Soon, Soon, Real Soon Now.....

Talked to the roofers and they expect to be finished on Wednesday, and then we can get the bank draw initiated on Thursday and perhaps get funds from the lawyers by Friday.

I took some pictures and will post them this evening.

So I hope the rain mixed with snow holds off for two more days....

Day 227 - a day of details...

We met Charles and the roofers at the site today at 10am. We took a box of timbits for the roofers, to help them keep their strength up. We spent about 2 hrs with Charles going over details of placement of fireplace, showers, bathtubs, toilets, etc... Soo many details! And then after we got home, we spent about 4 hrs going over the trim requirements. Our brains hurt!

This photo is in the garage. There are four loops of heating tubes placed in the garage. It is not quite sufficient and there is a small gap there. It hardly seems necessary to put in another set of heating manifolds and buy another 1000' feet of tubing for this, so the tubes will just be shifted around slightly to fill in the gap.

This is the front door, sans window, secured against the elements etc. As previously noted, the doors were ordered without windows in error.

The blog entry from April 12th (architectural drawing) shows the windows in the doors.

This is the window for the solarium. As the glass for the central pane is missing, the crew put a piece of plywood over the opening and fastened it to the window frame. You may recall that the rough opening was a bit too big, so the window was raised up. The gap underneath was faced with styrofoam and filled with fiberglass insulation.

This the main bath area. As you can see, the drain for the tub is on the right, which makes it a right-hand (RH) tub. Charles asked us to confirm the dimensions of the tub and the installation method, so the walls could be framed precisely. We went to the plumbing supply place and discovered the order had a LH tub! Fortunately it is a stock item so there was no restocking fee.

This cloud turned out to have a silver lining... While we were there, Andre checked the status of the order, and everything had arrived excepted for the main bath sink and a towel bar. We looked up the main bath sink and discovered it was a sink with 8" centers, but the tap (which we bought months ago) has 4" centers. As the supplier hadn't shipped the sink yet (although it was schedule to ship on Monday), we asked him to cancel that order and change it to a 4" center. Hopefully Andre was successful in this!

Before we went into the house, we threw the kong around for Tawny. Despite the frosty temps, Tawny went into the water a few times and swam around. When we got into the house, she picked up this short piece of 2x4 here (in front of her) and ran around. It took me about 5 times to get a picture of her that wasn't a blur, and was only able to get this one because I got her to sit down first.

Day 224 - roofing progress

Thursday, Nov 17th, 2005

No drive-up photo today as it would be the same as yesterday. However, the difference today is that the roofers are hard at work. Here the roofer is working on finishing the valley. This part goes more slowly as each shingle needs to be trimmed along the valley line. It was so windy yesterday afternoon that the shingles were flapping and tapping out mystery messages to each other in morse code.

This is a closeup photo of the ridge vents. They are constructed out of heavy gauge steel using the same material as the valleys. They were fabricated in the east end of Ottawa by a guy with a metal brake. Ridge vents give more venting space than the traditional types of roof venting.

I wrote above about the high winds experienced yesterday. In fact, it was so strong it blew Charles sign over, breaking the uprights in the process. It had blown over a few weeks ago and I stood it up and put a "few" rocks on the base so it wouldn't blow over. Since it couldn't blow over, it just broke!

I will not be able to visit the site tomorrow morning, so there won't be any new pictures until the weekend. Hopefully the roof will be almost complete by then!

We meet Charles on Saturday to review the expenses to date.

Day 223 - rain again

Drive up, Wednesday November 16th.

Here you can see what the roofers accomplished on Monday. They did not show up yesterday, they did not show up today.

Here you can see that the interior framing is proceeding, despite the inclement conditions indoors and out! The steel tracks are fastened to the concrete with a nail that is driven with a 22 calibre shell. The steel studs are placed in the tracks, levelled and then crimped to hold them in place until they can be screwed together.

It will be a real relief when the roof is finally shingled so the crew can work in the dry and the warm. They are working hard and making good progress without complaint about the rain and the cold.

This is Glen, he is installing the septic system.

Since the ground level will be above the septic tank (the blue part, partially visible here), Glen is installing a couple of extenders, black plastic rings that screw into the tank and then the lids screw into them. You can see one is already installed on the access hole on the left.

