Heavy work was done by a front end loader but leveling of the road was fun.
It just needs a little more love and care!!!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Making Way . . .
Monday, September 27, 2010
Our new construction zone
On Sunday, September 26 we visited our mountain home to see the newly developed construction zone. Our basement has been dug, footings are in and we are waiting for the county inspection so they can start pouring concrete. It was fun to see the progress after not being there for about 2 weeks.
It's exciting to see the steps taken, turning our pristine mountain property into a true construction zone. As it gets worse we know it is getting better (an oxymoron it there ever was one!)
The weather has been beautiful and holding warm, so if the inspection happens quickly we can get the concrete poured and set! Live is good!
It's exciting to see the steps taken, turning our pristine mountain property into a true construction zone. As it gets worse we know it is getting better (an oxymoron it there ever was one!)
The weather has been beautiful and holding warm, so if the inspection happens quickly we can get the concrete poured and set! Live is good!
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| Footings and well head. Standing by future back door |
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| Standing below the house, drainage ditch, and where our walk-out basement will be! |
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The hole where we put money into!
Here is the dig looking from the South.
We will see the Mother Tree every day as we gander at the Colorado Mountians. 
Looking to the Southwest from our basement. 
Looking up to the pole barn from our basement. 
The digging has begun, and the footings are being readied for cement. Early next week we get the hole inspected by the County and if all goes well, we should see concrete.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Update on digging
Found out yesterday, Tuesday, September 14 that the builders have surveyed the house layout, put down the stakes and have started digging the footings. That means the permits are in and we are official! Great news, as we are trying to make sure our foundation gets in before the weather gets to cold.
Logs are on order, coming from Rocky Mountain Logs in Montana. We are using 9" logs and they will be stacked with the traditional honor of all log homes. The logs should arrive in the next 4 weeks.
Great steps toward our future home!
Logs are on order, coming from Rocky Mountain Logs in Montana. We are using 9" logs and they will be stacked with the traditional honor of all log homes. The logs should arrive in the next 4 weeks.
Great steps toward our future home!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Pictures of our mountain property
Many of you have asked to see pictures of our mountain property. We are proud to share these with you:
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| Driveway in December A nice walk |
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| On top of our mountain with friends Char and Don LaBounty |
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| Our outhouse that Hans built |
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| Our pole barn...our future garage |
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| Our fire pit that we burn lots of wood and share stories with friends |
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| Sitting on the rocks near our boundary line. Enjoy the photos...we will be posting more as we get further along in the process of our building. We are building a log home, 2100 square feet, with 3 sided porch More to come.... |
Time Away
We will be taking a break for a few days because of travel for both Sophie and me. I am in Seattle this week and Sophie travels to England. Looks like Sophie rates in this family.
Yesterday, I spent the entire day clearing out the trees the contractor knocked over and pushed to the side. I moved about 40 trees with our little Gator and gave it a real work out. Now that the trees are mostly out of the way (the contractor still needs to knock down about a dozen more to give us fire defensive space around the house) we can get down to digging the footings and as soon as the permits are received from the County - up will go the foundation walls. While we are gone, a lot should happen over the next couple of weeks because we are racing against the weather. Once the footings and foundation are in, hopefully before the frost settles in for the winter, things should progress well.
More to come - soon.....
Yesterday, I spent the entire day clearing out the trees the contractor knocked over and pushed to the side. I moved about 40 trees with our little Gator and gave it a real work out. Now that the trees are mostly out of the way (the contractor still needs to knock down about a dozen more to give us fire defensive space around the house) we can get down to digging the footings and as soon as the permits are received from the County - up will go the foundation walls. While we are gone, a lot should happen over the next couple of weeks because we are racing against the weather. Once the footings and foundation are in, hopefully before the frost settles in for the winter, things should progress well.
More to come - soon.....
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Breaking Ground & Clearing Trees
On Thursday, September 8 our future log home site was started. Above Treeline Construction started pushing over aspens and pine trees, clearing the site for our home.
It is extremely exciting to see the beginning! The road was a bit widened, taking out some of the trees right next to the driveway. Getting ready to our circular driveway...it's starting to look messy...but it's a start!
Hans and I took our shovels and did an official ground breaking! We wanted to make it real to us.
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| Above Treeline Construction Builders! |
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| Clearing the space for our home! Lots of trees to get rid of!!! |
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| Our official ground breaking ceremony! |
More to come.....
Monday, September 6, 2010
Keeping the Books
What you say? Someone is keeping the books? Yep, it's me. For some reason, we get invoices in, cut checks, get bank authorization to spend the money and there you have it. Right? Well, it seems that in order to stay ahead of the game, we have to mind where the money is going. So far, it has not been a big deal. We only cut two checks for invoices received so far. The first one was a real trick because it was difficult getting the bank required forms filled out correctly and then even more difficult matching up the estimated costs as opposed to the actual costs. The second invoice was for just one item so it was much easier to submit.
