Rock Progress

Getting there. We're up to the sill stones on both sides of the front door, and up as high as my eyeballs when standing on cinder blocks on end on the left side.

Cool Sunset

This is the view from our porch East to Farmington Canyon during one of the coolest sunset effects I've ever seen. It was cloudy all day, and just before the sun went behind the mountains a stripe of clear sky opened up. You can see the cloud shadow across the top of the mountains here, and the sunlight that bounced around between the solid deck of clouds and the ground was the yellowest ever.

Close Call with Electricity

I worked from home today so I could go over before dark and get some rock done. I pulled up just as the guy from Rocky Mountain Power was disconnecting our power meter. It turns out only half of the power pedestal was working correctly, and the meter was not registering. The half that was working was supplying all the power we needed, but I did wonder why our bill last month was only six dollars.

After a trip to Home Depot to buy 10 feet of replacement 2-gauge wire, a few minutes with a shovel, and a call to Rocky Mountain Power customer service, another guy came back before 5:00 and re-connected us. Thank goodness I happened by when the disconnection was happening. Otherwise I likely would have showed up on Thanksgiving morning and noticed there was no power, and no way to get it before next Monday.

Some Rock and Kitchen Lights

Here's the bulk of what we accomplished in a full day on Wednesday. Dirk stayed late with me and we got all the way up to the bottom of the window frame. I haven't done the math on how many square feet we got done per man hour, and I don't think I will.

And here are our working can lights in the kitchen, courtesy of dad. He also got the lights along the porch rigged up for working on rock after dark.

Rock on

With the decision made about where the rock will go, and with the recent revelation that it doesn't really have to remain 40 degrees for 48 hours after applying the mortar, I took a day off work today and had a bunch of help to kick off the rocking of the main house. Shown above are dad, Tad, Grant, and Dirk

And the winner is:

After a very scientific voting process, in which many votes were registered verbally, and after which we just decided what we like best anyway, the winner is elevation #3. We wanted some rock on the 2nd level to break up the siding, and Doug was right, the tower just seemed to cry out for it. We like the garage best with the rock over the door and the board & batten above that. This setup can mostly be done from the ground, and won't cost as much as some of the other options. Thanks to everyone who voted. If you got it right, give yourself a pat on the back.

HVAC and Electrical

Here are Jim and Lydia assembling the trunk ducts in the attic. This is looking from the behind attic furnace room East toward our bedroom. And here's dad wiring the light in the family room.

Doors Installed (mostly)

Our doors were installed today, except the two that we found out were back-ordered. Here's our front door.

Rock: the vote

We have had a hard time coming to a firm decision on which parts of the house should be rock (some is required), and which should be fiber-cement siding (Hardie Board). In order to better visualize the options, I've Photoshopped several renderings. Since it's now too cold to do stone, we need to order the siding and get it going, but we have to decide on a quantity before ordering. Please help us out by leaving a comment with a vote for your favorite. Write-ins will also be accepted. This may be the most important thing you vote for this week.

#1 - Wainscot Only

#2 - Elevator Tower

#3 - Elevator Tower and Over Garage

#4 - Elevator Tower, Over Garage, Jonah's Room

#5 - Elevator Tower, Over Garage, Jonah's bedroom white

#6 - Door and Single Garage

#7 - Door, Single Garage, and Over Double Garage

#8 - Two Bedrooms

#9 - Two Bedrooms and Over Garage

#10 - Two Bedrooms and Full Garage

#11 - Nursery and Single Garage

#12 - Nursery, Single Garage, and Over Double Garage

#13 - Nursery and full Double Garage

PS - There has been general public outcry against the white sections. This house was our inspiration, but their white tower is mostly windows, so maybe the execution isn't quite the same:

And here's a real life example of stone, Hardie Board siding, and a white pop-out we found in Centerville: