Google satellite view

This image is from Google Earth, a satellite view of 54 Speers. Neat that you can see our cedar deck.

Check it out at http://earth.google.com.

According to Google Earth, the lat/long of our new house is: 45 deg 16' 41.88" N 76 deg 04' 24.41" W.

Day 117 - plans, R2000, etc

Plans for this week:
- get a crane to lift the roll bars out of the basement
- finish putting the Insul-tarp on the basement floor
- finish putting the wire mesh and the Wirsbo tubing in
- pour the floor

We got a flyer in our last Ottawa Hydro bill touting Hydro Ottawa Supports Canada’s First ENERGY STAR® for New Homes Community (pdf here). I called Hydro Ottawa to see what they meant when they say they "support this initiative". I spoke to a number of really nice people (who actually returned phone calls!!). It turns out that Hydro Ottawa is paying for an energy evaluation for the new homes in this community (about $100). I asked if our house would be eligible, and today I heard from a guy at Hydro Ottawa that yes, they would cover our house since we are planning an R-2000 house. Great!!! So I will call him back tomorrow to discuss.

In other news, we should get a Grapevine sign on our house tomorrow... Not sure if you have seen the Google satellite images (or Google Earth), but it's pretty cool. We can actually see our cedar deck behind our house.

Considering fan options

Click for larger picture.

These are the fans that we are thinking about the house. The fans labelled Gx are options for the Great Room, and the fans labelled Sx are options for the Solarium. The option 1 fans are from Home Depot, and the option 2 fans are from a specialty fan store. The G2 and S2 fans are very quiet and don't wobble at all, not sure if the same would be true about the HD fans.

There probably isn't much utility in getting a fan with a light for the great room, as the fan will be fairly high so the light will not be much use. Because the solarium is a smaller room, a light on a fan there will be more useful.

We will defer purchasing the fans until we are closer to completion, as this is an optional finishing touch. In any case, we will have the wiring, etc, installed for the fan, and leave it for later if needed.

I really love S2 - Emerson Kitty Hawk in maple and brushed steel - it really does look like a biplane. The cost for that is 3.5x the cost of S1, however (!). (The cost for G2 is about 2xG1.)

Day 113 - preparing the basement floor

This week the crew spent several days stripping the scaffolding support for the main floor, and stacking up all the roll bars.

These are the stacked up roll bars waiting to be lifted out of the basement with a crane and sent back to Canam-Hambro.

This is what the basement looks like without all the support structure and plywood for holding up the main floor. Some of the reflective bubble wrap is falling down a bit, but that will be fixed later.

The basement is nice and bright with the big windows.

This is what the Insul-tarp looks like.

The exterior is some kind of tough fabric, then there are two layers of thin white foam, then a layer of bubble wrap. Hard to believe this can be equivalent of 2" of styrofoam.

This is the plywood that was previously under the concrete on the main level. It has been removed and is now stacked until it can be reused for the roof sheathing.

Thank you Kevin & Nancy and Loan and Gerry and Christine!

I have now recovered all of the blog thanks to the following:
- Kevin & Nancy Mayo (June 30th-July 21st)
- Gerry Kopec (May, June)
- Loan Nguyen (May, June), and last but not least:
- Christine @ Google Blogger Support (the rest of the blog).

Apologies to all those who previously commented - unfortunately your comments were lost with the blog posts... This includes: Aaron the truck driver, Rachel, and others...

Thank you all!

Day 106 - the finished floor

This is Freda standing in the future kitchen eat-in area. I only really have basement floors to compare this to, but I have to say the floor is impeccably finished. Charles says there are some "highs and lows", but I have to say that it sure looks to me like the floor finishing crew really did an awesome job! (This will make it easier when the finish flooring guy comes to do his bit.) On top of it all, it was quite hot and humid yesterday, so it must have been quite unpleasant. On the other hand, it rained yesterday (quite heavily at the start -- the wind and rain were ripping leaves off trees!) which would help keep the concrete damp so it doesn't cure too quickly (and then crack!).

This photo shows the window bucks that the crew put together in preparation for the walls on the main level. There's a lot of wood in them thar bucks (all 2x12 except at the base), which means they are heavy... This photo also shows the concrete floor deck and the Canam-Hambro joists that are holding it all up.

Day 105 - Pouring the main floor

Post recovered by Kevin! Many thanks, Kevin!!


Levelling the floor slab.


Pouring the slab


This is the temporary manifold that was set up in order to pressure test the Wirsbo tubing.

Day 104 - ready to pour main floor slab

Post recovered by Kevin! Many thanks, Kevin!!

Installation and pressure testing of the Wirsbo tubing has been completed. Tomorrow, the main floor slab is poured. 8 days late, according to the day 89 plan. Pictures tomorrow.

Day 99 - critical condition

Post recovered by Kevin! Many thanks, Kevin!!

The man who was hit by lightning is in critical condition. Story here.

Day 98 - and so the wire mesh finally arrives

Post recovered by Kevin! Many thanks, Kevin!!

We were 6 or 7 sheets short of the wire mesh. This meant the crew could not finish with the Wirsbo tubing and prepping for pouring the floor (which was anticipated to happen on Wednesday). The supplier was short by 3 or 4 sheets of wire mesh when the rest was delivered, unfortunately this delayed the completion of prepping the floor for the concrete pour. As a result, the pour will be delayed until Monday. (We were originally short 3-4 sheets of mesh, but the driver who delivered them wrecked 3 sheets when he dropped off the original order, so we were short a total of 6 or 7.)

We had a tremendous lightning storm yesterday, unfortunately for this guy who was struck by lightning. (He's in critical condition.) Charles was on the floor deck when there was distant thunder and he felt the hair raising on his arms, so he got off there quickly (very wise move!). Since our house will be the tallest thing around (until a neighbour builds a 2-story house), I talked with Charles about getting a lightning rod or something like that. This isn't in the budget, but we are thinking this is something we really need to do. A few thousand...

Received the "customer service contract" from Hydro One. This is to open an account and connect the house to the hydro grid. I have to sign the contract and return with payment before they will do anything.