Snow What?

"Mountains have a grand, stupid, lovable tranquillity." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. 

Just when I thought spring had arrived here in the Rockies, we got hit with a big snow storm last week. It dumped over 9" where we're staying. I snapped this photo of the deck. . .

Dennis and Will had torn off part of the roof in preparation for building the eyebrow over the back entry. They managed to cover the spot with plastic before the storm hit, but we did get some leakage into the sunroom. As the snow melted, the plastic filled with water and  I received a nice cold shower when I entered the door. . .

Thank God, the weather improved and work on the eyebrow continued. . .

Dennis designed and drew the eyebrow plan on a piece of 2x4 Will is holding. . .

Things really moved along this week. The electricians and plumbers completed the rough-in work and we had respective inspections Thursday and Friday. Here's a photo of the Swanstone shower base the plumbers installed in the bathroom. . .

Our cabinet guy delivered the kitchen cabinets. They're currently stored in the living room. . .

I finished painting the living room before the cabinets arrived. . .

I'm really happy with the color, Valspar Wicker. And the best thing about the paint is that it was free. My friend, Emma Jo, gave me a number of gallons of paint she rescued from the trash heap. It's all perfectly good paint; never having been used. What's better than that?


Dennis and Will replaced most of the windows this past week. The kitchen windows are my favorite. . .

Next week they'll put new windows in the sunroom. Dennis enlarged the openings to give us better views of the outdoors. . .

Friday afternoon was a bee hive of activity. The guys were just finishing up the windows when the delivery truck came with our roof shingles. (We're replacing both the roof on the house and the barn roof.) The delivery of the shingles was pretty efficient. . .

The delivery truck has an extension that looks like a grain elevator. One man loads it up and sends the shingles up to the other man on the roof, where they are stacked. Here's the completed delivery on the barn roof. . .

While the shingles were being dropped off, Home Depot came with our doors. Here's the back door, resting against the truck. . .

And this is the french door, which will close off the kitchen from the sunroom. . .

This is one of the interior doors. . .

Tuesday we'll have framing inspection and then Wednesday the insulation contractor will come. Then another inspection, and drywalling will begin. After that, things will move fast.


Did you notice the green grass around the house? My job this past week has been to rake up the fallen pine needles so the grass has a better chance of survival. Ok, tell me again why we care if the grass survives, since it's only going to be eaten by the deer and elk.


In honor of our soldiers past, present and future, I offer this video. We owe our freedom to the brave men and women who serve in the armed forces.

"...and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."  

1 Peter 2:24

 May you have a blessed Memorial Day.

Nancy

Homestead Vision

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. -- Jonathan Swift

We moved out of our apartment April 30th and are now staying in our friends' condo until our house is habitable. We're very appreciative of their hospitality and the view from their deck. . .

Finally, warm weather has arrived. Dennis took me to one of my favorite breakfast places for Mother's Day, the Meadow Mt Cafe in Allenspark. . .

Meadow Mt Cafe, the inspiration for the cafe in my novel, is a true neighborhood gathering place, where the patrons help serve coffee when the place gets busy. The food is great and the atmosphere is pure mountain rustic. 


My son called me in the afternoon for a nice, long chat, which made my Mother's Day perfect.


Work on our homestead continues. Although two weeks have passed since I last blogged about our home remodeling project, with all that's been going on in the world I doubt that anyone has really noticed. 


When last I posted, we had just demolished the bathroom walls. After that, Dennis took out the floor and began reframing. . . 

You can see the water heater in the back of the crawl space. More about that later.

We're holding off on the inspection and subsequent drywalling until we have more work done.


We've hired our friend Will to help us with the project. He climbed up on the roof and took down the useless chimney. . .

and helped Dennis frame and put down a new floor in the bathroom. . .

remove the north mudroom wall. . .

and put a new floor over the stairwell. . .

The stairwell leads to a very tiny basement that houses the water heater. We decided we needed storage space on the ground floor more than we needed a teeny basement, so we're eliminating the stairwell. Our new washer and dryer will be stacked on the left side in the photo, with a closet on the right. A small aisle will separate the two spaces. 


Today the plumbers are cutting the concrete wall between the crawl space and the basement to provide access to the water heater.


I cleaned the ceiling and painted the accent wall in the living room. . .

The color, Benjamin Moore Sedona Clay, reminds me of some of the red rocks I see between here and the front range. 


Most days we leave our homestead exhausted, but the vision of our completed home, along with a good night's rest, keeps our spirits up.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. -- Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) 

Nancy