Well, they are here! The walls and roof arrived from our friends at Porter SIPs, direct from our beautiful home state of Michigan! They actually came from Holland, MI which is about 10 minutes from where Kelsey grew up.

We had a nice string of good weather and the lot was pretty dry. The areas around the lot were still quite wet with lots of snow melt happening, but the driveway and the unload zone around the front of the house were good. Kelsey had been making rivers to direct water away from our lot and it appeared to be working. He also had a crane lined up to offload the two semi trucks and drop the shrink wrapped bundles of panels at the front of the house for easy installation. The crane operator came up once or twice to check on the conditions and gave us the thumbs up too.

I bet you see where this is going….

It snowed.

And, not just a cute little spring dusting to weigh down the trees and prettily cover the early flowers, it was a legit snow storm dropping 8” in snow on the lot and a heckuva lot of moisture. Just when we thought we were done shoveling…

Think again.

The one positive that week was that my Dad arrived on May 1 to help with the offload and installation. We had a belated birthday celebration, complete with a cake that Laird helped bake and decorate. Happy 66th Birthday, Dad!

So, three days after the storm, on May 2, when the panels were set to arrive, the crane operator drove up to the lot to get set up for the offload. Then, Kelsey got the phone call from Chip at Mid-Mountain Crane… “we have a problem.” The crane got about halfway into the driveway and started to sink. The last thing we need is a 80,000 pound crane stuck in the driveway. With two flatbed semis waiting to be unloaded and nowhere to put the panels we’d need to come up with another option to get the panels to the lot. So after about 30 minutes of standing around onsite and Kelsey thinking… “well, what the (insert string of expletives) are we going to do” he finally came up with a plan. We would offload the panels at the crane yard, (which had absolutely zero room for two semis worth of panels) then move the panels, and promised up and down that they would be out of the yard by the end of the day.

Thankfully, our kind crane operator, Chip, had a 20’ trailer that he normally uses to haul a skid steer to job sites that he let us rent/borrow. But that still meant that my Dad and Kelsey would need to haul all 70 panels via trailer, loading 2-5 panels at a time from the crane yard up to our property about a mile away (thankfully!). Well, a not so appealing option is better than no option at all, right. So, over the course of two days and with a bit of help at the end of day one from our friend Jeff, and end of day 2 from our buddy Steve to haul the final 24’ panel, they got them all up to the lot!

May 2 - Fake smiles before they began hauling panels via trailer…

May 3 - The big 24’ panel arriving on site!

May 3 - In case you were doubting the mud…this was after I had to rescue Corbin after he was stuck on the west side of the property. I was about a 1/2 inch from disaster and mud filling my boots.

May 3 - Steve, Neil (my dad), and Kelsey. These are real smiles after they finished hauling ALL the panels!

Whew. They did it.

We got a bit of a weather break and Dad and Kelsey began to install the walls. We had lined up some friends and family to join us on Mother’s Day Weekend, so Dad and Kels wanted to get the hang of the installation process and get the panels organized before we had a full crew arrive.

May 6 - making more progress! Mud room door behind these handsome guys.

May 10 - Cloudy view of Buffalo Mountain from the master bedroom window!

My dad could only stay a few days this time, so we were happy that Kelsey’s dad, Dave, aka Funkle according to the boys, could come out for a week to help too! We had both dads on the job site for a couple of days which was pretty special. Funkle is a boat builder in MI and had flown out one of his employees, Ricky and his girlfriend Morgan, to help with some of the more technical layout. Ricky and Kelsey actually graduated from Saugatuck High School together.

May 11 - Ricky and Kelsey laying out the entry way panels.

Then, the weekend arrived and we welcomed a crew of old neighbors, new neighbors, old friends, new friends, and our wonderful family to help us install panels, build stud packs, sweep, build rivers to drain water, keep track of the gaggle of kids on site, and hang out in the nice weather. We were able to get some of the really large panels in place. The bulk of the day was spent fiddling with our entryway. The panels in that section contain a lot of windows, which means headers and stud packs. Talk about a puzzle. Despite the slow progress, it was a great day!

Here’s a gallery of some of our favorite people who joined us on May 11! I even snagged a pic with our fearless leader, Kelsey!

Saturday’s crew included:

Kelsey
Dave A.
Ricky
Morgan
Ashlee
Lisa
Chris
Breck
Jack
Dave M.
Phil
Mark
Zoe
Joshua
Neil
Maddie
Steve
Bill
Angie
Evan
Laird
Corbin
Cory

On Sunday we celebrated Mother’s Day by working more at the 9,290 Home! Fiddling with the entryway continued, but they were able to set the panels so that we could keep moving to the northwest wall. Yay! We even finished the day with an all-girl crew! Seemed fitting for Mother’s Day!

Our Mother’s Day crew included:

Kelsey
Dave
Ricky
Morgan
Kat
Ezra
Bodhi
Angie
Evan
Dave M.
Becca
Laird
Corbin
Cory

One of the highlights of the weekend, beside the building/progress made, was watching anywhere between 2 to 6 kids running around the job site having a grand old time. They were hunting monsters in the crawl space, looking for gold, using a hatchet as a climbing axe on the dirt piles, using string as a “top rope” to help the little kids climbing up the hill, playing in the mud, throwing wood in the pond, eating hot dogs and donuts, pretending to be mountain goats while climbing on the roof panels and daring each other who could climb the highest on the scaffolding. The winner of that competition was Laird’s buddy Ezra who made it to the top of the scaffolding which is 15 feet off the ground then proudly called out “look mom, no hands.” It was the ultimate example of unstructured play time.

Kelsey, Funkle, Ricky, and Morgan had a productive day on Monday, now that they had figured out some of the little tricks to make things go a little faster. Funkle was flying out Tuesday afternoon so on Tuesday morning the four of them, plus our friend Kat who had also recruited another kindergarten parent, John, to help. They were able to finish putting up the lower part of the east wall, which was the goal before Dave, Ricky and Morgan had to leave town.

May 14 - The boys getting after it on the east wall.

May 14 - all the way to the end of the east wall!

Team effort for sure!

We updated our crew list and it’s getting long! This endeavor makes us appreciate all of the wonderful people in our life. It’s going to be fun to say “remember when you installed that wall?” as we’re enjoying a glass of wine around the kitchen island. I can picture it now!

Thank you everyone for spending all or part of your weekend/week with us!

So, where are we now?!

99% of the lower walls are installed, we need a crane for one of the big panels above the window on the west side of the master bedroom. Kelsey will order the lumber for the loft floor joists and sheathing on Monday, so work on that project will begin next week. We’re excited to see the view from the 2nd story!

May 16 - Dry fitting the header for one window in the boys’ room.

May 16 - The first of many picnic dinners at the 9,290 Home!

Rain is expected for the next week, so we’re not sure when we’ll pull the trigger on the steel rafters for the ceiling. We need the lot to be nice and dry as there is no other alternative to using a crane for lifting those monsters up. C’mon Colorado sun, we need you now more than ever! After the rafters are set, it will be time to get the roof panels on! Then, we can get windows and our metal roof ordered.

It’s been fun to see the shape of our house come together and Kelsey and I keep going through periods when the space feels big and then feels small, which probably means it will be the exact right size in the end. Not too big and not too small.

Oh man, guys! We’re building a house!!

Thanks as always, for the love and support. We feel it for sure.

Cheers,

Cory