Done!

The certificate of occupancy is a done deal! 

Brian Shelton, our contractor, moved heaven and earth (and a few subs) to make sure we could spend Christmas at the new cabin.  I was confident Brian would pull through for us, and he did.  He ought to have a red fur-trimmed hat and a white beard and drive a sleigh instead of a big red truck.  It's going to be a merry Christmas.

Right now I'm taking a quick break from trying to fit three times as much stuff into the SUV as it will actually hold.  I'm starting to work on Sophie's Choice priorities, but the Christmas tree and decorations come first.  Clothes and food follow.  And the pooch will have to make do with half the back seat instead of all of it.

I was going through some of my husband's old photos over the weekend, looking for a photo of his parents that we could take up this trip since this place was their brainstorm almost 50 years ago, and we're just building, quite literally, on their good idea.  I came across this photo of my husband's father standing on the deck of the old A-frame that burned in the Hayman fire.  The new cabin sits almost exactly on the old footprint.

A promise fulfilled

My husband tells me that his Dad was concerned that this place continue on for the family after he and his wife were gone and Bob promised him that he'd see to it that his wish was fulfilled.  It wasn't a hard promise to make as this place is my husband's favorite place on earth.

It almost looks as if he's waiting for us to show up.

Have a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year with lots of good things and times that truly matter in 2011.

Perservering

All those "ifs"...

If we get a foot of snow:

Look what's coming

If the appliances come:

Steady boys

If the wood stove comes:

Sitting in front of this is a huge part of the dream

If we pass electrical and final inspection for the all important certificate of occupancy:

But Brian knows this and is always ready for an inspection, taking pleasure in precluding the inspector's fun

Martha Stewart carpeting FAIL (accomplice, Home Depot):

After four arrival delays I pulled the plug on Martha yesterday.  A less pricey and more beautiful carpet is going in today!  Thank you Brian and Bill!

But I'm mostly packed (and it's mostly Christmas) and since we know our amazing contractor (and master craftsman) Brian Shelton is at the helm, I have confidence we're going to get through this last week, and that a week from tonight we'll be sitting inside our fabulous new cabin in front of the fire.  Cozy inside against the dark and cold of the first full day of winter, we'll raise a glass of his father's own Chivas Regal, and toast my husband's parents for this gift of a place for a family retreat, and our part in ensuring the tradition continues.

Waiting...with a bit of breath holding

Our contractor, Brian Shelton, has pulled out all the stops to insure that we get to stay in our cabin for Christmas.  We have this one good window of opportunity between work and volunteer obligations that are important to us, and let's face it, the weather in the Colorado Rockies won't make it easier to get up there as winter settles in.

Brian has all the downstairs floors installed along with the hearth.  The power is hooked up as is the propane, so now working there is easier for them since they have heat.  The propane wall heater operates without electricity and is set to keep the cabin at 50 degrees, so there's no need to worry about the pipes freezing, or the cabin doing the freeze/thaw cycle a hundred times a year (not good for it).  Last I heard the plumber was due up there yesterday to install the toilet and sinks and charge the system (running water -- imagine that!) and the electrician was installing the light fixtures.  There's been a slight delay in the carpet order, but it is now supposed to arrive at the Home Depot in Colorado Springs on the 13th, and Brian has a good sub who's promised to get it laid in the loft and on the stairs as soon as it's in hand.  The wood burning stove and appliances are scheduled to arrive and be installed one week from today, on the 17th.  The final inspection, the one for the all important certificate of occupancy, is scheduled for Monday, December 20th.  That will be a day of a bit of breath holding, though there is no way Brian would not be ready for an inspection.  If that goes well, we'll leave a day or two later for Colorado, and that will be a two day thrill ride, not from our driving (or the weather I hope -- can't control that), but from being on the way to experiencing our long time dream as a reality.

