This is Dave's and Charles' plan (from about a week ago) to complete our house for the end of January.
Week of: Description
Week 1 (Nov 28): Electrical, plumbing, central vac rough in, interior framing. Tubs and toilet delivered.
Week 2 (Dec 5): Complete electrical, plumbing rough in. Poly and strapping.
Week 3 (Dec 12): Strapping, drywall, insulation.
Week 4 (Dec 19): draywall, mud, sanding, priming / prime check.
Dec 26: no plans - catch up.
Week 5 (Jan 2/06): Mud, levelling, flooring
Week 6 (Jan 9): Doors, painting, cabinets
Week 7 (Jan 16): Trim, Electrical, plumbing finishing.
So... lots of time!!!
In other action... another drywaller and painter came to measure and give us a quote. Also a guy who does railings came to give a quote for the stairs to the basement.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Day 242 - Fireplace installation
Monday, December 5, 2005
The fireplace arrived today. This is a photo of Randy, one of the the installers at work inside, fastening the chimney in place with strapping. Unfortunately, they only had a 20' section of the chimney, and needed to get another 10' piece to complete the installation. In addition, they were also missing the the propane field conversion kit. They expect to be back on Wednesday or Thursday to complete the install.
While the fireplace installers were fastening the chimney inside, Dave and Charles were covering up the chimney box outside. Here you can see Dave "hanging around", after putting the last piece of plywood on the chimney.
Electricians have been busy, wiring away. This gang of 5 switches is by the front door. Lots of switches!!! Let's see if I can remember what they are all for: inside foyer, outside door, garage lights, eave plugs. Okay - that's only 4 so I am missing one.
This is the view out of basement window looking towards the lake. The wide bars are the grilles in the window and the X is the scaffolding that's in place at the front of the house.
The fireplace arrived today. This is a photo of Randy, one of the the installers at work inside, fastening the chimney in place with strapping. Unfortunately, they only had a 20' section of the chimney, and needed to get another 10' piece to complete the installation. In addition, they were also missing the the propane field conversion kit. They expect to be back on Wednesday or Thursday to complete the install.
While the fireplace installers were fastening the chimney inside, Dave and Charles were covering up the chimney box outside. Here you can see Dave "hanging around", after putting the last piece of plywood on the chimney.
Electricians have been busy, wiring away. This gang of 5 switches is by the front door. Lots of switches!!! Let's see if I can remember what they are all for: inside foyer, outside door, garage lights, eave plugs. Okay - that's only 4 so I am missing one.
This is the view out of basement window looking towards the lake. The wide bars are the grilles in the window and the X is the scaffolding that's in place at the front of the house.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Day 241 - it's the cold & flu season...
...and -- guess what?? -- I have a cold. It was milder here today than yesterday, but I felt not so good so I didn't go out at all. Freda very kindly went out and got some more Halls for me.
We had planned to go to the land and throw the kong for Tawny today, but didn't because of the cold.
Robutussin and Sudafed... here I come!
We had planned to go to the land and throw the kong for Tawny today, but didn't because of the cold.
Robutussin and Sudafed... here I come!
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Day 240 - finalized the cabinets
Yesterday I started feeling pretty lousy at in the afternoon, with the same symptoms of the cold that plagued the crew this past week. Drat!
Given that I was feeling under the weather, today felt very busy although it wasn't really. We met with Heinz the cabinet maker yesterday evening, and although we had a very good idea about the handles, we needed to finalize the laminate counter tops selection for the main bath and the laundry room. So today we went to the kitchen design center and selected Formica Madras Indian Slate.
On the way back we went to the Orange Borg to pick up the sink and faucet for the powder room which had arrived. While we were there, we checked out the cabinet handles as well as the undercabinet lighting. Since Freda wanted a special knob (knob A on this page) from Lee Valley for the laundry room, we popped over there to pick these knobs up. There is no other brass colour in the house other than these knobs.
Last week I calculated how much energy would be required to heat up the slab. Unfortunately, the house was not closed up and heat turned on before it got quite cold. Now the themal mass of the concrete floors are working against us, as we have to heat up all that concrete. These are the calculations I did then. I think you can follow along with reasoning.
Mass of concrete
23 cubic meters of concrete for both main floor and basement floor. This translates to 30.08 cubic yards per floor. One cubic yard of concrete weighs 4000 pounds, each floor has 120,000 pounds of concrete (60 tons) to be heated.
Temperature differential
Let's assume the main floor is at -5C, and the basement floor is +2C. Let's further assume that we want to get the floors to +15C, which would be a temperature for working in, drywalling, etc. This means we need to heat the main floor by 20C and the basement by 13C.
Energy (BTU) cost
1 BTU is the energy required to heat 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Lets assume that this applies to concrete also. So we have to convert the Celsius temperature diff to Fahrenheit and multiply by the weight of the concrete.
20C transition is 36F (main floor), and the basement 13C is 23.4F. Multiplied by the weight of the concrete, we get a requirement of 7.1 million BTUs to heat up both slabs.
Heating efficiency
However, since the main floor slab is below freezing, the water would freeze in the pipes if we ran the hydronic heating first -- this would not be a good thing. Since we need to heat the air first to heat up the slab, we are not going to get great efficiency as this is not as efficient as direct heat transfer through the hydronic system. For now, let's assume that the heating efficiency is 60%.
Propane requirement
Propane has 91,000 BTUs per gallon. Given the BTU requirements (7.1M), and heating efficiency (60%), we come up an estimated 131 gallons of propane(US gallon) to heat both slabs to 15C.
Do we have enough propane?
We should have had 3 big tanks delivered, but they only delivered two. The three tanks hold 1100 litres, so our two tanks should contain about 733 litres. Converted the estimated volume of propane required into litres, we get 495 litres required.
So we do have enough propane in the big tanks, although it will use about 70% of the tanks' contents. This translates to a cost of approximately $400.
It really is too bad we weren't able to get the vapour barrier on sooner so we didn't have this extra expense.
Given that I was feeling under the weather, today felt very busy although it wasn't really. We met with Heinz the cabinet maker yesterday evening, and although we had a very good idea about the handles, we needed to finalize the laminate counter tops selection for the main bath and the laundry room. So today we went to the kitchen design center and selected Formica Madras Indian Slate.
On the way back we went to the Orange Borg to pick up the sink and faucet for the powder room which had arrived. While we were there, we checked out the cabinet handles as well as the undercabinet lighting. Since Freda wanted a special knob (knob A on this page) from Lee Valley for the laundry room, we popped over there to pick these knobs up. There is no other brass colour in the house other than these knobs.
Last week I calculated how much energy would be required to heat up the slab. Unfortunately, the house was not closed up and heat turned on before it got quite cold. Now the themal mass of the concrete floors are working against us, as we have to heat up all that concrete. These are the calculations I did then. I think you can follow along with reasoning.
Mass of concrete
23 cubic meters of concrete for both main floor and basement floor. This translates to 30.08 cubic yards per floor. One cubic yard of concrete weighs 4000 pounds, each floor has 120,000 pounds of concrete (60 tons) to be heated.
Temperature differential
Let's assume the main floor is at -5C, and the basement floor is +2C. Let's further assume that we want to get the floors to +15C, which would be a temperature for working in, drywalling, etc. This means we need to heat the main floor by 20C and the basement by 13C.
Energy (BTU) cost
1 BTU is the energy required to heat 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Lets assume that this applies to concrete also. So we have to convert the Celsius temperature diff to Fahrenheit and multiply by the weight of the concrete.
20C transition is 36F (main floor), and the basement 13C is 23.4F. Multiplied by the weight of the concrete, we get a requirement of 7.1 million BTUs to heat up both slabs.
Heating efficiency
However, since the main floor slab is below freezing, the water would freeze in the pipes if we ran the hydronic heating first -- this would not be a good thing. Since we need to heat the air first to heat up the slab, we are not going to get great efficiency as this is not as efficient as direct heat transfer through the hydronic system. For now, let's assume that the heating efficiency is 60%.
Propane requirement
Propane has 91,000 BTUs per gallon. Given the BTU requirements (7.1M), and heating efficiency (60%), we come up an estimated 131 gallons of propane(US gallon) to heat both slabs to 15C.
Do we have enough propane?
We should have had 3 big tanks delivered, but they only delivered two. The three tanks hold 1100 litres, so our two tanks should contain about 733 litres. Converted the estimated volume of propane required into litres, we get 495 litres required.
So we do have enough propane in the big tanks, although it will use about 70% of the tanks' contents. This translates to a cost of approximately $400.
