It’s the end of April and we can hardly believe it. The last 6 weeks have been a blur - the weekdays running into the weekends. Each day feeling long and short at the same time. We’re grateful that our family is safe, healthy, well-fed, and that we live in a place where getting outside without many people around is pretty simple. We’re lucky and we know it.

In mid-April we were supposed to take a family trip to Disney World. My brother and sister-in-law were going to join us too. Mom and Dad had generously footed the bill for all of us and found an awesome AirBnb property for us to stay at that was only 10 minutes away from the parks - complete with an on-property water park! I had been pushing hard with my job and Kelsey was working hard at the house so we could enjoy a family vacation. Then, everything needed to be canceled. I know missing out on Splash Mountain and eating dole whip in the warm sun pales in comparison to what others are experiencing, but we were still bummed. When the day came that we were all supposed to leave, everyone was a bit grumpy. We really did need a break and we all wanted to escape from the snow for a bit. Of course, Disney will be there next year. In honor of would-be trip, the boys wore their Mickey Mouse shirts the entire (not a typo) week that we would have been in Florida. No really, the same shirt all week. I participated in Monday’s tribute.

We enjoyed a nice Easter at home, complete with our traditional bunny cake and plenty of treats from the Easter bunny. The weather was cold and snowy, but we enjoyed a family snowshoe out on Lake Dillon. We’re grateful for this mountain life.

Our bunny cake! My Grandma Huston used to make one every year for Easter. Last year we decided we better bring back this family tradition!

Ok - enough moaning and groaning about a lost vacation - we had plenty to keep us busy!

Work continued on the exterior, including installing battents on the north and east sides. We have one little section on the west wall to complete, but need to install some foam insulation around the steel beam first.

Finishing the battens on the north side!

South side battens! This section took a long time with all of the small pieces and making sure the tope and bottom sections lined up nicely.

The most exciting visible progress on the exterior was completing the siding on the chimney (or chimbey as Corbin calls it). We originally wanted to do river rock on the chimney, but with our budget feeling very tight and time of the essence, we decided to do horizontal lap siding instead. We like the change in direction from the rest of the board and batten siding and the way it ties in with the cedar accents.

Our “chimbey” crew. Corbin is leading the charge up there on the ladder! ha!

All done with the chimney! And - look at that reflection and beautiful Colorado sky.

Once we wrapped up some of that work - and the weather got wintery again - we moved back to the inside to prep for one of the most critical projects - our radiant in-floor heat and the concrete floor. We chose radiant heat because it is highly energy efficient and will make a hard surface - like our polished concrete - be much more comfortable underfoot. We had wanted to have geothermal heat, but the cost of drilling the wells was cost prohibitive at this point, so we’ll be using natural gas boiler.

Tidying up the vapor barrier to get rid of the dust and mud that had collected.

Speaking of natural gas - we’re on Xcel’s calendar to install the gas line at some point in early May! The permit application has been submitted and once the county lifts the moratorium on road work, we’ll be off and running! The gas line is in the right-of-way along the road, so no work is allowed from October 31 - May 1. As you probably remember, the gas line has been a MAJOR issue for us. We had applied for our gas line in August 2018 (also, not a typo) - so getting it in May 2020 will be a minor victory. We’re trying not to complain too much until the work is actually done, but will be submitting a formal complaint with the Public Utilities Commission once it is finally in place. Our gas line situation reminds me of the joke Brad Pitt said when he was playing Dr. Fauci on SNL: “If you tell a friend you’ll be coming over relatively soon and then you show up a year and a half later, that friend may be relatively pissed off.” Same Brad, same.

Ok - back to the floor.

There are lots of steps in getting ready to have in-floor heat and pour concrete.

Kelsey will tell you there are way more steps, but this is the high level overview.

Remove all items from the floor (easier said that done)
Make spaces for rough plumbing that goes through the concrete floor - toilet flanges, floor outlets, kitchen sink plumbing, etc.
Install vapor barrier to keep the concrete from getting in places we don’t want and protect the subfloor from any additional moisture
Install the radiant floor tubing (½ inch plastic tubing that will allow glycol solution to pump through it). The tubing is installed in zones that will each have its own thermostat. At our place we have three zone - master bed/bath, great room/mud room/utility room, guest room/boys’ room/guest bath. The tubing is stapled to the floor with speciality staples that look like a big U.
Build and connect manifolds that will control the pressure and temperature in each zone.
Install expansion joints along all exterior walls and all interior corners that will give the concrete a bit of space when it will expand and contract. The expansion joint is a fibrous material that we used a laser level to install at exactly three inches tall.
Install 4x4 steel mesh over top of all of the tubing to give the concrete some more structure and limit cracking
Install ½ tall pieces of pvc pipe to any location where we don’t have tubing - doorways, where cabinets will be, etc.
Run a pressure test on all of the zones to ensure that it will hold air at a 50 psi for an extended period of time. Leaks are not welcome in our system!
Schedule and inspection of the work and hope for the best
Pour the concrete floor. We’ll polish and finish the concrete floor much later in the process. In the meantime, we’ll just cover it up to keep spills away.

Maybe it’s just me, but I had no idea about steps 6-9. Did you learn something about radiant in-floor heat too?

Important update in regards to #10! We passed our inspection on Monday afternoon and it’s full steam ahead to pour our floor, which will happen on Friday, May 1. So exiting!!

What’s coming up next?

Inspection of the radiant floor tubing and wire mesh - DONE and PASSED on April 27!
Pour the concrete floor - happening on Friday, May 1.
Build the remaining two custom windows. The glass units should be here soon, then we’ll build the sashes and get those installed
Finish rough plumbing
Frame the remaining interior walls
Finish the rough electrical
Install the gray board and batten siding above the glulam beam on the south side
Stain cedar for exterior soffit and install (this will be above the glulam beam on the south side, the big overhang on the front).
Install our spiral staircase to the loft

We’re happy we’ve been able to keep plugging away on everything during such uncertain times. We’re excited about the momentum we’re gaining.

Stay well,

Cory