June is here and we can hardly believe it. Laird wrapped up 1st grade and his school had some fun send-off activities including a virtual field day and a parade where we drove through the school parking lot and all the teachers, support staff, and administrators were there waving and cheering. It was a great wrap up of 1st grade distance learning. Who knows what the fall will bring, but we are grateful for Laird’s amazing 1st grade teacher for all she did to support his learning.

On a less happy note, we’ve had heavy hearts the last couple of weeks. Our family is very privileged and we recognize that, and the recent events in our country have brought our privilege into even brighter light. Kelsey and I have been talking about how we can be better people, better parents, better friends, and better allies. Our mountain town is frankly not very diverse, so we need to work even harder to continue to learn and unlearn. Over the weekend we watched the Standing Up to Racism town hall that Sesame Street and CNN did. It was a really great conversation starter for our family and seeing Elmo and Big Bird made it feel like a safe place for the boys. Did you watch it with your family? If not, here’s a link to some highlights.

Our family is a work in progress, just like our home.

Our recent work has centered around pushing on rough plumbing and rough electrical. These projects aren’t the most fun to photograph. Ha! Kelsey spent a ton of time in the crawl space to run all of the drainage to the bathrooms, kitchen, and utility room. The last few days he’s been working on the hot and cold supply lines to each space. We have a buddy who is a plumber who is going to come by and look at all of Kelsey’s work before he glues everything together for our rough plumbing inspection.

Hanging out in the crawl space working on drains for the boys’ bathroom.

Ready to cut the hole for the sink drain in the kitchen!

Our electrician also installed our panel and our service disconnect on the exterior. We’ve requested the transfer of our meter from our temporary power to the house. It will be nice to get rid of the cord over our driveway!

We’ve finalized all of our outlet locations in the entire house and I’ve been on a light buying spree to ensure we place the power locations in the correct spot (see the gallery below for a couple things I’ve picked out!). It feels good to be shopping for finishes! Our lights that will go over the open shelves in the kitchen will be arriving today and I can’t wait to see them!

We’ll eventually paint this box to match the exterior paint. Hopefully it will blend right in!

The best visible project of the last couple of weeks was installing the final two windows! As you may remember, the spaces above the panoramic door were too large for a residential window supplier to make windows for us. So, we purchased the aluminum channels, painted them to match the rest of the window sashes, and then purchased two double-pane glass pieces to place in the channels. Kelsey fiddled and fiddled for a couple of days to ensure the channels were placed in the correct location - with the top and bottom lining up perfectly. We had some strong friends come and help lift the big glass panels into place. Thank you to Karl, Steve, John, Orion, and Angie for lending your muscles to this important job! We dedicate these windows to you!

Getting the stickers off of the aluminum channels before we could paint. This was the hardest part!

Kelsey taped and then installed the aluminum channels for the windows to set in.

Team meeting before the windows got lifted into place.

Done! All 42 windows are in place. It’s just like we imagined.

Our original date for our certificate of occupancy is August 5. With COVID-19 inspection shut downs, delays on acquiring some materials, and not having childcare the last few weeks after Mom and Dad left, this deadline is feeling pretty darn tight. We’re going to connect with our banker on Thursday to learn what our options are for another extension. We’ve been so pleased with Alpine Bank in Frisco and we know they will do their best to work with us as we push toward completion. Please send good thoughts on that front!

What’s coming up next?

Install the final pocket door frame (this will complete all of the interior framing!)
Finish the rough plumbing
Finish the rough electrical.
Have the county do a rough framing, rough electrical, and rough plumbing inspection. This is a super important one, obviously.
Grind the steel beams. I know, we’ve been talking about this one forever...and another couple weeks have gone by without me grinding a single beam! Dang it. Anyone want to come do this for us?
Hang and finish drywall (we have three bids on hand. We are excited that we have the budget to hire someone for this big project!)
Install our gas fireplace. Our gas fireplace from Western Fireplace Supply in Avon is ordered! They should be able to install in about 4 weeks, which will give Kelsey the time to get the framing ready to meet the fireplace specs.
Install the gray board and batten siding above the glulam beam on the south side. Kelsey has one little section done and it looks great!
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 (already here and ready to go!)

Wishing you and your family love and kindness,

Cory

Here are some other photos from this part of our project.