Finished

Finished, accomplished, triumphed, success!  Oh, what a great feeling it is.

We moved in last week.  And this house is every bit as wonderful as I have envisioned it all these years.  It is comfortable.  We lit a fire in the wood stove the last 2 nights... more for atmosphere than for warmth.  There was a tiny chill in the house, but nothing a sweater wouldn't have warded off.  And with outside temps below 30 degrees, who's complaining?

We wake every morning to a spectacular view.  Happy as can be.  And quiet!  This house is so quiet you can barely hear anything.  Outside the last couple of days it has been so windy.  Red flag warnings every day.  But inside, you really don't hear much.  I heard the wind whistling on the chimney last night.  And sometimes you can hear the wind on the vents in the bathrooms.  Other than that, you wouldn't know it's windy except to see the trees bending sideways outside.  So comfortable.

Cooking has been a challenge.  Things heat up slower at this altitude.  And things cool quicker.  So by the time I've taken the chicken out of the oven, then served up the salad, the chicken is cold.  Will have to think smarter about that.  We noticed it at the house in town, then got used to it.  But climbing another 1,000 feet in altitude has made another big difference.

We rented out the house in town now -- twice.  The first time was a young couple with 2 small dogs.  And having 2 kids next door, they thought that the older dog would be less than kind to the precious Akira and Joey.  They backed out.  Now another couple is coming down from Lakewood and has already given me a deposit... sight unseen.  Hope it works out.

But for now, we are just enjoying all of our hard work and accomplishments.  What a feat!  But so worth it.

You hear how building a home can strain a marriage.  It didn't ours.  We are stronger than ever.  And happy.

Inspections

The front door with my dragonfly tiles

The walls are painted.  The lights are installed.  The water is on and the appliances are all in.  The floors are done, (with the exception of needing 2 coats of wax on the laundry room, powder room and mud room floors.)

We had a minor mishap with the door hardware for the interior doors.  I ordered my hardware from www.SignatureHardware.com.  Love that site!  The interior levers were touted to be so wide, but they only proved to be not so wide and wouldn't cover the bore holes in the knotty pine doors.  I ordered more yesterday.  We'll see when they get here.

The great room.

We had the propane company hook up the gas on Friday.  Found out that the orifices for the gas dryer were not included with it.  (Even though I reminded them that I needed the LP conversion kit.)  So those are now on order.

We put together a shelving unit for the linen closet.  Then found out the assembled unit wouldn't fit in the door.  Woops.

The dining table - not yet assembled.

The sofa, Les's recliner, a coat rack and 2 night stands were delivered today.  The sofa is stunning.  The recliner had a little cut in the arm, so it went back on the truck.  The night stands are wider than I thought they would be, so we have to put our bed on a different wall.  That's a bummer.  After living in this house (in my head) for 9 years now, I never envisioned it on the north wall.  It was always on the east wall.  Oh well.

So, all of these little "oopsies" may make one think that I'm whining or complaining.  On the contrary.  This whole build has gone along so well, I'm absolutely ecstatic! These little nit-picky things?  No big deal at all.  Les put the dining table together in the great room, and the sofa is also in the great room.  Now, all there is to do is to bring all of the rest of our stuff in.  We should be in by next weekend!

Les plowing, Lucy riding shotgun

WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looking down the hallway

Into the kitchen/great room from the laundry room

Almost Done

WE HAVE WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are sooooo close!

We have water - finally!  We have toilets!  Woo-Hoo!  We have doors!  The house is all painted.  We stained and sealed the final piece of the floor today.  Well, almost anyway.

While Les was in California, I stained the floors in the master bedroom and the living room, but I never sealed them.  So that is on the agenda this week.  Then, after staining and sealing, I discovered that the floors need 2 coats of wax, then periodic waxing after that.  The wax is coming on Tuesday courtesy of my friendly brown truck driver.

Love the watercolor effect in the hall floor

Dean is pretty much done with all of the plumbing.  We had one mishap with that, though.  Lowes has been pretty wonderful to work with during this build.  But we bought a vanity for our powder room, and when Dean went to install it, he discovered that it didn't have an overflow.  Not having an overflow is against the code.  Why would Lowe's or Home Depot sell something that isn't up to code?  Furthermore, the faucet/drain combo I bought will not work with a sink that doesn't have an overflow.  For that matter, ALL of the faucet/drain boxes at both Lowe's and Home Depot require an overflow.  So I'm sold something that is not only legal to install, but impossible to install using off the shelf accessories. 

If Lowe's doesn't take it back, I'll be making a nice planter out of it.  That's all it's good for.

A few days ago we went up to Pueblo to raid the scrap pile from our granite people.  We brought home a gorgeous piece of granite, then Les made a bench for the mud room out of it.  Cool, huh?

It snowed today.  It was only about a couple of inches, but we'll take it.  We've have maybe a cumulative 14" of snow this year.  So not good....

Bench made from free granite

Weirdness

Today has been the weirdest day.

A couple of months ago, we adopted 2 feral cats from the shelter.  We had been having a pack rat problem in the garage, and thought the cats would help.  We've not named them.  We've been able to get close to the cats, but not enough to touch.  Bottom line -- they're not pets.  They have a job to do.

We assumed that sooner or later the dogs would get into a scrape with the cats, but, being feral cats, the dogs would probably go running for cover once they got close enough to figure out they're not pets.

We woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.  Dean, our plumber, came up to the house today.  I was working on a closet organizer while Les was doing paint touch up.  I began to wonder where the dogs were, so I walked over to the garage.  I saw Mindy, acting a little strange, but nothing serious.  No Lucy.  I called, I whistled, still no Lucy.  I went back to work, but had this nagging feeling.  I walked back to the garage and Mindy was in there again.