Could be the very one my Grandmother made 55 years ago

I found, quite by accident, while cruising Etsy.com, searching under "vintage cabin" -- it is very amusing what you find in that category -- something that took me back over five decades in two seconds.  My Grandma, who lived upstairs when I was a little girl, used to do wonderful crochet work, making what I guess where large doilies, and here was one on Etsy that I swear was the exact pattern I watched my Grandma, with her flashing crochet hook, magically make out of a ball of thread. I now have a small collection of them, all about the size of a sheet of paper or a little bigger.  I'm going to frame them against a dark fabric backing and hang them above the bed.  I think they're perfect cabin decor.

I second the motion...

Brian says no more pictures -- he wants us to see the cabin next in person.  It's clear he's quite proud of this cabin he designed and built, and he should be.  Having this beautiful, soundly constructed cabin to retreat to will change our lives, and it will be a wonderful change too.

Next update: Go or No Go.  We're keeping our fingers crossed and remembering to BREATHE.

Closer and Closer

Being away from a project that is near and dear to you is tough, but it does have its upsides.  Every time I check my email and I get one that's slow to load I have my fingers crossed that it's from our contractor, Brian Shelton, with pictures attached.  And today I got lucky.  I was rewarded with a great leap of progress.

I guess the counter top guys that called me feeling lost on the 16 miles of dirt road managed to find the place.  The counter tops are installed and look great, if a bit dusty.  The backdoor trim looks terrific, as does the trim at the junction of the knotty pine ceiling and walls.  And those cute little shelves at the end of the overhead cabinets are already being put to good use.

The heart of the house.

The laminate floors look great and should stay looking great for a long time to come, no matter how many dogs and grandkids tear through the cabin.  Look at those gorgeous baseboards!  And the beams are even more handsome now that they've been oiled.   

Future home of the wood burning stove

We have windows galore -- we insisted.  Maybe not the best thing from a design perspective, but we are raving amateur naturalists and are in love with the outdoors and the beautiful views -- of the red rocks out the back as much as the sweeping views across the valley.

As engaged as we've been with this project both from being there and from afar, the end is kind of sneaking up on us.  A few more weeks and it will be done, the last of the bills will be paid, and when the phone rings at 6:45 AM it most likely won't be our contractor.  The guest room here in Tucson is piled with things I want to take up when we go in less than [can it be???!!!] four weeks for our first stay in the cabin.  As I said to my husband this morning, we'll never trump this for a Christmas present to ourselves.

Giving Thanks

I'm here in Tucson, which has finally cooled down (high in the 60's today), and am nursing a chest cold which has had me feeling a bit low.  I'm sipping hot tea and popping OTC drugs and still finding a lot to be grateful for:

1) My daughter called me -- that ALWAYS goes on the plus side.

2) We're looking forward to sharing Thanksgiving with friends at an Orphan Party for those of us who aren't with family this holiday -- it's a potluck with all of the feasting and little of the fuss...I'm taking a roasted squash dish and cranberry tart (which I've made before and is as beautiful as it is delicious).

3) Tomorrow is the much anticipated Desert Museum bird walk, part of my docent training, and I'll crawl if I have to.

Sun Wash for counter tops

4) I had a call from the counter top folks which was immediately dropped -- so I knew they were on their way to the cabin and were lost.  I can be happy about this because they did call me back and I was able to give them directions -- as in "you have at least ten more miles of dirt road...just follow the signs," -- and they said the contractor was expecting them and that yes, the counter tops came out great!  Maybe installation is complete, provided they found the place.

5) A hand embroidered piece I bought from Vintage Threads, an online Etsy shop came in the mail this afternoon.  It is absolutely charming and truly handmade and will make a great top for a pillow for our slightly too butch denim & plaid quilt bedroom.  I was always a sucker for Bambi -- this is clearly from a part before "Your mother can't be with you anymore."

