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

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.