Stain or not to Stain

Been talking to my brother about building some custom doors for this wyoming house. Thinking about going with alder or maybe a harder wood and staining them. I'm just wondering where to draw the line. If i stain the doors, do i stain the jambs? If I stain the jambs then I probably should stain the trim. And then if I stain the doors, jambs, trim and have hardwood throughout the place, maybe I'm getting too much stained wood. I'm leaning towards staining the doors and painting all the trim.

Sping anytime soon?

Thought I'd post some pics of the wyoming house from this weekend. Still a ton of snow up there. We had to snowshoe in, and as you can see the snow banks are pretty high. Hopefully it will warm up here soon so we can get in the drive and start work again.

Spring is slow.

Just snowshoed into the house today. Still quite a bit of snow - maybe 3 feet on the drive in. Took some measurements for doors. My brother offered to custom build some doors for me so I figured I'd figure out what I need. Love the views up there. Somedays I wish I could just move there full time...

winter blues

gosh i miss this place. Winter set in and covered everything up. I was able to make it up in February to shovel off the snow accumulation on the roof but have not been back since. I'm anxious to get working on it again and finish up the remodel. Hopefully by fall we'll have a functional, finished home in Wyo. I've had the remodel on my mind for some time. I don't like have such a big project unfinished.

Before I mentioned possibly using some square door knobs on this project, but I'm now debating some clean and simple door levers. Check these out:

Pretty cool looking lever for a modern style home. I'm hoping to get this home out of the 70's and give it some modern coolness. We'll see how it turns out.

house back down.

Just in the nick of time the home was set back on it's foundation this fall. The snow hit and has been coming down ever since. Unfortunately, the house movers didn;t want to remove their 60' steel beams so we are unable to finish framing up the small addition - if we do, they won't be able to get the beams out. Sounds like setting the house back down was pretty uneventful. I was able to stop by soon after, but it was dark and I wasn't able to see much. I asked my brother to take a couple of pics on his way home and this is what he sent.

Modern Plans

This won't work where we are because of the floor plan we have, but it would be cool to remodel to a modern design like this home. Something about real clean lined modern urban design on a forested piece of land is appealing to me. As apposed to the so common cabin style home. Our floor plan is more cut up, but if I were starting from scratch, this would be a cool design with the expansive wall of windows to take in the view.

New Foundation

The new foundation is finally in and hopefully this week the house will be set back down on the new foundation and get buttoned up for the winter. When spring comes we'll begin working on the cosmetic type remodeling. Snow started falling soon as the foundation was poured so hopefully we'll have enough time to get it all framed back up and closed in. Replacing the foundation is going to be much nicer in the long run, but not as much fun as remodeling cosmetic things because with items like flooring and cabinets you can see immediate improvement on the property. Still, i'm excited about the new foundation.

Barn Door Hardware

I'm on the hunt for something a little different for the wyoming house. I found this barn door style hardware for couple of doorways where I'd like to save some space, but don't really want a pocket door. This sliding track is pretty cool, but not cheap. There must be a better deal to be had. Still, probably cheaper than tearing the wall out, buying pocket door hardware and reframing and finishing the walls.

You have to look at the overall expense when making decisions in construction. Building several homes over the years has taught me that a decision seemingly less expensive now, may not the most cost effective in the end.

Commercial Siding

I'm digging the siding on this place. I like the windows too, but I'm sure they are more expensive than I want to pay. The siding may be too since it's commercial, but I'd rather not have to paint a house over and over so I'm leaning towards some higher than residential quality siding. I just need to locate where i can purchase it.

Wood Burning Stoves

I'm learning some things I didn't know much about fixing this old place up. I have been on the lookout for a cool modern style wood burning stove for our wyoming house. I have found several options but none of them are matching up to what was already there before. At first I thought I could just tear into the wall and move the fireplace flue up or down to accomodate the stove that I had purchased - oh how nieve I was. Apparently when a fireplce flue is built they start at the bottom and work their way up. As a result, it's pretty difficult to modify the existing flue since all of the weight of the chimney pipe is bearing on the bottom fittings. So I have had to look at other alternatives for our stove that aren't quite like my original plan.

Option 1: built a small platform (about 6" high) and install this stove:

Option 2: No platform, and go with this round design.

The rounded design isn't my favorite, but I think we're going for a modern style interior so either one would fit with the decor. These Morso stoves are apparently really nice. My parents have one in their home and [after owning many over the years] say that it is better than any they have owned. The glass stays clean and the convection design puts out a real even heat and burns longer than other stoves. I was hoping to get one installed before winter, but I don't think it's going to happen. I'd have to have all of the tile behind the stove done and with the home being raised 6' in the air right now with no power, it will be difficult to get it done. Priority is just getting the home back on the foundation and closing it up for winter.