Our New Place Is Coming Along: Update March 4, 2021

Greetings and Salutations!

We’ve been staying occupied (more preoccupied) with getting our place ready for the spring and summer. We moved in on January 18, 2021 (MLK Day). We’ve had a few snowstorms and a lot of beautiful sunny days. We hit 57F (14C) the other day (March 3, 2021). We have a weather station (Tempest - Mohawk Station) on our property now. It records every detail of the weather, every minute, and writes to my Google Docs spreadsheet. It’s fun to geek out on it.

What’s next? This month (March), our greenhouse is going up. If you look at the outbuilding pad photo, you’ll see to the right is a pad for the greenhouse. It’s a 9’ x 21’ ClimaPod. We plan to run our first crops this year. It will be our “trial” yeat to see what grows up here and what doesn’t.

Our “outbuilding pad” that will have our 9’ x 21’ Greenhouse and a 20’ x 30’ studio and darkroom for photography.

My studio/darkroom will be going up soon. I've just finalized the plans. It will be 600 sq. feet (20x30) and will have a north light studio at 8,500 feet (2.600 meters) and a darkroom. There will also be a small space to "lounge" in. The UV up here is insane. I'm not sure if there is a "higher" (elevation) wet collodion north light studio, but this space will give me great light and short exposures!
This is exciting! I hope I can make this happen like I did the house. This has been a long journey, I've learned a lot, but I just want to be working in my shop, studio, and darkroom as soon as possible! Looks like it's going to be a great year for my wet collodion project!!

The Studio Q Show LIVE! January 23, 2021

Join Quinn for another discussion on the wet collodion photographic process.

This week Quinn will finish the section in the Alfred Brother's book on making positives. He'll also discuss "boiling your silver bath" - is it safe or not? And the regular recommended reading, and "shout outs".

Stream Yard: https://streamyard.com/tabmz7hi5p

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ieSjYUq-Ce8

(subscribe and hit the bell to be reminded when Quinn goes live)

The Studio Q Show LIVE! January 9, 2021

Join Quinn this Saturday, January 9, 2021, at 1000 hrs MST on YouTube or Stream Yard for an hour of Wet Collodion Photography talk!

This week, Quinn will do a reading from the Alfred Brothers book, "The Manual of Photography" (1892). You'll LOVE this! Great info!

He'll also do a short segment on Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) as a Wet Collodion Portrait artist.

And finally, he'll take questions and review some emails he received over the past week.

Stream Yard: https://streamyard.com/ca69bai8b3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/snUYMB2cK54
(SUB & HIT THE BELL TO BE REMINDED)

Mountain Home Build Update - December 29, 2020

We had some snow fall last night. About 2” (4cm) of snow this morning and bright sun with blue skies. Our weather here is strange. It can be almost 50F (10C) in the middle of winter and dry. Then, every once in a while, we’ll get some snow. It always melts and the sun comes back. We have over 300 days of sun here a year. And at 8,400 (2.560 m) feet above sea level, that means a lot of (warm) UV light.

Our house is slowly being finished. The drywall guy has a couple of days left. The floors are completed and we need our power. The local energy company (IREA) said we should have the power installed in about 6 - 8 weeks. We just entered week 9 - hopefully soon. The holidays didn’t help our timeline and COVID hasn’t helped either.

The “struggle” (waiting for our house to be complete) is good in a lot of ways. We’re so used to having things “immediately” or “now!” that when you come back into reality (move to the mountains), you find things take longer up here. Sometimes, a lot longer. For example, there is no such thing as “two-day” delivery here. On average it takes a week to get an Amazon package. There is no “cable” here or “fiber” internet. There are a lot of places here where your cellular phone is a doorstop; there’s very little or no phone connectivity. We are very rural. So, having your house completed when you want it takes a little bit longer. Patience has never been a strong suit for me, this has been good for me that way. Jeanne handles it a lot better than I do.

December 29, 2020 - The mountain home and snow.

