Our New Home: The Chronicle

Epilogue

2011-03-09T22:49:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone,

Who leaves a blog hanging for two years in cyberspace? People who have had to do a lot of re-prioritizing over the last two years, I suppose. You'll forgive us, we hope.

Since we last posted, we finished staining the miles of baseboard in our house, completed (and rented!) the bachelor apartment in the basement, built a beautiful raised vegetable garden in the backyard, and yes, even managed to park the car in the garage. When I say we, I mostly mean John.

This video, produced by our builder, shows the final product. What can we say? We love the place.

We hope you'll help us enjoy our home, and visit often.

Almost there

2008-11-16T22:35:00.005-05:00

Here are some very recent photos of the exterior and interior, to give you an idea of where we are now (none of the furniture in the right-hand photo is in the right spot, but will be soon).

96A Crichton is now a habitable location, and we love it more every day.

Stay tuned!

Roof with a view

2008-11-16T22:28:00.006-05:00

While we were tiling a couple of months ago (still ongoing, if you can believe it), we had a little snack on the rooftop patio. It wasn't finished yet, but we still enjoyed getting some fresh air on the roof. The photo on the right shows the rooftop patio as it is now. From there we will be able to see the fireworks over Parliament Hill on Canada Day, and the international fireworks competition in Hull. We can't wait!

Time to cook

2008-11-16T22:23:00.005-05:00

Our kitchen is almost complete; only a single cabinet and our countertops remain. It's hard to get a photo of the whole kitchen from any angle, but here's an attempt. We love everything about this kitchen; it turned out even better than we had hoped. We especially love the stacked cabinets to the ceiling (no place for dust!) and the pull-out pot drawer in the peninsula. Oh, and the 36-inch cooktop, too. And the dishwasher. Okay, all of it.

Stairs — the triumphant return!

2008-11-16T22:17:00.003-05:00

Less than a week after they were removed, our stairs were safely returned to us. They now meet code, and are as beautiful as they were when they left. We are now only waiting for the maple handrail; once those are on, the stairs will be 100% complete. (The handrail in the photo is temporary.)

Copper sink installed!

2008-11-16T22:08:00.006-05:00

When the copper sink we bought on our honeymoon in Montreal was put in, it felt like things really started taking shape. We kept that sink in a bag in our apartment for about five months, waiting for the time to come when it would be installed. The powder room is now almost ready for visitors — the box of cleaning materials in the photo has been removed, and all the regular bathroom accessories have been installed, including a great round mirror, a toilet paper holder, a hand towel rack and lights. It's amazing how much a toilet paper holder makes a room look like a real room.

Indoor camping

2008-11-16T21:59:00.005-05:00

While our stairs leading to our bedroom were gone, we spent a few nights camped out in our house, moving from spot to spot as work progressed on the second floor. We still managed to have some good meals, though. (If you look closely in the right-hand photo, you can see a real sign of the wilderness: Tammo, our pet bunny!) That photo still makes me laugh.

More floor pics

2008-11-16T21:41:00.006-05:00

Here are a couple more photos of the floors before they were refinished. On the left is a photo of the first floor, which was really terrible. The photo on the right shows marks in the second-floor bathroom. I still find it truly unbelievable that a company that did work this shoddy would not be embarassed and offer to refinish them as soon as possible. Instead, we had to chase after them until they finally relented. It's infuriating. But it's Sunday evening, so I'm letting it go.

Bye, bye stairs

2008-11-16T21:39:00.004-05:00

Here are a couple of photos of our stairs being removed. It was quite an operation -- not a scratch anywhere! Look at Ethan's legs dangling in the second photo where our stairs used to be. Yikes!

Our floors: Before and after

2008-11-16T21:28:00.004-05:00

After some serious digging, I managed to find my camera software and download some photos. Here are the first of many to come.

As we mentioned in previous posts, we had an absolutely awful experience with our two flooring companies. The photo on the left shows the state in which they first left our floors. Remember, these were to be our finished floors, with no other covering on them. Truly, they were unbelievably bad. The white streaking shows where the varnish was rubbed off of the floors before it was dry. It looks like you could just mop it up, but you can't. The guys finishing our floors did try their best, but they had no training and no support. It was a disaster. The photo on the right shows the refinished floors. They are dusty in the photo, but you can still see how much better they are. Unfortunately, they are far from perfect. We will live with them for the forseeable future, though.

Four football fields

2008-11-07T14:04:00.016-05:00

Between moving furniture, finding places to sleep, and generally fretting, we have spent the last four weekends sanding, staining and varnishing 800 feet of two-inch window and door trim and 400 feet of four-inch baseboards. Stretched out end to end, that's four football fields worth of poplar.

Lessons learned from finishing four football fields of wood:

1. Sanding large amounts of wood is back-breaking, dusty work.

2. Working in a confined area (garage) and trying to carefully move awkwardly long pieces of wet varnished wood around furniture that shouldn't be in the garage except you had to put it there because you hired an incompetent flooring company is extremely frustrating.

3. Staining is toxic and tedious, but instantly gratifying.

4. Bugs are indeed dumb enough to fly into wet varnish and die there.

5. At about foot #1,150 of 1,200 feet, absolutely any task looks more appealing than varnishing wood. Scrub the toilet? No problem! Clean out the bunny's cage and litter box? Fun! Run in bare feet across a bed of unsterilized needles and hot garbage? Whee!

Still, we made it. Our carpenter installed some of the baseboards and trim last weekend, and we can't believe what a difference it has made. The house is taking on a distinct house-like look, and it is wonderful. The baseboards around the curved walls are made of two thin layers of 1/4-inch maple, which were cut to the same height as the poplar boards, bent around the curves and nailed in place. Unfortunately, we have to stain it to match the rest of the baseboards. More sanding, staining and varnishing! Ohhhh.

The rest of the baseboards and trim and due to be installed this weekend. Once they are in, we can move furniture agains the walls and unpack!

Actual unpacking! We can't wait.

Floors refinished!

2008-11-07T13:39:00.008-05:00

Last we left you, we were anxiously awaiting the refinishing of our awful floors. The second floor was refinished first. This floor is where we have our kitchen, living room and dining room, and the most wide open space. The floors look much better, although given the state they were in before, that wasn't too difficult (to come: before and after pics). The surface is mostly one colour — a fairly dark brown — but the holes in the DaroTopp cement flooring are still very visible in places. There are also strange swirly marks in the floor in the kitchen. Not swirly-stylish, but swirly-whoops-I-made-a-mistake-ish. Still, it is markedly better, and we were extremely relieved to finally have it done, a month after we moved in. Once the second floor was refinished, we needed to clear the first floor to have it redone. We moved all of our furniture from the first floor up to the second floor, and all of the boxes from the first floor down to the basement. Who needs a gym membership when you can just carry furniture up and down stairs every night? Thanks, flooring company! We're in great shape!

The first floor was refinished later than planned (no warning, no phone call), and at the last possible minute. It too looks a lot better than it did, although there are some shiny patches were the matte finish wasn't applied, and the holes in the DaroTopp are still visible. But, we're thrilled that our business with the flooring company is now over, and we can finally start moving things into the rooms where they're supposed to go.

Remember us?

2008-11-07T13:06:00.004-05:00

Hello, everyone! It's been a long couple of weeks, but we've finally turned a corner. Things are on the upswing. Slowly, slowly, things have improved. I found my laptop, but because it was recently resurrected from the dead (huge virus), it no longer includes the software for my camera or my Internet connection. I could reinstall it, if only I could find the box with the installation CDs in it. I'm aiming for Christmas (seriously). Until then, I'm typing away on John's machine; the pics will have to wait, though.

Instead of writing one novel-long post, I thought I'd break it up and start with the stairs.

Our stairs from the second to the third floor were removed and replaced without any problems. Our stair guys took great care in removing them -- it's truly amazing what can be achieved by smart guys and a block and tackle. Our 1,000 lbs stairs were lowered and eased out of the building without a scratch on them or the walls. It was a real feat. Before the stairs were removed, John and I had a little bit of time to run up to the third floor and pack a few clothes for the week. We spent our first night on our camping mats in the living room, then upgraded to a single mattress on the floor the next night. We spent the next few nights alternating between my lovely sister's house and our kitchen floor. The stairs were reinstalled within the week, and we were thrilled to be reunited with our bed. The stairs are as gorgeous as they were when they first went in, no worse for the wear. The ceiling height is now corrected. The only thing left to do is install the maple railing cap, clean up the railings, and repair the drywall where it had to be cut out.

We now also have railings everywhere we need them — all around every outside structure, on the garage stairs leading to the house, and on the stairs leading to the basement. The stair rails leading to the rooftop patio now have a much nicer railing. It almost makes you forget that if you fell from up there, you'd be toast. Almost.

