We are done!

Last Friday, we passed the final inspection from Jefferson County and on Monday we get our "Certificate of Occupancy." Yeah! We bought the lot in September 2015 and we are finishing in July 2017. This 22-month project was a huge undertaking, so thank goodness we're ecstatic about the finished home.

Some details to still be completed this week including touch-up painting, installing low-voltage wires, e.g., ethernet, and tweaking various items. When we move in on this Thursday, the house should be quite livable. No doubt we'll discover issues as we live in the house, but that is to be expected. The only major open item is that the stair railing was made incorrectly (a gap was over 4" in one place and two railings that needed to connect did not), so the steel fabricator will fix this sometime in the next couple of months. The same fabricator made the safety grate over the large window well, and that also has some issues. For now, the home is safe, but the custom metalwork ended up being quite a bother.

Landscaping is now underway in earnest and will continue for another month or two, bringing with it yet more decisions. At least we will be enjoying living in it during that next stage of this ongoing project.

I'll close this blog post with some pictures. Below are five photos of the outside of the home.

 Looking across driveway to the front door (note steps and walkway)

 View from the street (the driveway made quite a difference in the curb appeal)

The back yard (master bedroom closet and bath windows are on right)

Covered outside rear patio (6000 watt electric heater is in ceiling)

The garage with a blue epoxy finish (the large box holds our freezer, which can't be installed until the cabinet guy makes the panels to enclose it...something that slipped through the cracks)

Below are some interior shots of the upper and lower levels.

The kitchen (missing doors over the ovens are being re-sized)

 The great room

Fireplace detail (we've started moving in fragile items, including these giraffes)

 Master bedroom and deck

 Lower level rec room

Lower level play area (notice temporary 2" x 4" on railing)

In the end, the construction was on budget and on time. In regards to the budget, all I will say is that it was more than I thought is was going to be when we initially bought the lot. But, once the plans were drawn up, the project costs and timeline stayed on track (in no small part because of the decisions we made along the way to keep it in check). The general contractor, Richard Hansen from Dream Weaver Homes, was hard working and ethical, and took a great deal of pride in getting the details right. Not everything was perfect (e.g., the lemon oil on the panels...see previous blog post), but most stages of construction went smoothly and were well organized. Considering the scope of the project, we were extremely satisfied with Richard's role as GC. Also, thanks are due to to Susan Freilicher, Richard's assistant. And, thanks to my wife Tricia for being my blog editor.

The design of the home took longer than we expected, and that caused some frustration (especially for me). Nevertheless, TKP Architecture did a great job collaborating with us on the design. The floor plan itself was strongly influenced by us. The "working pantry" was Tricia's idea and I wouldn't be surprised if TKP uses it in other homes. TKP took the lead in designing the roof lines, which we love, and which generate a lot of positive comments. The roof lines allow for high ceilings inside and, thus, we have a lot of cubic feet on the first floor. 

Our final advice if you want to build a custom home, make sure you have time to put into the project. There is a big gap between what the architect specs out and what the builder expects you to ask for during the building stages. We had to learn about insulation, furnaces, windows, flooring, gas lines, drywall finishes, plumbing, roof shingles and their affect on insurance rates, and many other things in order to weigh in with reasonable suggestions and make decisions. I don't know how Tricia picked all of the tiles, but she did and they are wonderful. It also helps to be only a few miles from the site. Every time we went over there, we left feeling that we were very glad to have been there for some important discussion or key decision, or to point out something that needed attention. 

In a few weeks, we'll be ready for visitors, so come and see us.

Don and Tricia

7/23/2017

About one month to move in

Our scheduled move date is July 27, so that leaves us 22 days to finish the house. What's left to be done? Mostly a lot of detail work; the house is now remarkably complete. In the next month we need to refinish the floors (more on that later), install the stair railing and window well cover, finish the electrical, lay the driveway, and get the appliances and carpet installed. The GC is confident we'll make the July 27th date. We hope he is right, because we have a contract to sell our house on August 1st, and need everything out before then. Below are some details on various aspects of the house since I last wrote in the blog.

Ceiling Panels
The panels on the great room ceiling now look great, but what a headache they created. First, look at the finished product.

Kitchen island looking to fireplace (notice tile wall above cooktop) with pendants installed. The thing hanging from the wall is the wiring for the the hood vent and fan.

Great room

The panels are 3/8" white oak panels that were stained and finished. We put a 1/4" gap between the panels and painted the edges (Tricia and I painted them) and the ceiling dark grey. Given the lack of wood beams in our mountain home, this was a good way to bring wood into a contemporary design.

The problem began when the builder puttied the nail holes (see prior post). The putty did not remove as easily as he thought (he should have tested this more thoroughly prior to proceeding on the entire ceiling). In the end, he covered the panels with lemon oil. Prior to covering the nail holes the panels looked perfect; after the lemon oil the panels looked awful. They looked like a body builder glimmering in oil.

Removing the oil felt like an endless project. I spent probably 20 hours on scaffolding and ladders trying to get the stuff off. The builder spent a lot of time too. The breakthrough was when I got scientific about removing the oil. Below is my test sheet for oil removal solvents.

Test panel for solvents

I applied lemon oil and then tested various combinations of ammonia, mineral spirits, and vinegar to remove the oil. We decided that a combo of water and vinegar was best. With that combination in hand, we were able to get the panels looking good again. Tricia took this shot of me applying the final "wipe down" of the panels.

Final cleaning of panels (cloth-on-sponge suggestion by Tricia was key to a smooth finish)

Patios

The cement patios are now in and look good. There are three cement patios and they are all finished the same. We're using a stained concrete with exposed aggregate. We don't have any shots of the final patio, but here are a couple of shots of the patio getting installed.

Mixer delivering concrete (a bit close to the house) 

Installing the front walkways and side patio

The attached video shows how the concrete is smoothed after it is poured.

Smoothing concrete

Cabinets

The cabinets are now all installed and the tile work, apart from sealing the grout, has been completed. Below are a few shots. I apologize if these are repeats.

Pantry

 Coffee bar detail

Dining room

Hardwood Floors

The floors will look good when finished, but it will take two tries to get there. In a nutshell, the crew that sanded and finished the floors was incompetent and the finishes have to be redone. What a hassle given the mess this makes. So today, we begin our second try at finishing the oak floors. The photo above of the dining room gives you a sense of what they look like. Notice the small piece of blue tape on the floor. It marks one of dozens of "holidays" on the floor. There are so many problem spots that the floors need to be completely refinished. Thankfully the sub acknowledged the issue and is redoing the work at his cost.

Landscaping

We've begun landscaping. Our landscaper has already brought in and planted 9 Colorado spruce and blue spruce trees (for screening), and is now installing irrigation (needed if you want the trees and plants to live). Next steps include installing fencing to partially enclose the back yard and provide more privacy, arranging boulders (a significant feature in most western landscaping plans where water is scarce and browsing animals are plentiful), putting in river rock culverts and drip areas, and adding shrubs, perennials, and ground cover in the front of the house and around the patio in the back. I'll close this blog entry with a shot of the front of the house awaiting irrigation and plants.

My next entry will, hopefully, be of the finished house.