Jan 29 Update

We arrived at the house to meet with the staircase designer, but found that the HVAC people were also there.
Some of the flexible ductwork being installed in Cheryl's studio.

Another member of the crew is threading pipe to install the gas line.

We also found a couple of pallets of shingles had been delivered, so maybe roofing will start soon too.

Jan 26

Progress this week on framing, plumbing, and the wall. Click on photos for a larger view.

Work continues on the chimney framing. Should be another day or two.

The lower retaining wall is completely done now.

Norris checks out the completed roof for the screened-in porch. The white band you see just below the roof is the trim the siding people were installing. We need to get the roof trim done before the shingles can go on.

This photo shows part of the great room. The area to the left is the dining room, and the kitchen is to the right. The pipes sticking up to the left of the sawhorses is for the kitchen island. In the corner to the right of the sawhorses you can see plumbing for the corner sink. All the plumbing is roughed-in now. You can also see the horizontal beams in the ceiling area, which are properly called collar-ties.

All the windows have been installed now, except for the custom windows for the upper living room and master bedroom areas. Here you can see plastic is temporarily used to keep the weather out of the living room until the windows can be installed, which might happen next week.

Update on Wall and Deck

The plumbers have started their rough-ins, but its not really very photogenic work... but we also had more progress on the lower retaining wall and the deck.

The masons are just about done with the lower wall, just needing to add some more stone caps tomorrow.

The framers are also making good progress on the screened-in porch area.

Jan 20 - Weather Has Slowed Things Down a Little

Another snap of cold weather and a bit snow has slowed things down a little. Since the last posting, most of the activity has consisted of removing and re-installing most of the windows due to the framers having installed a number of the casement windows in the wrong place. One window frame also had to be moved because it was too close to the fireplace. The other sign of progress is that the excess blocks have been removed from the lower retaining wall to taper its profile, it has been filled with re-bar and concrete, and the masons have started laying the stone. Click on photos for a larger view.

Although the shawdows here are pretty bad, you can see that the wall stone work is nearly done now.

The other progress of note is that the sub-structure for the deck is nearly done now and the framers have started erecting the roof for the screened-in porch.

Jan 5 - Deck Work Started

The snow has all melted in the past two days. The framers have started the framework for the deck.
This view is from the back of the house. The end of the deck closest to the camera will have a screened in porch.

From the front, you can see how the deck wraps around to the front of the house. The deck won't extend any further as we don't want the deck to block the views from the great room.

Jan 3 - Snow Comes to the Mountains

Now that the holidays are over, work is starting up again at the house. Also, we had our first snow of the winter (only an inch or so), so we'll start with snow pictures of the neighborhood. Click on pictures for a larger view.

This was taken from the car looking down Reems Creek Rd towards the mountains where our new house is being built. Although there is only an inch of snow in the valley, the higher peaks always get more snow.

This was taken looking down Ox Creek Valley, towards the mountains where the rental house is where we are living now.

You can see the framers have installed some of the windows. Unfortunately, some are in the wrong place and are going to have to be swapped out. The upper windows are being custom made and won't arrive for another 3 weeks.

Here, Norris is meeting with our project manager Ronnie to discuss stepping down the lower retaining wall to mirror the shape of the upper retaining wall. This will mean taking off parts of three rows of blocks.

Here you can see the fireplace has been framed in, although the chimney hasn't been cut through the roof yet.