In our bedroom Bambi's mother will ALWAYS be with her

6) A good friend, and fellow wildlife habitat gardener from the neighborhood, left a basket on my doorstep that included four adorably cheesy (and perfect for the cabin -- not Tucson) Let It Snow snowman mugs and an old, but very beautiful, family afghan that they were parting with for simplification and downsizing sake.  She's also a wonderful artist -- you can see her work here, at Fountain Studio.  This afghan will warm us in more ways than one.

7) We leave in a month for our first stay in our finished cabin, a dream in incubation for many years, that has consumed -- in a good way -- us for the past year, and one we'll live in for many, many more.

Gould's Turkey from the nearby southern Arizona mountains

There's so much to be thankful for -- Happy Thanksgiving.

Home Stretch

We're at that point where we can hardly draw a full breath from the excitement.  Our contractor, Brian Shelton, sent us the pictures for this post, and in the words of my husband after I forwarded the photos to him at work, "Wow, Wow, Wow! I'm overwhelmed by the beauty of what we've created, the knotty pine ceiling and beams, the window trim, the fantastic kitchen cabinets. I also love the light coming in."  I couldn't have put it better myself.

Sun-filled cabin in mid-November

I love the cabinets.  Check out that sweet little set of shelves at the end of the overhead cabinets.  The first gap you come to is for the dishwasher (yea!), and the kitchen sink goes in the next section.  The stove is the gap on the left and there's a narrow cabinet to its left and beyond that the fridge.  Brian says the honeyed butter walls change all day with the light, and that even on a 22 degree day with no heat, the cabin was warmed enough by the sun to be comfortable enough to work in without any other heat source.  Amazing since those are low-E windows and we're still over five weeks from the winter solstice when the sun will climb even further up the back walls.  Thankfully this will NOT be the case during the summer when the sun's trajectory is much higher, but I do think it would be grand to be sitting in glorious sunshine inside with a couple of feet of fresh snow glistening outside.  Sunglasses indoors in winter?  Bring it.

Brian has done such an amazing job staining the trim so that it would be complementary to the spiced hickory cabinets.  And it all picks up the knots in the pine ceiling.  As Brian said, by hook or by crook, with some planning done on site and some planning done remotely, it's looking like we know what we're doing.  Sort of the cheery retro look I was going for.  All the goodies I've been collecting -- the hammered aluminum, barkcloth fabric for pillows, the 50's table linens, the woodland artwork -- it's going to be unique and wonderful and very, very welcoming.

The high peaked knotty pine ceiling from the loft

Brian's laying the floors next -- the ceramic gray slate-look hearth tiles for the wood burning stove (going in the front corner in the top photo), Sand Hickory laminate floors in living room/dining area, nice retro Armstrong vinyl tiles in a color they call Granny Smith (really more of a mottled sage) in the entry, kitchen, bath, and our bedroom and both closets, and -- don't laugh -- Martha Stewart carpeting in a multi-color tweed called nutmeg (the prison years, and much nicer than the photo in the link depicts) that manages to go with everything for the staircase and loft (and nice for grandkids to play on).  The lights are all bought and waiting for installation.  The countertops (appropriately retro Formica that captures all the colors of the cabin in a soft pattern) will be installed this coming week. Once the floors are laid Brian can finish the trim work (his wonderful signature) and we can have the wood burning stove installed.  The appliances arrive December 2nd, the propane tank will be filled and hooked up to the stove, and then...well, then we might have a cabin instead of a building project.

View from the front door...check out the sun on the wall!

Leach field down the driveway, before backfilling

For those of you with more practical interests, check out the septic system.  As Brian told the engineer, "for a family that's used the same outhouse for almost 50 years, don't you think this is a little bit of overkill?"  Yeah, but code is code, and we should NEVER have to worry about it, not ever.  Frankly, I'd have liked running water in the trailer's kitchen (as I'm sure they'd have enjoyed in the original cabin as well), but I was never too fussed about using the outhouse, even in the middle of the night -- a good way to get in some star gazing -- until we had our nightly visits from the bear.  We'll still do plenty of night skies watching...it's just part of what we do wherever we are...but we won't have to associate them with bare bear gauntlet runs to the loo.