Having the stairs corrected has been a huge challenge, and we are thrilled that it's over. The stairs are beautiful -- photos to come!

De-construction update

2008-10-21T20:57:00.005-04:00

Just while I have a few minutes as I wait for John to pick me up, I wanted to mention the latest bit of craziness that I forgot to report. Our drunken electricians didn't leave enough wire hanging out of the various outlets in the house in a few places, so they can't actually connect them. To fix this problem — which somehow passed inspection — they had to rip out parts of the wall today in three of our rooms to pull out more of the wire. That means they had to tear out the drywall and break through our foam insulation to try and find the wires they're looking for.

Yep, it's as bad as it sounds.

Refugees from 96A Crichton

2008-10-21T19:37:00.004-04:00

John just went to the house around 7:00 p.m. tonight to see how the floors were coming along (they were supposed to be ready to walk on in socks at 9:00 p.m.) and found out that we actually can't sleep there tonight because the epoxy takes eight to 12 hours to dry. No one seems to have had any intention of telling us that. If John hadn't had the foresight to check on things, we would have been pretty upset to find out that we couldn't walk on the floor to get any clothes from our bedroom, and that we would have to find a place to sleep in a hurry. John hurriedly packed a few things for us, and my sister said she would take us in.

We are refugees from our new home.

Post-move stress disorder (PMSD)

2008-10-21T12:36:00.006-04:00

After a year and a half of planning, working, sweating and worrying, we expected to be celebrating one of the biggest accomplishments of our lives after we moved in. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out this way. We're still hanging on to the hope that one day soon we will get some joy out of our new home.

Our plumbers and electricians have proven themselves to be incompetent. Two weeks after we moved in, we still have an unconnected sink and another sink that leaks. The electricians, after admitting that the first crew who installed our wiring were drunk on the job (yep, for real), don't seem to feel any sort of urgency to finish their work. On top of it all, they leave a path of destruction wherever they go (a broken light here, broken lightbulbs there, etc.). They flick our breakers and boiler on and off at will, leaving us with systems that don't work when we want them to and no hot water this morning. The minute they finish their work, we will be complaining to the Better Business Bureau.

We've hinted at our flooring troubles, and I wish I could post our recent photos (I can't find my laptop at the moment, unfortunately). As we mentioned in our previous post, our flooring company left us with completely deficient floors before we moved in. They avoided our builder's calls for almost two weeks before finally responding after he escalated the issue to the company's president. They are scheduled to refinish the second floor today; we'll see what actually happens. Once the second floor is complete, we will have to move everything off of the first floor to the second floor so that that floor can also be redone. We've decided to just skip the third floor; it's not as bad up there, and we'll just do whatever we can to clean them up ourselves. Again, we will be contacting the BBB to lodge a complaint.

Our lovely stairs have, unfortunately, failed inspection. It's a very long story, but the stairs from the second to the third floor must be removed (!), corrected, and re-installed. We don't know yet whether we will just move some clothes downstairs and sleep among the boxes, or whether we'll stay elsewhere for the week. We have a bunny to consider, too.

In the midst of this, we've been sanding, staining and varnishing what feels like a million feet of baseboards and window and door frames. We're pleased with the results, but wonder whether our backs will ever forgive us.

On a happier note, we have continued to unpack as much as possible in our kitchen, which we truly love. We have many photos to share as soon as my laptop turns up. Stay tuned!

We're in

2008-10-08T12:47:00.004-04:00

Apologies for posting so late, but things have been incredibly hectic for us lately. We moved on Saturday, October 4, and it was definitely the most difficult move either of us has ever experienced. To all those who participated, we are very grateful for your help. I shudder to think what we would have done without you.

We moved into what is still very much a construction zone, and are trying to settle into it a little bit more every day. The greatest challenge remains the floors, which are truly a disaster. We will have to figure out a way to fix them, which will not be an easy task now that our furniture and 8,000 boxes are in the house. Various workers are trying to finalize the electrical and plumbing, put in the phone line, and install the living room ceiling, baseboards and trim around all of the windows and doors. The list is really a lot longer, but we're taking it one day at a time.

In happier news, we have started to unpack a few things for our kitchen. As of this morning, our fridge is our only functional appliance, but never underestimate the power of a mug in the cupboard to put a smile on our faces.

Cheerier updates to follow, we hope. Thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement; they mean a lot to us.

Where have we been?

2008-09-25T22:28:00.005-04:00

Our deepest apologies to those of you who have been following our blog and wondering where we've been. We've been so tied up with all of our activities in the past few weeks that we've not been able to get here to provide an update. That, and one of our computers has been on the fritz for a week or so, and the other one was occupied with work.

In getting back to our chronicle, I realize how much has happened at our site--let's call it our home--since the last entry, even though for us it seems like we've been slogging through molasses. So much has happened, in fact, that tonight we started packing for our move! It's only being delayed by a week from the last anticipated date. We are planning to move on Saturday, October 4, 2008 (yes, this year), and have been granted a reprieve by our landlady to stay until that weekend, although not a day more.

If I recall, for our last update we were talking about tiling and drywalling. We're still doing those things, but both are almost done. The drywalling has progressed far enough that painting will begin this weekend. More on that later. The tiling, after 10 sessions of an average of four hours a piece, is also close to being finished. We have probably eight or so more hours to finish it off. More on that later, too.

Doors have gone in, locks have gone in, stairs have been constructed, the roof-top deck has been constructed, the siding has been finished, the basement has been wired and drywalled, and, just in the past few days, the floors have been finished--almost. All of these things are crucial, of course, and some of them have caused us great anxiety. The floor, in particular, has given us grief, and if you want our honest opinion on DaroTopp, please ask and we will reply.

About the drywall: our contractor has taken over some of it, but has also left some to the subcontractor that we asked to have fired. Apparently, there are enough bits and pieces left to finish that it will take a few days of work, by someone. It has progressed far enough, howeverm that the primer coat can be applied to most of the house. We're counting on this because one of our tasks for the coming weekend is to paint the bathrooms. Without going into the details, anywhere there is a colour other than the standard one we will be applying it. Our main priority will be the bathrooms. We'll be painting the study, living room and dining room after we move in.

About the tiling: it's been a lot of fun, but we're really looking forward to finishing it, which we're also planning to do this coming weekend. We're aware of all of the flaws that we've left behind, but when you look at it overall, we think it looks pretty good. Some will say that this kind of task should be left to the experts, who can do it quickly and are getting paid. We like the satisfaction of doing something for ourselves, when we can.

We have also been buying things like crazy--counter top, vanities, wardrobes, washer and dryer, lights, mirrors, door handles--all those things we spent hours window-and-internet shopping for months ago, and that finally we had to spend money on.

It's been a hectic few weeks, dear readers, and that's where we've been. In eight days we will be where we've been working to be for over a year. It seems like a short time for such a big move, unless you're us.

Updated facade

2008-09-03T22:46:00.004-04:00

Here is the front of the house with the garage door installed. We're really looking forward to the porch being completed and seeing the final facade.

It doesn't look like it will be entirely finished this year, though. We are considering a couple of different options for our driveway, which won't likely be implemented before the snow flies. It also looks like landscaping won't be happening until next spring, either. We'll see; there may be something we can do before the frost hits. To be continued...

Garage door installed!

2008-09-02T23:47:00.004-04:00

Our garage door was installed today. The colour isn't a perfect match to the front door or windows, but it's the closest that we could get, and it looks alright. It was very exciting to see it finally in place. (I tried to take another shot of the whole house with the garage door installed, but the batteries in my camera died. Ah, well. I'm sure you can imagine it.)

Brick-a-brac

2008-08-31T22:36:00.007-04:00

Today was Day 5 of our tiling adventure. (In our defense, not all of them were full days.) We still have work to do in the shower and on the front of the tub, but it's coming along. John successfully completed the difficult cut around the shower head fixture (you can see it best in the left-hand photo). The rough edges of the cut will be covered with a small chrome cover. It's going to look great. The temperature control piece below it will be a challenge, too. I'm sure we'll figure it out. And by "we" I mean John. The cutting tool he's using is a violent, aggressive thing, and I'm happy to let him wrestle with it.

Treads preview

2008-08-29T15:39:00.004-04:00

We dropped by our stairbuilder's workshop this afternoon and got a sneak preview of our beautiful maple stair treads. There are 29 of them in total, and they are gorgeous. They will be stained a medium-toned reddish brown to coordinate with the rest of the woods in the house. The underside of each tread has been cut to exactly match the size of the steel steps (the treads in the photos are upside down so you can see the cuts). There are still a few dirty jobs left to do on the house, so these lovely pieces will not be installed until later in September. We can't wait!

