Happy Holidays! It’s a few days past Christmas and we’re still feeling festive as we head into New Year’s Eve.

For us Christmas is a time to take a breath, enjoy more uninterrupted family time, get some skiing in and this year...to start installing cedar in the entryway and below a few windows! More on that in a bit…

Last year, we were tarring and insulating the foundation exterior walls, so the cedar project is a definite step in the right direction.

We know it’s been a bit since our last post, so here’s what we’ve been up to between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We lost our fight with Xcel and our gas line will now be installed at the earliest in May of 2020. Total bummer. We had a glimmer of hope after we paid them $7,000+ and the permit was in process, but they didn’t actually submit for the permit until the last week of November. Of course, we had a super dry and warm November, but when they finally got around to submitting everything to the county, the weather had turned and it was quickly rejected. As you may recall, Summit County doesn’t issue road permits (our gas line is in the right of way) between October 31 and May 1. Kelsey is going to work all of our Xcel contacts to ensure that we’re first on the list of spring. Thankfully, we know lots of people now. We think we got really unlucky with our primary contact with Xcel. Our neighbors who are building homes in our same neighborhood had both gas and temporary power within a few weeks of submitting their application. Once our gas line gets installed it will be almost two years since we submitted our application. Super frustrating, but thankfully this won’t stop us from making lots of progress on the interior and exterior of the house.

The original deadline on our construction loan was November 5, 2019, but after the crazy harsh winter last year, and frankly everything taking longer than we expected, we knew that we needed an extension on our construction loan. But after we found out that the with the Xcel mess, we needed to extend far enough into the summer to ensure that we had a bit of cushion from when the County lifts the moritarium. We’ve been working with Alpine Bank in Frisco and our bankers are awesome, but we did need to pay an extra thousand dollars to get a nine month extension, rather than a six month to accommodate the gas line install. As with everything, everything has a ripple effect. We’re beyond thankful for working with a local bank and bankers who know and respect our unique situation. If you ever need to work with a bank in Summit County, check out Alpine Bank.

So, the new deadline to have our certificate of occupancy is August 5, 2020. Can we make it? You better believe it. Will it involve lots of hard work and late nights...definitely. But, we’re not ones to shy away from a challenge, clearly. Ha!

After we got past the anxiety about the construction loan extension and some resolution with Xcel, we feel better having a bit more certainty on both fronts. And, for those of you who know me, I love a good deadline. So, let’s go!

Around Thanksgiving, we started interior wall framing, something I’ve been dying to do for ages! Seeing the walls go up to get a better feel for our space has been awesome. It was super nice to have Dave, Margaret and Ashlee here to help us out.

Ashlee in the foreground, Kelsey’s dad, Dave, facing away.

Framing the wall at the back of the master suite.

Margaret and Cory getting ready to lift one of the walls. As you may have guessed, we waited for a few more helpers :-)

We had a bit of a snafu with installing the really large wall that divides the master suite and the kitchen, but the rest has been way easier. We built the huge wall on the floor, but when we went to raise it up, the height of the wall hit one of the steel beams! We missed the clearance by only a few inches. Doh! After a bunch of finagling and some well timed Friends pivot jokes, we got it into place. Thankfully we had lots of strong helpers with sharp minds and we got it figured out and safely secured. We had some good laughs after the fact, but it got a bit frustrating and nerve wracking during. Typical, right?

Yay! The big wall is in place! Laird for scale :-)

Since the weather has been getting colder, Kelsey finished the tedious task of framing the space above the glulam beam. This was a huge pain, but helped keep the job site a lot warmer to not be losing our warm air out the top near the roof. To give you some perspective, this project took days and days. Between working in a really small space and having to crawl up the scaffolding multiple times, it was slow going.