We designed the house. The layout and arrangement of everything. It’s perfect for us and our needs.

Entering the garage. We only have one truck. The other side is for my forge.

This is our “guest house” - a 24’ Wildwood Lite camping trailer. We lived in it when we first moved here in June. It’s very nice. This shows the views (from the back of the trailer) of the mountains and their elevation. Looking south-west.

You can’t see them here, but you can from the house and coming into the property. These are the “views” we have here. They are AMAZING!

Mountain Home Build Update - December 23, 2020

Are we there yet??
We’ve been on a rollercoaster trying to get our house finished. It’s been very difficult being so close to “moving in” and yet so far - not knowing when this contractor or that contractor will show up and if they’ll complete the work. Overall, it’s been a great experience even with the few bumps we’ve had to deal with.

The entire year we’ve been working on this project. We started in January when we put our house in Denver/Aurora up for sale. It’s been non-stop since then. The COVID-19 virus has created a lot of unexpected problems too. I had no idea the supply chain for certain products would be affected as much as it has been. And I didn’t realize how many companies were working with “skeleton crews”, meaning they had laid off at least half of their employees or are working limited hours. Limited materials and limited manpower make it difficult to build and complete a house. There are some good things about all of it too. One of those is time. This has given us time. Time to think through things, time to contemplate things. All good.

I can’t say when we will occupy our new home, but it should be soon. It looks like sometime in January. The holidays haven’t helped our schedule at all either. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now the new year. Fingers crossed it will be soon!

We have learned so much this year. I’m not sure I would want to do it again, but if I did, I know I could do a great job. There are so many things we never think about when we live in the city or suburbs. How our power, water, septic, and infrastructure works. What it takes to bring those to a remote mountain in Colorado is a feat of significant proportion. And you better have a lot of cash on hand. This stuff is not cheap. I probably went 30% - 50% over budget on this build. In other words, if I projected that X would cost $100, I should have been prepared to pay $130 - $150 for it. If you ever do this, add the 30% - 50% onto your final number. And if you get lucky and you don’t use it - buy something nice for your new home!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jeanne today! I wish I could have given her a new home, but it will be soon!

Jeanne and I built a “water system” shelf in our utility room. This holds our 52 gallon compression tank and filtering system (not fully installed). The top shelf will house our router and WiFi stuff for the internet. Below, under the tank, will have Moshe’s litter box. A little private bathroom for him.

We completed (almost) our garage floor. We decided NOT to do concrete but opted for sand and then a later of 3/8 gravel. It’s very nice! (sorry for the poor light/shadows).

Our little shop/garage. With new gravel compacted floor.

Mountain Home Build Update - November 26, 2020

I hope this note finds you healthy and happy.

We’ve been very busy, or consumed, with our home getting set up. It’s on its way to being finished. We have hit a couple of rough patches, to be expected, but we’re getting there.

Right now, the house is set (on it's foundation and secured) and “dried in” - meaning, the weather will not affect the rest of the work. We have the “stitch and finish” crew working to finish inside now. The plumber and utility people will be here next week. The holiday and some weather stalled us for a couple of days. We are technically three weeks behind right now mostly due to not being able to get the home up the mountain and then into our property. It gets really complicated moving a fully built house and garage in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

It’s not too bad considering this is a complicated mountain home build and there are a lot of moving parts to make this happen. We are very thankful for where we are right now. The house will be finished in the next couple of weeks. We can’t wait.

Getting ready to set the crane up to put the house on the foundation.

Half of the house (about 50 tons) flying in the air! This was incredible to see. Amazing technology!

Half of the house coming into our foundation area. Our driveway is almost 800’ long. We have a very private lot - 12 acres. No one can see us here unless you’re in the air!

The other half being lowered into place. Almost there!!

We're Getting Very Close to Having Our Home!

Our foundation is almost finished. We have excellent weather and should have our house completed in a couple of weeks! The concrete crew is pumping 12 yards of “mud” for the first part of our foundation.