Movin' on up

2008-08-28T23:33:00.005-04:00

We put in another seven hours tonight on the bathroom tiles, and made it almost to the very top of the wall. At this rate, it will likely take us another 20 hours to finish the job. Yikes. On the bright side, though, we're pretty happy with how they're turning out so far.

Stairs to the basement!

2008-08-28T23:15:00.007-04:00

The interior and exterior stairs to the basement were installed today, and they look great. The interior stairs, in the left photo, lead to the ever-decreasing jam storage area (surely they must be finished pushing out my condiments with mechanical equipment by now). The exterior stairs, in the right photo, lead to the bachelor apartment we hope to rent out sometime in the winter.

Amateur hour

2008-08-27T23:26:00.008-04:00

After some encouragement and helpful tips from our builder, John and I started tiling our third-floor bathroom tonight. After going to so much trouble to pick our tiles, we were nervous about ruining them, but Patrick bolstered our spirits.

Phase 1 of our tiling adventure has taught us a few things:

1) Tiling is 20 per cent tile setting, 80 per cent cleaning. I have mortar in places you don't want to imagine.

2) It is extremely time-consuming to clean dried cement off of tiles. We will not allow mortar to dry on tiles in phase 2 of our tiling odyssey.

3) Our marriage will probably survive finishing our bathroom.

Our first three and a half rows turned out pretty well. The tiles actually look like bricks, which was the goal. The next row is a decorative listel, which has a few different colours in it. This listel border will wrap around the tub and shower. We're aiming to put in the listel and finish the rest of the rear wall tomorrow.

Tile on!

Party in the back

2008-08-26T21:34:00.005-04:00

When our steel worker bailed on us, the Botan crew stepped up and took on the work to complete the exterior and the roof. They installed the inset panel on the rear of the house today, and we really like how it looks. The white trim you see in the photo will be painted the same brown as the steel.

As the exterior design comes to life, you can see why we call our place the Mullet House. The front is very traditional, while the back is more modern. Business in the front, party in the back!

Taping and mudding

2008-08-26T21:27:00.004-04:00

Not all of the drywall boards are up, but the taping and mudding has begun in several areas where they are. We hope that this step will be finished by the end of the week so that the painters can begin next week.

Drywall progress, part 2

2008-08-23T21:34:00.004-04:00

The drywall is moving along. The boards were due to all be up by now, but there is still about a day's work to complete it. Still, we were encouraged to see that the stairwell had been done.

Drywall progress

2008-08-21T22:51:00.007-04:00

The drywall has started and is coming along. The photo on the left is of the kitchen, and the photo on the right is of the third floor bedroom. The curves are turning out very well, to our relief. The interior windows in the third floor bedroom wall are intended to bring the light in from the skylights over the stairwell. That room will be especially nice when it's done, I think. It's our spare bedroom, also known as my backup office if working in the same room with you-know-who doesn't work out. Shhh.

The drywall is half an inch thick, and the rooms feel (and are) smaller as a result. (If you measure from the exterior walls, that's about 62 square feet of lost floorspace on the second floor, but less on the first and third floors. Sigh.) Every major change adjusts our perception of the house. The finished floors will be another adjustment, and the painted walls another.

Painted walls! I can hardly wait.

Porch begun

2008-08-21T18:42:00.007-04:00

Work on the porch roof began this week. In the original design, the porch roofline was extended with a canopy over the garage. Because the front door is higher than it was originally planned to be, the top of the porch is also higher. If we had kept the original design with the canopy, it would have been a lot higher than the garage door. John thought this would look very strange, and after some convincing, I caved and agreed to drop the canopy. The revised design will mirror our immediate neighbours' homes, so that's a plus.

As you can see in the second photo, the underside of the porch roof is finished in cedar, like the soffits. I think it will be nice to have wood above our heads as we come and go from the house.

Garage and basement poured

2008-08-18T23:43:00.006-04:00

The cement floors in the garage and basement were poured today. That giant truck is the cement mixer; the photo on the right is of the finished garage. A few bits to be sanded, but overall it looks pretty good.

The drywallers, however, didn't show today. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see.

The week ahead

2008-08-17T20:38:00.003-04:00

If all goes as planned, this will be a very busy and productive week chez Boucher-Thurston.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the drywallers are coming in tomorrow. They estimate that it will take them four days to board the entire house, followed by five days of finishing (mudding and sanding). Having the drywall done will be wonderful for many reasons, not the least of which is getting the drywall up off of the floor so that everyone can move around the house without having to do triple sow-cows. We're looking forward (a little anxiously) to seeing how the curved walls turn out.

The concrete floors will be poured in the basement and in the garage tomorrow. This is wonderful, because once that's done, our talented stair builders can come in and build us a way to the basement and into the house from the garage. Once the stairs are built, work can begin on our bedroom balcony, rooftop patio and front porch. We can hardly wait!

The shower in the third-floor bathroom will be completed this week so that John and I can start tiling it next week. We've placed the order for the tiles, and expect them to be delivered to the house next Monday. Between now and then we'll figure out how to tile a bathroom and screw up the courage to do it.

There are a few other things on the go this week, but let's not count our chickens. We'll keep you posted as we move along...

Drywall prep

2008-08-17T20:28:00.006-04:00

After a few delays, the drywallers are scheduled to finally begin the drywalling in earnest tomorrow. In preparation for their work, the Botan crew installed some strapping (thin pieces of wood) in the ceilings throughout the house. Although not strictly required, the idea is that this will prevent nails in the drywall from popping as the house settles over time.

Garage drywalled

2008-08-17T20:22:00.004-04:00

The garage has been drywalled, and the cement floor is due to be poured tomorrow. More gravel will be added to raise the level of the floor, then the cement will go in. Once that is done, we will be able to put in some stairs to the house from the garage, and have the garage door installed. This is great news, because then the house will be secure.

Kitchen wall up

2008-08-17T20:15:00.003-04:00

The half wall between the kitchen and the stairs is now in place. This will be helpful in keeping us from plunging to our deaths after a few drinks out of the beautiful cooler Shawna and Chris got for us for our wedding. Sadly, the half wall covers our pigeon footprints, but we know they're still there.

Swing in waiting

2008-08-10T18:40:00.005-04:00

I grew up with my wonderful godfather's handmade swings all around me: at my grandfather's farm, at my godparents' home, and at their cottage. My uncle Jim's swings held me, my sister and my cousins all of our lives. We loved them. When I was young, my Uncle Jim said he would build me a swing as a wedding present. That was a long time ago, and I was sure my uncle didn't remember it. When John proposed last year, my mother told me that my godparents wanted to give me something special. Since I was marrying so much later than I'm sure my godparents expected, I didn't feel I could really ask for the swing. I wasn't sure my uncle even made them anymore, and they certainly take some work. My mother made the suggestion to my uncle, and to my complete delight, he agreed to make one. It turns out he is still very active in the swing-making business.

Our swing is now ready, and we love it! The photo on the left shows our disassembled swing, which will be transported from Bryson to Ottawa in pieces. The photo on the right is of my godparents' swing, to give you an idea of how it will look when it's put together in our backyard. At our request, my uncle didn't paint our swing. It will stay natural cedar, to match our back deck and balcony. It will age to a greyish silver just like our cedar decks. The cedar comes from my Uncle Allen's farm, which was previously my grandfather's. It means a lot to me that this very special piece of my past will be a part of our future.

Our littlest helper

2008-08-08T21:16:00.004-04:00

Shawna and Chris were visiting from Barrie and brought the girls to visit our house today. Wee Sylvie was very helpful in cleaning up the site. After we're settled in, she's hired to keep the place spic and span.

Beyond cute: After supper and some playtime at the park, we said our goodbyes until the next visit. "Will you call me in the morning when your house is done?" Sylvie asked.

I'll call you when it's done, little buddy, but something tells me it won't be tomorrow morning.

Railings, part 2

2008-08-05T23:33:00.007-04:00

After a weekend camping in Crotch Lake, we returned to find that the rest of the railings had been installed. This is a great relief to us, since it's one of the things between us and an occupancy permit. They look great, and will look even better with handrails and stair treads.

More to come soon...

Basement progress

2008-07-29T21:12:00.006-04:00

Work on the basement began in earnest a little while ago, but I didn't want to brave the ladder to take a picture. (The ladder isn't that bad, but I don't like to go down this one in certain shoes. I know that sounds loony, but there it is.) The pink stuff is insulation, which is laid over a waterproof (Platon) membrane. Our heating supplier is due to install the piping tomorrow, although the place doesn't look ready for him yet. We'll see how it goes. After that comes the cement!

