Mom and Dad came to see their new vacation home.

November brings some big changes!

November began with windows going in.  Just seeing them in makes the view from up here more amazing.

And some plumbing goes in.

Even a little drywall going in, though just in the furnace room for now.  This was in preparation for the HVAC guys showing up for putting in the furnace and duct work.

And the roofers came to install the standing seam metal roof.  They are brothers, and if you look close you might notice that this one has only one arm.  He still gets more done than most people!

Then the cold snap hit.  I know that much of the country has had it a lot worse than Oregon has, but this slowed us down a little.

This picture doesn't show it well enough, but this is the roofers thawing things out with a blowtorch one morning so they can get to work.

Roof almost done and more windows in.

And here's where we are now, almost all closed in with electricians showing up soon.

Hey, what happened in October?

Work kept up trying to close the house in before fall turned everything into mush.  I don't know if you can tell, but Jeff here is old school and pounds in every nail with a hammer.  No shortcuts for us!

Getting closer, showing the entrance and chimney taking shape.

Driving up this day was the first time it really looked like our house!

Mostly enclosed, but now that it's raining we need a real roof.

To be fair, there have been other distractions keeping me from the blog.  Exhibit A, a press full of Pinot.

Exhibit B, we had a nice weekend as harvest wound down and went kayaking on the Willamette south of downtown Portland.

Back to the house. Pete framing in the fireplace.

As October wound down, Dysthe's folks showed up and helped us get felt on the roof.  Ta-da!

A lot more photos

House on the hill taking shape, beam in place.

Dysthe watching the moon rise to the left of Mt. Hood

They started framing for the roof as soon as the beam was up and wrapped. The wrapping is just protection from moisture or dirt during construction.

Looking West toward the sunset through a hall window.

Construction zone at night, with creepy forklift photobomb.

We're almost ready to welcome you all!

Introduction...

I'd like to introduce our Builder, Brett Fogelstrom! 
We've known Brett for years as a friend and have always admired his work. We never dreamed he would be interested in building our house -he's one of the most talented designer/builders we know.  
Doesn't he look like a nice guy?  He actually is!  
He's teaching us lingo - builder terminology.  In the beginning he would use words that were specific to the engineering and structure of the home and I nodded and smiled.  I figured, if I really needed to know what that word meant that he'd make sure I did.  As time went on he got to know that look on my face and the nodding and he would stop and say, "do you know what that is?" I would say "no, is it important that I know?"    
We have a rhythm and our meetings are now managing "real time" things like installations and decisions. 

It's great having a friend as your builder or having your builder be your friend as well.

Dave is the one that has the photo touch so far.  When we go up to the building site there's so much to see. 
This is exciting!  Every time we share with someone that we are building a house they have a nugget of wisdom to share.  Sometimes it's about marriage and how you have to be careful people get divorced.  Sometimes it's about where to put the hose spigots and electrical outlets, or what type of faucets and sinks to install.  Not to worry, we are far from divorced, Dave is a Saint and I am reminding myself more often that it's ok to not know the answer to my 1,000 questions  We will have hose spigots, I can't tell you how many but they will be there.  We will also have electricity and I will make sure I can reach all of the outlets.  As for the sinks and faucets, we'll choose what we like and what fits in the budget. 

Getting to this point has been a journey unto itself.  We sold our house in Sherwood in June 2011 and rented a house in Lake Oswego while we looked for a piece of property that would be suitable for a vineyard with a home. We came across this piece of land in February of 2013 and jumped at the chance.  We are located in Sherwood, which is an honest 30 minute drive to Portland.  You can get there sooner if you don't start counting how long you have been in the car until after the first 10 minutes.  We have a view of Mt. Hood, and out here that means A LOT!  It's like an ocean view - but not. 
We started planning and designing the house last Summer. 
We have a great design / builder, Brett Fogelstrom.  We were excited to have him take on the project. Brett built the recent addition to the Ponzi Winery and has a keen eye for design.  He is also familiar with vineyard sites and orienting a building or house amongst the vineyard while still positioning the house to be in the best spot for livability.  I am learning a lot from Brett.  He doesn't realize how much he knows and sometimes I have to nag him to tell me more - I think he's getting used to me.

Lots of change out here and we are loving it.  It's a reminder of just how little you have control over and you MUST remember to stop and ask - "Am I missing out on a moment to enjoy this?"

We're beaming!!!

This morning the crane arrived and they put a 40' long beam down the spine of the great room.  This is WAY BETTER than HGTV!

"Raise high the roof beam, carpenters" - Sappho




This is the view as if you were standing on the back patio with a beer in your hand looking at the house.

Moonrise over Mt. Hood

A little movie

Here's a short film from today - I hope it works

The framing has started!

I've been busy with harvest, but caught this photo at dawn yesterday.

Foundation finished, ready to start framing soon!

Bob and Katy came all the way from Houston to help pour the basement walls - we couldn't have done it without them!

 

 Dysthe showed up too, and we got busy removing the forms.  Voila!

After months of waiting and filing paperwork to get all of the permits, it is great to see how fast the progress is.  It really seems like there is something new to see every time we go there!

Monday, September 8th. Progress is in the air!

Hi, Dysthe here. 

We went up to see what had been going on since Friday. It was a beautiful day and we are still in awe of the site. The first picture is of the garage, the next is from the front door and the last is a footing. 

Dave took some other shots and will post those as well 

Cheers! 

Dave's radio interview

This is a link to a radio interview I did a few weeks ago. I am stretching things a bit to include it here (vineyards are involved at least), but some of you might be interested. The monotone remind me of why my radio career began and ended before I was 22.

https://m.soundcloud.com/kxl-northwest-vine-time/8914a

Out the back door towards Mount Hood

I am constantly awed by the view from this property, but I have consistently been frustrated by how hard it is to show it in a photo. If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears (well, eyes). You might just have to come and see it for yourselves!

Aside from the distant view of mountains, we hope to look out in this direction and see grape vines in the foreground by next year.

Pouring footings

Just a few weeks into the project and we are already pouring footings. This shot is down in the basement, which isn't as large as the main floor so half of the house is on a slab.

As you can see, the hard work has already made me buff and tan, and I lost all my hair waiting for the permits from Washington County.

Dysthe at work!

Starting to frame for the footings. At this point we had only broken ground a week earlier! Dysthe is standing at the front door. On a clearer day you will be able to look straight through sliding doors at Mount Hood.

Some of our new toys

Pulling up and seeing this line of rigs makes this look like an awfully big project. We really aren't building a winery yet, I promise.

Even Grandma pitches in.

We could never dig such a big hole without a lot of help stopping by!

More Reinforcements!

Thanks to all the friends and family came by to help dig. 

Reinforcements!

We found a bigger shovel. As always, Dysthe drove.

Our friends Chris and Ellie made us golden shovels. They said it was for the groundbreaking, but I think they were just trying to tell us to get to work already. Here we are, hard at it!

Digging a Foundation

We have finally started building!  This is our construction site on our hilltop outside of Sherwood, Oregon.  We hope to be done by late Winter, in time to start planting a vineyard.  Eventually we hope to have around 15 acres of grapes on our 19 acre site.  We know how bad we are at sharing photos and updates with friends and family, so we hope we can get the hang of this blogging thing so that you can keep tabs on our progress more easily.  Wish us luck - more for learning the whole blogging thing than for the house!

This is standing from where our front door will be.  We will take a lot of photos from this spot, just to compare.  On a clearer day you would see Mount Hood right in the middle of the shot.