June 27, 2008 Progress Report


Items Accomplished

GT Builders

We’ll be sad to see these guys go. They continue to provide help for all our design details and final framing needs. Whether it’s implementing a framing change from the Camel Committee, or making changes to accommodate HVAC, plumbing or electrical requirements, they’re always on site with a great attitude and complete a quality product every time.

Their big highlight this week was to finish up some changes we made in the Big Horn master suite area. Our original design simply had a few curves and a dome in the ceiling, but we weren’t maximizing the space. Now it’s nearly unrecognizable, and everyone who loved it before is just staggered by the finished product! We’ve enlarged the master closet, opened up the laundry area, enhanced the powder room, and given all the curved walls a better flow throughout.


Our new stairwell has helped to
open up traffic in front of
Bear Dance Village.
We also had them build a set of stairs leading up the hillside, through the bushes, to make a walkway from our entry up to Bay Drive as it comes in from Highway 35. This spring, Bigfork added a couple dozen parking spots along this road for overflow parking from downtown. We plan on utilizing a few of these spots for our workers, from which they’ll use this new set of stairs down to the job site. This is part of a continuing effort to keep from being an imposition to the neighborhood, because as of late, our workers have been parking alongside the road, all the way down to the junction with Bridge Street. This turned the whole road into a one-lane street, and with summer traffic – especially trucks pulling boats down to the boat launch – we were on the verge of becoming a nuisance to the neighborhood. Now the empty street is quite a relief to see.

Some of the other items included shower curbs and benches for the tile guys; support material for step flashing where walls and rooftops meet; pre- cutting materials for exterior trim prior to finishing by Smith Painting; and creating a barrel vault feel in the downstairs hallway of Big Horn (you’ll have to see it in person to grasp how cool this one looks!).


The new stone and slate roofing of The Flathead give us a new favorite in Bear Dance Village.

Flathead Masonry & Tile

Nearly finished with the stone work around The Flathead (see accompanying photo). We were trying to get a different look from the stone on Yellowstone next door, while still maintaining that uniquely Old World look. The stone we used next door was more of a squared-off shape with straighter lines, and the wide mortar joints were slightly cleaned out. This newest stone takes all the good things about Yellowstone and improves on them. We found some really cool stuff down in the Bozeman area, more rounded in shape and with moss and lichen still attached to it – more of a field stone look. We combined it with some other stone that complemented the colors of the Bozeman rock, but without the moss and lichen, and with a slightly more “blocky” appearance. The combination of these two – while continuing the wide mortar joints but leaving them closer to flush – has made for a fantastic final look. We also capped each window with a cast concrete lentil and sill, and when viewed with the completed slate roofing, we now have a new favorite building at Bear Dance Village!

Continued to work on prepping the showers and tub surrounds in Boulder and Yellowstone, and beginning to do the same thing in Swan and Flathead.

Rainmaster

Installed more of the composite slate for The Swan and Flathead. Also installed the roof-to-wall flashing around all our dormers so the crew from Fontecilla Custom Interiors could begin prepping all the stucco before the finished roofing product was in place. This keeps the finished product from being damaged or over-worn by workers once it’s in place.

Fontecilla Custom Interiors

Despite their name, these guys are just as capable and talented on a building’s exterior as its interior. And they’re truly a wonderful compliment to the overall Bear Dance Team. They continue in the tradition of great attitudes and excitement to be working on such a project, and their first few weeks have shown it. Showing up with a “can-do” attitude from day one, they worked quickly to get their tasks done to keep the roofing crew from being held up. They’re also working to prepare several samples of the kind of look we’re going for, as their portion of the project will be a critical aspect of our Old World look. Hank Fontecilla has been in this business for many years and has traveled all over the globe, and he has been effusive in his excitement at the opportunity to work on such a project.

High Ridge Steel


Wrought iron between the stone columns of
Yellowstone help to complete the overall look
tremendously.
Installed all the wrought iron rails between the columns around the Yellowstone. We were excited about how the stone looked once it was completed, but these railings are like putting the finishing touches on an already beautiful piece of art. It looked great before, but now that we have the railings, we look at it and think, “How did we like it as much as we did before this iron work??”

Arctic Heat

Working on rough-in of Missouri. Able to keep their pace going thanks to framing updates by the crew of GT Builders.

Gran Central Vacuum

Began roughing in all the pipe for central vac in Missouri.

Touris Plumbing

Finished installing all the gas lines in Missouri.

Began installing rough plumbing in Madison.

JK Electric

Worked through the whole Madison unit to install all the can lights, switches and boxes prior to any other trade beginning rough-in. Again, this is beneficial to the overall process because these items are the most important to give priority locations. If this step isn’t done until after the plumbing and mechanical rough-in, we often have to bring those trades back to move a pipe or some duct work, a bit of a costly procedure. Now when those trades come in and all those boxes and lights are in place, they know to work around them.

Installed can lights in the overhanging roof of the Gallatin main floor deck. Now that these are in place, we can bring the framing crew back to install the soffit and fascia.

Ran all the wiring in the boiler rooms for the radiant snowmelt on the upper portion of the property. With these subpanels set up and ready to go, we were able to go ahead with our hardscaping and retaining walls to get closer to a more finished grade on the upper portion of Bear Dance Village.

United Drywall

Finished hanging all the drywall in Yellowstone, cleaned up, and began prepping for drywall in Swan and Flathead. Expecting to start hanging drywall in these two right around the first of July.