It really is too bad we weren't able to get the vapour barrier on sooner so we didn't have this extra expense.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Day 239 - more photos
Friday December 2nd, 2005
These electricians are running all the wire for the various circuits through the attic space. These neat bundles of wire all come to this wall in the master ensuite bath and will run down the outside of this wall (in the garage) to the panel in the basement.
This is Dave preparing for the arch from kitchen to great room. Dave had some great ideas to make sure the arches have a similar look and appear balanced..
This is one of the things the plumber urgently needed - this is the shower control installed in the master bath shower area. The other parts (tubs, etc) are in the basement for when they are needed.
The pipe from the well was cut right above the level of the concrete. The speculation is that this was done by the floor finishers. This meant the concrete had to be chipped out from around the pipe, the damaged section removed, and then a new piece spliced in. The chipped out concrete will need to be filled in after.
These electricians are running all the wire for the various circuits through the attic space. These neat bundles of wire all come to this wall in the master ensuite bath and will run down the outside of this wall (in the garage) to the panel in the basement.
This is Dave preparing for the arch from kitchen to great room. Dave had some great ideas to make sure the arches have a similar look and appear balanced..
This is one of the things the plumber urgently needed - this is the shower control installed in the master bath shower area. The other parts (tubs, etc) are in the basement for when they are needed.
The pipe from the well was cut right above the level of the concrete. The speculation is that this was done by the floor finishers. This meant the concrete had to be chipped out from around the pipe, the damaged section removed, and then a new piece spliced in. The chipped out concrete will need to be filled in after.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Day 238 - framing almost complete.
Thursday - December 1st! December??? Wow! Time is sure flying.
Well, I got to the house in daylight today, so was able to take some photos. Lots of progress to show you.
This is the arch from the hallway to the great room. Note that the radius of the curve here matches the radius of the curve on the top of the window. The plastic obscures the partition a bit, but it will be beautiful. There will be a column on each side of the opening to the great room.
This photo is looking using the special X-Ray Vision setting on the camera to see through the wall of the closets to the master bath. There are lots of wires and plumbing. The plumbing store that is supplying our fixtures delivered the two tubs, a toilet, the bath faucets, and the shower valves.
Dave is taking advantage of the nice weather to build the last of the returns for the gable ends. We are supposed to get some light snow tomorrow, so there won't be too much more opportunity to do this. Snow usually doesn't stick here until after mid-December, but that is only 2 weeks away!
This is a photo of the basement. As you can see, there is lots of plumbing etc... here. The plumbers are using this white tubing for the main part of the plumbing. Since the tubing looks the same, how do you tell teh hot and cold supply apart? Well, the plumbers put black tape on the cold supply.
As part of the weather proofing, all the gaps around the windows and doors are foamed, as well as the sill plate and the cuts in the foam created by the electricians when they are doing their work. You can see all the foam around the windows and the sill plate in this photo.
Here Patrick is installing the hurricane clips on the trusses. Patrick wasn't feeling well so he went home a few minutes after this.
In other developments...
Fireplace... installation scheduled for Monday
Countertops... we originally wanted to get granite counters for the kitchen and master bath. However, when we changed the sink/faucet for the powder room, we thought we would like to get granite for the powder room as well. The company that we were going to hire to supply the granite quoted us what we considered an outrageous price for that 3' piece of granite. (Just to show how unreasonable it was, the Orange Borg price was only $31 more -- and the OB is one of the most expensive.) We found a local granite supplier that will supply and install all the granite, including the powder room, for a slightly lower price than our initial supplier. (If they hadn't been so unreasonable about the powder room counter we never would have looked for another quote...)
Well, I got to the house in daylight today, so was able to take some photos. Lots of progress to show you.
This is the arch from the hallway to the great room. Note that the radius of the curve here matches the radius of the curve on the top of the window. The plastic obscures the partition a bit, but it will be beautiful. There will be a column on each side of the opening to the great room.
This photo is looking using the special X-Ray Vision setting on the camera to see through the wall of the closets to the master bath. There are lots of wires and plumbing. The plumbing store that is supplying our fixtures delivered the two tubs, a toilet, the bath faucets, and the shower valves.
Dave is taking advantage of the nice weather to build the last of the returns for the gable ends. We are supposed to get some light snow tomorrow, so there won't be too much more opportunity to do this. Snow usually doesn't stick here until after mid-December, but that is only 2 weeks away!