Insulation complete

2008-07-29T20:50:00.004-04:00

The insulators came by and finished the job today, filling in the garage walls, the upper basement walls, and the gaps around the windows. There are still a couple of cracks in the insulation, but they don't go through to the outside, so maybe that's alright. The photo is of the garage, which is now ready for drywall.

Railings, part 1

2008-07-26T18:27:00.010-04:00

John and I went over to the house today to take some closet measurements, and to our surprise and delight, saw that the first set of stair railings had been installed. These have been a long time coming, and we were thrilled to finally see them. The photo on the left shows them from the ground floor, and the photo on the right shows them from the second floor, looking down. They will have to be removed when the maple treads are ready to be installed, but they look great for now.

Drywall begins

2008-07-22T22:08:00.007-04:00

Our first pieces of drywall were installed today in the garage and in the mechanical room in the basement (also known as The House of Jam). These had to be in place for the insulators to complete the insulation, which is expected to happen sometime this week. The empty space above the ladder in the photo is for the end of our canoe, which we'll hang from the garage ceiling. Our canoe has enjoyed wintering chez Papa and Allison, but soon it will be time for it to move into its permanent home.

In other news, work continues on the exterior this week. The guys are installing our soffit, which is cedar. Our interior stair railings are delayed, but coming soon. Once the insulation and the related inspection are complete, the drywalling can begin in earnest. Our mechanical supplier is coming in next Monday to complete his work and prepare to "shock heat" the floors.

Speaking of floors, the saga continues. Once we have found a solution to our woes, we'll fill you all in. Until next time...

View from the living room floor

2008-07-16T22:58:00.005-04:00

The living room skylights were installed today, and to get them both in the photo, I had to lie down on the dusty floor. The things I do for you!

The manifold (tentacle-like junction for our heating pipes) was also installed today, earlier than expected! This is good news, because we need it to start the "shock heating" process for the floors. Ah, the floors. That's a whole other entry, friends. Stay tuned.

Skylights!

2008-07-15T20:20:00.016-04:00

After a very long wait, our skylights finally arrived yesterday! There are seven in all -- four ganged over the stairwell (those are the ones in the photo), two in the peaked roof in the living room, and one in the third-floor bathroom. It may seem like a lot, but when you don't have any windows on one side of the house and only a few on the other side, roof windows start looking like a good option. We're looking forward to seeing the ones in the living room installed tomorrow. It will be very nice to finally know how much light we can look forward to in that room.

In other news, the water meter has been installed, the siding is progressing, and 18 tonnes of gravel have been poured into the basement. To finish the basement floor, three inches of insulation will be added, followed by wire mesh, the tubes for the radiant in-floor heating, and four inches of concrete. In preparation for the drywallers, the roof will be tested for leaks, extra blocking will be added to some of the walls where we plan to put shelving and grab bars (the things that will keep us from falling in the shower when we're old), the gaps in the insulation will be fixed, and a couple of doors will be reframed to the right height.

Forward, ho!

Quick (photo-free) update

2008-07-08T20:53:00.011-04:00

If all goes according to plan, the next few days will be good ones. Our water meter is to be installed tomorrow, so we will finally have a water supply to the house. The guys are working on finishing the siding on the northwest side and rear of the house by Friday. Our skylights -- long overdue -- are supposed to arrive tomorrow and be installed. Once the skylights are in, the drywall can begin. The drywall that is currently stacked in various rooms will then actually become walls, and there will be a little more room for the guys to move around.

The long sequence of work required to get the floors fixed and finished will begin this week. First, all of the connections for the in-floor heating need to be established, and the manifolds need to be installed. Once this is complete, the floor must be heated for three days. After that, the DaroTopp installers can return to correct the deficiencies in the concrete floor. Finally, the finishers will come in to grind the floors down and apply the epoxy and urethane coats. We hope that the floors will be finished soon, since a lot of work depends on them being done (e.g. installation of all of our bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets, etc.).

There's more going on this week, but I am typing in a room that is about 100 degrees, so I'm afraid this is all I can muster. Until next time...

Under lock and key

2008-07-05T21:53:00.006-04:00

It was a beautiful day in Ottawa, just the sort of day you don't want to spend in the aisles of big-box home improvement stores. Still, off we went to buy our locks for our exterior doors. As we've mentioned before, we have seven exterior doors; eight if you count the inner foyer door, which is an exterior door on the inside of the house. That's a lot of door handles and locks.

Fortunately for us, friends of ours in Kingston clued us into a new product called the Weiser SmartKey system. It's a neat new product that has a couple of big pluses. First, the design of the system protects it against "bumping" techniques. For those of you who don't watch 20/20 or scary YouTube videos, bumping is a technique used by criminals to bump the pins of tumbler locks or some such thing and easily break into your house. The SmartKey is supposed to be immune to this. Second, we can key all of the locks to the same key without having to hire a locksmith.

There was only one style we liked, so it was a pretty easy sell. We chose the "Avalon" model, which is a stainless steel style with levered handles. John is crazy for levered handles. They're much easier to open with an armload of groceries, and they look nice, too.

Sold.

Parging complete

2008-07-05T21:29:00.003-04:00

The parging -- the layer of cement that covers the foundation blocks -- is now complete. It encircles the house and the inside of the garage. It looks pretty good.

Siding saga

2008-07-02T21:59:00.008-04:00

Our siding arrived last week, and to my dismay, it wasn't in the finish we had wanted or ordered. John and I hate fake wood grain, so we had selected a smooth finish. Our builder phoned to tell us that our supplier didn't carry the Hardie planks in a smooth finish. If we had insisted on them, we would have had to wait four to six weeks and buy 40 per cent more than what we need, since it only comes in standard-sized orders. We had been warned about this months ago, but assumed it wasn't a problem since it hadn't been raised since. No such luck.

Our architect tried to find us an alternative to the Hardie planks and identified a similar product that is available in a smooth finish. Ten thousand phone calls later, it became clear that the alternative product is not available locally, and can't be shipped here from anywhere else. To make matters worse, John was in Algonquin Park for the week and couldn't be consulted. Defeated, I gave in and accepted the fake wood grain stuff. We'll just have to deal with it. We're hoping that the steel panels will at least interrupt it. By the way, in the photo, whatever is white will be painted dark brown.

If a fake tree falls in a fake wood grain forest, does it still make a sound that sounds kind of like wood, but not really?

Canada Day at 96A

2008-07-01T23:12:00.005-04:00

The rooftop patio isn't built yet, so we weren't able to check out the fireworks from our roof. Still, we decided to watch the show from the spare bedroom on the third floor. Equipped with a headlamp, we picked our way through the piles on the site and made our way upstairs in the dark. The view was great. The fireworks display was in plain sight, and the house is close enough to downtown to hear the crowds on Parliament Hill. Looking forward to Canada Day 2009!

Condiments compromised

2008-07-01T22:55:00.004-04:00

John and I took the ladder down to the basement today to have a look at the mechanical equipment in our cold storage area. John had warned me that the space for my jams, mustards, pickles and other delicious items had been compromised by the installation of the mechanical equipment. To my disappointment, the equipment takes up almost half of the space. There's still a full wall length for shelving to hold the deliciousness, but we will only get shallow shelves in there. We'll have to come up with some creative shelving to use the space under the equipment, too.

Innovative insulation

2008-06-27T10:09:00.003-04:00

Work to insulate our house began this week, and continues today. We chose a really neat product called HEATLOK, which is a soy-based, spray-in foam insulation. Made from vegetable oils and recycled plastics, it has a very high insulation value, provides a complete air barrier, and contains a built-in vapour barrier. It expands in place to fill all those little gaps around windows and doors, which are the real energy suckers in a home.

Plus, it's really cool. It looks like the surface of the moon.

Moving along, with a few hiccups along the way

2008-06-24T19:52:00.006-04:00

After a week of rain, our bricklayer has returned to the site and completed the southwest wall of our house today. It looks like the brickwork will be completed this week, which will free up space at the front of the house for work on the front porch to begin.

We also had a nice-looking wall installed between our office and the bedroom on the first floor. Unfortunately, it was installed prematurely. We want to keep the option of removing that wall in the future, so the floor needs to be finished under it. Right now, all that is there is raw DaroTopp (lightweight cement), which would leave a pretty unsightly stripe of bare concrete if the wall were removed.

Rub-a-dub-dub

2008-06-20T22:38:00.012-04:00

Our fixtures were installed today in our first-floor and third-floor bathrooms. The first-floor bathroom (left-hand photo) has a one-piece shower and tub unit, and the third-floor bathroom (right-hand photo) has a separate tub and shower. The shower fixture on the third floor will come after the shower is built. John and I have big plans to tile it ourselves, as well as the bathtub surround and wall. Yep, you read that right. Uh, oh. That's what I said, too.

