Digging began on December 20th! A truly horrible time to begin construction on a house, but we had no choice.
To preserve our main road, we began building our construction road.
Work began on the pool
I wanted the pool to be a lap pool since I swim laps for exercise. And I wanted it positioned lengthwise along the lake so that one could stand in the pool and lean over the edge to watch a wakeboarder get towed behind the wave runner as I envisioned. The concrete structure of the pool needed to be constructed before the house because it would been very difficult for the concrete trucks to get around the east side of the house after the house was built.
Above is the artist rendering of the pool
Tarp to allow pool guys to keep working in cold weather.
Preparing for house footings by Rick Vernier who, because of Barry Hayden, gave me a special price.
Footings being poured
Pool construction coming along on March 3, 2022
Very, very difficult footing job
Formed boarded concrete forms, which I wanted because of seeing the look at Tahoe, being set.
More Pool Work being done.
Massive wall thickness!
Again, super thick walls
Desiring a pristine look on the peninsula, I chose to hide the pool equipment in a vault.
Pool vault complete!
And hedge row removal on northeast side of Lake Lori Ann
I can’t tell you how hard it is to be both pilot and photographer!
Mike Yount’s retaining walls start on September 14, 2022
Dirt needed to build up the house area taken from just north of the house.
Geothermal loop being laid in lake.
Dave Frost’s fire pit construction starts on November 7, 2022. Again, I felt this fire pit needed to be completed before more of the house construction since big trucks needed to get by the house to deliver large stone.
Steel erection begins on November 14, 2022 by Steel Workers Union which identified this project as a commercial job due to the size and complexity of the steel structures.
Very expensive Red Built trusses delivered on 11/17/22. We chose Red Builts because the lower level ceiling was going to be an industrial exposed look. Also see large laminated beams which were all designed by Debbie, a structural engineer.
A very heavy duty web!!!
Stef thought a swing on this tree would be great so a swing she got.
Rick Range (pictured here…we love Rick!!!) and his Mittendorf team, another commercial construction company, began framing the house on November 23, 2022. Rick said that this was one of the most challenging projects he has ever done. Even though the drawings were in great shape, the drawings don’t instruct how to frame the house and this one, according to Rick, was very, very difficult.
Fire pit taking shape.We worked out a tricky area to locate this retaining wall
Completed with lights, electrical outlets, water, sump pump, and speakers.
A job that I wouldn’t sign up for
Stef supervising from her new perch!
Stef balancing her way into the house which began to be stick built
Final shape starting to take shape on January 29, 2023.
Hydronic radiant floor heating being laid.
A look at the lower level.
Now on the 6th month of framing here on May 15th.
Our new Can-Am Commander
I must have gotten a little low with this shot from the Skywagon!
Starting to set windows.
Dave Hunt matched the pool boarded concrete to the house
Terbrock contractor begins lower level framing. For the past four months and for the next six months, our contractor only devotes one to two carpenters on our job drawing our job well past its due date of March 31, 2024.
Because of a lack of carpenters, it takes Terbrock seven months to set all of our windows.
Stef working with L to R Greg Terbrock (Owner of Terbrock Luxury Homes), Amy McCoy (outstanding interior designer, Owner of McCoy Design Studio), Norm Robinson (outstand Brighton electrician project leader), and Gary Jokerst (outstanding Terbrock project leader)
Pool concrete flatwork
Sigman’s HVAC ductwork starts
Boilers and boiler storage tank for hydronic radiated floor heat. Sigman does nice ‘n neat work!
Front house windows still being set
An example of one of Stef’s many contributions. She sought to add a window here so that a person entering front door could see elevator cab rise or lower PLUS add cab visibility from inside cab
Dave Frost and his landscaping team do a great job too!
Thank you, Harold Hughes. You are an amazing friend!!!
Thanks again, Harold!
Barry purchases and adds a vintage 1880 wagon to his property. Barry and Debbie Hayden have treated us like gold. Barry has been incredibly helpful in providing construction advise and vendors to our project.
Roger that!
Stairway being added on October 15th.
Cedar siding sealed
Lower level framing, started on August 4, 2023, still not completed on October 17, 2023
Starting to enjoy Miles’s Meadow.
Stef wrote 18 Bible verses on the studs. Our five kids each contributed their own favorite verse too.
Burning south dam vegetation growth.
Lower level fireplaces delivered and installed by C Bennett.
See-thru fireplace from main living room through to our master bedroom now added.
Stef all bundled up in the Muffic (Music Room + Office).
It’s November 21, 2023 and Terbrock still hasn’t gotten our house closed up. They are still putting in exterior doors and windows after beginning this project in May.
Yeah, I might have flown a little low here to in my buggy.
