Winter Mode, Decisions, Decisions, Concrete & Windows

There’s first snow and then there’s the first need to shovel and clear snow off cars. We only have a couple of inches of snow on the ground but even so we’re now in winter mode. At brunch this morning we ran in to some folks wearing nordic ski boots. The east metro got a bit more snow than we did so it’s possible to ski with ‘rock skis’ which are skis that you don’t mind getting some bottom damage. We’re hoping that this will be a good year for local nordic (x-country) skiing and that we’ll have time to get out a bunch.

Lots and lots of decisions needing to be made on HVAC, plumbing, lighting, AV, cabinets, and other stuff. We’re feeling more than a bit overwhelmed but very thankful for Marita, Krysta, Bob, Rick, Rick, TJ and Patrick who all help to make the decisions a bit easier.

Concrete folks poured our front stoop this week. First filling in a portion of the space with block and then filling in the block area with pea gravel. The rebar sticking up in front of the blocks are in the frost footings that go down about 12’. Some photos of the footings before being backfilled HERE.

And fixing busted equipment.

While they were here and with winter on its way they covered the back porch and sauna with blankets so that the ground won’t freeze. Frozen ground is not fun to work with.

The bit they’re pouring here is over The Blue Zone – the wine and root cellar. It’s a wood platform that Wally’s Waterproofing waterproofed about 3 months ago and now gets a cement cap.

When the construction plans for our outbuilding were issued they included a few surprises in a wall extending in to space that needed to be open, an intrusive column in the shop/studio space (with all of the advances in cameras they have yet to come up with one that can shoot through a column) and a 4’ high wood girder along the ridge that interfered with several things. So, back to the drawing board. The building was re-engineered with a steel beam that allows the interior space to be built as planned but this also required some additional footings on each end of the building. On the right of these photos you can see the extra footing for the column that fortunately will no longer be in there.

Five of our windows; three over the back porch roof, one in Spare Oom, and one in the chimney in our master bedroom all need some extra flashing installed. They did the three over the back porch this week which allowed Dan to install these windows. The flashing had to be bent and then welded to insure that no water, particularly from snow melt, will make its way in to the walls. Very thankful for who’s building our house and the quality and thoughtfulness going in to every detail.

After pouring the front stoop they covered it with blankets so that it won’t cure too fast. Welcome to the Minnesnowta tundra.

Winter arrives.

The county does a pretty good job of clearing snow from the bikeways. It was good timing for one person who you can see just to the right of the plow truck and who then followed the truck on to the bikeway. 

The new footings enjoying the snow.