Dawn and Ed Go USA

It's been a week or 2 since we posted our last update and that's basicaly cause not too much has happend. But we do have a couple nice pictures to share with you all and we'll tell you the story about them.

This picture is a bit blury and I really tried but this is the view that we have when we walk downstairs in the morning taking out the doggies. When I get a better one (if I am more awake) I might post it.

I've been mentioning constantly how great the weather here is, but we also have our extremes! Yes today it's almost 27 degrees celsius and a beautifull blue sky, but last weekend we were covered in snow! In our area we had around 8 inches (20 cm) of snow and 1 foot (30 cm) in the mountains. Now I am glad we have our all wheel drive Highlander SUV! We do need to upgrade the other car soon and get something better.

Kayla and Lilla playing in the snow.

Just a pretty snow covered tree.

Now we'll move on to the home. Last Wednesday we had our Pre-Drywall orientation. We check the house if everything is looking good, before they close in the walls. They did have one problem and that was the company that did the insulation. They put in the insulation too soon! The inspector still had to come in and check everything before they were allowed to insulate. Then they can put the drywall (gipsplaten + stucwerk) up. So what you see in the pictures has to all come out, the inspector comes in and then they can proceed with their work.

Here you can see the insulation used. It's all recycled material. They are big on building green these days.

An overview of the plumbing and electrical in the kitchen. In the top you see the new PEX system (red and blue pipes) they use now instead of copper pipes for water. It's easier to install, holds more pressure and insulates the hot water.

The gasline to the outside of the house. This was one of the few mistakes they made. It was placed to high and they lowered it but it's still too high. This is for the outdoor kitchen and firepit which will run of natural gas. Saves us hauling in propane tanks!

Bricks, bricks and more bricks were dropped off. If you look at the picture of the gasline you can see the small metal plates attached to the black rubber and screwed into the house. They bend these out so the (cement) brickwall will better hold against the house. We chose this brick cause we though it would have a nice pop against the color of the planks.

This picture I took yesterday. You can see they grated driveway ready to have the concrete poured. Also the whole roof is done, we picked the black/grayish looking shingles. We expect no delays this week so next weekend we probably have a lot to update!

And don't forget, it's Ed's B-day upcoming friday!! ;-)

I've posted a lot of pictures from the new home lately so I'll post some pictures from a couple things we've done and seen in Denver.

Here you see the Red Rocks Amphitheatre 10 mins from where we currently live. The amphitheatre is used for concerts and movies in the summer. Awesome views and accoustics and you can see where colorado got it's name from.

Downtown Denver view from Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Wildlife in the Red Rocks.

Cave of the Winds in Colorado Springs about 1 1/2 hours driving. We went there with Dawn's parents when they came to visit.

America's passtime. The Rockies playing in Coors stadium in downtown Denver. You can see the rocky mountains in the back. Can't see it in the picture but the top row seats have a purple line going across them cause they are exactly 1 mile (1.6 km) high.

The timeframe has been released by the builder!

We are a bit concerned and I'll tell you why in a bit.

October 23th Pre drywall orientation. In this meeting we will walk through the home with the builder before the walls are closed on the inside of the home. We can check all plumbing, electricity and low voltage wiring to see if everything is what we want it to be.
This date came out bad cause Edmond might be on Cisco training but the chances are this will be postponed cause he is the only person in this class.

December 17th Pre closing orientation. Final walk through the home to see if we can find anything that needs to be fixed. We also have an independant inspector checking the entire home to make sure everything is okay before we close on the house.

December 27th closing. We receive the title to the house and our key. This sucks a bit cause Edmond has the entire week of x-mas off so we loose a couple days of that. Also our current apartment lease ends on the 28th!! So that means we have 1 day to move everything!

The builder told us they are on an extremely tight schedule and can't use any delay in the build. So we were out this weekend and the shingles are going on for the inspector to come in on Monday morning. If he gives them the green light the house is officialy dried in and monday afternoon the electricity guys will start.

Today we also had an hour meeting with our low voltage guy to walk through the entire home and tell him were to install the speaker wire and cat5 cables + video. We have 9 rooms hooked up with audio controls and speakers + outside and full home security.

Pfew, it's a long story and I hope I didn't loose your attention along the way ;-)

Starting next week we will probably have more pictures to come!

Love Dawn and Ed

Shingles being installed! Aren't they pretty?

Drove by the house tonight cause we were very curious.
Extra done so far:

Roofing felt is going on so the shingles will follow soon!
All plumbing seems done.
Baths and showers have have been installed.
Heating/Airconditioning pipes are all in.
Gaslines are in but the line available to the outside for the bbq was mounted way to high so we'll have to talk to the builder about this.
Garagedoors are all in so the house can be closed now.

All siding seems done, so everywhere where you see the blue paper will be covered with red bricks.

18:30 and they are still working on it!

I didn't post the pictures from last week cause a lot was done but it was really hard to show with pictures that we made good progress.

The foreman came in last week and spray painted the whole house bright orange, marking everything to be fixed before inspection. So last week most of these errors were all fixed. When we got there someone was dropping of some panels and other decorative things for the outside of the house.

Now this week we got some good pictures again! The siding is almost all done. This is done with hardieplank, a plank that is made from a mixture of cement and fibers to withstand a lot of abuse. From the bottom up to around 4-5 feet (1 - 1.5 meters) high bricks will be put agains the house. This will probably be done this week along with maybe the shingles.

By the way, for everyone who likes to know. We have had snow in the mountains already!!! We can actualy see it very well from here. Also the weather in Denver is still amazing with a blue sky and temperatures around 25 degrees celsius!

Snowboarding season starts November 9-16 in most places!

We are waiting for comments!!

This is where they were when we were checking out the house this Saterday.

We went down the road to sneak a peek into 2 other homes that were being build
and when we came back they got more done!

The fireplace is in and the whole framing looks done here.

Here you can see the roof trusses in the garage. I don't think they carry much any load here.

This is actualy last weeks picture where they delivered the siding.

The back of the home. You can exactly see how hight the brick will be.

All airvents are going in to provide the house with heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.

Had to take a picture of the basement mess!