Most years, January feels like it will last forever and ever. Well, not this year. January came and went in a blink of an eye. We have a feeling this will be the case for EVERY month as we push toward our deadline for our certificate of occupancy on August 5.

We finished up the last of the cedar siding this month and it is gorgeous! We ended up having enough material to do the space below the master bedroom windows on the south side of the house. It’s super striking and offers a great view when you pull into the driveway. We have cedar on all four sides of the home now. I’m happy that we splurged on this pricey material. So worth it!

Beautiful, sunny day to install the last section of cedar!

January 19 - warm and not a cloud in the sky! Great day to rock my old school headband.

Our sweet peanut, Corbin, turned 4 on February 2! Our baby is 4?! He requested that we do a party at Arapahoe Basin. As parents we couldn’t be more proud. Skiing, then a party at the A-Frame?! Yes, sir! We hosted some friends and family for pizza and snowflake cupcakes and it was wonderful. Mr. Man really stretched out his celebration. We had cake (and singing) on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and maybe the morning of the 4th. I mean...why not? You only turn 4 once.

He got some much lift line love thanks to that button that Grandma made! A group of ski school kids even sang Happy Birthday!

Party #2 - February 2, Arapahoe Basin A-Frame.

Happy Birthday, Corbin! What a special, low-key party!

Ok - back to construction…

We have an electrician lined up who pulled our permit and got started on rough wiring! We even have lights in the crawl space now, which the boys are pretty amped about. Hello fort! We mapped out the locations for most of our outlets and figured out a couple of locations where we need outlets in the floor. This was an important step since we need to have that figured out before we pour our concrete floor.

Kelsey has been working on the design for the radiant heated floor and we’ll be able to get that ordered from Janes Radiant Floor in Seattle next week. We also got a bid from RadianTech, but our questions were answered more completely and we received a higher level of service from Janes. We’ll be using a 4-gauge steel mesh (comes in 4’ x 20 ‘ sheets) on the subfloor, which gives the concrete some added structure to prevent cracking. Then, the floor tubing will be laid on top of the mesh. The mesh got delivered on site on the 10th. Once we pull the trigger on the radiant floor, all of the parts - including the completed manifold - will be here in 2-3 weeks, which will give us enough time to get our last round of windows installed. More on that soon!

As you may remember, we’ve been having a terrible time trying to find a plumber. Summit County offers a test for homeowner builders to be able to pull their own plumbing permit. So, after months and months (really - Kels started calling plumbers in August!), he decided it was time to take the test and get some control back. He studied for about 3 days and learned a ton! The test was a short-answer format and had 20 questions (thankfully open book). Kelsey took the test on February 4 and after 2.5 hours of answering questions, he not only passed but got 100% of the questions correct! Bravo, Kelsey! We pulled the permit that same day!

We thought we had a plumber (licensed in another state) who was willing to work alongside Kelsey to double check that we were doing everything correctly and provide some professional advice. But, we found out a couple of days ago that he’s not interested in the job. Major bummer. So, if you’re a plumber, or you know a plumber, or you know a guy who moved here from Nebraska to be a ski bum but he used to be a plumber, who is willing to help out (and get paid quickly), give us a shout. As you can see, we just need some extra hands and advice to stay on the right track.

We finished the last of the framing on the main floor and the space for our office in the loft too. I’m super excited about the loft office! I work remotely and working from mom and dad’s living room works ok, but it will be nice to have a door and better space for conference/video calls. We also framed out the closets in the guest room and boys’ room. Once the concrete floor is installed, we’ll finish the last of the framing.

Our final round of windows arrived in Denver on February 6. Yay! However, that’s the same day that a huge snowstorm was landing in Summit County. Over the course of three days, we got nearly 40 inches of snow in the mountains. Kelsey got some well deserved powder days on Friday and Saturday. But, with highway closures, the windows had to wait. He made it down to the city this Monday to pick everything up and made it safely back.

This round includes 15 more picture windows - many that are really big and heavy! My dad and Kelsey will be doing the prep work over the next couple of days, then we’ll start installing them on Friday. If you’re in town and want to lend a hand for a few hours, we’d love to have you swing by!

I’m not going to sugar coat it, the last few weeks have been stressful. We’re nervous about the timeline and making sure these big important things (hello plumbing, electrical, radiant floor) get done correctly and we don’t miss anything. I keep having nightmares that we’ve forgotten the switches to be able to turn on our lights (not rational at all, clearly!) The radiant floor, at this scale, is totally uncharted territory for us too. The construction budget is feeling tight. There’s more, of course,...but those are the anxiety highlights.

But, this is what we signed on for - the fun and the not so fun.

I know in a couple months when it’s time to start picking out faucets or paint colors or ordering our kitchen cabinets, it will all be worth it. I know I’ve said this before, but building a home is a lot like doing an Ironman...right now, we’re on mile 80 of the bike portion and all you see is the biggest hill of the entire course, and all you want to do is get back to the transition area and put on your running shoes and move on the next leg of the race. I see you shoes. We’ll be there very soon.

Just keep going.

One foot in front of the other,

Cory