June & July 2011

We're back!  We found a local guy, Stephen Ames, who installed the tongue & groove aspen ceilings.  Here's the downstairs guest room before the ceiling was installed:

Here's a blurry view of one of the installers working on the living room ceiling.

Another blurry view.  I think these were taken with a cell phone.  But you get the idea anyway.

A view from the living room looking up at the loft.  Starting to really look good!  I am amazed at how some people can do this kind of work, so high up in the air. 

 The underside of the loft.  The kitchen will be on the left hand side.

 The front porch ceiling.  We'll be doing the tongue and groove on this ourselves.  In 2012!

 Linda & Brett's room.  I don't think the ceiling has been stained/sealed yet, but it really is looking good!

Here's how it looked before the aspen was installed.  We're hoping the insulation will reduce the noise from upstairs.

OK, we just got here with a truck full of construction materials.  Time for a flurry of activity!

Bringing in the kitchen cabinets

Refrigerator moving is always fun.

Conor wishes someone would make up their mind.

 And this is only a small part of it.  You should see what's in the basement!

A view of the garage.

We rented a construction dumpster.  And we filled it up several times.  And we are still throwing away construction trash!

Love our new stove!  I got it on Craig's List.  Stainless with a black cooktop and convection oven.  We don't have gas at Cuchara unless we want to get a propane tank, which we don't, so electric is our only option.

No, Brett didn't have an accident, he's just working on putting the refrigerator doors back on I think.

The High Country crew came back to install the soffits (the underside of the roof).  They had a nice little toy to help with the job.  Wish we had one of these too!

 They cut and stained the aspen before installing.  Much less messy that way!

Ryan also helped us a little with an electric outlet that needed to be moved.  Tricky to do on solid logs!

It's time to get started on the kitchen countertops.  Don has been wanting to try a cement countertop, so Conor was drafted to mix the concrete.

 Once you start, there's no turning back.  And you need to work pretty quickly.

 Linda is helping to spread it out. 

 After it was poured we sprinkled crushed colored glass into it and pushed it down into the mix.

 Now we just have to let it harden and cure.  The waiting is the hardest part!

 It's hard, but we still have to wait a while before Don can grind & polish it.

 The ceiling has been stained & finished, and we've started installing the light fixtures.

 Starting to take shape. 

I'm staining and finishing the ceiling in our bedroom.  Not much fun; hopefully we won't have to do this again for a long time.  We had really long poles and just rolled the polyurethane on.  It gets all over you, especially in your hair!

 Brett is starting to frame the downstairs shower.

 And Linda is getting started with the tile installation.

 Not sure what Linda is doing, maybe she's cutting the rebar for the rock wall ledges?

 OK, Conor is definitely cutting the tile on this one.

Brett installed the tile in the shower.  He didn't enjoy it much but hopefully he'll forget the agony when he gets to take a nice hot shower.  The worst part was getting the tiles to stick to the ceiling. 

I think he may have on stilts here, not sure though.  Brett is tall, but he's not THAT tall.

Time to start on the shower floor.

And now to put the tile floor down and grout everything.  It's amazing how much better tile looks once you've added the grout!

Hmmm, looks like somebody is already using it?

Insert vanity and sink here:

Yay, an indoor toilet!  We had to arm-wrestle to decide who got to use it first!  (Linda won!)

We hired the excavators to come out and move dirt around to help with drainage.  These guys are truly amazing.  They are really skilled at what they do, and we appreciate it!

Conor compacted the soil around the cabin in preparation for building the ledge to support the rock wall.  Dusty work. 

When you're putting a rock facade on a concrete wall, you have to build a ledge to support the rock or it will all fall off.  That would be VERY bad; we hate when that happens. 

 Getting ready to build a staircase for the front porch.

Looks good, but still needs the pad in front of it.  Code requires that it extend out several feet in front of the staircase.

Meanwhile Don is working on the upstairs railings again.  This section is tricky because it's short, at an angle, with no good way to compress it.  But Don has it figured out!

Don found a really interesting cedar log to use for the center post of the staircase.  We got all the cedar in Texas and hauled it up to Colorado. 

 Trouble is, the post is just a bit too short.  But Don is going to figure out something on this too.

Working on the staircase railings. 

We are running out of time on this trip.  For now we're just going with quick & dirty.  We'll install the center post later, we just need something that will pass inspection for right now.

A view of the staircase railing from the bottom landing.  Looking pretty good!  The log stairsteps still have their protective coverings for now.  We still haven't decided exactly how to finish them.

Looking down the stairwell going into the basement.  We need to put a railing around this also.  Ultimately we plan to do cedar rails, but for now it's going to be plain pine.  This cabin is a VERY long-term project.

Don worked on the railings at home in Texas, then took them apart, bundled them and hauled them up to the cabin.  Our yard at home is a mess!

