Christmas with Adam's family

An eagle in our tree

We received about 6" of new snow in the past two days. Then today, Kim saw this eagle in our tree in the back yard. The eagle stayed for a couple of hours. There are several breeding pairs in the local area but we've never seen any so close to our house.

More fall photos

Fall photos

A little nature

Landscaping Done!!!!!!

We're finally DONE! Let the party begin. The landscaping took Cole and dad about 300 hours of effort and we think it looks beautiful. Of course we do. We planted over 150 trees, plants, flowers, etc. Then on top of finishing, it rained this evening for about thirty minutes, first time it has rained in 75 days. I actually turned the automatic sprinkler system off.

In any event, building our home has been a labor of love. And we love it. Party begins Saturday evening.

The Horstman's

In our last installment I talked about the terrace work. Well, it took a month to get it done but done it is....at least on the west side of the house. The east side will wait for another 1000 cubic yards of dirt split between me and my neighbor. The community folks graciously gave us another season to solve the terrace work between my eastern neighbor and me (read = get deposit back).

So where are we? PARTY next Saturday. Which means full speed ahead on the landscaping. Cole, Kim and I decided it would be a worthwhile project to do ourselves, with leadership help of course. So we hired a local xeri scape landscape architect and she designed a beautiful plan. Our goal is to fit into the surrounding countryside and she hit the nail on the head (STS).

Our front yard will have just a bit of high grass so I won't have to mow it. The rest will be trees and shrubs and flowers. The back will have a few trees and the rest will be the same tall grasses everywhere else. The grasses are native and will grow about a foot high and then stop growing. They are similar to the ones on the side of the interstate. Our entire plan incorporates native plantings which sue less water.

The sprinkler system is designed and built by Cole. Works great, expect for the two spots that I inadvertently dug up with the massive auger I rented. Fixed them in a jiffy and Cole was gone so if he doesn't read this he will never know.

Since Richard can't make our party we need to ask, when are you and your bride coming to Utah to sleep in the butlers pantry? She can use a guest room.

We will post some more photos just prior to the party. The plan is for the landscaping to be done. Wish us luck.

Party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that we are finished, almost, we have set our official open house for Saturday August 9th.

Plan on a lively evening to break in the new stuff.

Maybe by then we will have some vegetation in the ground along with some water! We're working on it as I write.

Make your travel plans early!

Hugh and Kim Horstman

Excavation and terrace work continues

We finished the tree ring and the back terrace work began. The big rock in the jaws of the track hoe weighs as much as a volkswagen.

Lower level concrete walkway/patio poured

It took about six weeks to get the concrete work done outside the basement. I figured that since the housing slump is in full swing that getting concrete would be easy. Not true. But they are done and we can now install the air conditioner. Interestingly, we have not needed A/C yet this year. Today the high was 75 and tomorrow we expect rain and 60 degrees. Summer is on the way but took a detour this year.

Excavation work begins in back yard

The big boys arrived with their track hoes and Tonka toys. Now they will dig terraces in the back and re grade the slope. Once they finish the first part we ca n begin to landscape.

Status update

We still have a few small items left on our punch list but we are essentially done. Except for the landscaping, window coverings, blah blah blah. The heavy equipment is here to establish (dig)the terraces and final grading, then we can install the sprinklers and start planting.

Our big celebration is still in the planning stages. Most likely we will shoot for a late summer party so plan accordingly.

Richard, our number one blogger on the site will receive two free airline tickets so he and his wife can attend. Bring your tux buddy and plan to stay in the butlers pantry!!

A brief comment on how it has worked out so far. On budget, on time. The house feels bigger that we expected and the noise carries because of the high ceilings and all hardwood floors. The audio/video/lighting system is beyond belief, truly fabulous.

Deck railing installed

We have been patiently, ok not so patiently waiting for the deck railing to arrive. Here it is!

Garage and exterior doors painted

The exterior doors, including the garage was painted today. The weather was perfect, especially since it snowed yesterday and was 45 degrees.

Exterior doors require a bit of thinking when you paint them. The inside and outside are different colors and require a different type of paint, latex vs. enamel. In our case we had two different painting contractors. So who paints the side of the doors? In our case it appears that no one does! The interior painter just finished all the touch up yesterday and will have to come back to paint the sides of the exterior doors to match the interior paint colors.

Garage floor painted

I have always wanted to paint our garage floor and we finally did. The process is a little more involved than painting a wall. To paint a concrete floor you must first completely clean the floor of everything, including oil that leaks from cars. If there is any petroleum based deposits then the paint won't adhere. In our case the floor was free of oil drips so the cleaning process took an hour. Then they grind the concrete to make the finish rough. There are big grinders and hand grinders but all of them have industrial diamonds to scratch the concrete.

We used a two coat process of epoxy for the first coat and then an epoxy sealer with an aggregate thrown over the final coat for grip. Each coat takes 24 hours to dry. I assumed that we could chose either grey or grey since those are the only colors I have ever seen on a garage floor. Heh Heh. They gave me a paint sheet with hundreds of colors so I chose a matching color to the exterior trim. The aggregate is essentially miniature glass beads that keep the floor from getting slippery and reflects light similar to the way paint on roads a streets reflects your headlights.

Ladder

One thing we learned on the first day in the house was how high the ceilings and cabinetry are. We've been using a metal stepladder to reach the top shelves in the kitchen and library. Kim bought this three step wooden ladder and so I put the gross outdoor ladder back in the basement.

More deck shots

The stairs on the deck are done. Just waiting for the railing for another week.