House Progress

Finishing Touches!!!

2009-08-12T11:51:00.003-07:00

The house is starting to look a little more finished. We hired a couple different crews to get some of the finishing touches complete. The basement is being framed in, and drywall put up just around the utility room, to keep "little helpers" out of that area. The garage is being insulated and drywalled, so that Todd can make good use of the space, and get it organized how he likes---the only place in the house that he claims belongs to him!!! We should have someone coming in to install stairs on the front and back decks in the next little bit as well. I think Todd and I are going to attempt to install deck railing.....

We finally have the rounded windows on the back wall finished. As well, as the baseboards are installed. We will have a painter in on Aug 28-30 to get them all painted up. It is looking good!

We still need to buy the door hardware, but other than that, they are finished--okay,I guess they still need to be painted as well, but that will happen soon enough (Aug 28th).

The baseboards in the closets---they look so nice completed!!!!

And finally, the boys' birthday present for the year!!! We are hoping to have it completed by Friday, just in time for Jacob's birthday! The gravel should be delivered either this afternoon, or tomorrow morning. So far, we have spent 10 hours on the set. We had to put up the post wall (30 ft x 30 ft), and raise the playground structure itself. We will be laying down vapour barrier before the gravel is dropped off, and the gravel will be 12" deep (the recommended depth to prevent injuries from falls at 8 ft).

I will put up a few more pictures in the upcoming weeks as we finish things off. Stay tuned........

43 New Trees

2009-06-19T18:29:00.004-07:00

Here are our new trees. There are 43 Blue Spruce. Most of them are around 15 ft tall, with a few being closer to 20 +ft. The are estimated to be about 15 years old. We put 10 trees around the back deck, as we are planning on putting in stairs (off the deck), down to a patio area, with a retaining wall. The spruce would be just outside the retaining wall.

Our smaller spruce have also budded!!! We lost a few over the winter, but most are doing pretty good.

Even our poplar tree that we grabbed from my parent's place has finally budded.

View from the Northwest side of our property.

We still have 2 trees that are filling in the gap in front. The trees look great out front, from inside the house, and out by the road!!!!

Off to the east side of the property!

Another picture from the road!

The trees right in front of the house (west side of the driveway).

All the trees still need to be straightened, but we will wait a week or so, until after they have settled.

Hopefully in the fall we will get in some poplar trees, and fill in a few more of the gaps, and add a little variety!!!

New Trees

2009-05-22T11:29:00.002-07:00

I know, it has been forever since I last posted, but we have a few new things going on!!! Our grass is coming in not too bad this spring, but would do much better if we could ever get some nice weather.
We have planted our garden, so hopefully we will get some good stuff out of it this year. The boys planted potatoes, carrots, onions, lettuce, beans, peas, 3 strawberry plants, and pickles!!!!!
Todd also went to a tree nursery that was having an auction, and bought 43 10-20 ft blue spruce. Those are being delivered late next week, or early the week after. We will have to stake all of those down, especially with the winds we have been getting.
We are looking at getting our deck railings done, and finally some stairs up to the front door. We had some quotes done to get our driveway paved, but we are going to wait on that for maybe another year.
I will get some pictures up once we get the new trees in, and once the garden has started to grow.

Outside Rock

2008-11-29T14:13:00.005-07:00

Finally, pictures of the exterior rock!!! We also had them do the parging while here. It is not quite complete. We will probably have them back in the spring to put rock on the posts of the deck (once we get it framed in!!!).

Almost done the fire place!!!

Just a reminder that if you want to see a larger image, just click on the picture, and it will open it full screen.

Fireplace Finished

2008-11-24T14:36:00.002-07:00

Here is the finished product!!! As you can see, the boys love the new TV!!! We are very satisfied with how it turned out. I will get some pictures up of the outside rock in the next day or two. The front of the garage still needs to be completed, and they are about halfway done the outside wall of the fireplace. Todd is very happy that he chose not to do this project!!!
We are going to be putting a sealing coat on the hearth stones, so that if anything gets spilled on them, it won't stain. It takes 48 hours to dry though, so we are waiting for a time when we are going out of town for the weekend.

