She's buying a stairway to...the 2nd floor

We bundled up the girls and headed up the hill yesterday to check on things.  Our expectations of progress were relatively low given the Thanksgiving Holiday but we were very happy to find a ton of progress.    When we first drove up, we could see right away that the sheets of plastic were largely removed from the front of the house and there were a bunch of windows installed.

When we walked through the front door, right away we could see that we finally had stairs to the 2nd floor!  This means no more climbing up a ladder 12 feet in snow boots.  The original plans had these stairs as 'open' with no risers, just treads.  We decided to close them in and use the space underneath for a coat closet.

The other major addition is the framing of the 'catwalk' which connects the bunkroom above the master bedroom / bathroom to the bedrooms on the other side of the upstairs above the kitchen and dining room.  The catwalk is built with big timbers and will be covered by tongue & groove on top.  In the bottom of the picture below, you can see Greg's two sons, Ian & Alexander carrying a large, mulled window into the master bedroom.

This picture shows three of those windows after the guys have finished setting them in place.  You can't tell because of the glare but we have a pretty good view of Hoosier Ridge out those 3 East facing windows.

At this point the girls were getting a little antsy so we decided to play outside.  Natalie looks surprised at the cold weather but is happy to be out in the snow.

Somehow this next photo looks to me like a Yeti sighting photo that you see sometimes.  If only it were a little grainy.  The girls had a lot of fun playing around in the snow.  The backyard has a great sledding hill, if only we could figure out a way to stop the sleds before they head deep into the woods!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

After being caught in a freak snowstorm in Connecticut and without power for 3 days, we were enjoying being warm & cozy in our house back in Denver.  That is, until I headed up to the frozen mountains to have a look at progress on the house on Sunday.  It was a balmy 45 and sunny in Denver when I left, about 25 as I drove through the Town of Breckenridge and all the way down near 20 when I got up to our little place in the clouds.

Although it was chilly, the sun was shining and it really was a beautiful day in the mountains.  Greg has made some really good progress since before we left for our trip.  The roof is on and completely dried-in (covered with ice shield, not shingles yet.)

There was between 12 - 18 inches of snow on the ground where the driveway hadn't been plowed.  The big changes on the front of the house for this visit are that you can see the beginning of the shed roof that will cover the porch taking shape over the bump-out breakfast area.  Also, the timbers that will support the gable roof over the front door are installed and supported by temporary framing lumber.

Stepping inside, Greg and Linda (our kitchen designer) have laid out the cabinet design onto the floor so we can really see the size & flow of the kitchen.

The interior framing is all pretty much done now.  this is showing the wall between the entry hall and the office / 2nd guest room which is above the kitchen.  The left side of the picture is where the catwalk will connect the two halves of the 2nd floor together across the great room.

The stairs are going to be built next week but for now I was able to use a ladder to climb upstairs to where the bunk room is going to be.  Here's a picture of Greg standing next to the West window inside the bunk room.  It's a big opening, it'll be filled with twin casement windows.  

Downstairs, standing in our master closet (beneath the bunk room) I took this picture through the master bath and into the master bedroom. The section of concrete that is lower than the slab is going to be our master shower.

Next week we plan to go up and meet with the electrician to confirm locations of outlets & wall switches.  Greg should also have some of the windows installed by then which will make the house a lot brighter since right now the windows and doors are all covered by plastic.