Ceiling and Stucco

Look at that beautiful wood!

Chuck and Kent started putting the ceiling up this morning.  It is exactly as I imagined.  The blue stain (beetle kill) pine is absolutely gorgeous!  This will go throughout the entire house and will be so beautiful.  As I've said before, there is only one good thing to come out of this bark beetle epidemic.  And that's the wood.  The beetles, as they are gnawing away at the cambium layer of the tree, introduce a fungus that turns the wood blue.  It's sad, but it's also started a new industry here in Colorado.

Over the living room windows.

Our kitchen cabinets will be made out of this, as is our arched front door.  The bummer about this wood is that it's really soft.  I'm not sure how long our front door will last.  So far, the door jambs haven't survived very well.  Chuck has had to make 2 jamb legs.  We think that the arch of the jamb, and also the door, will be just fine.  It was a mistake to make the door jamb out of that wood.  A mistake I've drilled into our door guy.  But for the price we paid, what are you going to do?

Les and Kent hanging stucco netting on the bales.

The second coat of stucco.

The stucco guy was there again today.  He's working slowly, but surely on the second coat of stucco.  As soon as he's done with the second coat on the outside, he can start working on the inside.  The inside will have plaster to cover all of the straw.  The dividing walls will just be sheet rock.  There will just be the final coat of stucco, the color coat, to go on the outside once this coat has a chance to cure.

Once the plaster is done, the rest of the drywall will go up - then it's just finish work to be done.  Hang the interior door.  Install the cabinets and vanities.  Hook up faucets and door handles.

Then, it will be time to move in!

The south side of the house.

One of the 4x4 tiles I will use on the outline of the front door.

Heading Toward the Finish Line

The bank approved our loan extension.  Thank you First National Bank in Trinidad, Laura Aiello and Jeff Mangino!  It is just so cool to work with a small-town local bank who knows you, knows what you're about and is there to help.  Now if we can't come in under this revised budget, I'll just have to go out and kill myself.

Granite for the Kitchen

We picked out our granite for the kitchen on Monday.  It's so beautiful.  Me, always the bargain hunter, went for this beautiful couple of slabs.  They had a hole in the top of the slabs, and therefore were marked down.  I think they look beautiful.  And of course, after they lay out our kitchen and start to cut the slabs, no one will ever know that there was a hole there.

I'm trying so hard to build this house within budget.  The stucco really screwed things up.  That alone is taking 10% of my total loan.  Not a good thing.  I had hoped that Les and I would be able to do the inside ourselves.  It's just not going to happen, though.  It sucks getting older.

Look at that beautiful stone!

 We bought our kitchen table the other day while we were in Pueblo.  It's just so fun to go into places like that with Les.  He's such a character.  We walked into the dining room section, and within moments found our table.  We both walked up to the same table set, sat down and said, "This is it."  The salesman strode up while Les was checking the sturdiness of the table.  Then Les mentioned something about having sex on it. 

I know -- Too much info!

Les has fun no matter what.

Progress

There's our house on our mountain-top

After much negotiation, I finally have a deal I can live with on our stucco.  David came back last Thursday to go over things.  Chuck laid it all out on the line.  "You will respect this house, this land and these people!" he said to David.  "And you will do a better job than you did."

And sure enough, he did, too.  Chuck knows that David is able to do the work.  He's seen it many times before.  It's just that David seems to be too full of himself to pay attention to the details.  So Chuck just deflated his ego and made him do the right thing.  Which he seems happy to do now.  I'm so glad that Chuck has our back.  He's a good man.

The stucco wall under the west porch.

I picked Les up at the Denver airport Thursday.  I got a ticket while driving up to the parking area.  I was going 57 in a 35 mph zone.  What a bummer!  I haven't gotten a ticket since I was 18 years old.  I knew I was going a little fast -- I was just anxious to see my honey!

We stopped at a granite place in Denver on the way home.  They had aisles and aisles full of granite slabs.  Basically, you go in, pick a couple, then they do the math and see if they can work a deal.  No deal from them.  Way too expensive.

Then we stopped at another place in Pueblo.  Their prices were much more down to earth, so I think we'll be getting granite countertops.  I've always loved granite.  My whole home is made from earth and earthly products.  Straw, reclaimed standing-dead wood, and now stone.  I just can't wait to move in.  We've waited so long, and we're so close now.



Need ideas!

Check out the picture on the right.  That's our beetle-kill front door, covered by black plastic while the stucco is being applied.  I thought of putting an outline of the door in wood around the door.  Then covering that with some copper that Les has had for years.  Then, I wanted to put some dragonfly tiles here and there around it.  What do you think?  I will certainly be unique.  What I have in the picture is made just from scraps, but it does give an idea of what I'm talking about.

We're also working on colors for the color coat on the stucco.  Thinking of Buckskin.  Any thoughts?
 Stucco Colors

Stucco and Insulation

The south wall

We finally have our first coat of stucco on the house.  We can finally breathe a huge sigh of relief - almost.  For those of you who have been following this blog, we have had a horrible time finding someone to do our stucco.  Chuck has interviewed so many people.  They either don't call back, they don't show up in the first place, or their prices were way, way, way too high. 

Ceiling insulation.  The straw is the insulation for the walls.

