Basement ready to be poured

The foundation crew was out finishing up the cribbing until about noon today. They have ordered concrete for Monday, but Burnco said they might not be able to get to it until Tuesday (Monday's are busy days as alot of basements get finished up over the weekend). It certainly is exciting to see the house take shape. If the walls get poured Monday, then we should be able to start putting up the floor system Tuesday afternoon, or Wednesday morning at the latest. The concrete needs to sit for about a day before the cribbing can be removed. The floor system should hopefully only take a day to put in. It requires putting in the support beams, laying the floor joists over that, and then glueing/nailing the subfloor on top of that. If anyone is around to help, that would be great. Check back on Monday night to see if we have the concrete poured or not. That will determine when we can start.
Todd, Jacob, Josh and I kept working on some walls today. I think we have a total of 6 built now. The boys spent about 3 hours out at the lot today, helping pound nails, carrying lumber, picking up garbage, and of course, playing on the dirt. It was a beautiful day. The weather was great. I think it is supposed to be windy again tomorrow though.

Our Electrician is Ready!!!

Since the basement should be completed by Monday or Tuesday, we should be able to have our temporary power installed shortly after that. Todd had lined somebody up to get it installed this week. As you can see by the pictures, our electrician that is doing all the inside work is also ready to go (Todd's Dad).

2 walls completed--we're almost ready to move in!!

Todd and Dad were able to get two walls completed yesterday. One is quite a tall wall (23') while the other was around 13'. This is one side of the house (the utility room and office outer walls). They were back at it again early this morning, so we'll have to see how many they got done today.
Hopefully the cribbing is being done today, so that the walls can perhaps be poured tomorrow afternoon. It should be poured by Monday at the latest, so maybe we can start putting the floor up then.
We are having some warm weather here, which is nice, but it was a little bit windy yesterday. Sheets of plywood were flying overhead, and the neighbours styrofoam blocks for his foundation ended up on our lot!!! The wind has died down today, so it is much better--although the wind cleared up a fair bit of the snow.
You can check out the weather by clicking on the weather links to the left of the page. I placed those links there for everyone's convenience. Feel free to post a comment every so often, even if it is just to say "Hi". We would like to hear from you.
We had our appointment at Canyon Plumbing to pick out faucets/tubs/sinks etc on Tuesday. That was quite the challenge. It is hard to know exactly how you want things to look, when you really haven't started on anything yet. It was fun though. Todd picked out some nice faucets/tub fixtures for the bathrooms. I picked out the kitchen sink/faucets and the tubs (which are also nice!!!). I will hopefully get to some cabinet makers next week, to start working on a kitchen design. If anyone has any suggestions, please pass them on to me. I am having a hard time deciding what I want!!
We are still waiting to hear back from 2 different companies on geothermal quotes. One of those companies is also giving us a quote on just forced air heating.
Well, that is all for now. I will probably have more for you on Saturday!

One wall done--how many to go??

Todd and Dad were at it fairly early this morning, stopping by and borrowing a generator from a coworker of Todd's. They then headed out to the land and tried to find a wall to build. Most of the walls come prebundled, so it is just a matter of finding the right bundle, and then using all the pieces in that bundle to build the wall. Some bundles don't require any cutting, but others do. All of us, the boys and I included, took a turn hammering in some nails. I think the wall turned out great!




While we were busy with the wall, the foundation guy was out there marking off where the walls need to be placed upon the footings. There was one truck with cribbing on it there, but there is still supposed to be two more coming this afternoon (as it gets pulled off someone else's basement). I'm not sure if they'll get around to getting any of the cribbing up today or not. The boys were fortunate enough to get to watch the foundation guy use the small grapple-type hook to unload the cribbing from the back of the truck.

Let's get started!!

Well, Todd and Dad L. just couldn't wait to get started!! Tomorrow morning they are planning on heading out to start putting together some of the walls, so that once the basement walls are poured, they can put together the floor system, and then put up some walls. We are supposed to have some nice weather the next few days, so they decided to take advantage of it!! We will probably be looking for some help next week, maybe as early as Tuesday, maybe as late as next weekend, to get the floor system in place. Please let us know if you are interested in helping at all (you get free meals, and some good country air!!!)

Our home is here!!

Another big truck pulled in this morning, full of lumber!!! We now have all of our materials to start building with, we just need to have our basement completed. We ordered our house package through Jaywest Country Homes (based here in Calgary), who is a supplier of Viceroy homes. Viceroy homes manufactures these packages in Richmond, BC, as well as out in Ontario.
The truck carried more lumber than Todd was expecting, but now we have it all. The back of our lot is covered with supplies. The good thing is, that with the dirt from the basement excavation, and the fact that the supplies are placed at the back of the lot, you can't really tell that we have stuff sitting around (hopefully this will prevent theft).
Todd and Dad L. are just finishing up covering the lumber with polywrap to protect it from the elements. Now that all the supplies are here, I think those two are itching to start working. Hopefully by the weekend or early next week they'll be able to start.
Jacob, Josh and I have been a big help by taking out lunches, and packing very small items around (and I do mean small!!!). I helped out by taking inventory yesterday (counting windows, noting their numbers and such). Jacob and Josh have enjoyed playing games down in the basement on the footings. Grandpa (Dad L) told them that all the bare ground is filled with water and alligators, so they need to stay up on the roads and bridges. At least this keeps them entertained and out of the way. Jacob liked seeing the crane unloading the big packages off the truck this morning (Josh was having a little nap in the truck!!).

The Package has Arrived!!

Another exciting day!! First, we had to have the storage container we rented moved, as the truck driver just dropped it off in the middle of the driveway. That was done at about the same time the big truck was dropping off some of the house materials. The first truck arrived at around 8:30 this morning, and was done unloading around 10:00. The second truck is stuck out in Golden, as there was an accident on the TransCanada (a truck spilt some diesel), and it is shut down temporarily. The second truck should be at the lot by around 11:00 tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will be out there to grab some pictures of them unloading.
We packed all the windows into the container, along with insulation, casing, jambs, and doors. We also packed in a few tools. The rafters are going to have sit out, along with a fair bit of the lumber. We will be buying some tarps or poly wrap to cover the lumber up. We should have a basement towards the end of this week or early next week, so then we can get started.