From our last post, much has changed in the way we normally operate…

First of all, we hope that you, your family and your community are doing as well as you can.

But, before things got really serious with COVID-19, we celebrated Kelsey’s 38th birthday! My mom baked a carrot cake (his favorite!) and the boys made it really special with extra sprinkles. Did we have 38 candles, nope...but, we did put 3 in one spot and 8 in another. No need to buy extra candles, right?

We kept working on prep for the radiant floor heating. We got everything neat and tidy and kept going on laying the vapor barrier, taping all the seams and then laying the tubing. It’s a pretty maze of red tubing on the floor!

Vapor barrier down in the main living area. That open space is for us to do plumbing for our sink, which will live in the island.

Radiant tubing! We’ve been using a special staple gun to secure the tubing to the floor. Near the windows the tubing is place 8” apart, further away, 12” apart.

We found out on March 13 that the kids wouldn’t be going back to school. Whew. We know that we are incredibly lucky that mom and dad are still here to help with homebuilding, homeschool (aka Grandma School), cooking, and grocery shopping. My remote job is just as busy as it used to be, so having the extra adults here is so helpful. Many of our friends are managing homeschooling, new remote work, and running a home, so we fully recognize that we are incredibly privileged with our setup. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Best self-quarantine group ever! We’re thankful for job site picnics and all the other help Mom and Dad provide.

One benefit of doing our own building is that our job site has only had a few other visitors, but none recently. So, we’re super thankful that we have a safe place to work and keep ourselves busy.

We were pushing hard the weekend of March 14 and 15 to try to get all of the radiant floor tubing done and build the manifolds in the utility room and guest room so that we could get it inspected by the building department. Kelsey kept working on things early in the week of March 16, but got an email from the building department that they would be temporarily halting all routine building inspections. Ugh. Not the news we were hoping for. We totally understand why it is necessary and want to keep everyone in our beautiful mountain community as safe as possible, but dang...we were so close to being able to pour the concrete floor. The concrete floor is a huge milestone since it would allow us to finish the plumbing, electrical and then start doing fun stuff like installing our spiral staircase and working towards drywall!

Our favorite 4-year old helping with the supply and return lines in the utility room.

Manifold in the utility room. Basically, each room as a loop with a supply line and then looping back to the return line. There aren’t any connectors in any of the pipes, so that’s why there are so many connections here on the manifold. More questio… — Manifold in the utility room. Basically, each room as a loop with a supply line and then looping back to the return line. There aren’t any connectors in any of the pipes, so that’s why there are so many connections here on the manifold. More questions, just ask Kelsey :-)

Manifold in the guest room. This manifold will regulate the tubing in the guest room, bathroom, and boys room.

So - we shifted gears and started working on things that wouldn’t need to be inspected, which is surprisingly a lot of things! We still had more windows to trim, more exterior siding to put up, water drainage to tend to with the rapidly melting snow, more rough plumbing, and rough electrical. Kelsey is really great at focusing only on the things he can control. I tend to jump to what-ifs. He’s constantly reminding me to just focus on the things that are totally in our control and not get caught up in too much news and worry.

After hearing the news of halting inspections, we immediately emailed our banker and let him know of the situation. As you know, we’re working toward an August 5 deadline for our certificate of occupancy, so each and every day counts. He assured us that he knows we’re working very hard and will definitely work with us if there are delays. We’ve said this before, but the advantages of working with a local bank are HUGE. So, if you need a great team, please talk to our friends at Alpine Bank in Frisco. This helped set our minds at ease a lot.

We’re thankful that since this is Kelsey’s (unpaid) job, he is able to safely work at the house with my dad and continue to practice social distancing. Some of our suppliers are still open including Lowe’s and deliveries from Alpine Lumber. Kelsey picked up some denatured alcohol (great disinfectant) that we use to spray down new supplies that we pick up or are delivered. .

So, in a nutshell, we’re just doing what we can, keeping our family safe, and following all of the guidelines.

One silver lining, is that it has been fun to do more of the visible projects like the exterior window trim and siding. Just adding the battens over the boards makes a huge visual difference.

Window trim going up on the south side master bedroom windows.

My dad installing battens on the north side wall outside the guest room.

West side wall with battens partly installed.

Guest room wall with battens and trim almost all done!

North wall with battens all done! The blue door will go into the mudroom. I’ll eventually paint the front door to match.

We hope that you and your family are staying well and keeping busy with a project of your own. Is anyone tackling a remodel or DIY project at your own home?

What’s coming up next?

Finalize the radiant tubing and lay wire mesh in all rooms (we want to be READY when inspections start again)
Finish rough plumbing and electrical (see bullet #1 - 100% ready!)
Finish exterior siding and trim
Stain wood for exterior soffit and install (this will be above the glulam beam on the south side, the big overhang on the front)
Install gutters on north and east walls
Inquire with Xcel energy if they are scheduling gas line installation

We’re all in this together.

Hugs,

Cory

We still get outside as much as we can to enjoy our beautiful mountain town - safely, of course. We were grateful for a little hike up to the Old Dillon Reservoir.

Here are a few more photos from this part of the project. To see the most current images from our project, follow along on Instagram.