Finally, along came David Johnson.  He and Chuck have known each other for 30 some years.  David had been working up in the Denver area, but is now back to being a local boy.  I was thrilled to pay him a huge sum of money, just to get the first coat of cement on the house.  David talked like he knew what he was doing.  He's very energetic and talks a good talk.  $5000 later, I have one coat of stucco on the walls, and I'm so not happy.  I bought all of the materials, and David provided the mixer and the labor.  He didn't clean up after himself.  He insisted that Chuck and Kent cover our windows and doors rather than having his crew do it.  He left a massive mess.

A reminder of why we're doing this.

Chuck called him back up there today to fix this.  I was almost in tears to even be talking money with this guy knowing that he'd want another $5000 for another day's work.  Oh, it was awful.  I'm just going to sit back and let Chuck tell me what to do on this guy.  It's a nightmare.

The front porch

Les has been gone for almost the last 3 weeks.  I need him home so badly.  He's coming tomorrow.  I'm exhausted.  I'm completely drained, financially and emotionally.  And I have to hit the bank up for more money.  Hopefully he'll be up to picking up some of my slack.  Can't wait until this house is done and we can move in!

Water & Power

Dining room and kitchen

The "trades" have been busy at work this week.  We now have electricity into our new house.  And the water is almost in, too.  Of course, none of the fixtures are in yet so it's not like I can turn on a faucet or a light, but getting utilities into the structure is a big step.  We hope to be inspected next Wednesday for our framing, plumbing and electric.  Then we can start closing everything up.

Chuck and Kent have been busy at work putting up the soffits, the attic vents, the stucco mesh, the flashing, etc.  Come next Thursday, we should be starting stucco.  I met our stucco guy, David.  What a character!  His arms fling everywhere when he talks.  He sounds like he knows what he's doing.  Chuck has known him for the better part of 30 years.  So if Chuck trusts him, he's good enough for me. 


In the guest closet

Today David asked me if I'd like some kind of design over my doors.  Got me to thinking -- maybe a gecko?  How about a sun ray?  I'll have to put some thought to that over the next few days.



Let there be light!  Tom working in the mechanical room.
 

Then, when he's done with the first coat outside, I'm just going to have him start on the inside.  I thought that Les and I could probably do that, but who am I kidding?  I did the inside plaster on an adobe house when I was 22.  But that was hundreds of years ago, or so it seems.  It wasn't hard, just time consuming -- something I have very little of in the first place.  Les wouldn't like it, either. 

We'll probably be going over budget with this stucco/plaster job.  What are you gonna do?  Still hoping to be in my new house in the next couple of months.  Wouldn't that be so great?

Weather

Look at the beautiful wood grain on our door.

Wow, Wow, Wow!  Things have been so incredibly busy, it's hard to pick up where I left off.  We picked up our front door.  IT IS GORGEOUS!  It's a bit rough, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  Our house is designed and built by regular people.  I don't need perfection, I just need character.

We drove about 160 miles west to meet Ab Yoder.  He's another Amish gentleman who will be building our kitchen cabinets.  We asked him to build them from beetle kill pine, again, because the wood is gorgeous.  That's what our front door is made of.  And his price was about $3000 less that our local kitchen cabinet dealer -- which was about $5000 less than Lowes.  It's not like we have this massive, elaborate kitchen design, either.  I just want simple, decent quality, and rustic.

The new windows finally were delivered and installed the moment they got here.  The house is now, more or less, secure.  Almost all of the doors are in, but I'm waiting (2 months now) for our front door hardware.  So Chuck just nailed a piece of plywood over the opening for the front door.  All of the other doors are in and locked.  Just don't want any bears sneaking around in my new house or anything.

Windows are going in.

Once the plumbing and electric are in, then we can get it inspected and can close up the walls and the ceilings.  We also are waiting for stucco.  But since we can't get any reasonable bids for stucco, we're just going to do it ourselves.  We got one bid this morning and it ate up 1/2 of our remaining budget.  No way!  Chuck will just hire some people, hire a cement mixer, and we'll do it ourselves.  What could possibly go wrong?

Straw gets EVERYWHERE!

It's snowing today.  The house is wrapped in a blanket of black plastic.  Gotta get it in stucco ASAP.

Les "weed-wacking" the walls.

The bales are all stacked.

Bales

Almost through with the bales.

Oh what a job this is!  The bales are about 50 pounds apiece. Before you stack them, you have to measure each one, in several places, for moisture. Then, most of the bales need to be notched. This is done with a small electric chainsaw. The point of notching is so that the bales will fit snugly around the post and beam frame of the house. While you're notching, cutting, stacking and tying the bales, straw flies everywhere. I mean everywhere.

Lucy and Mindy just love the straw!

It gets in your mouth, your hair, your shoes and down my bra. I don't even need to be the one cutting for that to happen. Talk about uncomfortable!  The second I get home I strip and shower. I take a Benadryl and I put lotion everywhere.  Every place where the brittle straw touches leaves a little irritation. We all feel so beat up. Hands are cut, knuckles scraped, knees bruised and backs sore.

But it will be so worth it. Look at what we've accomplished. I get such a kick out of watching it take shape. And Les is my hero. He works so hard on it. He and Chuck (also my hero) have hired one more guy. The 3 of them  are about 75% done with the bales. The septic was inspected and approved yesterday.  We just need to finish the bales and get it dried in  soon. The windows should be delivered next Tuesday.

It's really going to be so beautiful!

Oh, to be a dog in a loving family.

Les notching the bale.

This is the north wall under the porch. Just have to finish a little on the top.

The corner next to the front door.