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

When Will It Be Done

I keep asking Gary and John, when will we move in.  Mostly I get answers like , "Well, it depends." I am interested primarily because I will be traveling for two weeks in late April and don't want to leave all the moving to Gary.

Cabinets

Gary's truck wasn't tall enough to clear the snow

 Since John and Gary won't tell me, maybe I should go back to a party we had at the house in late October.  I asked everyone there to guess when we would be moving in.  Here's the guesses:

• Jo - March 26
• Pat - April 1
• Leah - April 15
• Cheryl - April 26
• Doug - April 30
• Dave - May 19
• Gary - May 26
• Merv - June 1
• Gordon - June ?
• Lynette - June 18

I know that Jo and I have missed the mark.  My guess right now is that Cheryl, Doug, and Dave will be closest.  I am hoping that Lynette and Gordon are not the winners.

Where do we stand with remaining work?  Cabinets are here and Troy has started to install them.  They must be installed before they can measure the counter tops.  The counters won't be installed for another 3 weeks and the plumbing finishing will happen after the counters are installed.  But during that time, we need to finish:

View from bedroom window

View from the bathroom

• Flooring, hardwood and carpet installed
• Tile flooring that Gary will install
• Trim carpentry and doors installed 
• Bathroom shower tile that Gary will install
• Install cabinets
• Install counter tops
• Finish plumbing
• Finish HVAC
• Shower doors installed
• Gary will finish electrical - waiting on fixtures
• Finish outside siding, soffits
• Appliances installed
• Finish grading

Maybe Lynette has the right date of June 18,

All Hands on Deck

 It was a busy week at the house this week, sometimes four different contractors were on site.  Some of the critical work was completed by High Country Excavation and Shark Painting.  A big shout out to George and his crew at Trailhead Interiors, they completed finishing the sheetrock this week. They had to be done with our job because sheep shearing starts on Monday and they will shear 30,000 sheep between Monday and June 1.

 The septic tank is in and the drainfield is almost complete.  We were worried that the ground might be frozen until April or May and delay the installation.  But this winter has been one of the warmest on record.  They got it in just in time, because the snow started on Saturday and is scheduled to continue through Monday.

The other remarkable finish was all of the interior painting.  The sheetrock finishers wrapped up on Thursday and the painting started on Wednesday, working around George and his crew.  Painting was completed by Sunday morning.  Shark was headed to Hawaii on Monday, and we were glad to get it completed before he left.  Trim, flooring, and masonry can't be completed till the walls have been painted.

We picked colors last weekend, driving to Billings to get the small paint samples to paint test sheetrock in 3 by 3 squares.  We got it right for the most part, except for one guest bedroom.  On the wall it looks like the color of mint chocolate chip ice cream, without the chips.  Ooops and apologies to whoever ends up sleeping in that room.

We went a little wild with a brick red in the office.


Hans and Kurt also made good progress on the siding.

    

Big Wind in Montana

Friday night we had a wind event in Red Lodge.  Winds gusted over 70 miles an hour and there was damage all over town, and a little up at the new house.  I don't think many people got much sleep on Friday night, because of the howling and rattling.  There were whitecaps in the commode from the downdraft on the plumbing vents.  The other remarkable weather news is that the temperatures have been in the 50's, which is unheard of in February in Montana.

A tree came down on this house which is just a block and a half away from our rental on Broadway.  John, our contractor, had a big glass window at his house in Tipi Village get blown out.  Fortunately it sucked the window out of the house and broke on the deck, rather than inside the house.

The headgate at Happy Valley, a mile up the West Fork Canyon from the house, blew down.  Our contractor has been renovating this log cabin for a family from Texas and we toured it a couple of weeks ago to look at the wood and tile floors.

                                                                     





We lost some of the soffit under the roof and shingles in several places were flapping in the wind.  We will have to check for cracks in those shingles, once the crew comes back next week.  We imagined lots of damage and were very lucky it was not worse.

Sheep Shearing Sheetrock Finishers

Say that three times fast, sheep shearing sheetrock finishers.  George and his crew at Trailhead Interiors also shear sheep for ranchers in the area.  That work begins in mid February, so they have to be done with our job by then.  They started work last week and even worked on Super Bowl Sunday.  Not only do they shear sheep, but Cody, also works in the Bakken and commutes back to Red Lodge after his 2 week shifts are done.  Lots of folks in Red Lodge have 2 or 3 jobs, since many jobs are seasonal and don't provide a paycheck year round.

Temperatures in town got down to -1 this weekend, after they had put down the first coat of mud.  Gary went up to the house this weekend and re-insulated the door openings, to keep the cold out and hopefully stop the mud from freezing.

We found their finishing towels hanging on the scaffolding like laundry drying on the line.

Gary has been John's right hand man while the rest of the carpentry crew is away.  They completed the front porch roof, which is tongue and groove aspen.  The wood has a beautiful color and all of the knots and streaks give it a wonderful character.  They also continued on the siding, including putting up the gable end on the garage.  The gables will be a reddish color of the same Douglas Fir, used on the lower sections of the siding.