It took us some time to find fixtures we liked at a reasonable price ($1,000 for a tap? Who pays that?), but we like the ones we chose. Have you ever seen those fixtures that look like shiny chrome phones? Those seem pretty popular, but they're just not for us. We also saw some crazy gold Donald Trump fixtures at one of the bathroom specialty stores. It's harder than you might think to find a simple tap set that doesn't look like you should drive it, dial it, or put it in a safety deposit box.

The missing piece on the left of the tub in the right-hand photo is for the rinsing wand (or whatever that thing is called). We probably wouldn't have chosen such a thing, but we bought the tub on sale and the holes were pre-drilled.

Thanks again, Dad and Allison, for letting us store the tub at your place. It's almost ready for us to draw you a bath!

Christmas in June

2008-06-19T23:29:00.012-04:00

Today was a big day chez Boucher-Thurston, to say the least. Our second flight of stairs -- the long run that extends from the second to the third floor -- was installed today! Amazingly, the stairs fit perfectly. They are absolutely stunning, and they don't even have railings or treads on them yet. They are the height of excellent design, engineering and craftsmanship. If stairs could say "I do," I'd marry them. They are gorgeous.

We also had the pleasure of meeting some of our new neighbours today (and yesterday, too), who told us they think the house looks great and welcomed us to the neighbourhood. We were very encouraged by their welcome. It was great to put names to some of the faces we will see on Crichton Street in the days and years to come.

Concrete complications

2008-06-18T21:23:00.006-04:00

Here is a picture of the dry concrete floor. It looks like it's light grey in the photo, but under the grey dusty layer is a light brown cement. Ultimately, the floor will be a medium-toned brown.

Once the concrete was set, some problems became obvious. In several locations, the cement leaked through the floors above, creating many small craters in the concrete. It can be fixed, but we are concerned about whether the variances in the colour of the concrete patches will show. Our fingers are crossed.

Countdown to more stairs

2008-06-18T21:11:00.005-04:00

John and I met with our stair builder, our architect, and our general contractor at lunch today to work on a redesign of the stair railings surrounding the stairwell. We think the new design will be attractive. The railings will be delivered in one piece (!), either at the end of next week or early the following week.

Alan, our stair builder, confirmed that he will install the run of stairs from the second story to the third story tomorrow. The installation of these stairs, which weigh in at about 800 lbs, is a complex manoevre and a courageous leap of faith. In a nutshell, they will be rolled in on wheels from the truck, and hoisted and bolted into place.

How is a person supposed to sleep at night knowing that stairs are being installed the very next day?

Pigeon says, "I was here"

2008-06-17T22:16:00.007-04:00

John and I went over to the house today to check out the progress, and lo and behold, our home's first resident has immortalized herself in what she must have thought was the Pigeon Walk of Fame. Check out the pigeon prints in the cement!

The guys closed in the front of the house last week, and moved her nest downstairs to the garage. Undeterred, she has built a new nest on the second floor, perhaps a cottage home for her and the young'uns. Soon, they will have to go for good.

Concrete floors poured

2008-06-13T18:14:00.012-04:00

The DaroTopp guys poured our concrete floors today! (I've used more exclamation marks this week than I have in my whole life!)

DaroTopp is a product that is relatively new to North America. It is a semi-lightweight synthetic concrete -- up to 18 per cent lighter than regular concrete, says the brochure. The synthetic binder in DaroTopp is manufactured as a by-product of brown coal plants; cleaning the plant smoke uses about 75 per cent less energy than is used to produce regular concrete. The binding agent is mixed with local aggregates, so there are no emissions associated with trucking in sand from far away. It contains no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and there is no off-gassing during the installation. Using DaroTopp is worth green points under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

One of the key features for us is DaroTopp's excellent conductivity. Its thermal transfer properties will make our radiant floor heating system more efficient, heating the slab faster and more evenly. We'll appreciate this during our long, cold winters. It also offers fire protection (it's rated as a non-combustible material), which gives me a bit of peace of mind. Finally, it's more flexible than regular concrete, which we hope will make it easier on the knees, and it's supposed to provide good sound insulation, too.

We can't walk on the floors for about 48 hours, but it will be set by the end of the weekend. The colour you're seeing in the photos will darken significantly when it is finished. A different company is coming in to grind the floors down and coat them with two coats of urethane and one coat of epoxy. The final result should be a medium-toned brown with little sand flecks in it. We will put in a few area rugs here and there, but for the most part, this will be our finished floor throughout the house.

Tubs in!

2008-06-12T22:44:00.011-04:00

Both of our tubs were installed today. The photo on the left shows the tub and shower enclosure in the first-floor bathroom. We were sure that it wouldn't fit (the unit specifications said it was 85 inches high, and the space available was measured at 84 inches), but somehow it worked. Because of the size of that bathroom, it was difficult to get a good photo of it, but you can kind of make it out through the door opening. The photo on the right shows our larger tub in the third-floor bathroom. The separate shower enclosure is on the right, outside of the image. We got this tub at a steal: on sale for $189, down from $981. It had been previously installed in another home, and the owners decided they didn't want it for whatever reason (colour, fit, etc.) and returned it. It's six feet long by 3.5 feet wide; big enough for two, if you were so inclined.

For those of you who might be wondering, I braved the ladder (a different one, this time from the second-floor deck to the third-floor balcony) to check out the progress upstairs. As mentioned earlier, Alan, our stair builder, is working hard to put my ladder days behind me.

Front bricks complete!

2008-06-12T22:38:00.003-04:00

In other exciting news, the front brickwork is now complete! We love it, and are looking forward to seeing how it integrates with the front porch. Bricks on the sides have also begun, and with the help of some tight-fitting scaffolding, will continue tomorrow. Good job, Tony!

STAIRS!

2008-06-12T22:18:00.007-04:00

Alan Gustafson, our talented stair builder, installed the stairs to the second floor today (with a little assistance from some helpful mechanical suppliers and his dad). It is difficult to express just how excited we are about this milestone. The stairs are one of the most dramatic features of our home, and they are turning out even better than we had hoped. The stairs will have steel railings on the right-hand side, finished off with a maple handrail. The treads will also be maple, as I mentioned yesterday, and will extend about two inches off of each side of the stairs. John and I both took a test climb, and they are solid as a rock. We love the gradual incline, too, which gives the impression that you're floating upwards instead of climbing. They are truly amazing. The small run of three stairs from the landing to the second story are also in, but the photo was taken after dark and isn't too clear.

Alan thinks that he will install the stairs from the second to the third story next Tuesday, once the concrete floors have cured. More pics to come soon!

And more bricks!

2008-06-11T19:42:00.006-04:00

The brickwork is almost complete on the front of the house. It will be completely finished tomorrow, and then the guys will move on to the sides. We're anxious to see the house without the scaffolding in front of it, and to get the front porch started.

Setting the stage

2008-06-11T18:54:00.008-04:00

The house was a hub of activity today in preparation for two major milestones: installing the stairs and pouring the concrete floor.

After a lot of discussion and calculations, the original landing between the first and second floors was taken apart and rebuilt on a smaller scale. The photo on the left shows the new landing. The first run of stairs will end at the top of the landing, and the second shorter run will run from the landing to the second floor. (There is no landing from the second to the third floor; it is one continuous run of stairs.) Our stair builder was on-site yesterday to do some final preparations, and we happened to catch him during his visit. It was great to meet him, and we're confident that the stairs will be a sight to behold. He will install the stringer (middle part that supports the stairs) and the steel holders for the treads tomorrow, but not the treads themselves. Those will be maple, and will be put in closer to our move-in date to avoid damaging them during the construction.

All of the floors were cleared to make way for the insulation, which is shown in the second photo at right. Tomorrow the piping for our radiant heating system will be laid; on Friday, the concrete floor will be poured over top. The concrete floor warrants its own blog entry, that's for sure. More to come.

Most of the electrical work is also complete, although we have some minor corrections to make before it's final. Patric, our architect, joined us on-site today to determine the exact location of the pendant light over our dining room table, the pendant lights in the kitchen, and other small items. If all goes according to plan, we will have electricity on Monday!

Meet the boys — Botan Construction

2008-06-09T21:38:00.005-04:00

When it came time to find a contractor, we narrowed it down to four contenders. The two most professional bids left us with a difficult choice. One was from one of Ottawa's most established and respected construction companies, an award-winning builder whose work we had admired in person. The other was from a young firm whose owner was a passionate advocate for green construction. The prices were comparable. What to do? We invited Patrick Reardon, owner of the young green firm, Botan Construction, to our tiny apartment to go over the bid in person. His commitment and enthusiasm overwhelmed us. When he left, we knew he would be building our house. We never looked back.