I actually learned to install light fixtures!  Can't say I'm an expert yet though.  But it all passed inspection anyway.

Lucky Brett got to climb up on the scaffolding and install the ceiling fans and light fixtures in the living room.  Good thing he's not afraid of heights.  Linda could hardly stand to watch this part.

One thing we all wonder is, how the heck are we going to change out the light bulbs?  The scaffolding was rented!

Brett on the scaffolding, Conor on the Little Giant trying to paint that tricky area over the staircase.  Really hard to get to!

Back to the ledge for the rock facade.  Getting ready to pour the cement. 

Conor is getting to be an expert at mixing concrete.  He's not sure he really wants to be an expert, but somebody has to do it!

 Brett makes sure it's smooth.

 These wheelbarrows will never be the same again.  But at least they have character! 

 Linda and Conor made a retaining wall at the northeast corner of the house.

 That's a pretty big rock pile.  Do you think we'll use them all?

 Getting started on the east side of the house.  A friend of Conor's was kind enough to help out.

 The black pipe is for radon abatement.  We'll have to extend the pipe up past the roofline.  Later!

 Just about done with the east wall.  Linda and Conor start on the garage side.

Here's what Linda is standing on:

This job is never-ending! 

 Getting the rocks to stay on the wall is an art.  It helps to have some props, though.

Unfortunately the monsoon started right when they got to the staircase.  Tarps help, but it's still a cold, nasty job. 

The sun is out and Conor is almost finished!  You can see his excitement in this picture. 

This is what happens to your hands when you work with mortar and don't wear gloves.  Lime is very bad for skin.

 Nasty!  His mother told him to use protection!

I think the plan is to fill in the part under the deck with soil.  Not sure about that, though. 

Still painting the walls too.

I know it looks like Conor is the only one doing any work, but actually we are all pitching in.  But somebody has to take pictures!  I really hate being up on that ladder.  It's hard to NOT think about what would happen if I lost my balance.

 That section of the wall above the staircase is the worst.  Nobody wanted to get up on that scaffolding.

 It helps to have a long pole and a steady hand.

Time to get started tiling the upstairs bathroom.  This is something I've never done before.  I now think those tile guys are worth every cent.  Getting tile to line up is not an easy task, nor is it easy to get it to stick to the wall.  At least I'm not tiling the ceiling like Brett did!

Of course I had to make the shower part complicated.  I like it now, but at the time I wished I had followed the KISS principle.  I found some really pretty little border tiles I wanted to use, and got carried away.  Plus, the walls around the tub are really not square, creating a nightmare for an inexperienced tile person.

This is where the vanity and sink will go.  Don is going to build a vanity using the cedar.  We are going to use some granite tile for the countertop.

 Linda helped me with laying the floor.  But she took the pictures, so she's not in them!

 This is the utility room.  Brett laid the tile floor (plus he made & installed the cabinets, etc.) 

 We used some of the granite tile I got for the upstairs bath for the utility room countertop also. 

 We used copper for the kitchen backsplash.

 Prepping to start grinding the cement countertop.  This is a really messy job.

Unfortunately this first attempt at grinding was a bust.  The cement wasn't fully cured and the glass pieces started coming out instead of being ground down.  This resulted in some tense moments.

Brett built all the cabinetry for the kitchen and the utility room.  He used some antique wood he had salvaged for all the cabinet fronts.  It's going to be really beautiful!

Here's the floor in the kitchen.  It's the same tile we used in the utility room.  Still waiting to install the wood flooring in the rest of the downstairs.

We picked out a small mosaic tile with lots of copper in it for the backsplash above the stove.  I love it with the copper backsplash. 

 Kitchen is starting to look more finished, although we still have a ways to go.

 Installing light fixtures in the loft.

 Conor is becoming an expert at installing electric plugs too!  He's really quite handy to have around!

Don is still working on railings.

For some reason several of the big windows cracked.  Our log contractor arranged to have them replaced for us thank goodness.

 We have a door on the bathroom!  Now if we just had trim around the door, we might have some privacy.

Doors upstairs too!  We found the doors on Craig's list in Texas and brought them up in our trailer.  They're pine, and I think they match the logs really well.

Another unexplained oddity:  some of the steel roofing just started sliding down and off the roof!  Ryan fixed this too.  I guess it's a result of the high winds in Cuchara.  I saw another house where the roof just got taken off completely by the wind.

Occasionally we take a bit of time off to have some fun, believe it or not!

 Grilling out by the dumpster.

Celebrating Brett's birthday with pastries from the Ryus Ave. Bakery!  Yum! 

 Brett was man enough to wear the birthday hat!  AND he blew out all his candles in one try!

Make a wish!  I wish we were done already!

More to come soon, this is only the first half of the summer!