Day 210 - Heavy lifting - completed!

(click any picture for larger view) Photo from here.

This is an Antonov An-225 Mryia - the world's largest plane, and is used as heavy-lift cargo plane. Yes, it is slightly larger than the A-380 and way bigger than the Airbus Beluga. You can read more about the An-225 here. First flight: Dec 1988. Weight: 501,000 pounds empty, 1.32 million pounds fully loaded. 6 engines. 32 wheels.

So what does this have to do with anything?

Charles called me today to pass on the great news that the sheathing on the roof was completed. This means the "heavy lifting" (aka the hardest part of our building -- the roof) is complete!!! Fabulous!!!

This has been a long haul for the crew. It's taken almost 5 weeks to get to this point, but the end is clearly in sight. The many days of rain and very cool mornings took a toll, but it is really great to get this huge piece of work behind us. At Nortel where I work, we call that the heavy lifting phase of the project, which is why I made the references to the heavy lift aircraft.

Thank you very much - Charles, Dave, Chris, Sean, and Patrick!

Although the sheathing on the roof is completed, there is still some more work to do there: build the dutch gable on the garage, build the returns for the gable ends, install the strapping on the long webs of the trusses, build the chimney chase and the cricket, or in more colourful language - the duck's ass (you can read about a cricket here), and install the hurricane clips on the trusses.

Shingles
So now we're ready for the shingles. We had previously selected the Renaissance XL shingle in Weathered Slate (see blog entry Oct 8th). However... the colour of the sample Charles dropped by didn't match these pictures, so we got addresses of some houses with the various shingle colours on them and will drive by on Saturday. Fortunately, there is one street in Kanata that has all of the shingle colours on it, so we just need to go by there.

We're also waiting for the last shingling quote to come in so we can make a decision on that and get started.

Other accomplishments today
In addition to the roof sheathing being completed, Charles said the sand bed was laid for the septic field. The plumber was there today doing some rough-in, the HVAC guy was installing his plenums, and the electrician will be there tomorrow. One thing Mr Electrician needs to do is remedy the electrical panel as it not generator ready which is what we wanted (see blog entry from June 3rd - Day 58 - when I originally spoke with the plumber, electrician, and HVAC trades).

Things in progress
- finding a propane supplier (we're ready to make a decision after we talk to Charles about tank placement - Freda made all the phone calls for that)
- electrical layout: we have a draft we need to review with Charles
- security system: we have a meeting booked with a company on Thursday evening
- tile backsplash in kitchen: Freda is researching this also
- cabinet and flooring: Freda called these suppliers to give them a heads-up that they will be able to come and take measurements in a couple of weeks.
- COLOURS: Freda is considering various options and deciding on the colour schemes. This is harder than I thought! I guess that's one reason why why tract builders just paint everything "builder beige".

Freda gets some of her inspiration and encouragement from these shows on the W Network:
Candice Olson's Divine Design,

and also
Jane Lockhart's Colour Confidential