Sunday, December 16, 2012

Purely pictures post

Howell Street view
Radiant routing
Up the stairs
Part of an IKEA pile with garage door


Doors


Throne Room

Over the tub to the shower

Double Vanity

Master

Front Bedroom

Back Bedroom

2nd Bath

Laundry Room

Down the stairs to the entryway

Office birdseye

Inside of Big Red

Kitchen Dreaming

Chrome Corners

Silver Siding

Galvanized Gutters

Alley Fence

Alley Angles


Front walkway light

Fir Doors

Lubrecht wood has arrived!

Pine window sills and fir treads

Parking lot Chrome

Friday, December 14, 2012

Siding is up!

The entire exterior of the house is complete!  From the sod to the fence to the siding.  It looks fantastic.  Matt and Richard are working hard at completing the drywall and mud inside and hopefully start painting the walls a color called snow fall.

Alley view of our garage.  Notice the huge master bedroom window!
   
Howell street view.  We used 3 shades of gray siding (not 50 sades)
East facing side of house.  A great shot of 'big red'
















Reclaimed siding






Alley view




















 
 Richard and Matt asked us to take a trip to Seattle to pick up our cabinets from IKEA.  We took the 4 wheel drive sleigh over 2 snowy mountain passes and safely made it to the Emerald City.  Night 1 we stayed close to IKEA so we could be in prime position for shopping.  We got up, ate a 99 cent breakfast and was first in line at the kitchen design area.  By 11am we had all of our cabinets and our car packed.  We then went back into IKEA and housed on some Swedish meatballs and shopped a little more.

Our trip was not all business.  We also went into Seattle and spent time at Pikes Market, enjoying all the Christmas festivities.  We went out for good sushi and then some whiskey and then some good Italian food.  Great night!  We are looking forward to going back in the warmer weather.  


Alex eating Swedish breakfast
     
Cabinets! Only 12 inches left for other purchases

















Pikes Market
Flying pigs!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Anti-Picture Post

I promise this is an exception, not the rule.

We've failed at pictures recently.... It's not for a lack of effort, but our phones have been left behind and our camera battery has died at particularly inopportune times. Excuses, excuses.

Despite our lack of photographic evidence, there has been quite a bit of progress on the house!

Since Thanksgiving:
  • The entire house has been wired and inspected
    • Including locating all the outlets, lights, fans, switches, cable outlets, and service entrance
  • The entire house has been plumbed and inspected
    • Including all the bathrooms, kitchen, heating, and outdoor water
  • TV bought on Black Friday, with thanks to the determination (and insanity?) of Irene and Libby
    • Missoula stores scoured for HDMI cables over 30' - no luck - then luck! Matt is clearly better at this task than we and, apparently, the employees at Home Depot themselves...
  • Sound system laid out, speakers and receiver (wifi) system getting quoted by the mysterious and elusive "Claude"
    • We still don't believe Claude exists...
  • Random phone tag with the Lubrecht mill operators trying to get our wood planed down to size...still waiting...
  • Vacuum system has been installed (central vac, with various ports scattered throughout)
  • The entire house has been insulated
    • Al the exterior walls on the first and second floor and, now, the attic
  • Blocking and conduit installed for a solar panel system
    • For you nerds, its a 9 panel 2.2KW system with micro-converters on each panel
    • We can net meter on an annual basis so we'll make power all summer and spend our credits all winter
    • For you non-nerds, that means no power bill. Ever. Yes, please.
  • Roof - all metal installed
  • Siding - I think (haven't seen it today) all the siding is now done! Or at least it should be by the time I get back over to take a picture.
  • The entire house has dry wall hung.
    • THE PLACE HAS CHANGED FROM A CONSTRUCTION SITE TO A HOME OVERNIGHT!
  • Mudding should have begun today or will tomorrow
  • Base paint color (non-"feature" walls and ceiling) has been selected
    • Sherwin-Williams fans, it's called "Snowfall," although we prefer "Snowflake" a la Ace Ventura
    • Painting should begin early next week
  • Other things we've forgotten and/or didn't know about...
This weekend we head to the IKEA in Seattle to pick up our cabinets and some other random stuff. We met with Richard and Cassey Massey (that's a joke, Casey) and inventoried all our needs, their current materials, and made a master shopping list. Really looking forward to seeing Seattle (think Sushi), not to mention pick out awesome stuff for the house!!

With the camera battery charging and a trip across Montana, Idaho, and Washington to the ocean in the works, I promise our next post will require much less reading and be far more visually appealing!


Thursday, November 22, 2012

Giving Thanks!

Progress on the house has been slowed by the absence of the power company and truss crane. Power lines draped over the house needed to be moved and the trusses for the second floor needed to be delivered and installed with a crane. After a slow couple weeks, we're back to making big leaps each day!

A roof! Erector set!

Alley view
And to top off our week of Thanks, Ben and Irene are in town for Thursday's festivities. We had a chance to walk them around the house. Can NOT wait until we can all just STAY there!!


Who's showing who?

Upstairs Hallway

Headed down

Dog run and utilities

Lawn and wall-o'-house. Check out the sweet overhang!

Front gate and fence
 
Master bedroom into the bath, with our giant bedroom window waiting in the wings         



And of course we cooked some food!!

Nobody liked this

Set

Flintstone-style - WILMA!



PIE!!
WINE!!

Mr. Porter!

& Mr. T!
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with people you love!