The black octagonal tank on the right is the effluent pump chamber. The effluent passes through a filter before flowing out of the septic tank into this pump chamber. The filter prevents any solids from passing through to the pump chamber, which helps increase the longevity of the pump. A float triggers the pump to push the liquid out to the septic field. There is also a high water alarm in the effluent chamber set just above the float, which will trigger if the pump fails to empty the tank.

Because the piping out to the septic field isn't 5 feet or so below grade, Glen will place some styrofoam insulation on top of the piping before backfilling. The septic will be inspected before that happens of course.

The removal of the big pile of rock has been deferred until Monday. Because of all the rain, the place that was going to take the rock is too mucky, and they need to let it dry up a bit. Hopefully this will happen by Monday!!!

More warehousing...
Today Freda picked up a light fixture for over the kitchen sink, it has 4 halogen bulbs so we can angle them to give good working light.

When we were purchasing the exterior door handles, we forgot about the basement door to the garage and the cold storage doors, so Mark picked up some inexpensive door knobs for that today.

Day 222 - snow/freezing rain

Drive up - Tuesday Nov 15th.

Can't quite tell how much shingling happened yesterday because of the skiff of snow. No roofers today as the forecast was freezing rain in the afternoon. It should get to 13C overnight, so we shouldn't have that problem tomorrow.

There was a cold stiff breeze blowing through the house today, so the crew installed the doors to the great room when I was there this morning. Andre, the heating guy arrived to do some more work in the basement.

Snow!

We woke up this morning to a light snowfall - the kind with big fluffy flakes. It's still too mild for the snow to stay, so it will not last.

The propane supplier called this morning (7:08am) to see if the gas piping is ready for hook-up, as he won't deliver the tanks until everything is ready. As I couldn't say definitively, although I think it is all ready, he is going to check with Charles. We need power to run the heating pumps so we can't turn the heat on even when the tanks are delivered.

Day 221 - more progress

Drive-up, Monday morning.

The roofers are hard at work. This photo was taken around 9am, and you can see the ice and water shield is laid out, as well as some of the roof valleys.

The ladder device on the right (behind the Dave-Van) is used to lift the shingles to the roof. One guy on the ground loads the shingles on the shelf, pushes a button and the motor carries it to the top in seconds where the second guy unloads the shingles and sends it down for another bundle.

I spoke with Charles this afternoon, and he said he was impressed with how quickly these guys are doing the job. They have worked on some pretty steep roofs, based on the photos on their web site, St. Pierre Roofing & Son. (You can see the same red Dodge truck that's in front of our house in photos on their web site.)

Installing the doors. This is the door from the garage to the house, it opens into the laundry room. As I wrote yesterday, the doors are being installed so that we can secure the premises.

Coming up...
Utilities: The hydro trench passed inspection, so we got a connection order for Tuesday November 22nd. We filled out the account form for the propane supplier today and Freda will fax it in tomorrow. We should have the tanks in place by the time the electricity is hooked up, so we can have heat in the building next week.

Drywall: The guy who did the drywall for two neighbours came by to see progress. He will be giving us a quote later.

Phone/network/alarm wiring: Charles and I spoke about this. We got an estimate from the Pookoo Group so may get them to run that for us.

Interior columns: I am going to meet Charles out at the site tomorrow to discuss the interior columns. Freda and I spent some time this evening talking about the trim. I may post an entry about the trim sometime. We have simplified our plans for the trim somewhat for two reasons, (1) some of the trim we had planned looked too formal for our tastes, and (2) the everpresent budget. In this case, reason (1) was the driving factor.

Powder room: previously I had blogged how we mistakenly ordered the wrong faucet for the powder room. We returned the incorrect faucet and ordered the proper faucet and sink from Preston Hardware. The new sink/faucet combination was a bit less than the original plan, although that difference was unfortunately consumed by the restocking fee for the tall faucet.

Kitchen backsplash: we have been trying to figure out what to do with this. Freda would like to get some glass tile there, but it is so expensive and we are trying to find something that is suitable and won't break the bank. We inquired with the granite people how much a backsplash would cost, but after talking about it over supper we don't think we will go that route.

Day 220 - Some things I forgot to blog about...