Patrick would make an excellent teacher. He explains everything to us very clearly, and answers all of our questions. He knows his stuff, and can communicate it to others. He's patient, knowledgeable, mathematical and dedicated to doing a good job. Plus, we like him. It's a great bonus.

Of course Patrick isn't building our house alone; he has a great crew. Some have come and gone, but Mike and Joe are still making it all happen. We owe them a lot.

Keep it up, boys!

Meet the boys — Vert Design

2008-06-09T21:15:00.007-04:00

Credit: Jean Levac, Ottawa Citizen

It's about time we introduce you to the guys that made this all happen. Patric Langevin and Chris Straka (shown left to right) are co-owners of Vert Design, an Ottawa-based green design and planning firm. Our first meeting with Vert was on June 1, 2007, just over one year ago. Thanks to them, our design process was very smooth. More than that, it was collaborative, educational and fun.

Chris and Patric are very creative, attentive to detail, and flexible. If you have a vision, they can propose more than one way to realize it. For budget-conscious clients like us, this is a key skill. They expertly balance aesthetic considerations with functionality, and have a very strong sense of space and flow. In terms of green construction, they are extremely knowledgeable. With green design, there is no single way to go; they present the pros and cons of various options very well, and leave the ultimate decision making to you. They are continually investigating new products and can present the benefits and trade-offs clearly.

Value for money is definitely an A+. If you are ever in the market for a talented, committed and creative design firm, I would not hesitate to go with Vert. We are thrilled that we did.

And more bricks

2008-06-06T19:32:00.009-04:00

The brickwork is moving quickly, and looks great. Every day, more bricks. It's a wonderful thing. Our house's first residents are doing excellent quality control from above (right photo).

The guys have been hard at work on the inside, too, building the landing for our stairs. Bricks have pushed me to the edge of excitement; next week, stairs might put me in a coma.

More bricks

2008-06-05T21:01:00.005-04:00

More progress was made today on our brickwork, which was very exciting to see. The little flecks of grey on the bricks and on the doorframe are just mortar and will come off. Looking good!

Have a seat

2008-06-04T22:32:00.005-04:00

While we don't plan to replace all of our furniture when we move, we decided that we wanted to buy a new couch. Seven stores later, we decided on this one. It was on sale, which meant we had to move more quickly than we normally would like to on such a big purchase. Tonight, we took the big leap and bought it. I have dreamed of a sectional as long as I knew such things existed, and this one is perfect. We love the colour, it's leather (read: durable and easy to clean) and it even has a queen-sized sofa bed in it. Perfect! It will be ready for delivery to our new place when we are.

Brickwork begins

2008-06-04T17:44:00.006-04:00

The bricklayer began laying our bricks today, and we love how they look so far. Actual bricks! On our house! I can hardly stand it.

One brick at a time

2008-06-03T20:55:00.014-04:00

People say, "What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. - Dorothy Day

Two bricks made their way onto our front wall today. They're not attached yet, but will be soon. The concrete mixer is now on-site to mix the mortar, and the bricks are ready to go.

The house is becoming a hive of activity these days. Our meter has been installed, and the electrician is starting tomorrow. If everything goes as planned, we should have hydro running to the house by the end of this week. This is great news for our builder, who can then stop renting the generator for the crew's tools, and it's better for the environment, which isn't crazy about emissions from generators. Our mechanical system will be installed this week too, in preparation for our concrete floors next week. Once the electrical is in, the floor is insulated and the piping for the radiant heating is laid, the yogurt-like DaroTopp light-weight concrete floor will be poured.

Sista on tha ladda

2008-06-02T22:49:00.003-04:00

This is my lovely sister, Lynn, braving the ladder to the third floor. My mom and sister came over on Saturday to check the place out. My mom even made it up the ladder to the second floor -- brave ladies!

First stairs

2008-06-02T18:36:00.006-04:00

We were really happy to see the first stairs to our house put in today. These stairs descend from the second-floor deck to the ground (they don't quite make it to the ground yet, but they will).

We spent a lot of time shopping over the weekend. We looked for bendable, rectangular trim, a product we've decided is purely mythical. We also looked for a replacement sink and tub/shower unit for our first-floor bathroom, since the ones our gracious friends in Kingston gave us won't fit with the curved wall and piping, respectively. (We will still find a home for them in the basement apartment, but we were really hoping to use them ourselves.) We also checked out some couches at a couple of stores and think we might have found the one we've been looking for. It's a very nice sectional with a sofa bed. We were worried it would be too big for the living room, but we measured the space and it looks like it might work out. We're planning on visiting at least one more store before we decide.

Finally, we bought our interior doors yesterday. They are all clear pine doors with five rectangular "lights" (glass panes) of translucent glass. They will be stained to coordinate with the other woods in the house. We expect to receive them in about four to six weeks.

Railings complete!

2008-05-30T20:54:00.009-04:00

John took these pictures of our newly installed railings. They look great! One of the deck builders plans to build the stairs at his place and then bring them to the site. I am really looking forward to a way into the house that isn't a ladder.

Railings!

2008-05-29T18:17:00.003-04:00

These are just two of the railings our deck builders were able to complete -- they'll be up in no time! We love their simplicity. No doily railings for us, thanks. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Beautiful bricks

2008-05-29T18:11:00.005-04:00

A load of handsome red bricks was delivered to the site today in preparation for the brickwork to begin on Monday. The bricks will cover the front of the house and a portion of the sides, about 12 feet back. The bricklayer anticipates that it will take him about two weeks to finish the job.

Dear trim manufacturers

2008-05-28T23:03:00.009-04:00

My husband and I spent some time roaming the halls of a popular hardware store this evening in search of trim for our new home. We found a vast selection of trim designs. Big bevels, little bevels, ornamental designs, and geometric etchings abounded. Completely absent from this vast selection was one beautiful shape perhaps unknown to you: the rectangle. I have included a rough interpretation of this shape above for your reference.

The plain, unadorned rectangle is perfectly suited to baseboards, window frames, and other trim applications. It would be inexpensive to make, and the amount my husband and I need alone would support a small start-up product line.

Try it. We'll buy it!

Up on the rooftop

2008-05-28T19:10:00.006-04:00

John ventured up the ladder through the skylight in the third-floor bathroom to check out the progress on the roof. Things are looking good. This photo shows where our little rooftop patio will go, way up there among the trees. Most of the roof will be planted with sedum (soon, we hope), absorbing the sun's rays in the summer, giving us a little extra insulation in the winter, and reducing stormwater run-off. The green roof will be a beautiful feature when it's installed.

Next stop: BBQ!

2008-05-28T19:04:00.004-04:00

We dropped by the house today and found some wonderful progress on the second-story deck off of our kitchen. It's tempting to seal the untreated cedar and preserve the new-wood look, but we are determined to let it age gracefully. I love the look of silvered-out, aging cedar, too. It reminds me of the fences at my grandfather's farm. This deck will be a beauty, especially when it grows some railings.

Fruits of a sunny Saturday's labour

2008-05-25T23:18:00.006-04:00

John and I were impressed to see our deck builders on-site this sunny Saturday, and it looks like it was a productive day. We were on our way to Kingston to pick up a tub and sink donated by our dear friends to the Boucher-Thurston cause (our builder wasn't able to do this after all), and stopped in on the deck crew to say hello. This photo doesn't show the platform that leads out from our office, but does give an idea of the effort put in so far. The decks will be constructed mostly of untreated cedar; the supports are made of pressure-treated lumber.

We're behind on a few fronts -- electrical, front porch, brickwork -- but we're hoping for a good week this week.

A week's work

2008-05-20T23:49:00.004-04:00

A lot of things are scheduled for this week: the roofing membrane should be finished over the next couple of days, the sonotubes for the porch will be installed, the front porch itself will be started, and the electrical work should begin. We're going to pick up the third-floor bathroom tub at my Dad's tomorrow night (thanks for keeping it safe, Dad and Allison!), and our builder is planning to pick up a great tub and pedestal sink from our lovely and generous friends in Kingston on Friday.

John says hi from the roof in the photo above. That's the skylight in the third-floor bathroom he's peeking through. (There are three ladders between me and waving John, which is why no comparable photo exists of me.)

Mulch, anyone?

2008-05-12T21:20:00.003-04:00

The guys revved up the chipper today to whip up some fresh mulch from the waste wood on the site, rather than send it on to landfill. It turns out they ended up with a lot of extra mulch. We hope that some of our neighbours can put it to good use.

Second-floor views

2008-05-12T21:01:00.007-04:00

Here are some recent photos of the second floor. The second floor is our main living space, and includes the living room, dining room, kitchen and pantry, and powder room.