This is a photo of the basement. As you can see, there is lots of plumbing etc... here. The plumbers are using this white tubing for the main part of the plumbing. Since the tubing looks the same, how do you tell teh hot and cold supply apart? Well, the plumbers put black tape on the cold supply.
As part of the weather proofing, all the gaps around the windows and doors are foamed, as well as the sill plate and the cuts in the foam created by the electricians when they are doing their work. You can see all the foam around the windows and the sill plate in this photo.
Here Patrick is installing the hurricane clips on the trusses. Patrick wasn't feeling well so he went home a few minutes after this.In other developments...
Fireplace... installation scheduled for Monday
Countertops... we originally wanted to get granite counters for the kitchen and master bath. However, when we changed the sink/faucet for the powder room, we thought we would like to get granite for the powder room as well. The company that we were going to hire to supply the granite quoted us what we considered an outrageous price for that 3' piece of granite. (Just to show how unreasonable it was, the Orange Borg price was only $31 more -- and the OB is one of the most expensive.) We found a local granite supplier that will supply and install all the granite, including the powder room, for a slightly lower price than our initial supplier. (If they hadn't been so unreasonable about the powder room counter we never would have looked for another quote...)
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Day 237 - colds and wagers!
Hello again. I wasn't able to get out to the house today after work in time to take photos, as it was too dark. But I was able to see that great progress is happening. The plumbers are all a-plumbing, the electricians are all a-wiring. Well, not all the electricians -- Nick apparently looked like something the cat dragged in and the dog wouldn't eat (i.e. he was feeling very lousy!) so he went home. On the crew side, Sean is not feeling well either so may not be in tomorrow.
Today, Dave and I made a wager. Dave has said that he can have our house finished by the end of January, except perhaps for the trim out. So I wagered him $500 on this. I gave Dave 5:1 odds, so if he doesn't make it then he owes me $100. We would be very happy if we could move in at the end of January.
Fireplace... Dave framed the base and is framing the opening for the fireplace so it can be installed on Monday.
A couple of hiccups today...
Stone removal... Steve Berry was going to remove the stone last week, but that didn't happen, and then it was going to be on Monday and then Tuesday and then today. Well, the ground was so saturated with all the rain we got on Monday (40mm) that they were only able to get 6 loads out of there. At the other end, it was a disaster unloading it because it was so mucky. We will have to wait for the pile to drain a bit more before they can haul it away, and hopefully it won't freeze before then.
Plumbing... Charles asked me to arrange for the tubs and a toilet to be delivered. So I did arrange for the tubs and a toilet to be delivered. But we also need the waste and overflow for the tubs, as well as the control valves for the showers. But since those aren't the tubs, I didn't ask for them to be delivered. So I need to call the plumbing supply store tomorrow morning and get it sorted. They are not large items so I may need to pick them up myself and take them out to the house. This won't be a problem tomorrow.
Today, Dave and I made a wager. Dave has said that he can have our house finished by the end of January, except perhaps for the trim out. So I wagered him $500 on this. I gave Dave 5:1 odds, so if he doesn't make it then he owes me $100. We would be very happy if we could move in at the end of January.
Fireplace... Dave framed the base and is framing the opening for the fireplace so it can be installed on Monday.
A couple of hiccups today...
Stone removal... Steve Berry was going to remove the stone last week, but that didn't happen, and then it was going to be on Monday and then Tuesday and then today. Well, the ground was so saturated with all the rain we got on Monday (40mm) that they were only able to get 6 loads out of there. At the other end, it was a disaster unloading it because it was so mucky. We will have to wait for the pile to drain a bit more before they can haul it away, and hopefully it won't freeze before then.
Plumbing... Charles asked me to arrange for the tubs and a toilet to be delivered. So I did arrange for the tubs and a toilet to be delivered. But we also need the waste and overflow for the tubs, as well as the control valves for the showers. But since those aren't the tubs, I didn't ask for them to be delivered. So I need to call the plumbing supply store tomorrow morning and get it sorted. They are not large items so I may need to pick them up myself and take them out to the house. This won't be a problem tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Day 236 - too dark for pictures
I went out to the site after work today, and it was too dark for pictures, so no photos today. It hit 17C today, which was a record-setting day (previous record was 11.7C in 1966). All the rain made the driveway very soft - a real mess. It was so soft that I got stuck. This is the same thing that causes potholes - loss of friction.
Progress:
More electrical progress.
More plumbing progress. Pressure tank installed.
