Heavy Duty

They rolled in the big stuff this morning to get the streets cleared. Check flickr for the "Heavy Duty Cleanup" set

Another Blizzard!

I'm running out of places to pile up the snow. This time, the neighbor kid decided he could use some money. Where was he a week ago?

Storm's over, Sun's out

The neighbors all were out clearing the driveways. The street still has a foot of snow, although the main roads are somewhat cleared. I've had my exercise for a month!
Check the "Storm's over" set.

Snow Day Part II: It's still snowing

From MSNBC






We're now at 2 feet. The office is closed ( I couldn't get in anyway, only one car has been down the street and he had 4 wheel with chains on). Lori and I will content ourselves with a good exercise day of shoveling. The front drive has 3-4 foot drifts, and it's going to take awhile.
Poor blind Chapman seems a bit confused, can't figure out where all the grass went. There's an area in the back yard that we clear out so the dogs can "go".

More pictures on Flickr, the "It's still snowing" set.

Snow Day

We have a blizzard in Denver today. It started snowing at 6:00AM, with the storm expected to last 30 hours. By noon we closed the office, it was snowing 2 inches an hour and we weren't going to have any patients anyway.
I stayed longer to do paper work, and left at 2:30. I hoped traffic would have cleared, but cars were getting stuck in the foot of snow that had already fallen. Most had trouble getting stuck on inclines. I fortunately had pants and a coat for outdoor activity, and towed 6-7 cars with the Landcruiser up the hills to get them going, otherwise everyone would have been just parked.
I'm going to save the driveway for tomorrow. More pictures on flickr (click on "blizzard" above). I also included the office decorations for Christmas. The front desk worked pretty hard on them this year.
More pictures of the storm aftermath tomorrow with the sun.
Lori's been clearing out a "special place" for the dogs in the yard. The snows been too deep for them.

Christmas Cards are going to be late!

Moonrise

Working late at the office and noticed the moon coming up. A little blurry due to the long exposure and shooting through a window.

New Phoenix pictures from Chuck

Watch out, it's the Men In Shorts Gang. More pix from Chuck in "The Boys hit Phoenix" set on Flickr

New pics from Phoenix from Scott

Posted at Flickr

Sunny Day

George the framer was working today, making the bathtub frame for the master bath. Work continues on the front corbels and braces, so far looking nice. Windows are in over the entryway. We spent a few hours yesterday going over details on additional framing work. Bathtubs were delivered. We're going to have to move the drain for the guest master, digging up concrete.
Pics on flickr.
For a look at the tubs, the Guest suite tub is here, and the Master tub can be found here.
We also ordered the wood for the flooring, 8-12 inch planks. The wood will be specially dried and prepared for radiant heat flooring, and we already met with the installer.

Phoenix Trip

Took a long weekend in Phoenix and a good time was had by all. It was nice to get away for some fun in the sun, and watching OSU and Michigan, Detroit Lions and Arizona, and a couple others.

More pics on Flickr

More framing, some plumbing, and dogs

Didn't like how those entries turned out below. I tried to do the entry from flickr. Click on the pics for a better view. Flickr has more pics and comments.

Corbels and brackets

Corbels and brackets,
originally uploaded by crocshoes.

Finally have been cut. They should finish off the front panelling and windows. Roofing tiles piles on top getting ready to lay out

Great room fireplace framing

Great room fireplace framing,
originally uploaded by crocshoes.

Box in the middle is where the FP goes. Spaces to either side will be built in shelves (entertainment center). Stone wall over the top

Yes, It's been awhile

Going through some roughing revisions. Roof priming was finished up. The plumber apparently disappeared (a bad reflection) and replacement will start this week. In the meantime, we saw this big boy while on a drive.

Basement slab

The basement slab got poured, covering the radiant heat tubing. The day of the pour we had a tremendous thunderstorm and it poured down rain. The roof wasn't sealed yet, so the builder ran around like a nut to cover the upper floor with tarp to avoid dripping to the new concrete and causing water drop dimples. I told him it would have been easier to put something over the roof, and as outlined below he did.
The slab looks good though and they've already started roughing in for the rooms. It's pretty interesting. The walls are outlined by boards glued to the floor. The actual walls are anchored into and hung by the rafters overhead. A spike is driven across the bottom board of the wall and into the glued board. If the concrete heaves, there are about 3 inches of room and the walls will not be affected.
All photos on flickr.

Roof

After getting the floor soaked one time too many, we've finally got some roof top covering going. Some adjustments were required for the roof set up to allow appropriate drainage. The tar paper is set up for flow, and set in place with roofing nails. Flashing will be set up on the corners. Wood slats go on next and the tiles will be set on those. The seams are all tarred underneath first. Before the final tiles go on, the heating system and fireplace ducts/vents have to be cut through, and flashing will be put around. This stuff will help keep the insides dry though and the wood should dry well with our low humidity.

Decks and columns

On the exterior, they've been working on finishing up the deck framing. The posts have had surrounds built up, about 2 ft square. These will have stone surfacing.
The front entryway has been built up. The rounded portal top is about 18 ft across. This will have a metal roof, with the rest of the roof concrete tiles that look like shake. The post holding up the beam will have a surrount, tapering up from a 4 ft wide base. On the front porch, a surround around the four posts will go up only 4 feet and the post will extend on up from there.

Basement Heating

This is a continuation from the post below. I guess I only get to put up 5 pictures at a time.
Anyways, pictures of the rebar and insulation board. The green lines are the rooms marked out so they can lay the heating tubes.


The red tubes are made to hold high pressure. The boiler heats water that is then pumped through the tubes that will then heat the concrete that is poured over. Once heated, this will allow steady heat without the need for air blowers and fans, keeping a steady temperature. The tubes are attached to the rebar to keep them from floating up, and the concrete will be poured over to the height of the insulation board along the sides, about 5 inches.

New Deck, Concrete

New things are happening. The decks are going up. So far, They have the frame up for the deck outside the master bedroom. It looks bigger than we expected, so far. The main deck should be started up tomorrow.


The garages also had their cement poured. The patio outside the nook was poured as well. That will finally allow them to put up the structural posts that hold up the overhang over the nook patio, as they rest on top of the concrete, and finish off that part of the roof.


We're waiting for a custom arched beam for the front portico. That will create a barrrel roof entryway. That should be arriving any day now, and then the front entryway can finally be roughed in.

In the basement, we're getting ready to pour the concrete. The structural fill (gravel stuff) was leveled and recompacted. Insulation board was layed out. Because we are using radiant heat, that keeps the heat fron escaping into the ground. The insulation is placed along the whole bottom as well as the sides.
Rebar is layed out to give better structure, needed because there is some risk of soil expansion which could cause the concrete to heave. The rebar will help hold all the concrete down and keep it from raising unevenly, or hopefully not raising at all.

Windows going In

New stuff to report at last. The shipment of windows arrived and they began to put them in. Almost complete. The sliding doors are very nice and sturdy. These really change the feel from inside.
Caissons were also drilled to support the deck in back and front, and they put up the roof/overhang for the front porch. The large decorative trusses are starting to go up in front as well. A mistake was made in the angled truss over the garage, where a bigger beam was supposed to be used o they're going to have to yank them.
Next work up is to finish the windows, start work on the deck, and get the basement ready with the radiant system and pour the slab.