Caleb’s Journey Winter Construction

Days like today remind me of the many years we’ve been building great houses in the middle of the winter at 10,000 feet. Last night we got over 2 feet of snow and as I sit here writing the snow is falling, horizontally, as it often does when the wind is howling. This is what they call a powder day. But for those who will spend the day in workboots and not skiboots there’s nothing like arriving at the job site at 7 in the morning and the temperature is below zero. Not optimal working conditions to be sure, especially if we’ve had a dump like the one last night. So the first thing we try to do when building a home in the winter is to get the walls up, and the roof on, and the framing sheathed. At that point at least we’re out of the weather. Unfortunately we still have to deal with winter temperatures. Inside the house “shell” the temperature remains frigid because the shell holds the night’s cold air inside. Hardly pleasant working conditions. Sure, we can and sometimes use portable propane heat, but that’s an expensive proposition. Once the walls are up and the roof on it will be weeks if not months until the plumbers lay down the radiant floor tubing and get the boilers and gas connected to the house so we can have real heat. It’s a hardy bunch of souls that live at this altitude and work building homes through the winters. Though building slows down this time of year, it certainly doesn’t stop. Because folks, it’s winter here 8 months of the year!

In 2005 I began a series of design meetings with Trey Parker, the creator of the South Park Television Series, about a home he wished to build in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Trey wanted something large enough for family and friends and also a retreat for the South Park crew of writers. After walking the lot I immediately began to think Mountain Lodge, and then Trey began to mention his love of Japanese art and culture. What eventually emerged was a mountain house strongly influenced by Asian sensibility. Because Asia embraced Timber Frame construction centuries ago, we decided to do an Asian Inspired Timber Frame home. But where would could we find extraordinary aged timbers for the frame? I contacted Trestlewood, a company that specializes in large quantities of reclaimed and salvaged timbers sourced from old bridges and barns. Trestlewood informed us that they had in stock a large quantity of timbers salvaged from a railroad bridge that once spanned a portion of the Great Salt Lake. The timbers were over a hundred years old, and were completely imbued with salt. This seemed perfect. Our friends at Woodhouse Post and Beam designed the frame and milled the beams. In all honesty, I have never seen such a beautiful frame. The salty timbers were lightly oiled to reveal light shades of cherry with darker cherry veins. The frame was a big hit with local wildlife as well. During construction some of the local deer and other animals would use the timbers as a salt lick. Reclaimed siding and ancient cabin timbers were also used to complete a home that looked like it had stood on the site for half a century or longer. This house was published in the May 2010 issue of Architectural Digest. Many photos of this amazing house here.

When I was in college I worked for a summer in Glacier National Park for the company that ran the grand old lodges at Many Glacier, Lake McDonald, and East Glacier. I loved those magnificent european inspired holdovers from the great Railroad travel era. I was pretty much in awe of the fireplace at Lake McDonald Lodge at the southern entrance to the park. The fireplace opening was so big at 6’6″ tall you could stand up in it. I’d never seen anything like it… and they kept a fire going in it all year round! Now, that’s a fireplace! When it came time to design the Great Room fireplace for the Timber Trails residence, my thoughts returned to Lake McDonald. Online research turned up other inspirations of many shapes… perhaps cousins if only in size to the one at Glacier. So inspired, we put pencil to paper and came up with this fireplace which, although large enough to stand up in, is sized and shaped to best compliment the room in which it stands. Benches on either side of the fireplace will provide a wonderful warm niche on a snowy day. Even though this fireplace is an original design, its inspiration is firmly rooted in the past. In design, nothing is truly new and credit is always to be shared with those who came before.

In the design world, because there are an infinite number of options and choices, choosing just the right item for the right purpose sometimes feels downright overwhelming. But from the beginning we thought a hefty carved stone sink would be perfect for the kitchen in the Timber Trails residence in Breckenridge. The theme of the house was European Castle reconstructed after World War II (yes, every house has a story) and this sink, or one just like it,  seemed to balance well with the massive rafters and beams and stone walls that would surround it. But because we were building this house to LEED “Sustainable” standards, we needed to source the sink from as close to Colorado as possible (LEED encourages local purchasing to reduce the environmental impact of shipping.) So, after some searching, we sourced this sink from Mexico, which is certainly closer to Colorado than Europe or Asia, which were other options. Sometimes choosing the “right” thing means more than just form and function. Especially if you are as concerned as we are about designing and building in a way that is friendly to the planet.

