the house when it's only 30 degrees.

We're installing six electric wall heaters. Our backup heat was a tough decision. Ideally we would have liked to use propane, but we didn't have much luck finding heaters that were economical or easy to install...too much venting or potential health hazards with the ventless ones. The wall heaters, although a bit noisier, heat up a room much faster than baseboards since they use a fan. It was a little frightening lighting up a 30A 240V circuit as my first, but so far no fires or any problems that I can identify.

Maddy hides in the basement among construction detritus while learning a thing or two about plumbing.



Lighting for the dining area (left) and the kitchen (right).



4000 watt wall heater with thermostat for the kitchen/living room.

Deck and porch

Bob Goodman (who was the lead guy building our house) came back from Oregon to work with Sean on our deck and covered porch. These come off the south side of the house, and a few weeks ago we placed three multi-ton boulders as footers for the support posts. Cheaper than concrete!

They have the frame and joists of the deck in, and by tomorrow afternoon we should be enjoying a beer in the sun on the completed deck. After that, they will work on the covered porch, which will be a 10 foot extension of the existing roof line. We're excited to see this done as the south side of the house looks pretty chopped off.

Sean drilling footer bolder for the post anchor bolt.



View of deck from the west.



View of deck and boulder retaining wall from the east.