Pikes Peak or Bust!

[braumeister]

Nostalgia for me, too.
I used to have a cabin near Florissant.
[sigh]

 

[Dancer373]

Mr,Paul, those are beautiful pictures !

 

[LoneAspen]

A little bit of trivia for those of you familiar with the Florissant area...

I used to live in Florissant, and always wondered about the little observatory off to the side on Teller County 1. A few months ago, I was doing some Googling and stumbled across it. It's called the Las Brisas Observatory, and found a (seemingly outdated) web page for it at:

Las Brisas Observatory

Also found a YouTube video of a guy accompanying the owner to visit it. Skip to the 5:00 mark for the start of the observatory section, the first part is them driving to the site:

Las Brisas Observatory with Paul W0RW - YouTube

Anyway, I was into astronomy as a kid, and always thought having a small observatory and telescope would be cool. The little one Florissant always fascinated me, I just didn't know anything about it until after I left the area.

 

[Hermit]

I want to put in a small backyard observatory. It will be a 10'x12' shed with a roll-off roof. I haven't decided on a telescope yet, but my neighbor has one that his father built I think about 40 years ago and he wants to use my observatory so we will at least have something to start with.

 

[Hermit]

I made it to Colorado! I've been here for a week or so. The weather is typical for this time of year. It's snowing very lihgtly and the sun is shining. I don't have internet so time on the forum will be limited.

 

[NW-Bound]

I just saw on the Web a "Winter Storm Warning" for Western Colorado, with snow accumulation up to 15" in some places.

Temperature is currently 81F and it's sunny where I am.

 

[braumeister]

Yes, the snow on the western slopes has been awesome this year.
Went out for a skiing week in January, and was so impressed with the accumulation after coming home that I went out again in February.

Crested Butte closed for the season, but decided to reopen for this weekend due to the amazing depth of snow still on the slopes.

 

[ajs56]

Yes, I have been there and your description is right on. You should try an off-road tour. The vistas only get better! This is north of Highway 50 at Texas Creek looking South at the Sangre de Cristos. (You have to click on the picture to get good resolution. The picture still doesn't do the view justice.)

Beautiful view and picture Hermit. I have brothers in the Littleton and Conifer/Evergreen area, and love visiting them and the mountains. Took the cog railway up to Pikes Peak a few years back. Nice clear day and the view was beautiful. Gave new meaning for me to the phrase "purple mountain majesties" in America The Beautiful. If I could bring the Great Lakes out and surround Western Colorado and the Rockies with them, that would be just about perfect!

 

[LoneAspen]

Grats, Hermit - enjoy!

I've read recently where the ski areas in Colorado had a great ski season, and although I'm happy for them, it made me melancholy as well.

I moved to Colorado right before the 92/93 ski season and it was an awesome winter. I learned to ski (and snowboard...kind of) up in Summit County, and Vail, and I loved it. One of the best times of my life.

Once of the things I want to do after I quit in hopefully another year is spend an entire ski season up near Vail and Summit County, just being a ski bum and trying to get in as many days as I can with no job or boss hanging over me.

My fear is that after this great season, it will now be mediocre (or outright terrible) for the next few years, and I'll have missed my chance.

One more reason I want to quit this job and leave this place as quickly as I can. I have this dread that things are "passing me by" and there's nothing I can do about it right now.

So to all of you who live there, get out and enjoy Colorado! Go hiking, backpacking, fishing, skiing, go take pictures of the aspens in fall! Whatever the weather permits - get outside and enjoy it!

 

[seraphim]

Love Colorado. May have to move there [-]for the weed[/-] when my glaucoma gets worse...

Stayed at a friend's cabin outside Westcliffe a few years back. Sort of a flat valley where the cabin was, but mountains in all directions. Did some hiking near there.

Love the Colorado landscape; we considered Salida a contender for retirement. No more, thanks to the drug laws - or particular lack of them. We'll still go to visit, but not to live.

 

[Coach]

Love the Colorado landscape; we considered Salida a contender for retirement. No more, thanks to the drug laws - or particular lack of them. We'll still go to visit, but not to live.

seraphim, I'm curious why our drug laws would make you decide to not live here. I assume you're talking about recreational mj. The effects I've seen so far have been pretty insignificant, a drop in the bucket compared to medical mj at any rate. On a day-to-day basis, except for the news coverage, I don't see much effect.

Salida's a pretty nice place, and I'm sorry you won't get to enjoy it as you might have.

