Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

this is fun because everyday I get new pictures to add to this post : )

Dave & the girls out in the snow they got over 30" I think in southwest Washington...

Check out the wood ready for the fireplace and don't forget the dog !

These 2 pictures I have just added....as home owners have been passing around snowy pictures I ask them to send in Christmas ones also so Jay & Paulette live in an an area that doesn't usually gets snow or at least much of it anyway so here is their tree and outside look ......

This is a 2008 of the outside home and archway of friends who go out with us to get their tree.

Even the Archway got lights......

This is 2007 Christmas tree haven't seen this years up and decorated yet ..... OK so Kevin the neighbor has a web site and he took some 2008 pictures of his home and Tom & Carla's so here is this years tree all a glow below.....

Different home ( but is next door to the last home) they helped each other put up the outside lights..... this is Kevin & Michele's home.

Stocking from the mantel.....

Kevin loves this and each year I think he does more...these where taken last year. And because Kevin had some new stuff and new pictures on his web I borrowed some of his .....

Love this idea for the Christmas town.....and below are this years outside lights while it snowed how perfect can that be.....

He even decorated the gate at the archway !

Different home again stockings are hung : )

I believe these guys actually cut the tree on their land how cool is that.

This is the first Christmas in our home and it was taken by someone who knew what they where doing it was for an ad but if you look close in the 3 panel door there is a grey trap covering something we where tiling our floors at this time ......

The next year or so we got the boys to help line the house.....wished we could do that again but again this is a number of years ago and we have added onto the house twice !

This one is from 05 you can see the tree lights in the prow....we go out as a group into the woods and cut down our trees ( the first 2 homes are couples that come along ) and get our trees the Sat after Thanksgiving.

This was also in 05.....this is our driveway and the wreath you see in the back ground is our front porch.

Last year I talked Cliff into building this star for me but this is the porch we just remodeled and it is no longer there so Cliff took the Star and it is now on that archway you see in the above pictures.

I took this one last year also.....

and this one .....

And this also was last year ....this year is much the same just a bit smaller tree : )

Hope you enjoyed the tour ! Stay safe and warm and enjoy the season !!!!

Radiant Floor Heating

These first 2 pictures show the D. family home and that they are putting down the tubes for the Radiant flooring going down..... I'm not sure yet as to what they will be using as a finished floor materials you 'l have to come back to see.....first photo is showing it done in this Living room area...the picture is taken from the upstairs.

Here you see them placing the tubes and tacking them into place.

The rest of these photo's are other customers homes that also have used the Radiant heating but what you'll be seeing is just the finished floor above them...

This above home used this great slate stones and did their own pattern over the tubes that where set in light weight concrete over the sub flooring....

This home used regular concrete and then stained it .....

The next 3 photos are in the same home that also used light weight concrete here in the kitchen they did Hickory hardwood that came raw and they stained it.

In their entry they used Slate tiles.....

And the in the Living room they put carpet over it ......so as you can see from these photos that it can have just about any flooring or just concrete over the tubes.....I can tell you that our customers who have this type of heating love it !

Just a month later !

A month after the logs came this is what the home of the D. family looks like ( if you wonder what I'm talking about look at the next post to see )....everybody is very happy as to how fast things are going.....you can see the Gable End where there will be a deck wrapping around from the front porch. There is a big window in the living room part and a slider door in the dining room and above you will see at the end of this post how they will also have some glass to look out of from the second floor.

This is the other end of the home where the bedrooms are kids on main floor and mom & dad above them.

I took this picture from the living room part of the great room....on the main floor will be the kids bedrooms on that back wall and at the top of the ladder and right will be an open loft and to the left of the ladder will be master bed and bath.

I'm standing in the open loft area looking back to the Master. See the log posts and ridge beam along with the wood flooring that will get finished at the end of the project. See the framed out opening in the framed wall just behind the ladder....keep watch to see what happens there....

Here are 2 samples of what could take place in that wall.....

Above look behind the stove pipe that is an old window that is opening up to the master bedroom . Below is also in a master bedroom on the second floor......just a fun way to bring light and heat into a bedroom and not lose the view with a wall.

OK so back to the home under construction ....

Here I'm standing at the kitchen island area looking at the dining room window on left and slider with board in front to keep it safe.

We always suggest that once you have a roof on it is time to clean up the wood...so here our home owner is washing his beams and you can see they have prepared for the kitchen lighting because they have done a post and beam second system so the Tongue & Grove ( T&G) 2 x 6 wood you see in between the beams is the ceilings on the main floor and the wood flooring on the second floor so there isn't a void for the wiring to run in later.

Love this picture and the best part of what we do is to get to know new people and become a part of their lives .....isn't she the cutest !

Above you can see they have framed in for the future glass going in that end....this picture was taken a couple of days after we where there along with the last one in this post that shows the metal roofing going on.....

Stop by and stay up with this project along with other posts.....

Let me introduce you to the D. Family

So I thought I would share with you the excitement of one of our customers as they go though the process of the building of their log home......we met this couple in March of 2006 at a Home & Garden Show for the first time....then they came out to one of our Open House's we held at another couples home to see what our product looked like....then later that spring Eric & Ana came to Bend to do what we call a "home tour" where we put you in our car and take you around the area to see at least 3-5 different homes.

In this process over the next couple of years some things changed one of which was they started planning for one style of home and then at the prelim stage changed to another style not common for us ..... but I think worked out much better for them in the end....they are building a version of the Woodside I & II. The family picture was taken Sat. afternoon before we left them. They got the logs Thursday at 8 am so we all thought that they had gotten a lot done in the first 3 days they where done with coarse 5.

This is the drawing from the cover of their final plans.

Above what you are looking at is the basement floor and the red tubes are for Radiant floor heating....they will have this in basement and on main floor also.

Again in the basement you can see the I-joist for the sub floor above.


Here in May the sub floor was down and ready for logs....but had to work out some issues on the land so they could get a construction loan. So on the 25th of Sept.....it all started

Here is the one of the log trucks....there where 2 that day and then they will have a delivery later this month with the windows and a couple of local lumber deliveries for the package.

Day after delivery Cliff is showing Eric how to prepare the logs....the log is sitting on what we call a "log cutting deck" that is a temporary staging area to able to true up the logs pre-drill for lags, thrubolts and electrical. In the back ground you can see the "crew" Dylan (our son )and Noah from Creative Carpentry and the logs for the project.

So later in the day Ana decided she wanted to do her own log so she could show friends and family she did this also and by herself.

Then William wanted to say he helped so he is sitting a lag with dad's help....and Izabel is just being cute : )

By mid day Wed. ( Oct.1 st) the logs where done ! Eric took 2 weeks off work to be able to help the crew work on the house.

Time to start the second floor and Eric & Ana are doing a Post & Beam floor system so all the beams and posts are showing. Here they are putting up the first beam for the loft upstairs but what you are looking at is the gable end in the great room.

This is looking from Great room to back of the house where the kitchen / pantry and 2 bedrooms and a bath are.

The crew is building and standing up the loft walls. They are standing on top of the Tongue & Groove wood floor that is the finished flooring upstairs and when you are downstairs is the wood ceilings you will see in kitchen, dining room and bedrooms....and yes this second story is framed but will have log siding on the outside and inside will be T&G wood that matches the face of the log used and in this case it is a "D" log.

When the boom truck was there they used it to stand up the back gable wall that is in the Master bedroom area .

So last week ( Oct. 9th )the boom truck came in and they boomed in the log ridge beams.....

Now this week they will start making sure the rafters and all upstairs walls are in place to get the roof on....I'll keep you posted on and off on the progress of this home!