Going with the flow

With home behind schedule and a to-do list that never ends, Herrs press on

By Jay Dedrick, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 26, 2005 at midnight

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Photo by Ellen Jaskol © The Rocky

Hoisting a hose full of concrete, a crew lugs it up to Tina and Christopher Herr's home. The concrete will be pumped into the entry stairs, garage and courtyard. From left are Melchol Olivas, contractor James Casanova, Gilberto Gutierrez, Angel Ortiz and Homar Villagomez.

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ThhWACK.

Christopher Herr bumps his head on a scaffolding, a knit cap providing little cushion against the blow. He rubs his temples, ducks lower and continues toward the kerosene heater, an industrial-strength appliance that resembles a jet engine. A flick of a switch conjures up a burning orange halo and a furnace-like roar, pushing heat into the chilly, empty house.

And it is looking more like a house. Seven months after groundbreaking, spring is here, though you wouldn't know it looking outside. Last night's late March snow left a picturesque flocking on the pines scattered on the hillside in the foothills north of Boulder. A thin layer of ice coats the red mud surrounding the custom home that Christopher co-designed.

He and his wife, Tina Galgon-Herr, had originally expected to be moving themselves and baby Talia into the house by now. After difficult construction through the fall and winter, now they're hoping for a May move-in. Maybe June.

Much of the siding has been applied to the exterior, and the interior has its drywall in place. Electrical and plumbing work are nearly finished.

Boxes of cabinet kits sit in stacks in the middle of the floor, covered in brown butcher paper, tacked down by masking tape and tattooed with crimson bootprints. A jar of pickles left by the day construction crew goes ignored as Christopher unpacks one of the cabinets - only the second one he's begun assembling since hauling them back from the Phoenix-area IKEA store earlier in the month. The cabinets will line two walls in the great room, providing much of the storage space in this basement-free structure.

After putting in a full day at his architecture studio, it's time for homework.

"I've got 35 or 40 to build. I should get it down to 35 minutes to build each one, if I get going pretty good," he says. Armed with hammer and Phillips screwdriver, he puts his first together in a half-hour flat. He wants to get at least two more assembled tonight, but decides he'd rather move the work space back to his cozy condo, where he can be near his family.

'Friends or suckers?'

About a week later, tile is going up in the bathrooms at the house. This, too, is a family affair - extended family - with Christopher and Tina joined by friends Ron and Lisa Famiglietti of Steamboat Springs.

"They've got a lot banked in the karma bank," says Lisa, who expects Christopher and Tina to help with a house project of their own - a Wyoming cabin - later in the year. "I just think that's part of being friends."

"Friends or suckers?" chuckles Tom Smith, Lisa's stepdad. He and Lisa's mom, Toni Farquhar, are down from Fort Collins to help, too. Toni and Tom still live in the house where Lisa grew up. It's next door to the home where Christopher was raised, and where his mom, Kay Gillespie, still lives.

"Lisa and Christopher have been best friends since he was born," Toni says. "You think of them as kids no matter how old they are." The next generation of bosom buddies is coming along, as the parents await the arrival of a playmate for Talia: Lisa and Ron's baby, due in a few months.

Lisa owns bragging rights for introducing Christopher and Tina at her wedding. The women became friends while working as nurses in Phoenix.

"It never occurred to me (Christopher and Tina) would hit it off. They're both very different personalities," Lisa says. "But they're awesome together - they're perfect."

The perfect pair have chosen eye-catching tile for the bathrooms and entryway. Made by Hakatai, the ¾-inch glass squares form bold mosaics on sheets of netting. Once glued into place, the sheets are ready for grouting.

Along with the red kitchen cabinets, the tile sheets provide big bursts of color inside the home: The entryway will have rich reds and oranges; the master bath, with a dual-head shower, will boast royal blues and aquas; the downstairs bath, where Ron and Tom are diligently working, gets purples and tans.

"I'm gonna see little purple squares all night long," Ron says.

Consider it the price of another deposit in the karma bank.

Finishing touches appear

Builder James Casanova works at the house seven days a week at this stage - even on a Sunday in April when heavy snow slows most of the metro area.

"I had to put up some scaffolding for painting that day, but turnout by the volunteer painters was poor," James says. "Go figure."

At least the sun is shining a few days later, splashing natural light all over the home, which is gaining finishing touches high and low. The upstairs bridge/overlook between the master bedroom and master bath is now in place, replacing a ladder perched horizontally. The ladder propped up against the upstairs hallway/overlook, the only way to go between the first and second floors, is about to be replaced, too. A sheet of steel, bent accordion-style, will form the staircase.

First, James has to ready the staircase's first four steps, a concrete base on the first floor that will attach to the steel. With hammer in hand, he pounds at the particle board that formed a mold for the concrete steps.

"Woo-hoo!" he shouts once the last stubborn piece pops loose, revealing a hollow under the seemingly solid formation.

Why not do all the steps in concrete? Or all in steel?

"Christopher is an architect," James says of his friend. He smiles. "He has to do something different."