The photo on the left shows the view of the floor from the living room to the kitchen. The stairwell is on the left (see that terrifying ladder extending up to the third floor?!), the dining room is in the middle and the kitchen is at the rear on the left. The door in the middle of the rear wall goes out to a deck. The powder room is on the right nearest the dining room (it has a beautiful curved wall), and the pantry is at the back. Our washer and dryer will also fit in the pantry.

The photo on the right shows the view of the floor from the kitchen to the living room. The stairwell is on the right (argh! there's the ladder again), the dining room is on the left, and the living room is at the back. The living room has a cathedral ceiling, which will soon have two skylights, one on each side of the peak.

We love this floor. Well, we love all the floors, but this one is a beauty.

Jams, chutneys and pickles!

2008-05-12T20:41:00.011-04:00

I was on a roll on Saturday and managed to make my way down the ladder to the basement while I was at it. John had already been down there once, and had told me about the crawlspace, but I had to see it to believe it. When the house was originally designed, we weren't sure how much of a crawlspace we were going to be able to get with all of the rock that would have to be removed for the basement. We thought it would literally be a "crawl" space, a spider-infested subterranean hollow with no more than four feet of head space or so. Not my kind of place at all. I had plans to send John down there to retrieve my little jars of homemade jam when I needed them.

It turns out that won't be necessary! The space is huge! It's about seven feet tall and almost four feet wide. Do you know how much jam a space like that could HOLD? Jams? Why limit it to jams? With a space like that, I can make chutneys, jellies, pickles, preserves, relish, and MUSTARDS! I can make soaps, salves, and bath products! I can have a whole store down there and make gift baskets as the need arises! Can you imagine it?! I can. Think of the possibilities!

Lorie vs. the ladder (the sequel)

2008-05-10T23:05:00.003-04:00

You won't believe it, loyal readers, but I made it up to the third floor today! Don't tell my mom, but after very kind encouragement from Adam and Mike, I found the resolve to conquer (or at least momentarily suppress) my fear and climb the ladder to the third floor. Unlike the relatively manageable ladder to the second floor, the ladder to the third floor extends over the gaping abyss of our three-story light well. Were one to fall off of the ladder, one could be in the air for entire seconds before hitting the none-too-yielding floor below! Like me, Mike has the sense to fear such a fate, so I had an understanding supporter. After much hemming and hawing, Mike said we should both go up. If he can do it, so can I, I thought, so once he went up, I did, too. Did I feel like throwing up? Yes. Did my knees feel like tapioca pudding? Yes. Do I want to do it again? God, no. Get those stairs in there, boys!

Seriously, though, it was amazing to finally get to see our room, the spare room, and our bathroom. I love it all. Our room is small, but enough for a bed and two end tables, which is all we need. The walk-in closet is glorious. Sure, John will just fill it with his 1,000 coats, but it's still great. Since I was on a roll, I went up the bathroom ladder to poke my head out of the skylight and see the roof. The roof will be like a little park in the sky, among the tree tops. It's better than I had hoped for. I can't wait to see the little patio up there!

New roommate

2008-05-10T22:50:00.005-04:00

Our house seems to be attractive real estate for other two-legged species; there is a little pile of twigs in our bedroom collected by hopeful pigeons. Sorry guys, this place is soon to be occupied!

John and I, and our friends Mike and Adam, checked out the place thoroughly today. We had some challenges with the plumbing to resolve this week, and after some figuring out, it looks like we still ended up with the bulkheads we were trying to avoid. We'll see how that pans out next week. We also have to finalize our electrical plan over the weekend, including where all of our switches should go. Pendant lights, pot lights, flush-mounted lights, under-cabinet lights...so many decisions. We're glad that we made the lion's share of those choices months ago and are just confirming the details now.

Cheers to the crew!

2008-05-06T21:47:00.011-04:00

We met with our builder tonight and he had a lovely surprise for us: he and the guys chipped in and bought us a great bottle of champagne and a sweet card for our wedding. We were very touched. Guys, if you're reading this, we truly appreciated your kind gesture. Thank you so much. I'm trying to convince John that we should save it for our moving day (in July)!

We're a couple of days behind schedule, but still progressing. We're going to hold off on having our inspector come by until Friday so the guys can get a couple extra days of work in and we can get the maximum out of the draw (installment payment on our mortgage). The dates are a bit off, but the line-up remains the same: plumbing, insulation, electrical, mechanical, bricks and decks (the start of them, anyway) will all happen in May. And, finally, we got the drawings we needed from the engineer for the stairs! Our stair supplier is now ready to go when we are. Stairs = no more ladders. I can't wait!

We thought we would include a couple of photos of the back of the house. We can't get back far enough to get a complete shot, but the one on the left gives you an idea of how it will look. The top right balcony is off of our bedroom. The door floating in the middle of the house will lead out to our main deck off the kitchen, and the bottom door leads out from our office to a little platform.

Looking good, guys!

Come on in!

2008-05-01T21:51:00.023-04:00

We now have a front door!

And a back door, too, and most of our windows. Things are really coming together. One lone window remains to be installed, along with the rest of the exterior doors. The sheathing on the roof is now completely installed, and the front of the garage is now closed in.

After some debate about how many doors there are, we finally counted eight, seven of which actually lead outside: entrance, inside entrance, back, garage, basement entrance, second-floor deck, third-floor deck, and third-floor door to rooftop patio. It seems like a lot of doors when you list them like that, but they all have a purpose.

Our builder reminded us that we would have to have a locksmith change the locks so that there are only two different ones for the house (one for the basement entrance and one for the rest of the them). Otherwise, our pockets would sag and jingle quite janitorially.

In great news, our builder has lined up many of the trades who will be working on our house in May. May is going to be a big month: plumbing and masonry (our bricks!) begin May 12, our mechanical system installation starts May 19, and insulation follows on May 26.

For our part, we bought our wall oven, dishwasher and fridge tonight. Once we make our final decision on our washer and dryer, we will have all of our appliances. Luckily, we don't have to pile them up in the middle of our bed (the only space left in our apartment). The store is willing to hold them until the crew is ready to install them.

We promise to start showing pictures other than the front facade soon. Until then...

Wonderful windows

2008-04-29T20:39:00.017-04:00

As anticipated, our house now has some of its windows in place, which was great to see today. John and I checked them out from the inside (John on each of the floors and me from the safety of the ladder). About half of them have been installed, with the remainder left to go in (tomorrow, we think).

The doors are still waiting their turn, too. As we've mentioned before, we have a lot of ways to get outside, and, civilized as we are (sort of), all of those ways are through doors. In all, there are six doors leading to various outdoor spaces. They are all dark brown, and should match the windows. The garage door will go in closer to the end of the construction.

More on windows and doors tomorrow...

Roof wizardry

2008-04-28T21:22:00.013-04:00

We're back!

After a week away, we came home to find good progress on the roof. The sloping and skylights posed a challenge to our builder last week, but after some calculations and discussions with our designer, the crew was able to pull it off. The roof is now just about complete; the team will install the sheathing and peel-and-stick membrane on the front gable, and then the steel roof by the middle of next week. We're a few days behind our target, but with the mathematical masterminding and problem-solving skills required for the "flat" roof, we are thrilled to have missed our goal by only a few days.

In very exciting news, our windows and doors are going in tomorrow! Windows and doors!

I am speechless with extreme glee.

More tomorrow!

Roof progress

2008-04-16T23:23:00.006-04:00

Progress is being made on the roof, as you can see in these pics. Each of those joists represents a lot of labour, as the guys have had to lift each one of them manually from the ground up to the third floor. Getting those up there is no easy feat with the hydro wire cutting right in front of the lot. Each one weighs about 250 lbs. They are also very precisely cut to attain the perfect angle for drainage. At least the weather has been on the crew's side; spring has sprung here in Ottawa, and the warmer days are encouraging.

This will be our last blog post for about a week and a half, since we have a wedding and honeymoon to attend to. When we come back we hope to have some great shots to share of our fully enclosed home.

Bye bye blockhead

2008-04-10T17:51:00.010-04:00

We arrived home today to find that our house no longer looks like the block-headed younger sibling of our neighbours' homes. Work on the second-floor gabled roof has begun, which brings the house closer to its final shape. The guys have also started working on the third-floor flat roof, but that has proven to be more of a challenge than our builder anticipated. Flat roofs are never flat, and creating the slope requires Einstein's math skills and Gandhi's patience. But never fear, our intrepid builder is on the case.

The third floor will house our bedroom, a full bathroom, and a second bedroom. The hallway that links these rooms is curved, which also posed some problems for the crew since the doors are not (come on Rona, where are your curved doors?). The crew spent a lot of time on Monday working out various radiuses (radii?) that would still give us curved walls but wouldn't look odd with straight doors. They settled on an idea they thought would work, and John went up to check it out while I shuddered below with every step he took up the ladder. He said it looks really neat, and that's good enough for me. I'd like to live to enjoy our curved walls, so I stayed off the ladder.

