Heavy Metal

We've had the design for our house since last winter when the architect finished her work.  It wasn't until today that we finally had a chance to get a sense of what the finished outside of the house will look like because the last piece of the puzzle - the galvanized metal siding is finally starting to be installed.

This first picture shows the metal installed on the front of the house under the shed room.  We're thinking that we will stain the trim around the door and windows roughly the same color as the front door.

Here's another picture of the front entry showing the finished timber framing, the tongue & groove cedar underneath the soffit and the metal down below.

This interior picture shows the finished stonework around the fireplace and the custom cabinet to the left.  The TV will hang on the stone to the right of the fireplace.

Here's a picture of the stonework around the gas fireplace in our master bedroom.

Our master bath is just about complete - this picture shows the tile on the floor and then the floor of the shower where it meets the floor to the left.

On the back of the house, the truss framing is complete as well as the tongue and groove cedar underneath.  In addition, you can see the chimney which has been covered in the same galvanized steel material we're using on the low part of the exterior.

This last picture shows Mark working his way around the garage installing more of the steel.  Hopefully next time we head up the hill we think the metal will be completely done.

They'll stone you just like they said they would

I wasn't entirely sure about heading up to the mountains today - I was afraid it might not be worth the drive if there wasn't a ton of progress.  Turns out I'm glad I made the trip - there was a lot more done than I had expected.

This first picture shows the progress that Brian made on the finished stairs.  He has the newel posts, balusters and railing up.  I was really happy with the way it looked.  We're waiting for the stair nosing from the hardwood flooring company that is backordered before the stairs will be completely finished but you get a pretty good sense of it based on the work he's done.

Around back, Mark finally declared victory over the rear gable truss that has been causing him to say a lot of bad words.  This week he'll be putting the exterior finish on the chimney then finishing the siding and the soffit tongue & groove under the gable.

In the kitchen, Al was hard at work on the tile backsplash behind where the hood is going to be.  He's going to run it all the way up to to the top of the cabinets.

In the great room, Pablo and his team were hard at work on the stone around the fireplace on the North wall.  They were probably 75% done today and expect to finish tomorrow.  The stone is quarried in Telluride, Colorado.

The raised hearth came out really nicely and is capped by a large piece of stone similar to what Pablo used for the mantle over the fireplace.

Countertops

Candice's brother Tom and his wife Anne are in town from Iowa and we took a quick drive up the hill yesterday to check on the house and show them around.  It was also good timing because the Breckenridge Brewing Company was sponsoring a "Beer Festival" with lots of other small breweries in and around Colorado.

Walking into the kitchen, I snapped this picture of the kitchen island.  The small, under-mount prep sink is installed and it looks really great.  The countertop has a slight 'veiny' look that you can't really seen in the pictures.

Across from the kitchen island is the space for the cooktop.

Separating the kitchen from the dining room are the long countertop that holds the kitchen sink as well as the breakfast bar top.  We were really happy to see the finished product here - we'd only seen it in drawings and are happy with the way the curve came out.  We figure we can fit four stools at this bar giving us plenty of casual eating space.

The sink looks really great - we made the decision to get a single bowl sink and are really glad that we did.

On the other side of the kitchen is the little 'bar' area.  Again, we're really happy with the way the curve looks at the edge of the countertop that faces back into the great room.

Brian has also been making fast progress on the finish carpentry.  He's finished with all the built ins downstairs and has started working on the stairs & catwalk.  As of Saturday, he had set all the large 8x8 newel posts up the stairs and on the catwalk.  This week he'll be working on the alder skirt boards and the iron balusters as well as the handrail.  The hardwood floor we chose is backordered so he's working around having access to that material for a couple of weeks.

After the house visit, we made time for a short stop at the beer festival.

Built Ins

I drove up to the house this morning to drop some materials off for Greg.  The front of the house is looking more complete - the gable over the front door has the timbers completely installed with the metal brace on the outside.  The tongue and groove cedar is also complete above the front door which is looking very cool.

Inside the mudroom, the finish carpenter has made a lot of progress.  On the right side of the door in between the entry door and the washing machine is a small bench (below).

On the other side of the mudroom is another bench and a tall cabinet.  This cabinet will also have a bunch of moveable shelves.  The finish carpenter matched the look of our kitchen cabinets by using a stile and rail construction with panels.

In the kitchen, he was starting to make progress on the rough structure of the built in seating area.  These will look a lot like the kitchen cabinets as well when he finishes the finish work.

Also in the kitchen, the carpenter built some open shelves.

In our master bedroom closet, the shelves are complete on the left side :

Also in the master closet, the right side has a built in cabinet with shelves and also an area that will have upper & lower hanging bars :

Trusses on the house

Progress continues and although it feels like it's slow we are happy with the way things are going.  Today we went up to Breckenridge to check on progress and make some measurements so that we could order all the lighting fixtures.

The first major change that's visible on the front of the garage is the timber framing (truss) connecting the corbels.   We are really happy with the way this came out.

On the back of the house, the timbers have also been added that brace the horizontal framing.  These also look great and allowed them to continue the siding up the back of the great room.  Before the siding can run up to the roof peak, another timber truss similar to the one over the garage will need to be installed here along with the tongue and groove cedar in the soffit.

On the back of the garage, most of the diagonal framing is complete (1 piece is still missing that will connect the roof peak timber to the blocking in the middle of the cedar shakes.  In this picture you can also see the satellite dishes are now installed for both television (Dish Networks) and for internet (Exede / Wildblue).

Finally, in the front of the house, the timber framing is taking shape under the large front door gable.  This one includes some really cool ironwork that is partially installed in this picture.