Weather permitting, we'll head up to Colorado a few days before Christmas for our first stay in the cabin through the New Year.  We don't have any furniture, but somehow I don't think we'll mind.  We're hoping to warm that cabin anyway with the help of family and friends.

The End of an Era

It was a glorious long weekend in the Colorado Rockies -- crisp clean air, golden aspens quaking in the bright sun, blue skies, and snuggling at night was essential.  Our awareness that this would almost undoubtedly be the last stay in the trailer was eclipsed by the close-to-finished cabin.  What nostalgia we felt for the five good years of long visits to the Airstream was almost obliviated by the anticipation of a future of many months each year in the cabin.

Before going to the cabin itself, we climbed the red rocks behind it for the traditional view.  When I left in August the front side of the roof had just been shingled, so seeing the back half finished was new.  It was a great angle to see the variations in color and texture of the roof, a color called Driftwood.  The stain on the cabin itself had darkened a bit and was more interesting than it had been.  With the outside of the cabin 95% complete, it was easy to imagine it finished.  All that was missing was woodsmoke drifting out of the chimney.

Just over the hill

Walking down the red rock hill we could see the near completed decks and the code required landing pad at the bottom of what will be the entrance stairs.  There's almost as much outdoor living area with the wrap-around deck as indoor living area, and this outside "room" will see a lot of use.  The views to the red rocks, across the valley to Hackett Mountain, and down valley towards Cedar Mountain are spectacular, and there is much to be seen in the immediate forest by sitting quietly with a pair of binoculars, a bird book, and some patience.

Welcoming porch

The inside of the cabin had just finished being beautifully drywalled; some patches of damp remained.  It was so odd to not look through the framing to the other rooms.  We stood in the back door and took it all in before admitting to each other that it suddenly looked small to us with the walls in place, but after wandering around a bit it looked as we thought it would, cozy but not cramped.  The kitchen is clearly the heart of the cabin, and is generous in relationship to other spaces, but cooking and food are important parts of our lives (and our friends and families lives).

Kitchen area, stairs to loft behind

The loft has turned out to be a charming space with its eagle eye view of the red rocks to the east and the forest to the north.  It's amazingly private for an open space with an interesting view to the rest of the house, framed by the angles of the main roof, (the ceiling will be knotty pine) stub wall, and staircase wall (which will all be topped with a beautify clear pine wood).  It's a space I'm looking forward to sharing with guests as well as using myself.

View from the sleeping area of the loft

The day we left they were starting to paint the inside, a nice warm color similar to dulce de leche ice cream, sort of a soft buttery caramel.  The kitchen cabinets are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.  I'm not sure which will come first -- their installation or the knotty pine ceiling.  Our contractor, Brian Shelton, loves finish work, and the interior will be detailed with clear pine trim around the windows and doors as well as pine baseboards.  Interior doors will be wood.  The floors need to go in yet, as well as some plumbing fixtures, baseboard heaters, a propane heater, and the wood burning stove.  Light fixtures will be installed along with appliances.  There's a lot left to do, but everyday it will look more like a home than a building under construction.

Well insulated (we passed inspection as being
over-insulated by 16% -- thank you Brian) and
ready for the tongue and groove knotty pine

It was quite chilly while we were there -- one day didn't get to 50 and the nights were down near freezing.  It was impossible not to think about living in this well-built, exceedingly snug cabin on a blustery day (like this coming Christmas), curled up on the couch in front of the wood burning stove.  In preparation for our Christmas through New Years inaugural stay in the cabin, my husband made short work of a log pile, fuel for the new Lopi Answer wood burning stove (ours will have regular legs, hopefully sitting on my pewter bear feet from an old Fischer I had in Chapel Hill).

Stay tuned, more about our weekend to come...

The trusty old Poulan
(that's the chainsaw, not the guy)

Adding to the pile