Making the news

2008-04-06T22:55:00.004-04:00

Our community newspaper, the New Edinburgh News, published a little article on our house earlier this month. You can check it out here.

All walls up

2008-04-06T21:40:00.009-04:00

The beam problem was resolved on Friday when an engineer confirmed that our builder could safely use four LVLs (laminated veneer lumber) instead of the steel beam, saving everyone the risk associated with getting a very large and heavy piece up two stories. With the LVLs a-go, the guys were able to finish the last of the exterior walls on the third floor, leaving only the roof, doors and windows to install. The windows and doors are now on-site and ready to go when the crew is ready. We thought the third-floor roof would be in place or at least well underway by the end of this weekend, but it didn't play out that way. We're hoping for a productive week this week.

John and I met with our designer, builder and deck builder on Friday and had a good discussion about the finer details of our decks. They sound like they will be beautiful and durable. In the warmer months, they will extend our living space by about three hundred square feet, maybe a little more. We love the idea of being able to go outside from every floor (the worry wart in me especially loves the idea of a quick escape at any time). Stay tuned...

Beam boondoggle

2008-04-03T21:25:00.004-04:00

No change in outward appearances these days, so there's no new photo today. Our builder has run into some problems with a beam, which has unfortunately stalled the crew's progress. The plans call for a steel beam at the top rear of the second floor (bottom of the third floor), which poses a pretty big problem for us. The beam will weigh about 600 lbs, and can't be mechanically lifted into place because of some hydro wires in front of our property. The team is good, but even they can't lift 600 lbs. One alternative is to install a series of LVLs (laminated veneer lumber); an engineer is assessing whether this would work, but the answers are very slow in coming. Without the beam or a replacement for it, the guys can't do much on-site. We are hoping for some news tomorrow. This problem needs to be resolved soon.

John and I met our flooring supplier today, and he's quite a character. Think of a German David Copperfield with longish hair under a hard hat, and that's him. He's currently pouring a concrete floor at the Japanese embassy, so we walked over at lunch to check it out. It looks like we might be able to go with the "natural" finish, which seems to be close to the brown we're looking for. Our builder is going to request samples in "natural" and another brown for us, and we'll go from there.

John and I took tomorrow off and have a meeting in the morning with our builder, our designer, and the fellow who's doing our decks. There are some design issues to hammer out before we can get a final deck quote. We're looking forward to seeing the exterior structures; we really think they're going to add a lot to our house. We also have the benefit of having seen some of our deck company's work, and it's stunning.

We also got a message today informing us that our windows and doors will be delivered tomorrow, which is great, but also unfortunate because the guys aren't ready for them. We hope that they're wrapped and protected from the elements, because the roof isn't on yet. We're looking forward to checking out how the colour looks in person (chocolate brown).

Walls on our third floor

2008-03-30T21:33:00.004-04:00

Have to make this a quick post, but we wanted to share the latest developments. We now have three walls up on the third story of our house. Our builder tells us the view from there is great, let alone the view we'll get from the roof. Can't wait to see it for ourselves.

Kitchen crazy

2008-03-30T17:27:00.022-04:00

John and I spent a total of 10 hours working on our Ikea kitchen this weekend. We spent six of those hours in the store either in line or in discussion with Ikea staff, and four of them cursing at the Ikea software from the (dis)comfort of John's "office" (read: our storage area that has a desk in it).

This is how it went: yesterday, we had four wedding-related errands to run (photographer, dress, shoes, rings) and thought we'd cap it off by ordering our Ikea kitchen. Ikea is having a sale in which they give customers $100 Ikea dollars for every $1,000 you spend on your kitchen, so we wanted to take advantage of it. We had asked our designer to prepare us a mock-up of our kitchen plan to take with us to the store, which we toted along with us. He had tried to use Ikea's standard measurements for the cabinetry, but there were some problems with what we were trying to do and what Ikea will allow. When we got there, we found there was a long list of people waiting to do the same thing, so we waited until we were called, which was about an hour later. When we finally got paired with a kitchen staff member, we talked to her for about 15 minutes before learning that she couldn't help us if we didn't have our kitchen plan in the Ikea software. We were pretty frustrated at that point, despite the delicious meatballs we'd enjoyed earlier in the cafeteria, but we had no choice but to head home and try to convert our designer's drawings to something that would work in Ikea-land. After about three hours with the software, we were sort of able to get it to obey our commands. We ended up with a kitchen we were kind of happy with, although it still had some failings.

So, off we went today, fully prepared to spend hours among the Ikea hordes. Today was the last day of the sale. It was exactly as you might expect. People everywhere, bustling along the pre-determined Ikea shopping path, dodging running kids and shopping baskets. Everything that's awful about weekend shopping times a hundred. After about half an hour or so, we were called. We ended up being paired with the same staff member we'd had the night before, but now that we had our Ikea kitchen plan, we could speak the same language. She suggested some fairly significant changes that we think make the kitchen much more flexible and that eliminate the problems we'd had in our design (namely, a cooktop right up against the fridge). Once the kitchen was completely planned, we got another number to get in the ordering line-up (yep), and waited for what felt like two hours to place our order. Once we got our order form, off we went to get in line with it at the cash to pay. We're still not sure what we ended up paying for (I couldn't explain it right now if I tried), but we know the order is placed and that it will be ready for delivery in the middle of May.

It's been a busy weekend full of errands and decisions, but we're on our way to a very nice kitchen.

Third floor beginnings

2008-03-27T23:25:00.012-04:00

Although it might not look like much from the street, we were very happy to see that the floor of our third floor is now just about complete. The third floor covers the rear two-thirds or so of the house. It's been a very slow building week, despite relatively good weather. For various reasons, the crew has only been on-site for just under two of the last six working days. We were happy to see the construction get back on track today and look forward to third-floor walls soon.

Tonight, our designer sent us some updated drawings of our kitchen. A few months ago, John had an attack of worry that our cooktop and sink were too far apart, compromising the effectiveness of the critical "working triangle" of a well-designed kitchen. So, to try and accommodate our request to have the cooktop closer to the sink, our designer sent along an alternative option. With only one full wall in the kitchen, though, it was definitely a challenge. John and I will give the new design more thought and order our kitchen over the weekend. We're going with Ikea Adel cabinets with glass doors on the upper cabinets and solid doors on the lower cabinets. Good price, low-VOC, non-formaldehyde glues, real wood. Should be nice.

96A Crichton Street!

2008-03-25T21:40:00.008-04:00

96A! After receiving various documents for our lot naming it
94A Crichton, 96 Crichton, 96A Crichton, and my favourite,
0 Crichton, we finally received confirmation from the city that our property is and will be forevermore 96A Crichton. This only makes sense, since we are between 94 and 96B Crichton Street, and our property was once part of 96B Crichton. Hence, 96A. Once the bachelor apartment is ready, we'll need another address for that, which should be a fun adventure. Perhaps 96.528ABC Crichton? Maybe 0 Crichton will still be free then.

We selected a couple of colour options tonight for our concrete floors. Sure, we felt a bit ridiculous buying the Benjamin Moore collection of paint chips for $35 way back last summer, but they turned out to be very handy for the floors. (They will be for the wall colours, too.) The DaroTopp (lightweight concrete) supplier will provide us with a couple of samples to check out the colour match, and then we'll make our final choices. We're thinking of having two colours: a lightish brown for the first and second floors, and a slightly deeper brown for the basement and third floor. We'll see how the samples turn out.

Just practising

2008-03-21T22:58:00.007-04:00

John made himself at home today, checking out what's in the fridge, eating in the dining room, and reading in the living room. When do we move in?!

Lorie vs. the ladder

2008-03-21T22:24:00.011-04:00

Guess who won? I did. I finally made it to the second floor today. The sun dried up the rainwater in the house and on the ladder, so before John and I headed out to go cross-country skiing, we stopped by the house. And up I went.

It was great to see the space, especially the kitchen. It looks a lot smaller from the ladder; once you're in it, it's definitely a normal size. The size of the pantry was also a great surprise. It will house our stacked washer and dryer and laundry sink, as well as our pantry items. There will even be room for my paella pan.

The photo on the left shows the view from the living room to the rear of the house. Closest to the camera on the right will be the dining room. The kitchen is at the rear on the left, and the powder room and pantry are on the right. The door beside the kitchen window will lead out to a deck. When John's not looking, I'm planning on sneaking a barbeque on there (who ever heard of a person who didn't like to barbeque?).

The photo on the right shows the view from the kitchen to the front of the house. The living room will be the sunniest spot in the house. It faces southwest, and will have two skylights in the cathedral ceiling above it. We can't wait to see it all finished.