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