This entry is a bit of a catch all, as it contains various items I forgot to mention before on the blog.

Roof: Today was another beautiful day - started out very mild (at least 15C) and then got a bit cooler and windy. No rain is forecast for tomorrow, although light rain is predicted for Tuesday. The roofers took today off to recover their energy, so no change in the roof status.

Patrick's daughter: Patrick's daughter Julia has her own blog. Amazing, considering she is just over 7 months old!! You can check out her blog here.

Electrical: Last Wednesday evening we met with Charles and Dave the electrician to go over the electrical plan. Framing needs to be completed before Dave can start. The current question is if the electrical work we discussed fits within the estimate.

Aluminum colour selection: I wrote yesterday that we met the owner of the roofing company, Larry. He gave us the colour samples for the aluminum which is used for soffits, fascia, etc. Today we drove to the house that has the stone that we are going to get and checked out the colours against the stone. So we have selected "Sandalwood". (The other colour shown in this photo looks quite blue here on my monitor but is really very close to the colour of the window brickmold, which is really a greeny-blue .)

Framing inspection: inspector came by on Friday to check the framing inspection and had a few minor comments, which Charles is going to check out with the truss supplier.

Exterior lighting: Mark wanted to get some low voltage lighting for wall wash lighting, but it looks like that will be cancelled for budget reasons. We hope to run some wire in the soffits at least.

Expense review: We are meeting Charles on Saturday to review the expenses to date.

Moving ahead:
Fireplace: The fireplace has arrived, and Charles has asked us to have the supplier deliver and install it. Since the dimensions of the unit are not known to the crew now, they will frame the wall around it.

Stucco: Charles is going to arrange a meeting with us and the stucco contractor. One of our neighbours who is building a house (move-in in 3 weeks!) said he is going to wait until next year to complete the stucco and stone on the exterior, so as to avoid the added hassles and cost of tenting and heating. We will talk about this with the stucco man when we meet.

Propane: this is the fuel for our stove, our boiler (heat source), our dryer and our fireplace. We have selected a supplier and will contact them on Monday to arange delivery of the tanks.

Doors/security: the doors are going to be installed on Monday and the doors to the building will be secured with a lock and 2x4s.

Garage doors: Garage door supplier has been contacted to confirm the order. He will install the garage doors after the floor has been poured.

Cabinets: We have tentatively set up a meeting with the cabinet maker so he can come and take his exact measurements and start fabricating the cabinets for the kitchen, powder room, master bath, main bath, and laundry room.

Critical path: the critical path (the things which must be completed on time in order for the project to complete on time) seems to be: roofing, framing, electrical, drywall, finishing. Currently we are stuck on the roofing phase.

Day 219 - beautiful sunny mild day

Drive-up - Saturday.

This is the view of the garage from the driveway, taken about 24 hours after yesterday's photo. The main part of the garage roof you can see from this angle is completed.

As you can see, there is no hydro meter installed yet.

This is the view of the back of the garage roof. It has been started.

When I was taking the pictures, the owner of the roofing company drove up. He said this roof was "complicated" and would take "5 days of good weather" to complete. But yesterday, the roofers said it would go "quickly"! These two statements seem to be in conflict, in my opinion!

By my calculations, the roofers applied 18 bundles of shingles today, or just over 600 square feet. At that rate I figure it will take another 10-11 days! Yikes! It is perplexing why, for a fixed price job, people don't want to get the job done as quickly as possible.

Getting the roof done is the most critical part of the project, as it must be completed before we can get more money from the bank. So naturally, we are both eager and anxious for this to be finished.

Day 218 - nice, but cold

Drive up - Nov 11th.

Garage is first to be shingled in order to provide some protection for the garage floor, which is being prepped for pouring the concrete next week.

This is the garage floor being prepared.

Crushed rock was placed and leveled. The insultarp and wire mesh was placed, and now the heat tubing is being installed. Once the floor is poured, the garage doors can be installed.

This is the view of the garage from the driveway. The wood blocking, in front of each door, forms the lip at the garage doors.

We talked briefly to the roofers as they were leaving. They said the roof will go quite quickly. They plan on working on the weekend if the weather is nice to get it completed as quickly as possible. We are glad about that of course.