Still adding cedar soffit, patio ceiling, and siding
After several days of preparing the soil, this picture shows Dave Frost himself sitting on the back of his truck adding midwest wildflower seed on our fields to convert them to a “Milesish” meadow.
The house is finally closed up with garage doors for winter.
Spiral HVAC tube being added
Composite decking just added
Electric connection to the house completed.
Black Mexican pebbles will go in the spaces
Kevin Charles Voges + Stephenie Miles Voges
Electrical service inside the house which includes auto switches for generator
The other two HVAC units and the other two hot water heaters
Electrical service at the D-mark and a look at the valving for the garage hydronic radiated floors
LED lights being installed by Brighton
In July 2023 Alexis moved out of her dad’s house and chose to live with Stef and me so we changed our golf simulator room to Alexis’s bedroom. To do that, we had to replace her exterior window with an egress window and build a wall to give her privacy. Doing so would have eliminated that west view of the lake so we took the old exterior window and added that to the wall so we once again had a view of the western side of the lake.
Front door added
A LOT of spray foam insulation!
Because of who Stef is, I wanted to name this whole farm after her. At dinner with Kim and Rob, Kim suggested the name “Miles Meadow”. That’s it!!! Dale Sign made this sign, but Harold helped me plant the sign in God’s earth. Stef’s middle name is Miles. After Kim made the suggestion, I immediately researched and developed plans to convert our fields to a meadow.
Cedar siding
And then batt insulation over the spray foam insulation.
Alexis and Stef during the very busy drywall day
Dave adding composite decking to the yoga deck. Dave always such a great job!
When I was working on the design with our architect, I got great help from Jay Prigge (on the right). The whole inspiration for this house came from seeing these types of houses (during snowboard trips) which Jay built in Tahoe. When looking at about 400 Martis Camp houses for the purpose of finding an inspiration house design to work from to look good on our peninsula, Jay and I both arrived at the same house INDEPENDENTLY!!!
Gary and Stef going over details in the Master Bathroom
The drawing on the left shows that long I-beam on the left getting drywalled. When I saw that this was going to be drywalled over, I asked for some modifications to the wood inside the I-beam and change out bolts so that the beam would remain visible.
Tile beings on March 19th.
This guest shower design is the result of Amy McCoy’s creativity and, believe me, the tile guys did appreciate it one iota!
Master Bedroom tile against transparent fireplace wall
This tile going from master bedroom to bathroom in hallway and bathroom is probably my favorite tile in the house
Cabinets starting to arrive…these in the lower level workout room
Now that we have electric to the firepit at the end of the peninsula, for four hours I cleaned it out to get ready for the summer/fall ‘24
Because we process for Kohler generators at TMW, we installed a Kohler generator for the house.
Guess who moved in as neighbors on the other side of the road? The Bax’s and their beautiful Friesian horse named Finley. They added an $80,000 fence, plan to purchase a Clydesdale, build a barn, and board another horse. Stef asked if they could board a horse for her and they agreed. Wow! Stef is in heaven! Gavin will probably work at their barn to take care of their horses.
Pantry shelves being installed
We didn’t want anything to block our view from our master bedroom and that includes a TV so this 350lb contraption was added to our ceiling on April 25th as a flip-down TV.
Guest shower completed. Look at that intricate tile job! Whew!
Elevator installed. We chose a full glass elevator so we could see the mechanics of the elevator from inside or outside the cab.
Found a water moccasin in our pool
Elevator mechanical room with hydraulic power unit
Andrew working on getting the elevator operational
Lower level walk-up bar cabinets being installed
Our elevator works!
When the walnut hardwood floors began getting installed on 05/08/24, we were alarmed because they looked very different than the sample. We called my very good friend, Steve Lauer, who supplied the flooring and he said not to worry…uhm, he said not to worry about 10 times!
Dave Frost’s guys piping water from gutters all the way to the lake.
In order to keep the Canadian geese off our peninsula, I added a coyote. Immediately thereafter, the geese left the peninsula and all gathered out in the water to take a look.
Kitchen cabinets being installed
I noticed paint flaking off the exterior steel beams so I requested that all exterior beams be stripped down and re-painted.
Dekko added to the workout room to give the lower level an industrial look which I felt was especially important for the workout room.
Greg’s guys did a great job adding Dekko to the lower level fireplace area.
Gene is also working on the subwoofer box as a piece of organic material that will hide the subwoofer in the 1st floor living room.
Outside grille cabinets installed
Back step treads installed and stairway painted
Lower patio remote control blinds installed so that we still be outside even during buggy nights.
The pool finally got plastered. Love the super light blue color because I know it will look great with water. I have never liked the dark blue pools surfaces.
Muffice carpet
Steve said that he found some small circular scratches in the polisher so he himself sanded the entire floor back down. And then finished up the floor…wait for it!!!