The forms are laid out for the concrete pour.

Very Grateful For Our Life!

It's a great feeling to wake up in the mountains and have nothing on the agenda except for cutting firewood. This is Ponderosa Pine and Aspen. These were either standing dead trees that I fell or trees that were cleared for the house build. I'm very grateful for my life and the people in it!! Stay safe! All our best!!
Photo by Jeanne Jacobson

We've Completed the Wellhouse September 2020

We just got word that our house will be completed by October 22. To say we are excited is a complete understatement! We’re elated. We’ve been working on infrastructure stuff. We did the 275’ water line (and power) as well as clean up for the construction crew.

We’ve completed one more thing for the homestead. A (Water) Wellhouse. I know it’s totally boring for those not directly involved, but I have to say, it was a fun project and our first “real” build on the land. It’s 8’ x 8’ x 8’-7’ in size. It’s a lean to build; 8’ in the front and 7’ in the back. Like a mullet haircut ;-) It will have a 9’ foot gutter on the back to catch rainwater. I know, it’s a well head, but we want to utilize the rainwater for our greenhouse and fire mitigation. There is a small window above the door for natural light. It works well. There is a piece of 14” x 32” clear plexi-glas there.

We chose the “Barn Red” color because we feel like it’s complimentary to the landscape (Red Mother Earth) and it will withstand the crazy amount of UV light up here. We will use this color for all of our “outbuildings”. I may end up painting a big “H2O = LIFE” on the side. What do you think?

It’s nice and spacious inside. I used R19 insulation all the way around (ceiling as well) and we have 1400 pounds of concrete poured onto R10 board insulation and a vapor barrier (the entire floor, extra around the well head). The well head is comfortable! And I have space for tools and storage. Really nice. I’m proud of Jeanne. She is the hardest worker I know. And she is never afraid to learn something new. We had a great time together building this and we really feel the pride of ownership and a job well done.

The Well House Build - September 2020

Every day I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this. “This”, is building an infrastructure for a home/homestead for Jeanne, and I. It feels like I’m alive again. The city life and hectic pace of all that was getting to me. And then COVID-19 hit and made it even worse. I’m so thankful we were able to escape that. Life here is GOOD. Even with the small inconveniences and little higher prices for everything, you would never be able to convince me to move back to suburbia. Ever. Life is so much better on the mountain. If you’re feeling blue and bummed out about the world and your life, make a change. Make a big change and invest. Don’t try to play it “safe”. Go for it. Whatever it is that you want to do, make it happen, no holds barred! Life really is too short.

Jeanne and I took on the Well House Project last week. We would probably be finished with it but a freak snowstorm moved in and we’re sitting by the fireplace for a day or two drinking coffee and planning. It’s a nice break, to be honest.

This is an 8’ x 8’ x 8’ Well House and Tool Shed. It covers our water wellhead and the line going to our house. The purpose of this is to protect the wellhead. However, I needed a place to put some general tools so we decided to make it worthwhile and do a full-on shed - about 500 cubic feet/64 square feet. If you were to buy something like this, it would cost at least $2500 USD. We’re doing all of it for about $900 USD.

I would encourage anyone to take on these smaller tasks and find out what you can do. You’d be amazed. For some reason (money) the world tells us that we CAN’T do these kinds of things. They say that we are not skilled enough, smart enough, etc. We can learn, we can experiment and we CAN do these kinds of things. Don’t listen to the lies. Don’t get trapped in an endless game of spending money just to spend money. Save some, get dirty, and sweaty. Make mistakes and learn. Live your life on your terms. Not someone else’s. After all, you’ll have the satisfaction of looking back and saying, “I did that!”

This is where we left off after the water line completed.

Here we have the 4x4 posts attached to the concrete we poured for the corners.

Concrete poured for the floor. We insulated and put a vapor barrier on this as well.

We have it framed in and ready for the walls and roof!

We ran short on 2x4x10 for rafters - after the storm, we’ll finish the project.