Coash

 

[pb4uski]

I saw your pics in the "What did you do today?" thread but didn't want to respond there.

I wanted to share a 'trick" that we used in our new build when insulating that worked out well for us. Similar to you, we had a walkout and wood studded walls (in our case 2x4). We decided to do spray foam insulation.

What we did was to put 1x3 strapping horizontally on the outside of the studs at the top and bottom of the wall and every 24" in between and we then attached the sheathing on the outside of the strapping so there was a 3/4" gap between the studs and the sheathing other than where the studs and strapping intersect. So after the foam was applied we ended up with a 3/4" solid foam wall and 3 3/4" in the stud bays. As a result, thermal bridging is significantly reduced other than where the studs and strapping intersect which is a very small percentage of the wall. This approach was easier and less expensive than using 3/4" foam board between the studs and sheathing or sheathing and siding which were the other alternative we considered..

 

[Hermit]

I saw your pics in the "What did you do today?" thread but didn't want to respond there.

I wanted to share a 'trick" that we used in our new build when insulating that worked out well for us. Similar to you, we had a walkout and wood studded walls (in our case 2x4). We decided to do spray foam insulation.

What we did was to put 1x3 strapping horizontally on the outside of the studs at the top and bottom of the wall and every 24" in between and we then attached the sheathing on the outside of the strapping so there was a 3/4" gap between the studs and the sheathing other than where the studs and strapping intersect. So after the foam was applied we ended up with a 3/4" solid foam wall and 3 3/4" in the stud bays. As a result, thermal bridging is significantly reduced other than where the studs and strapping intersect which is a very small percentage of the wall. This approach was easier and less expensive than using 3/4" foam board between the studs and sheathing or sheathing and siding which were the other alternative we considered..

Thanks for the info pb4uski. I have investigated many approaches to insulation. If I had it to do over again, I would very seriously consider structural insulated panels (SIPs). We have extreme winds up here so my plan is to spray one inch of high density low expansion foam inside the outer walls. This will create a very tight outer shell and the foam is the same stuff as Gorilla Glue, so it will add a lot of structural strength. I am going to heat primarily with a wood stove and one guy who I helped build his house said it isn't worth worrying about if you heat with free wood and I have a forest of wood. That seemed pretty pragmatic to me and it will probably be OK to not worry about the thermal bridging. I will have a gas furnace, but that is mostly for a backup and to move the air around because the wood stove will be on the upper floor. Other items to minimize heat loss will be an outside air draw for the wood stove and furnace and if the house is as tight as I think it will be, I will also put in a heat recovery ventilator (HRV). The outside foundation walls are also made using insulated concrete forms. I'm hoping for a very cozy house.

 

[bssc]

We were in Salida Thursday and didn't see any differences now that the MJ laws were in effect. Still a nice little town although Canon City (see separate thread) has more choices in both grocery stores and restaurants.

 

[pb4uski]

I hear you on things to do over again. I considered SIPs but my builder wasn't comfortable with them and I wanted my builder more than I wanted SIPs. I also found the idea of just doing all the outside walls in concrete using insluated forms interesting.

I assume that you'll have conventional insulation inside the 1" of foam? If so, you may want to go with 2" otherwise you might have condensation issues in the wall cavity as 1" may not be sufficient to serve as a vapor barrier from what I have read. Given you are in a very cold area you might even need more than 2" to have a vapor barrier.

If you are going with conventional insulation inside the bays over the foam I would highly recommend Roxul over fiberglass.. It costs a bit more but since you are doing it yourself is very easy to work with and not at all itchy. It fits into the stud bays nice and snug and does not deteriorate if it gets wet. I used it insulating the ground floor walls of my garage and was quite pleased with it.

 

[Hermit]

I have been leaning toward loose cellulose, but I just checked the AVS forum and Roxul appears to be the "go to" insulation for home theater sound insulation. I'm putting a home theater in the basement. Tests that were done show that spray-in cellulose is actually better than Roxul for sound insulation. Thanks for the info. I will probably decide between cellulose and Roxul.

Temperatures have not been that cold this winter with overnight lows in the high teen or low 20s most nights. It got down to -30 a couple of nights last year but this year the lowest has been more like -15. Humidity is pretty low and the sun shines a lot so I don't think I will have a problem with condensation. Any condensation that I do get will dry pretty quickly to the outside of the house. I will also put a layer of plastic behind the drywall on both the walls and ceiling and seal all openings such as outlets.