Cost savings are already being realized. For instance, we received an estimate for the power line Sophie mentioned earlier to run 1300 feet of underground cable. Looking at the estimate and planned route to the house, we were able to convince the power company that the run up the face of our mountain would be much easier, especially since most of the route is already clear of trees. The actual cost was significantly less, so we saved a chunk of change on that one item. Of course, I cut down and removed an additional 6 trees but that is a minor inconvenience. There is a story there too, by the way. We also managed to save a bunch on the purchase of the logs due to the economy and now have them on order. Questions about permits allowed us to save additional costs by having our General Contractor pull one inclusive permit as opposed to several different permits. Every little bit helps.
There is so much to keep track of but a very necessary evil, and we would be foolish to just let someone else mind the store. We found that it is never too early to set up a spread sheet for accounting that includes line item estimates initially and then columns for us to follow along as the home progresses. Each line item billed will now get a separate accounting and we can follow along with the expenditures to make sure we are getting the best value for every dollar we spend.
Cost savings are already being realized. For instance, we received an estimate for the power line Sophie mentioned earlier to run 1300 feet of underground cable. Looking at the estimate and planned route to the house, we were able to convince the power company that the run up the face of our mountain would be much easier, especially since most of the route is already clear of trees. The actual cost was significantly less, so we saved a chunk of change on that one item. Of course, I cut down and removed an additional 6 trees but that is a minor inconvenience. There is a story there too, by the way. We also managed to save a bunch on the purchase of the logs due to the economy and now have them on order. Questions about permits allowed us to save additional costs by having our General Contractor pull one inclusive permit as opposed to several different permits. Every little bit helps.
There is so much to keep track of but a very necessary evil, and we would be foolish to just let someone else mind the store. We found that it is never too early to set up a spread sheet for accounting that includes line item estimates initially and then columns for us to follow along as the home progresses. Each line item billed will now get a separate accounting and we can follow along with the expenditures to make sure we are getting the best value for every dollar we spend.
And so it begins...
As you all know, we signed our construction loan paperwork on August 23. It has now been two weeks since that took place and we are hoping that we start to see some kind of activity this coming week.
Last Friday, September 3, Black Hills Energy surveyed the electric lines that will be installed and put the survey stakes in place. Our power line will be put underground, so they will start digging the trench for this power line as soon as payment is received.
This weekend Hans rented a backhoe and played construction and road engineer for the weekend. Sad to say, our driveway suffered a lot because of his "playing"! However, it is wider, more rocks were exposed, he got out the "iceberg" rock that was threatening everyone's oil pan in their vehicle, and re-dug trenches for the run off of water. Every little bit helps.
We closed our original fire pit this weekend with a ceremonial last fire, took ashes from the original fire pit and Hans dug a new one! The new one is so deep, if I stand in it, all you can see is the top of my head! We placed the ashes of the old fire pit into the new one to give it a fresh beginning. The old fire pit was in the way of our new circular driveway, so it had to go.
Many of you wonder why such a large fire pit...well, we have wood to burn! Excessive wood to burn. Char LaBounty is our official fire marshall, and as such, she is usually the one to burn the most wood. However, when she is not around, I become the fire chief and burn as much wood as possible.
We are hoping to hear from Steve the Builder this week to determine the date for breaking ground! He must realize this is a great opportunity for celebration and we need to know!
It has begun!
Last Friday, September 3, Black Hills Energy surveyed the electric lines that will be installed and put the survey stakes in place. Our power line will be put underground, so they will start digging the trench for this power line as soon as payment is received.
This weekend Hans rented a backhoe and played construction and road engineer for the weekend. Sad to say, our driveway suffered a lot because of his "playing"! However, it is wider, more rocks were exposed, he got out the "iceberg" rock that was threatening everyone's oil pan in their vehicle, and re-dug trenches for the run off of water. Every little bit helps.
We closed our original fire pit this weekend with a ceremonial last fire, took ashes from the original fire pit and Hans dug a new one! The new one is so deep, if I stand in it, all you can see is the top of my head! We placed the ashes of the old fire pit into the new one to give it a fresh beginning. The old fire pit was in the way of our new circular driveway, so it had to go.
Many of you wonder why such a large fire pit...well, we have wood to burn! Excessive wood to burn. Char LaBounty is our official fire marshall, and as such, she is usually the one to burn the most wood. However, when she is not around, I become the fire chief and burn as much wood as possible.
We are hoping to hear from Steve the Builder this week to determine the date for breaking ground! He must realize this is a great opportunity for celebration and we need to know!
It has begun!
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