Weather.....give us a break

Well we should have had the roof on by now but..... with all this crazy weather Victoria has been getting we are about 2 weeks behind. We have had to shovel off the 2ND floor twice and I did not know but we have actually installed a swimming pool on the main floor:) Well wishful thinking but it is filled with a few inches of water right now. The framers did attempt to get the remaining upstairs walls mostly completed today but had to quit early because of high winds, snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain! Hopefully tomorrow and New Years Eve will be more productive. Trusses are tentatively booked for Wednesday (your prayers would be welcome)

Stairs

I was up on the 2nd floor this afternoon. They needed to know what I wanted done with the "extra space" they found. Where the stairs come up there was a bit extra room so we added it to a closet. Like there was any question doesn't every girl want a bigger closet? The framers have been great they even worked worked yesterday in the -13 (with wind chill). They have now sheathed most of the downstairs walls, put in both sets of stairs and have only 3 walls left upstairs to frame and sheath. Trusses should be going up on Thursday or Friday. Roof next week and shingles after Christmas.

Hopefully power on Monday

Well all this snow is great but we will have to shovel our floor on Monday. We now have all the downstairs framed, floor joists all in, most of the plywood down on the floor, and the back upstairs wall framed and sheathed. They accomplished a lot last week. The only real hick-up was the power. We paid the neighbour to use his, but he is ready to move in so disconnected us. Our power was supposed to be hooked up by hydro on Friday, but when I stopped by in the morning the framers where running of a generator. Hopefully Monday we will be running on our own power and all the framers won't be kept away by the snow. Oh and trusses should be here on Thursday we will have a roof by Christmas.

looking at den and downstairs powder room

looking at master bedroom and ensuite

a look from the road

new 9 foot walls

Well I summoned up enough courage to face the music and as with all things it is never as bad as you imagine it. The guys are all still talking to me. We have to move a door around upstairs a bit as with adding 1 foot of wall height you need to add 2 steps to the stairs. Oh and we wasted a box of nails. All in all it has all worked out.

We had walls but...

We did have walls yesterday, but today I am afraid to go look. Kurk stopped by the lot yesterday and called me to say "why are the walls only 8 feet!!!!". Some how (lack of knowledge) I/We had missed the fact that the plans said 8 feet walls and we wanted 9 footers. So Kurk took the plunge and phoned the framer this morning asked them to take what they had done down and start over again. So you can see why I don't want to show may face around the lot. I will take some pics this weekend and on Monday I am ordering all the windows. In a couple weeks we should have a house instead of just a lot.

Walls......

We have walls. Well at least frames of the walls. The framers got 5/6 walls framed today. It was neat I got to see how big my bedroom window is going to be as well as the kitchen and den windows. It is slowly taking shape, but everyday there is always something that is done not quite right or questions that are asked that I don't know the answer to. Oh well its just house with walls and a roof its what happens inside that makes it a home, at least that is what I need to keep telling myself.

Waiting......

Well we are waiting for the framer to start work. It was supposed to be Monday, then Tuesday now it is supposed to be Thursday. They should at least be putting up the wall for the electrical panel tomorrow and then the electrician will put the panel in tomorrow afternoon so that bright and early Thursday morning 5 guys SHOULD be framing our new home.

Slab Is Poured

In the last 10 days Kurk has taken a few days off to do some prep work around the lot. After the foundation was stripped we got in 11 slinger trucks full of road base (crushed rock) and 2 slingers full of sand and spent time compacting and leveling it all. A couple of late cold nights and everything was level and ready for the plumber to dig it all up! The plumber laid all the pipes and connected the water, sewer, and storm drain. Kurk and I finished the drain tile and leveled out the foundation. The electrician connected the hydro, cable and phone. The excavator filled in all the holes and brought in 2 loads of road base and leveled off the driveway and front porch. Kurk and I laid out all the poly over the road base to protect the slab from water. This all leads up to today when they started pouring the slab and garage at 10:30. We have passed all but 1 inspection but the plumber says not to worry and go ahead and pour (lets hope he is right). Our framer should be ready to go on Monday and by the end of next week we should start to see something that will look like a house. I will post pics later I always feel a little silly taking pics with all the trades people around. We have met some of the neighbors and there is going to be lots of kids which will be great. Hopefully lots of babysitting work for Kayla.

It takes A Family To Build A House

Today Kurk, Kayla, and Joshua spent the day at the lot. I stopped in between soccer, ballet, and day camp. Keith was a very welcome help offering an extra pair of hands and the knowledge we need to accomplish the days work. The day was spent putting up foundation insulation, putting rainwater drainage in place, and hauling away the scrap wood. I did manage to get a few pictures of everyone hard at work.

The foundation was poured yesterday and we passed the city and the engineer's inspection. YEAH! one inspection done 5 or 6 to go. So today one of the framers spent the day stripping the forms. They will finish stripping forms tomorrow and Kurk will spend the weekend putting in the drain tile.

Ready To Pour Foundation

The foundation will be poured tomorrow and we have called for our 1st inspection. The initial electrical had been placed and the plumber has put in his paint cans to mark where the pipes will be. We where going to truck in some clean fill for the back yard but our neighbour is digging out his crawl space, so there will be no room for a dump truck to pass. The neighbour is giving us his fill and hopefully it will be good enough not too many rocks to be the very bottom base for our lawn. Kurk and I mapped out our back patio today and picked out the fireplace. My perception of things is not very good and I am having a hard time visualizing the size of everything. I keep telling Kurk it looks smaller than where we live right now which is impossible as it is 1242 SQ Ft larger.

The Beginning Of Our Home

Well we have finally started construction. The first 2x4 was laid to start the construction of the foundation on November 5th. The guys worked fast the first day and even though the rain was a huge downpour today (6th) the guys worked on and have completed most of the forms. Right now our only concern is that the people that have bought our house on Glanford come up with the money as we have granted an extension on the closing date which was supposed to be the 4th. Right now we are trusting God that he is guiding us through this journey and that His will, will be done.

A Home Built On Rock

Well we are starting to build our new home. When we built our first home 5 years ago I regretted not keeping a photo diary of the progress so this is my attempt to keep you and myself updated. We bought the lot on September 22 2008 and started clearing the lot on October 9th. It took a while to settle on our plans as we looked at hundreds and could not find one that had 6/7 bedrooms. We eventually settled on getting a plan drawn up for us and after a few changes we are very happy with the end result. The lot had a very huge rock (basically a land mass the size of Vancouver Island) which we had to blast and started drilling for the blasting on the 16th of October and actually blasting on October 20th. After about 60 loads of rock being removed we are now left with a flat lot and are ready to start the foundation.