 

[pb4uski]

We have an air exchange system. We started with a HRV and found we were getting too much condensation so we swapped out the HRV core for an ERV core which also acts as a dehumidifier and added a condensation drain. If I were doing it again I would at least add a condensation drain during construction to an area near where the unit is (ours is in the attic). I ended up tapping into the vent... not totally kosher but it was the best alternative available and with a S-trap seems to work fine.

Also, the air exchange vendor told us that we did not need bathroom exhaust fans since the air intakes are in the bathrooms (and the kitchen). He was totally wrong on that, the air exchanger can't keep up with the humidity when taking a shower. If I had a do over I would put bathroom exhaust fans in each bathroom where there is a tub or shower.

I suggest you do some additional research on the amount of foam needed. My understanding is that if the foam is too thin that when the warm inside air gets through the cellulose or Roxul and contacts the cold foam that the risk is getting condensation inside the wall cavity that gets trapped. See Hybrid Insulation Techniques | GreenBuildingAdvisor.com

 

[Hermit]

We have an air exchange system. We started with a HRV and found we were getting too much condensation so we swapped out the HRV core for an ERV core which also acts as a dehumidifier and added a condensation drain. If I were doing it again I would at least add a condensation drain during construction to an area near where the unit is (ours is in the attic). I ended up tapping into the vent... not totally kosher but it was the best alternative available and with a S-trap seems to work fine.

Also, the air exchange vendor told us that we did not need bathroom exhaust fans since the air intakes are in the bathrooms (and the kitchen). He was totally wrong on that, the air exchanger can't keep up with the humidity when taking a shower. If I had a do over I would put bathroom exhaust fans in each bathroom where there is a tub or shower.

I suggest you do some additional research on the amount of foam needed. My understanding is that if the foam is too thin that when the warm inside air gets through the cellulose or Roxul and contacts the cold foam that the risk is getting condensation inside the wall cavity that gets trapped. See Hybrid Insulation Techniques | GreenBuildingAdvisor.com

Thanks for the info. I spent a lot of time on Green Building Advisor when planning the home. I will revisit the insulation plans before I start the wall insulation.

It seems to me the bathroom exhaust fans would defeat the purpose of the HRV/ERV. As I understand it, if the system is balanced and sized correctly, it should take care of bathroom exhaust. I don't have any experience with this type of system, so I will do some more research. My smallish house will have one bath on each floor. (I had to conserve space for the important things: wood shop and home theater. )

 

[pb4uski]

I would have thought it should take care of bathroom exhaust too. I have been totally unsuccessful in getting the guy that installed it to respond to our issues and it pi**es me off as he was highly recommended.

 

[Hermit]

Those are fantastic views, we are jealous.

How long do they think construction will take?

Be sure to send pictures of the progress.

I'm finally getting started on the upper level walls. I have found that construction by one person is very slow, but I am having fun doing it. Here are a couple of pictures. I got the floor on last November (I may have posted these pictures in another thread). I spent the rest of the winter sweeping snow off of the floor and laying out the top and bottom plates for the outside walls on the upper floor. I didn't want to have to worry about sweeping snow around walls so I waited for better weather to start the upper walls. The better weather happened this week with a couple of beautiful days. The first couple of pictures are of the lower level last November and then the upper walls just getting started this week. That's the door to the garage and the stair well leading to the lower level.

 

[38Chevy454]

Looking good, I see 2x6 walls? Good for added insulation. Single story upper (main) level or additional second story? Fantastic views!

 

[Hermit]

Looking good, I see 2x6 walls? Good for added insulation. Single story upper (main) level or additional second story? Fantastic views!

Thanks. Its basically a small ranch with a walkout basement and lots of garage space.

 

[NW-Bound]

Wow! How time flies...

Yes, time flies. This thread started almost a year ago. I scroll through and see that I participated too.

 

[RobLJ]

Fun reading the thread; I think I saw it back when you started.

Our cabin is about 12 miles above the Royal Gorge on Copper Gulch Rd. God's Country out there.
Look forward to seeing your place when you finish it.

 

[Hermit]

Fun reading the thread; I think I saw it back when you started.

Our cabin is about 12 miles above the Royal Gorge on Copper Gulch Rd. God's Country out there.
Look forward to seeing your place when you finish it.

Hi RobLJ,

It certainly is God's country!

Is that east of Elevenmile Reservoir? I'm about 15 miles north of Florissant, east of the Tarryall Mountains.