Interior framing almost complete.
Starting framing doorways with 2x4 to give the door frames rigidity.
Things to do:
Ask for fireplace to be installed.
Ask for bathtubs to be delivered so they can be framed in.
Ask for a toilet to be delivered (so we can get rid of the Johnny On the Spot).
Setbacks:
It looks like the floor finishers cut the pipe from the well when they were finishing the basement floor. Since it's cut right next to the floor, some of the concrete will have to be chiselled out in order to splice the water line.
Progress:
More electrical progress.
More plumbing progress. Pressure tank installed.
Interior framing almost complete.
Starting framing doorways with 2x4 to give the door frames rigidity.
Things to do:
Ask for fireplace to be installed.
Ask for bathtubs to be delivered so they can be framed in.
Ask for a toilet to be delivered (so we can get rid of the Johnny On the Spot).
Setbacks:
It looks like the floor finishers cut the pipe from the well when they were finishing the basement floor. Since it's cut right next to the floor, some of the concrete will have to be chiselled out in order to splice the water line.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Day 235 - we got the power!!!
Monday, Nov 28th, 2005I am glad to report that Hydro One didn't lose our connection order for today. This was supposed to happen last Tuesday, but at least it is working now.
The first step is to pull the cable from the road to the meter base. Before we could even get the connection order, Charles had a hydro trench dug, a conduit containing a pull rope placed, and then the conduit was buried to the appropriate level.
This is at the other end of the cable. When the two guys (above) were pulling the rope, the guy shown here was unrolling some cable from this big spool. Once the required length was pulled through, he got out these massive shears to cut the cable.
A number of steps are missing here as the hydro workers didn't like their picture getting taken. These steps included: splicing the power supply from the step-down transformer to the cable that was just installed in the conduit; installing insulating cover over the splices; running the cable through another conduit before hooking the cables to the meter base and leaving an "underwriter's loop" at the bottom of the hole); energizing the cable and testing that there is power before installing the meter. This testing step is what is happening here.
And this is what we've all been waiting for. The meter reads 00003 and the little disc is not turning. This is probably the only time you can ever see it not turning (unless there is a blackout!)0
The crew took advantage of the mild weather to build a set of temporary new stairs in front of the laundry room door.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Day 234 - Biting the bullet...
Last weekend, Charles told us that he thought we wouldn't be able to move in at the end of January as planned (according to the revised revised plan). Despite Dave's assurances that everything would be finished except for some of the trimming out work, it seems quite clear that this just will not happen by the end of January, although it should be finished by mid-February. So I bit the bullet and changed the ticker at the top of the blog from building completion of mid-December to moving date 4 weeks later than originally planned (Jan 25th). I think I will take Dave up on his statement of an end-January completion and make a bet with him on it...
We were supposed to meet the flooring supplier yesterday, but some of his crew got stuck on a job and he had to go help them out. So we met Mike at the house today to go over some of the selections. Overall, we are happy with our selections, and happy also that we have been able to stay within budget. Hopefully there will be no hidden surprises there.
Just when we were leaving, we noticed that the half wall in the laundry room was framed to the ceiling. On the plan, this is called a "utility tub", and is intended to be an area where we can wash Tawny when she gets all muddy. At one end, this is supposed to have a half wall where the faucet is attached. I will talk to Dave about that on Monday. (When we got home I checked the plan and it is not clear from the drawing that it is a half wall.)
Looking ahead at the weather, it looks like we will have some amazing mild weather this week. This is a fabulous opportunity to get the rest of the exterior work completed.
Needless to say, we are all quite tired.
We were supposed to meet the flooring supplier yesterday, but some of his crew got stuck on a job and he had to go help them out. So we met Mike at the house today to go over some of the selections. Overall, we are happy with our selections, and happy also that we have been able to stay within budget. Hopefully there will be no hidden surprises there.
Just when we were leaving, we noticed that the half wall in the laundry room was framed to the ceiling. On the plan, this is called a "utility tub", and is intended to be an area where we can wash Tawny when she gets all muddy. At one end, this is supposed to have a half wall where the faucet is attached. I will talk to Dave about that on Monday. (When we got home I checked the plan and it is not clear from the drawing that it is a half wall.)
Looking ahead at the weather, it looks like we will have some amazing mild weather this week. This is a fabulous opportunity to get the rest of the exterior work completed.
Needless to say, we are all quite tired.
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