Settled In?

 We moved in!  After 9 months of construction, we moved in to our house in early May.  We aren't done, but the contractors are mostly gone and the house now feels like our house.   Nine months of construction sounds almost like birthing a baby.  The house has really been Gary's baby, since he has been on the job every day of the nine months, to get the house that we wanted.

Emma christened the house as our first visitor, with a two week stay from Raleigh.  There is still a lot to do, but we can do it on our schedule, or I should say Gary's schedule, since most of it is beyond my capabilities.

We also have some furniture to buy or build, including a hall table, .  The other big thing is hanging pictures.  That may have to wait till we figure out if all of the furniture is where it should be.

My office

The living room is pretty well set, including the cowboy hat display heads from the old Waters Department Store

We took these photos just before having folks over for dinner.  That ensured the house was mostly clean, except for the kitchen

The porch is our favorite place to hang out, the views are spectacular.  We just have to be prepared for cool temperatures and wind.  One big wind blew a chair out from under Emma.

 Emma looks pretty much at home in all rooms of the house.  We will miss her when she heads back home tomorrow.

Almost Done

 We are getting close to completion and we can't wait to move in.  The past couple of weeks Gary and the crews have been working on the finishing touches.  We are planning to move in the first weekend in May.  We are headed to NC for a visit the last weekend in April, or we could start the process then.

 Just a few things left to do, and some are not in our control.  When you are building a house, you find that many things are not in your control.  Because Gary did the electrical and tile work, we had control of some things.  And in many cases, he was also the carpenter's helper or the plumber's helper, which also gave us some control in making sure the work was completed to our specifications.

The carpet will go in on Wednesday and the closet guy is coming the following Monday.  The plumbers are finishing up and John's crew has a little more trim to complete after the carpet goes down.  One of the other big things that we are waiting for is dirt.  We need lots of dirt, three truckloads were delivered this week and barely made a dent in raising the grade in front of the house. Our grading contractor has been working to get dirt that is close to us, so we won't have a big haul bill.  Currently there is a 10 inch drop off between the garage floor and the driveway.

  

Waiting on parts for sink and hood vent

 While Gary was doing electrical work this weekend, I cleaned cabinets, broke down boxes and installed window cranks. John had to re-order the window cranks, since the ones that came with the windows went missing in the house.  It's amazing how easy it is to lose track of things when you don't have routine places to store stuff.

Dining room

I thought I might move dishes into the cabinets this weekend, but we couldn't find them.  We have 3 storage units with all of our furniture and the boxes of dishes and kitchen stuff was not easily accessible, so we will wait.

Our bedroom

Gary was glad to finish the tile work

The tub still needs to be installed in our bathroom and we need to install the lights and mirrors

EMMA'S ROOM

LOFT

West Fork Fire

 A forest fire broke out yesterday near the intersection of West Fork Road and Ski Run Road.  We were driving back from Billings yesterday and saw the smoke from about 15 miles out.  It is very unusual to have forest fires in March, since most of the time it's still cold and the ground is covered with snow at this time of year.  But this winter has been anything but normal, it has been very warm through most of the winter.


As we got closer to Red Lodge, we got more and more concerned.  We could tell that the fire was very close to the new house.  As we drove by the Fire Department, the first trucks were leaving for the fire.  At that point, we were allowed to go up to the house.  For a few hours, we watched the Fire Department and Forest Service bring in the trucks to attack the fire.

It was difficult to tell where the fire started yesterday afternoon.  At points we couldn't see Ski Run Road, which is less than one half mile away, but we could occasionally see flames heading north towards Red Lodge Mountain. We later found out the fire started about a half a mile from the house.

The Fire Department jumped right on it and got the fire contained within five or six hours.  The wind was gusting to 65 miles an hour and the fire quickly covered 600 acres.  We left to get lunch and the emergency personnel wouldn't let us go back to the house for a few hours.  The road to Red Lodge Mountain was also shut down, so the skiers had to stay on the mountain.

Finished the Hard Stuff

Last week we finished a couple of the hard, high things.  John's crew finished the outside siding and they just made it with enough siding to finish the job.  The siding is a pre-stained Douglas Fir that comes from Missoula, Montana.  The wood is milled in small sawmills, some of it from standing dead timber.  Around Red Lodge there is plenty of standing dead timber from recent forest fires, some of which is being harvested, but much of it is left to return to nature.

 The other high, hard thing completed was hanging the chandelier in the living room.  The ceiling of the living room is 23 feet above the level of the floor.  The chandelier is suspended 10 feet from the ceiling and it weighs 40+ pounds, so it was not easy to get it up to make the electrical connections.  It took 3 bucks of scaffolding and then a six foot ladder on the top level to attach the chain and make the electrical connections.

Mouse's eye view of the front door

Porches and Doors

We now have two exterior doors that we can use, the door from the garage into the house and the door to the porch.  The door to the porch gives us access to the views of the elk rearing range and the West Fork canyon.  I can't wait to sit out there with a glass of wine and a good book this summer.

We also have all of the inside doors in place with door knobs and hardware installed.  The doors are hemlock and look great.  John's crew will begin installing the door and window trim this week. We only have one problem so far and that is the stain that we picked for the two big exterior doors, it's a little too orange.  But once we are in, we can overstain and tone it down to a light chestnut color.  Or at least that's the plan.

The garage doors were also installed this week and fortunately the colors match the soffits and the trim.  If we had any valuables, we could lock them in the house.

Yesterday, we moved a few boxes into the basement.  The renovation of our rental is scheduled to begin next week, and rather than move stuff around in Broadway Rose, we opted to just bring some of it to the new house.

Rock and Tile

Measuring for sconces on the fireplace

Gary and Arnaldo made lots of progress this week on the rock facade on the fireplace and the bathroom tile floors.

Arnaldo and his crew have laid the stone  in sections from the top down.  I am used to seeing rock laid from the bottom up, but they started with a section near the ceiling and laid the rock up to the ceiling.  They come down another 5 feet and work up to the recently completed section.  Last week, they finished down to the mantle area.  They are using a rock that has been mined in Montana and then sawn down to 3 to 4 inches thick.

All of the bathroom floors are tiled and all but one have been grouted. The ceramic tile has the appearance of old wooden floors.  Next up for tile mason Gary is the ceramic wall tile in the showers.

Not Wood

The rock masons came and dropped off their tools and materials to begin work on the fireplace. However, there was a problem with the rock - it was muddy.  When Gary asked how they planned to clean it, they said they would use a wire brush on it, after the fireplace was finished.  We knew that would never get all the mud off and the colors of the rock would be dulled.  So Gary hand washed each rock, in five gallon buckets.  The water isn't hooked up to the house, so the water had to be hauled in as well.

Washed Rock

Light fixtures have arrived

WOOD - Cabinets and Ceilings

Master Bedroom ceiling

Another great week of progress in Mountainbrook while I was in DC.  John's crew finished up installing the aspen ceilings in the living room and the master bedroom.  The wood has lots of cracks and knots that add interest to the ceiling.  Some of the color in the heart of the boards matches the color of the trusses.

Gary put up the two ceiling fans in the Living Room with John's help.  I wish I could have seen them up on the scaffolding, while it was shaking 20 feet in the air.  John labeled the movements, "sympathetic vibration", similar to what occurs in musical instruments.

 The crew finished the installation of the cabinets this week as well.  They are made of knotty alder, which adds to the wood species in the house.  We currently have alder, hemlock, aspen, douglas fir and hickory throughout the house.  Eli and Ashley gave Gary cabinet jacks for Christmas and they came in handy during the install.

Master bath cabinets