Finished taping and texturing in Boulder, then moved right into Yellowstone. By the end of this week, taping is nearly completed, and we’ll be starting on the texturing next week.

Ganz Soda Blasting

Endured yet another week of soda blasting. This is definitely one of our more difficult phases of this project, and we’re hoping the neighbors put up with us just a little longer. The finished product is fantastic, but the process is tough to deal with – the compressor is loud, and the dust is everywhere. In fact, Ron took the initiative last Friday and bought more than a dozen car wash coupons, wrote up an official thank-you-and-apology letter, and delivered them to the neighbors affected by the noise and dust. Thankfully, we hope to be finished with this portion by early next week.

Smith Painting

They’re all over the place here at Bear Dance, taking care of all sorts of things. Finishing up the siding for the south faces of the five-plex; staining the soffit, fascia and timbers of Building B in their Bear Dance Brown; applying stain to the timber window trim and lintels of The Swan; and using the sky lift to stain all the south- facing timbers of the five-plex, also in Bear Dance Brown.

CM Quality Insulation

Finished all the insulating in Swan and Flathead. With the type of quality work he’s been doing, and with the summer days rapidly heating up, it won’t be long before all the workers are begging for something to do inside one of these lower buildings. The combination of heavy insulation and a concrete slab staying cool against the ground is making these two places a pleasure to hang out (you also can’t hear the compressor for the soda blasting!).

Zavala Excavating, a.k.a., RKZ Enterprises

Undertaking a fairly major operation on the upper portion of the property. As part of our effort to create more parking areas on site and clean up the overall look of the project, we’re continuing with our stacked stone walls to retain the upper driveways and landscaping areas. We’re also using this stone to disguise the cantilever of our upper slabs – realizing that it wasn’t exactly common to see a cantilevered concrete slab in Old World Europe, regardless of how good the Roman Empire’s engineers were! The stacking stone will be built up underneath these cantilevers, making it appear that the driveway is carried entirely by these stone walls, while simultaneously narrowing the main driveway approach just a bit, giving the overall flow a bit more of an organic look. We’ll still have plenty of room for cars to pass each other and drive comfortably, but by creating a few corridors that are slightly more narrow, it will continue to feel like an old European village, instead of the typically wide streets of modern America today.


This shows a portion of the stone wall (in progress) that will help disguise the cantilevered slab while also giving a narrower driveway and more room for flat landscaping.

Ron Incoronato & Co

Ordered and received a Doug-fir timber that will serve as a decorative and practical accent for the south face of Gallatin, just below the third floor deck and immediately visible to any visitor of Bear Dance Village. This timber is eight inches thick, twenty inches wide, and forty-one feet long!! Because it’s twenty-two feet in the air, we wanted the proportions to read correctly (hence the 20” height), and it also needs to appear as if it’s actually supporting the span of that upper floor of Gallatin.

Designed a way to make the barrel vault of Gallatin’s drive-under look like it’s supported by a true stone arch. Of course, the manufactured arch trusses and steel beams are supporting The Gallatin over that span, but the appearance needs to be authentic, and just as the old Roman Empire’s engineers perfected the stone arch, we want this place to look like one of those original arches.

Conducted several meetings between Keith Beck, Hank Fontecilla and John Morris (High Ridge Steel) to determine the best plan for how we’re going to build our railing around the upper driveways of the five-plex. The railing needs to be able to keep a car from driving over the edge, but in the event of an impact, we don’t want the railing ripping apart our concrete slab with all its radiant tubing and complex construction. With the help of A2Z Engineering, we’ve devised a plan that not only meets those needs, we have a way to make it look attractive and blend well with our stucco and Old World Theme.

Got a visit from Carol Nelson and Jim Sullivan of Glacier Woodworking. Jim will be building our cabinets for each of these units, and this visit was his first walk-through of the project. Carol gave him an extensive tour of Boulder for field measuring and establishing the theme and overall look of our cabinetry. Now that this part is rolling, we’re one step closer to getting towards a finished product on our first residence!

Scheduled a tour for next week for the neighbors of Bear Dance Village, an effort to keep the excitement going throughout the summertime – and it’s definitely going!

Received updated interior renderings from Keith Beck to assist in the design process of the five-plex. We’re taking advantage of Keith’s artistic talent – the same talent that spawned the initial look of Bear Dance Village and helped to drive our Old World Theme – and utilizing it on the inside of these residences. His hand renderings for the great rooms, kitchens and powder rooms of Big Horn and Ruby are going to help give us direction as we move forward.

Next Week’s Agenda

See each subcontractor’s bullet above for notes about next week’s agenda.

Selections/Decisions Needed

New: Need to begin looking at samples of wrought iron inserts and designs for the railing of all the decks on the five-plex. Since there are so many of them, these railings will be an absolutely critical design element, and we fully intend to make the most of that opportunity.

Old: Need to finalize the style, species and size of the wood flooring for Boulder upstairs, as well as getting bids from several wood floor installers to ensure we get the best product at the best price.

Old: Need to pick the stone types for the entire five-plex ASAP.

Old: Colors and finishes for units in the five-plex have been discussed, and we have a good start and direction now. Our meetings in the coming weeks will focus on ironing out all those details. Also will go through the five-plex and, using these decisions, pick out trim styles and sizes, flooring styles, and any final design details.

Old: Need cabinet drawings from Carol Nelson Design for remainder of five-plex. Missouri and Madison are completed, and Gallatin is nearly finished; Ruby is next, then Big Horn will be last.