Anniversary Surprise

Yesterday, 1/30/11, marked our fortieth wedding anniversary. Before our shopping trip to Colorado Springs, Dan said, "Pack an overnight bag." So off we went to town and our first stop was at the Coyote Coffee Den in Canon City for breakfast burritos. Then we drove on to the Springs to look at furniture for the house. After several hours of shopping, we ended up at the Broadmoor. Dan had booked a romantic package which included a beautiful 5 star room with chocolate covered strawberries and champagne and a gourmet French dinner at The Summit restaurant, which is located right across the street from the main building. What a memorable surprise.

Primer

Today the primer was sprayed onto the walls and ceilings to get ready for the next step which is texture.

Garage

The cars are in the garage and there is room to spare! Since there is no basement in this house, we plan is to build shelves in front of the cars to accommodate any "stuff" that won't be stored in the house.

Sanding

Sanding up high and down low.

Walk

We enjoyed this beautiful Colorado day by taking a walk on our property. Notice the turtle rock and the mushroom rock.

Drying

We have to wait until Saturday before the next step, (texture & then primer), can be applied. We've been looking at different colors. Dan wants green in "his" room.

Preparing the drywall

The crew started preparing the drywall today.

The Cleanup

The great cleanup took only 1 day.

Dry Wall

Changes, changes! DRYWALL INSTALLATION

Oyster Shell

Oyster Shell is the color of the stucco that we picked. Notice how nicely the garage looks with this color.

Preparing and Spraying the Intumescent Liquid

The intumescent liquid is being sprayed over the attic insulation in order for the job to meet the code requirements. We have had to delay the start of the drywall process because of this.

Gutters (fascia and soffit)

After finishing the fascia and soffit yesterday, the guys came back today to put up the gutters. Downspouts will have to wait until the final stucco coat has been applied.

Final Stucco Coat

It doesn't show well in the picture, but they have started putting on the final coat of acrylic stucco. They got about half of it done today and will finish up tomorrow. The color is a light tan and it contrasted with the grey of the scratch coat in the picture.

Drywall

On Tuesday the drywall was delivered. They brought it in through the front door and put some in each of the larger rooms and the garage. I haven't been able to let the drywall hangers start due to a problem with the insulation inspection. We should have that problem fixed on Monday.

Insulation Inspection

The inspector came today to check on the blown in insulation that was used in the house. We learned that the insulation needs to be sprayed with an intumescent liquid to pass the inspection...

Sprayed Insulation

Mike Moose, the insulation guy, showed up today to spray insulation in the house and garage. Covering the windows was necessary in this smelly, messy process.

Scratch Coat

After the stucco was applied and smoothed, water was used to spray the stucco so that it wouldn't dry too quickly and crack. We now have a gray house...scratch coat is on and drying.

Cards

This stucco crew shows up early, works hard, and enjoys cards at the end of the day. If you look closely, you'll see that they used rocks to hold down their money.

Installed Fan

Dan installed the Panasonic fans in the bathrooms.

Stucco Process

The stucco process has started. First they wrapped the house in the black paper and then they put on the chicken wire. Notice the "bump outs" under the window and above the door. The inspector came and signed off on the stucco lath, basically tar paper under chicken wire.

Fan

The UPS guy brought our Panasonic fans. Dan and Ed, the electrician, are studying the directions for installing the fan.

Doors

We have doors!