Storm Form goes above and beyond... again

Using the "conveniences" at 285 Martin Drive is NOT convenient!

Yesterday was just one more example of how well I feel taken care of by the guys of Storm Form. Every job site needs a potty and for a while my house had a couple of bathrooms, so that worked well. But the first one was removed in March and the second… sometime in April?  I admit that I never noticed the day that the powder room was removed. The house was a mess, the dumpster full of what used to be my pride and joy – 285 Martin Drive – and when one more room became “open air” I guess it just slipped by me. 

It wasn’t until a week ago, hopping around with a full bladder and lamenting the fact my neighbor was not home and I needed to use her loo, that the “bathroom situation” at 285 Martin Drive was explained to me. The toilet in the powder room (now the back end of the garage) was still there… behind the hanging black plastic sheet! In an effort to save the cost of a port-a-loo for another month, they were making do with what they had. Ken didn’t think I’d appreciate it for what it was though and advised an alternate solution be found.

I never used that toilet, or even dared look behind the plastic! The bathrooms at King Soopers seemed like more my style. Which is something you won’t hear me say very often.

Anyway, all good things must come to an end and the last toilet (with its plastic wall) was removed from 285 Martin Drive this week, which meant, it was time for a portable toilet delivery.

A little background: It has rained a LOT here in the past few weeks. The ground is soft and this is a great time of year to dig through clay if needed. I used last Sunday to do a little excavating of my own and widened the front path to the house. Spending a couple of hours there, I dug up the old flagstone, the irrigation system and my xeriscape plants, 10 years established. The path was now 6′ wide. And apparently that is wide enough for a port-a-loo because…

Tuesday morning, bright and early the toilet arrived. Instead of putting it at the top of the driveway as requested, the delivery people put it here; one foot from the sidewalk!

I had several “first thoughts”

1. Will this encourage random joggers, slightly intoxicated new grads and small kids on the way to the park, to use our potty?
2. Will children, dog walkers and neighbors be able to hear the workmen using the potty?
3. I’m no whiz with the shovel and the work I did on Sunday is not going to win awards for being level. In fact there is a step, by design, now under the potty! Could the potty tip over if the occupant was not careful?

Interestingly, while Ken and I laughed about it’s unusual placement he told me he had asked the potty delivery folks to come back and put it in a less conspicuous place. One of his reasons…. Because the home owner was into taking pictures of the house project and the potty placement would be bad for pictures.

So thoughtful!

Full Steam Ahead!

What do you call it when the 285 Martin Drive pop-top gets a roof, windows and front porch all in one week? Exhilarating. Wonderful. Heartwarming! Yes, a busy week indeed at the job site. The house started out Monday looking like this: Plywood. No roof. Window holes not cut in the lower level. No cover on patio. And still drying out, from the blizzard the week before.

Inside, the framing was coming along. Ten foot ceilings were about to be a reality, closets and bedrooms and bathrooms were all mapped out.  And the whole place smelled like freshly sawed wood – which I could inhale all day!

By Tuesday, the front porch distinctly had a cover and Ken, Dirk and Aaron were working a little roof for the front entrance area. All of a sudden the 2-dimensional drawings paled in comparison to the real thing and I went from being eager with anticipation to downright ecstatic. Nightly phone calls to Mark, fishing in Canada, took a turn and he could barely get a word in edgewise; I just couldn’t wait to show him the progress that was being made.

Then came the day (Thursday) that the whole neighborhood had been waiting for – windows! Yeah!!! For the first time in 2.5 months we looked like we were building a house that would actually feature natural light on the first floor. Lots of light. The windows are huge… and IMHO, gorgeous. Everything I hoped for and more.

Yep, one was damaged in transit and sports a a cute cardboard and duct-tape Bandaid for now. Its replacement parts are on the way and the transplant to fix this double-hung window will be quick but not paneless.  😉

And then… more windows. Slowly the stored pile in the garage was finding homes in spaces around the house. A transformation was underway and our 285 Martin Drive pop-top was looking AMAZING!

Mark was back from Canada and we took trip to Boulder Friday afternoon to check out the progress, perhaps just in time to lend a hand and officially earn the honor of saying we helped build the house. Ok, it’s a stretch, but my contribution has been small and I’ll take what I can get.  Alongside Ken, Aaron and Dirk, we aided in the task of lifting the large front window up the stair well (no stairs yet) to the second level. At 400lb, it was an exercise in teamwork and drew on all the collective “Tetris” skills of the group. Once on the second floor it was slid between the framing and was positioned, leveled, shimmed into place overlooking the front yard. My goodness that was satisfying!!!

What a difference a week makes, huh!?  

I can’t even begin to describe how it feels when you have a long held dream, a vision; then you describe that vision to someone else and ask them to help you create it…. And they do! I hope this is what people feel when I help them achieve their real estate dreams and goals. 

There seems no higher ideal than to strive 

to create this feeling for my own clients

Storm Form! Winter Storm at 285 Martin Dr

 Storm Form... the builder AND the event!

Storm Form is my design-builder. Storm Form was the most appropriate name for this weeks weather too.

I probably assume too much and count on good luck in the weather department, truth be told.  Whoops, not this week.  My luck kinda ran out!

For almost 3 months, we have had little more than the occasional downpour. Every time the weather guessers forecast a snow storm, it goes south and delivers to Parker instead of Boulder. Not this time…

This time the storm hit. Dumped twice as much as we expected and knocked our socks off. The house was almost weather-proofed in time though and I still felt pretty lucky.  (We don’t count openings for windows in the weather-proofing equation, right?)

New Construction + Spring Weather = Doh!

 Well poo! The weather guessers are calling for copious quantities of rain, a wee bit of snow and general crappiness for the rest of the week. Sure, we might get a little reprise over the weekend but sandwiching it, we are expecting clouds and grayness for the next 5 days.

So what about the house?  Well it has all the roof decking on but there are little gaps between plywood sheets and relatively larger vent gaps along the peaks. If we got the 1.5″ of rain as expected tomorrow, it would for sure flow down the valleys and into the upstairs “rooms”… then the main floor.

One more reason to love the Storm Form gang: They get weather briefings and work to manage whatever comes their way. In this case a roofing guy climbed 2 stories up a ladder with rolls of waterproof tar-paper today. He worked quickly to stick down the ice and water barrier on the edges and the black paper on the rest of the roof.  Did he get the job completed before the approaching front opened up and dumped on him?  I’m not sure!  Last I saw, he was dodging lightning on the roof and the rain was pelting him…. And I was speeding off to Longmont to shelter my car in a garage. 🙁

Exiting day on site! What you are looking at here are closets. Squint a little… it’s easier to see! The white roll is the edge of the hall way and the 3 parallel boards outline his and hers closets.  Sure, one is bigger than the other – that’s life. She has more shoes than he does.  🙂  However, he will be pleased to know today that a quick conversation with Ken resulted in, as Ken put it “a more democratic shift in the closet sizes”! His closet just got a foot wider.

Here comes the weather!! Half the black paper is on… 

Bonanza View of 285 Martin Dr

 It was the perfect evening. Not to hot, not too cool, with a slight breeze. A good night to fly, so we took to the skies. About 10 minutes in, Mark and I looked at each and said “let’s fly over the Boulder house!”. Sweet idea!!  And so we did.

Given that 285 Martin is the only house that is entirely made of unfinished wood right now, it was easy to pick out in the dimming light. 🙂

I also shot a couple of late sunset/cloud pictures just after take off. There is no better way to spend an evening than with your best friend in a small airplane, marveling at nature.