So after finding Mindy in the garage again, I began to wonder.  I called for Lucy, and only heard some puppy whines that I thought was Mindy.  Called again - same thing.  Then I could clearly hear a tail bumping against something in the garage.  Since Mindy has no tail, I knew I found Lucy.

Now, our garage is filled with all of the stuff we couldn't fit from our 5 bedroom house into our 1 bedroom house.  It's been sitting in storage in the garage.  The cats found little nooks and crannies to hide in.  So there is a block that's about 25' x 25' by 7 feet high with furniture, boxes, crates, etc. and it's packed pretty solidly.
I called for Les and Chuck because I knew that Lucy found her way into this block of stuff, and couldn't get out.  Each time I called her, she whined a little bit, but we couldn't figure out where she was.  After about 1/2 hour of digging, Les finally located where the sound was coming from.  Lucy, and one of the cats, had fallen behind my mom's cedar chest and were stuck in a hole.  He dug them out.  The cat took off running around the block of stuff and came right back to the hole, with Lucy in hot pursuit.  I was able to grab her and throw her out of the garage.  Then we stood back and surveyed the damage.

There is a hole in the insulation on our steel building that's about 8 square feet big.  There is a massive pile of rodent poop mixed with kitty kibble.  (So much for giving these critters a job to do.)  It took Les about another hour to put things back together and clean up the mess.

And if that wasn't enough, Dean intended to hook up all of the sinks, showers and toilets today.  The first sink didn't have an overflow.  Thank you Lowe's for selling me something that is not up to code.  The drain for that sink doesn't fit it.  The trim for one of the showers is supposed to come with 2 bolts, but you can clearly see a hole in the bag where some kind soul opened the box, poked a hole in the bag and took one of my bolts.  There seemed to be pieces missing from every bathroom.

But the good news?  Lucy is alive and well.  The cats are alive and well.  And I have a working toilet!  Woo-Hoo!!!

Counter tops

The cabinets have been fixed, and the counter tops are in.  And, I must say, they look spectacular.  I knew the granite was pretty, I didn't realize just how gorgeous it was, though.  There is so much movement in the colors.  All of the colors in the house are really working well together.

Kitchen Counter Top
 

Yesterday, Les and I stained the floor in the office.  This morning, we neutralized the acid stain, then put the first coat of sealer on that floor.  Then, we stained the floors in the powder room, laundry room and mud room.  Tomorrow morning we will neutralize the stain, then seal those floors.  All we will have left at that point is the guest bathroom, the hallway and the guest bedroom.  The floors look so good!

Kitchen.  Notice how thick the walls are.

Chuck finished tiling in the guest bathroom.  The master bath shower is done, with the exception of some decorative tiles outlining the shower.  Tomorrow he will probably start on the counter top.  That shouldn't take much.  We brought the extra marble tiles from a tile job at the house in California.  It's just enough to cover that master bathroom vanity. 

After that, the dog shower needs tile, and the counter top in the laundry room.  We still have ceiling trim and baseboards to put up.  Then we can move in!  At some time between then and now, our plumber will come to seat the toilets and get the faucets in.  Can't wait for a working bathroom!

Office Floor

One of the sunflowers I pressed into the wet cement.

Updates

He thought he was tricking me on this one.

Yes, the cabinets are in, but after closer inspection they came to be a little bit of a disappointment.  I called Ab, who said that he'd send Levi out to fix the few "sloppy" things the next time someone from the Amish community needs to catch a train.  (The train depot is here in Trinidad.)  But then yesterday I went into my new kitchen and pulled out the spice drawer, and it wouldn't open.  He didn't account for the glides when he mounted the door.

After having a really rough day up to that time, I called Ab nearly in tears.  I told him I don't care what it takes, he needs to fix it before the counter tops get there.  He promised to be here by the end of this week.  The counter tops will be installed on Monday.

Les touching up the paint after the grout

I'm certain that it will all work out really well.  Ab is a good man.  I think he just let his 17 year old son, Levi, do most of the work on these cabinets.  And, Amish or not, a 17 year old is a 17 year old!  They haven't quite grown a brain yet.

I had to have a piece of Schultz in our home.

This one is in the bedroom.

So, moving right along, I grouted 2 of our window seats yesterday.  I've dropped calling them window sills, because I'm sure they'll be used as seats quite a lot.  They turned out exactly as I had imagined.  It's funny, when I tell Chuck and Les what my vision is, they look at me a little weird... until they see it for themselves.

I'm quite happy with these.  Thanks to DJ who brought a lot of these granite scraps down from Pueblo.  Thanks to Chuck who placed them.  Thanks to Les who usually just lets me do what I want to do.  Happy, happy, happy.

Cabinets

Mindy admiring the new cabinets.

The kitchen cabinets are in.  And they are almost exactly what I had dreamed they'd be.  Ab and Levi are craftsmen.  And the cabinets are gorgeous!

When I hired them for the kitchen, I asked them to make cabinets for the laundry room, and also for our master bathroom.  All of that is done.  Furthermore, in our discussions, I asked Ab if he knew of anyone who could make a headboard for us.  He said, "Sure, we can do that."  I asked him to make an aspen headboard with lots of character.  That's exactly what I got.  And for a really good price, too.

Kitchen cabinets

The house is coming along.  Les painted the master bedroom on Monday.  Then he's been under the weather ever since.  Just a cold, I think.  Hoping I don't get it, too.

The plumber is scheduled to work on the house tomorrow.  We need to bring in the kitchen appliances, sink, faucet, etc.  Hopefully by the end of this week, we'll have a real, live working bathroom!  Woo-hoo!!!!!

Our new headboard

Laundry Room Cabinets

Still loving my water color floor.