About a decade ago my brother and I bought 2 lots in the Highlands Development in Breckenridge. On one of them we decided to build a spec home.  We needed a design concept and the one I came up with involved a story. After all, I did come from the movie business, and a good movie (or project) always begins with a good story. The story of this house would be this:  Once upon a time around the early 1900s a man named Caleb (don’t ask me why his name was Caleb, it just popped into my head) decided to build a home for himself. He’d been building homes for other people all his life, and now it was his turn. Caleb was a saver. Over the years after each project he had taken the leftover materials, beams, siding, boards, and saved them in a big pile behind his tiny cabin. Until one day he decided he had enough of these leftovers to build an entire house.

So, with Caleb’s Journey I first began to design and build using reclaimed and recycled materials. The result was fantastic. Not only were we doing something good for the environment, but the reclaimed siding made the garage doors look fantastic and truly original.  The reclaimed flooring and ceiling cladding gave the interior great depth of character. I’ll talk more about my use of reclaimed materials in later postings, but here’s some photos of the home we called Caleb’s Journey.

Fabulous Calecho, by the award winning design and build team recently featured in Architectural Digest, is newly priced for sale at $2,790,000. For those looking for a second home in Breckenridge, Calecho is perched majestically above the Breckenridge Golf Course and Gold Run Nordic Center on a sunny lot that is the envy of the rest of the Highlands neighborhood. Those searching for a sound investment will find Calecho priced to sell with fantastic rental numbers and a growing list of return vacationers. Everyone who visits Calecho “can’t wait to come back.”

Designed and Built by Trilogy Partners

At Trilogy Partners, we call ourselves a Residential Design and Build Company. But why Design and Build? Why would we want to do both? Aren’t they two completely different things? Not in our minds. And we believe by pulling all aspects of a project under one roof, we bring added benefit to each and every project. Having Design and Build the responsibility of one company brings a consistency and coordination to a project that is seldom possible when you involve separate entities to plan, design, Build, engineer, interior design, and furnish the home. Why is this true? Because all of these entities have different goals which, unfortunately, are sometimes competing goals. For instance, the architect wants to design what the client wants. Often designing a home the client cannot afford to build. Yes, it happens again and again. With Design and Build unified within a single organization, the budget is a significant part of design and budget and design evolve in tandem. The reason for this is obvious. The Design Builder has equal incentive to both design and build the home. At Trilogy, we focus on the entire project. Our sister company Colorado Building Company is focused purely on construction. So if you have already have a design and are looking for a builder, CBC is your answer.

Over the past decade we’ve seen the cost of construction rise steadily until two years ago, when sub contractor labor rates flattened and then began to decline. From a pricing standpoint, this is certainly the best time to build a mountain house in years. What kind of savings are we looking at?  My estimate based on current quotes from subcontractors would be 12-15% although the amount could be higher depending on materials and construction methods employed. In real terms, that’s enough savings to pay to furnish the home, and add a solar array for sustainable energy independence. Bottom line. If you’re thinking of building your dream home, despite what all the economic pessimists might have to say, this industry expert believes the time to begin design is NOW!

They were a tough lot. Some with scruffy beards, one with green hair, all with tattoos. They liked to drink and chain-smoked and it seemed they all rode Harleys. These were the men that had come to erect the timber frame for our first house. They were fearless. Kneeling down they would shoulder 200 pound posts and then stand and walk up a steep ladder then out onto a narrow beam twenty feet in the air. As the snow swirled around them at the peak of the roof they’d chat while smoking cigarettes waiting for the crane to lift the next post to them so they could place it, post and beams, lifted, one by one until the skeleton of the house was revealed. Some mornings the supervisor was hung-over sick, pausing to throw up as he directed the crew. The men would argue as they worked. They were tough men and loud and angry threatening to kill one another. By the end of the day they’d be laughing, talking about women and the beer they’d drink tonight. This went on for a coupe of weeks. When they finally left, the shell of the house was complete. And we would miss their camaraderie and expertise as we forged ahead with the construction, alone, just two brothers building their first house.

Frame Raising

Trilogy Meadowview Rear

It was true what everyone said. We didn’t know what we were doing. The year was 1998. We’d borrowed more than a million dollars. And now we were attempting to build our first house. In December. At 10,000 feet. In below 0 weather. We’d spent a week excavating a big hole in the ground and were due to install the foundation walls in a couple of days. But the Breckenridge building department officials had told us they would not permit us to install the pre-cast foundation walls on top of frozen earth. But how could we keep the ground from freezing. We came up with an idea. We’d put a giant plastic tent over the hole and put propane heaters in the tent. Our vision quickly became reality. The tent was enormous. The size of a house. We were proud. It was warm inside. The ground was not going to freeze. And then, a giant gust of wind came along. And took the tent away. At 2am in the morning. We didn’t sleep that night as we watched our foundation hole grow colder and the dirt grow hard with frost. Our first home… was it going to be a disaster? At this point, it was beginning to look so.