Here’s why he said not to worry. I told Steve that he didn’t at all provide us the flooring he said he would…the flogging we got was MUCH better!
Another picture
I should have said, Stef, a snapping turtle, and me. Stef found out after I swimmed right over it. I then picked it up with the pool cleaner net and threw it in the lake. Whew, that was a close call!
Water softener installed
on June 19th.
Kitchen Island
Cable being added to stairway
Master closet almost completed
Gary loves to look at himself. No, actually he and I are working on a height for the suspended master bathroom mirrors
Firepit lights work
Enjoying a quiet night at the pool
Countertops arrive
Reading seat arrived
Mike with SFI adding Italian tile to the laundry room
Asphalting auto court and rest of road in one day!
Adding boat launch
“Snapped a picture” with the swans in the foreground on asphalt day
Many times the “executed” turns out to be better than the plan
St. Louis Closets also installed the cabinets as well
The Muffice (Music Room / Office) cabinets are almost done
Cladding FINALLY starts so Expert Metal Fabricators started hanging the “7.2” panels first
Another pic of the start of the cladding…really looking forward to the smooth panels
Moving our 1463 lb concert grand Steinway into the Muffice
What a relief to have this instrument home, a piano built in 1885.
Grabbed Dave to help the C Bennett guys lift this 430 lb outdoor fire pit to its home on the 1st floor patio
We found some swirls in the master closet floor so Steve Lauer handscraped the floor bare and resanded and stained the walnut floor once again…amazing service!
Stef and I put the pool box together and we received the table/chairs and chaise lounges the next day.
SFI completed the lower level concrete floor polishing which looked horrible…see picture below.
We had no choice but to unload this beautiful early 50’s professional Brunswick pool table that was refurbished by a guy in Manhattan, KS. Interestingly enough, that pool table originally came from Kansas State University student center.
Our live edge table arrived. The trucker first dropped off a boxed electric car battery. Fortunately, we could tell that there couldn’t be a table inside so we were able to stop the trucker in time for him to drop off the correct delivery.
Stef had this table made in Canada. We wanted the big steel base and then a live edge top to soften the tone in the house.
It’s Stef’s dad’s and my dad’s birthday…and it’s also moving day! We had no choice but to move into our new house even though the house needs about another 1-½ months of work to complete the house.
The same company that did a horrible job on the lower level concrete polished floors is the same company that now messed up our garage epoxy floor. The below picture of the floor discoloration is the least of the problems. We now need to wait for another company to grind down both floors and then start over polishing the lower level concrete floor and re-epoxing the garage floor. UGGGHHH!
Our patented steel process, EPS (Eco Pickled Surface, www.epsprocess.com) is now going up on the fireplace wall.
With many EPS cells processing for many applications globally, this has got to be a new application for EPS.
Alan Mueth spent many careful hours getting a Superior coil (our biggest TMW customer) EPS’d, stretcher leveler CTL’d, and then plasma cut at Red Bud Industries. Including preparing the wall, these panels took four guys an entire week to glue these panels to the wall.
Here on Clayton’s birthday, ACM panels begin going up! These ACM panels will take a full month to install.
And Jay Prigge’s art is also hung. We had this art hanging at our Tundra house, but the location didn’t do that art justice. This is the perfect home for this monstrosity!
Garage Forceoff all of SFI’s epoxy and re-applied doing a great job!
Workshop area for my dad’s machinery. Stay tuned for the machines’ arrival on 08/30/24
Very deep bays, electric car hookups, transparent see-thru garage doors, and Big A$$ Fans
Stef and I organized the totes and other stuff in our new garage shelves which St. Louis Closets provided and installed.
It’s time for the construction road to go. A big milestone for our project.
Heintz getting started on the pool vault cover
On 08/22/24 when we received this fireplace surround, I saw how it was built so chincy. ‘Found out that it was built from a workers’ drawing and not included in the construction drawings. It needed to be beefier!
Eric Guebert did a super great job on making the fireplace surround more robust. He basically adding steel on the back side of the C-channel to make it twice as thick.
Now that the surround has been added, we could see that we needed to get the EPS painted because the EPS doesn’t contrast well with the hearth.
I sold the Skywagon in August and bought an F33A Beechcraft in September. This is the first picture of the house from the “Beech” after quite a bit of landscaping and grass planted by Dave Frost’s team. Pictures are a little harder to get from the low wing Beech.
After three weeks of work, Custom Crete did a great job regrinding SFI’s lower level concrete polishing job off and providing a beautiful polished floor!
Now that the floor was well polished, we moved appliances into the lower level bar. The background on the bar gives it a bit of an aviation look.
These bar stools that Stef chose also adds to the aviation vibe.
Sue Greene painting the EPS with texture. What a great job!
Dave Frost’s guys adding plants to the three levels of front planters
Painted EPS wall completed