Appliances move in

Christopher arrives just in time to see the major appliances being moved into place: The stainless-steel refrigerator, oven, cooktop, warmer drawer, dishwasher and patio grill all are by Electrolux, a popular European manufacturer that's introducing a new line to the U.S. It's so new, the microwave won't be ready for delivery for a couple of months.

While the delivery men work around them, James' crew members scramble to square away the kitchen island that will house the cooktop, warmer drawer and dishwasher. Eventually, a concrete countertop will cap it.

"This is really getting to the point where it's completely about finish," Christopher says. "It's feeling like the house is finally coming together. But getting from 'here' to 'done' is still a big stretch."

Money is on his mind, too. Closing costs on the mortgage, which will take the place of the construction loan, will run $6,500.

"I was a little surprised," Christopher says. "I was thinking more like $1,400. I need to ask if we can refinance some of that. If it has to come out of pocket, I think I'll become an exotic dancer."

But perhaps not a full-time cabinet assembler.

"I think the cabinets look fantastic," he says. "James and the crew made them all fit together on the wall, even though some of the cabinet boxes were a little off-square.

"I don't know who the guy was who put them together . . ."

Pouring on the problems

James is feeling snakebit.

From the first concrete pour for the home's foundation last fall, transporting the heavy muck up a 40-percent slope has proved costly and aggravating. Recently, a 54,000-pound concrete truck sank 2 feet into the driveway. Now, about a week later, it's this.

Concrete is scheduled to be poured for the courtyard on the home's south side, for the outdoor stairs connecting the garage to the front door, and the garage floor. James has hired a firm to pump the sludgy stuff through a long, snaking hose. The truck it's attached to is parked on the street below; its rigging, a ladder and two massive pistons, typically transports concrete skyward on towering skyscrapers.

It's not exactly what he requested. He wanted a heavier-duty rig, and fears this system won't have enough power to push the concrete through the hose that winds up the slope.

He's right.

The concrete crew thins the stuff with water, which they say will solve the problem. James has doubts, and doesn't want concrete that's too watery. He's worried that trapped bubbles in the thinned-down concrete might lead to eventual cracking.

After struggling for nearly two hours, the crew finally gets concrete to pump out of the hose and into the courtyard. The flow doesn't last, and soon the crew has stopped for yet another fix: replacing the 2 1/2-inch diameter hose with a 4-inch one.

"The cost of today for me is about $3,000," James notes. "For the concrete company, it'll cost a little more.

"This is pretty much a laughable joke at this point."

Soon, James is laughing out of sheer frustration as he joins the six-member crew in attempting to unkink the hose. They struggle to lift and move the tubing uphill, alternating groans with laughs.

James shouts as the hose inadvertently constricts four of the crew:

"It's like wrestling an anaconda!"

Snakebit.

A good partnership

An hour later, the concrete pour finally finishes, and James isn't the only one who's relieved.

"Getting the concrete done in the garage is a big thing. This is the third significant attempt," says Christopher, who has brought baby Talia to visit the site while Tina works.

While James wraps up the concrete pour outside, Christopher toils with cabinet doors inside. Many builders would be reluctant to let homeowners take part in the home's construction. Liability for a construction flaw could grow messy. If tile falls, and the homeowner helped put it up, is it the builder's responsibility? Strictly the homeowner's? Both?

But James' outlook is simple: "We let 'em work on it because it's their house," he says. And he has faith in their friendship. "Because you're friends, you can tell each other, 'No! Stupid! Bad!' Still, you don't want to offend anybody."

James approaches his friend with a two-sided gift: a 2004 penny that he found on the driveway. Christopher plans to press the coin into the wet cement in a corner of the garage floor, alongside Talia's handprints.

"This is perfect," Christopher says, eyeing the penny. "I brought a 2004 coin, but it's the Texas quarter. And that makes no sense.

"All right, Peanut, we're gonna get you ready."

Christopher stands on a wood surfboard in a corner of the garage and tries to lower his daughter over the floor. "I feel like I'm going to drop her into the concrete. We may have to do footprints." She fusses at first as Christopher presses her feet into the cool, damp surface. Then she cries. "It's OK, sweetie," her dad coos.

Christopher hands her to James, then presses the penny into the cement between the two tiny footprints. The men pour bottled water over the baby's feet, rinsing off the mess. Christopher kisses her forehead and asks James to hold her. The proud papa and architect picks up a loose nail off the ground and returns to the concrete, where he uses it to scrawl an inscription:

TALIA

ASPEN

HERR

4.23.2005

"A lot of thoughts went through my head while I was doing that," Christopher says. "I was thinking about my grandma and grandpa. There's a lot of history. They had a dream of building here. Who knows what it's going to be like 80 years from now when Talia's an old lady?"

Christopher is smiling, but he admits that the looming deadline for the Certificate of Occupancy - the county's legal OK that the house is an inhabitable dwelling - has him concerned. He must have it in hand in less than four weeks for the mortgage to close.

"This is the most stressful time so far," Christopher says. "I think it's going to be a mad dash to the end."

He has no idea how mad - or maddening - the dash will become.

dedrickj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5484

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