We got our first big storm of the winter in mid-December. We had planned on going down to Denver for some holiday festivities, but Mother Nature wanted us to stay to keep plugging away at the house. Highway closures and 18” of snow kept us from seeing our friends in the city, but since we couldn’t do anything about that, we just shoveled and enjoyed the weekend at home. Next year we look forward to being a bit more social. Keep inviting us to things, friends, we’ll resurface someday!

Mom and Dad arrived for the winter on December 16. We’re thankful they are back for a few months. Mom keeps the pantry stocked way better than I ever do, Dad spends tons of time helping at the house, and it’s super helpful having some extra adults on hand for kid wrangling. They’ll be in Colorado until early April.

Window measuring date night. December 18, 2019.

We quadruple checked the measurements on the next round of windows and got them ordered on December 23. This phase will include all but two of the picture windows that will go above the panoramic door. We’ll need to make these two windows since they are larger than our window manufacturer can make. It will be a fun project and we’re happy that we’ll be able to have the huge windows that we have framed out. This final round of windows will be arriving in early February. Corbin’s 4th birthday is on February 2, so maybe we’ll celebrate by installing more windows!

The second phase of windows (14 in total) will be arriving any day now. We were hoping they would arrive before Christmas, but at this point it’s looking like early January. We’ve had the big blue tarp covering the front of the house for a couple of months now, so it will be nice to be able to remove some of it and let some more light (and heat) in.

In addition to all of the window planning, Kelsey has been working on tracking down an electrician and plumber. Electricians and plumbers are so darn busy here, that it’s been super challenging to even get anyone to call him back. We think we have a lead on a couple of good options, but if you know of a reputable plumber/electrician that does new construction, send them our way!

We’re getting close to being ready for the radiant floor, but we first need to have the rough plumbing done. So, finding a plumber is top priority! Send all the good vibes, please.

After Dad arrived, he and Kelsey finished up the bulk of the interior wall framing, so when all of the family started arriving for Christmas, we were able to transition to working on installing the cedar window accents and the entryway cedar. Oh my goodness, it is exactly what I’ve been dreaming about. Simply gorgeous! I’m super happy that we decided to spend the extra money and get the clear cedar that we truly wanted.

Kelsey and my brother Tim, getting the first round of cedar installed below the northeast bedroom window.

My brother, Tim, was super helpful with all of the precise measuring and Dad brought his A-game with cutting things to the super exact measurements that we needed.

Then, Christmas Eve rolled around and we had planned a family ski day. However, we found out that our roofers were able to come back to finish up our metal roof. Kelsey had to skip the ski day, but the ROOF IS DONE!

Christmas Eve ski crew at Copper Mountain. From left to right - Cory, Corbin in front, Cindy, Tim, Laird, Neil, Ashlee

Kelsey, leading the Christmas Eve roof crew.

We missed Kels, but he was happy to finally wrap up the roof. Our roofers were squeezing our project in between jobs, so it’s really been dragging on (they started in October) So, while we missed him at our ski day at Copper Mountain, we were grateful to cross this big milestone of the list!

We enjoyed one of our favorite family traditions on Christmas Eve - FONDUE! Then, Christmas morning was fun and relaxing, filled with thoughtful presents and tasty food. Mid-morning we decided that it would be a good idea to get a bit of fresh air and some work done at the house. The guys worked on the cedar in the entryway and with the roof panels out of the way, we were able to shovel and snow blow some of the areas where the panels had been sitting. Since the boys have started sledding down the berm in the backyard, it was good timing. We also moved a bunch of stuff from the main level to the loft as we continue to prep for the radiant floor.

Christmas Day shovel and cedar crew. From left to right - Gina, Kelsey, Laurie, Cory, Neil, Cindy, Tim, Laird and Corbin (in front).

Happy Holidays from the Life at 9290 Family! Cory, Laird, Kelsey and Corbin. The boys were still rocking their Christmas jammies under their work gear!

We’re excited for 2020 and actually seeing this dream through and moving into our mountain dream home. We wish you a safe, healthy, fun and adventurous New Year too!

Cheers,

Cory