She Builds | Rocky Mountain Woman

Archive for the ‘She Builds’ Category

ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOMAN BUILDS HER DREAM HOUSE – XII

Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on September 28, 2011 – 12:01 pm -

This post is in honor of the letter “X” and part of Jenny Matlock’s Alphabet Thursday. For more takes on the letter “x”, please click here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/

So I hope you are ready for an update on the house, because here it is! I know that I am falling behind on my story (bad blogger), but I have been distracted with travel, food and wine! While I was running around the country, eating and drinking, progress was being made on the house. The next step was putting the forms in place so the concrete walls of the basement could be poured. Here’s what they looked like before they were put up…

and this is what it looked like after they were all up!

Onward and upward!!!

To be continued….

For the beginning of this story, please click on the “She Builds” category on the left…

Posted in She Builds | 25 Comments »

ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOMAN BUILDS HER DREAM HOME – PART XI

Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on August 17, 2011 – 12:02 pm -

This post is in honor of the letter “R” and part of Jenny Matlock’s Alphabet Thursday. For more rocking “r” posts, please click here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/

Ahh, summer in the mountains…

I saw a plaque in a gift shop in Park City that said, “If you’re lucky enough to live in the mountains, you’re lucky enough.”

I felt that way during the summer of the build. The weather was spectacular, warm days, cool breezy mountain nights. My horses were back up on the property and seemed content to just hang out and smell the sage brush with me. The trailer was cramped, but not uncomfortable. It had air conditioning, but I rarely turned it on, the mountain breezes kept it cool inside.

Work was progressing on the house. There were lots of decisions to be made, one of which was what type of heating system to install. I opted for radiant heat because it’s more efficient than forced hot air heat and more comfortable. It’s more expensive to install, but since I didn’t need air conditioning (so didn’t need to install vents) and the house was too far out in the boonies to have natural gas and so had to be heated with propane (which is expensive), efficiency became more important than the extra cost.

So, the next step was to install the tubes that carry the hot water in the floors for the heating. First a grid was constructed.

Then a layer of concrete poured and the orange tubing that was to hold the hot water to heat the floors was laid in a winding pattern on the floor. There were about a dozen different zones so I could adjust the heat in different parts of the house to different temperatures.

after the piping was all laid, a thin layer of concrete was poured over the entire floor.

I hadn’t heard from Dick in weeks. I typically left for work before he got there and he was gone by the time I got home, so we didn’t have any interaction at all (yippee!) I just quietly went about my life. I fell into a routine of working, taking care of the horses, driving to Park City for showers (at the gym), food and laundry. Life was good.

To be continued…

For the beginning of this story, click on the “She Builds” button on the right.

Posted in She Builds | 24 Comments »

PART X of ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOMAN BUILDS HER DREAM HOME – EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES!

Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on March 23, 2011 – 12:04 pm -

By late March, the snow was melting and I was getting anxious to start building again.

I called Dick, “So, the snow is melting and I am getting ready to pull my trailer up on the property for the summer. When do you think you can start building again?”

“Well, I’ve had some extenuating circumstances come up, and it will probably be late June or early July before we can start building.”

“What extenuating circumstances?”

“I’ve hurt my back and the doctor says I can’t work for three or four months.”

“You aren’t going to do the actual work, you are going to hire a sub to finish pouring the foundation.”

“No, I was planning on doing it myself to save money.”

“It’s my money and I don’t care if you save it, hire a sub.”

He hung up on me.

So, you know the drill by now, I called my attorney who in turn, wrote a letter to Dick, who in turn decided that his back wasn’t so bad after all and he could start work in April if the snow was gone.

I made arrangements to move my horses to the property for the summer, got my little travel trailer out of storage and started making plans to move out of the hotel and up to the property. The snow started to disappear slowly…

GOING

GONE!

True to his word, for once, when the snow had melted, Dick started working on the foundation. It was so exciting to watch it go up little by little. The house was to be built on a steep hill with a walkout basement, so the walls he was pouring would be the walls of the family room downstairs. I would go up every night after work and just walk around trying to picture what it would be like when it was done.