Stillwater Luxe

07/18/2024

I wrote a thing...

I was burnt out. For nearly fifteen years I had worked as a commercial photographer trying to balance art and commerce. I felt like I had…

05/04/2024

From building a classic A-frame cabin to splitting a ski condo, there are plenty of creative ways to own at least a part-time high-country getaway.

02/11/2024

I put the correct duvet in the correct room. Are you happy now !!!?!?!??

09/08/2023

It is feeling like a new life chapter has begun.

07/19/2023

07/07/2023

Things are moving along here.

1. We have a delivery date for the modular of mid August…fingers crossed that nothing will get pushed back! It’s a two week process to get it installed once delivered to the site.

2. I made new renderings of the project as you can see here.

3. We posted the listing on at a discounted rate to see if we can start getting some rentals on the books.

https://abnb.me/0h5yVaaVeBb

After after several years of grinding away at this it feels like things are actually moving fast.

07/02/2023

06/30/2023

Our mascot Rosie has some interesting ideas on good napping positions.

06/30/2023

06/25/2023

I had to do a double take when I saw this picture because it looks like Fall aspens. Instead it’s just an amazing sunset effect.

Believe it or not I found doing the siting for the foundation one of the hardest things. I tweaked it so many times, tested my pathetic math skills figuring out the diagonal of a square. It also just felt like such a permanent decision…because you know it is.

In the end I twisted the site slightly clockwise so that from the West side you see Thorodin mountain peak and from the East side you see a glimpse ok the lake. I also ended up moving it back in hopes of saving money on excavation. I think that was probably only slightly successful. The lot is remarkably level, but of course where it did start to drop off to the lake is where I wanted to have the North edge of the house/porch sit for maximum bang for your view buck. Which probably meant about 15k more bucks when we saw the drop off from the porch to ground level was about 10-12 feet and we were going to need a retaining wall. Like many over budget things in a build it can feel like a real downer when you get the expensive news. The upside though is I think the retaining wall and the tiers it will provide will actually be quite nice for hanging out, double as seating and be more useful than just a slope. Also I know my kids will love climbing on it for years to come.

This being the first time I have remotely attempted something like this I have been full of anxiety in getting it right and that was true for the placement of the site and the no going back nature of it. A few guys from the neighborhood came over though a month ago and one guy, who was a surveyor by trade remarked how great the siting was…damn that was good to hear!

More about my dreams for the retaining wall to come soon!

06/23/2023

Houston we have a foundation. The shipping container house we are building will consist of 5 x 40 ft containers that will sit on the foundation you see with a crawl space below. There are sixteen 8x8 inch plates set into the foundation and then nine pillars with 12x12 plates. The containers will be welded to those plates after being set in place by a crane.

I tried to lay the site out so that the left (North) side of the patio and windows will have a view of Thorodin peak and from the right (South) side you will have a view of Thorn Lake.

The foundation has given me the most anxiety of the construction process so far. I have been playing general contractor after not being able to find someone to do it for the site work. The foundation felt like the biggest thing that could go wrong and the one you least want to go wrong. There have been some hiccups, slightly un level plates and a bit of a scare on dimensions that made my heart stop…but I think we are okay. Delivery date for the containers has been set for August 16, that will be the real test if I got this right.

More to come about the process!

06/21/2023

Check out this exploration of how success and failure in a real estate investment hunt can mirror life…or not you decide.

https://lnkd.in/gcdxdYF5

This is a child looking through binoculars…she could be looking for a property. By Daniel Bedell

06/16/2023

These are some pictures from my first couple times on the land we wanted to buy. Of course I got my drone out and marked what I thought would be the best spot for the house and driveway.

06/16/2023

You probably didn't know this but there is a new blog post out in my series Containing Myself. It will entertain you for approximately 7 minutes according to Medium.

Life is like a box of chocolates, this has been well established. I submit that life is also like a real estate search. You start with a…

06/08/2023

And just like that them Aspens are popping! It all happened in like three days, blew my mind.

06/07/2023

My son exploring his options as a canoe model. Suns out guns out.

06/05/2023

Once upon a time I thought this hair was a good look on me. I also thought that a career as a writer and photographer was in front of me. That combination ended up being a harder thing to make happen. Fast forward twenty years and I’m writing again and all my questionable fashion choices are in again, not so sure about that hair though.Things change things stay the same. Check out my most rencent piece on Medium titled Isolation Training and Flip Phone Lies. It’s the second chapter in my series Containg Myself about reimagining my career and investing for the future by doing something kinda crazy in the now.

https://medium.com//isolation-training-and-flip-phone-lies-f8e845e52aa9

06/02/2023

Hello faithful friends, relatives and probably two strangers who accidentally followed this page because it had a profile picture of a dog. I just published the next chapter in my ongoing series Containing Myself on Medium.

It has the amazingly catching title Isolation Training and Flip Phone Lies.

If you love it...or even hate it after reading share on every platform and with every friend you know. I need, I need, I need.

Previously on Containing Myself…

05/24/2023

If you got a chance to read my first ever blog post you’ll know that the purchase of a 19 foot Airstream in 2016 was the beginning of our putting our toe into short term rentals. We rented that airstream our on our property to spring breakers who realized camping in Rocky Mtn National Park was cold in March. To lots or goes. To mom’s doing birthday getaways with their kids. To Denverites wanting to get away…20 minutes away. BUT we also got to get out and use it ourself which has been one of the great things about short-term rentals for us getting to use it ourselves. It’s made us far better at recommending fun things to do snd see. Biggest of all I’ve gotten to learn all the ways i can break things and warn others not to make my mistake.

This picture was from our first bug trip where my adventurous wife let me to convince her to travel for almost a month around the west with our newborn and cat . This was some of our first and most epic off grid camping and remains one of the coolest places to camp. Also i managed to tear the bumper off the Airstream.

Big props id you can name this place. .williams.photography this one is probably too easy for you right?