Rock!!!

2008-11-19T07:33:00.001-07:00

The hearth stone still need to be put down, but that should be happening today.

We will have to put the TV back in place once all the dust is cleaned up.

Mantle

2008-11-03T20:23:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the mantle, now stained and in place. There will be rock all around the fireplace, the mantle, and the TV--alot of rock. The mason was here today, and dropped off some of his tools, so he should be starting first thing tomorrow morning. He will still need to put up the metal lathe outside, as well as inside, and then put on a scratch coat. Needless to say, it will be a few days before we actually have any rock on the house. He will need to do about 500 sq ft. This is on the outside, front of the house/garage, as well as the fireplace wall, inside and out.

The guy who did the woodworking on the log, figures it to be from a 100 year old tree. It was in my grandma's house for 100 years, so we are looking at a very old piece of wood!! The staining turned out real nice--just as we were hoping it would!!!

We originally had hardwood on the hearth, but ripped that out this weekend, as we decided to put some stones down instead. They are 20" x 20", and are of the same type as our rock for the rest of the house.

A close up of the "worm holes".

Trees

2008-10-14T14:18:00.005-07:00

Our trees were delivered and planted yesterday. They are a white spruce, between 4-6 feet tall. We have 100 of them. We also grabbed a few poplars from my mom and dad's last weekend.

The latest....

2008-10-12T10:51:00.002-07:00

We still continue to work on the house. We have been living in the house for just over 1 year now. It has been a wonderfully busy year! The grass is coming in not too bad. We ended up buying a little lawn tractor, so it takes about 3 hours to mow the lawn. We still have lots of rocks, so we will work on getting all those out over the next year or so. By then we should have some trees, and we will consider getting a zero turn mower.

Todd powered through 2 weekends and got all the spindles and railings painted. We still need to varnish the railings, so the kids and I will have to leave one more weekend--the kids are just a little too helpful!!!
Todd has also been working hard on getting baseboards, headers, and chair railings up. The is the headers of the front bay window. It all came together very nicely! We still have to put up window casings in the back windows, but that means setting up the scaffolding. We'll have to get to it one of these weekends.
Todd bought a paint sprayer, so we finally got all of our doors painted. They look so nice!! Todd just installed the first of the closet doors last night, so I will have to get pictures up of that.

We are having someone in to do the rock inside and out, and he should hopefully be in the last week of October, or the first week of November at the latest. These are our 3 choices so far....we are having a hard time picking which one!! They are all Eldorado Stone.

Manzanita Cliffstone

York Limestone

Mesa Verde Moutain Ledge

Once we have that in, it will make the house look so different. I had a mantel for the fireplace made out of a log from my grandma's house. The log itself is about 200 years old. The tree was about 100 years when it was cut down to be used for my grandma's house, and the house was built over 100 years ago. I can't wait to see the finished fireplace wall--it should be a great feature in the house!!!!

We are getting trees brought in tomorrow. We will have 100 white spruce planted. They are between 4 -6 feet in height. That will make the lot look a very different.

We are also looking at different options for sidewalks. We had looked at getting stamped concrete, but apparently that gets very slippery in the winter. I think we are learning towards paving stones, that Todd and I will do ourselves---the projects just never end around here!!!

By the way--Happy Thanksgiving!!

Greenery

2008-07-15T14:21:00.001-07:00

Here are a few shots of the freshly sprouted grass!! We just need some rain over the next couple of days, followed by some nice warm weather. We have had temps just above 20, but no rain...not ideal. We may have to consider watering with the sprinkler......

Some patches are growing better than others....

Update on Seeding

2008-07-08T13:05:00.002-07:00

The grass seed is just starting to come up. I'll give it another week, and then I will try to get a picture. We have a few spots were we will most likely have to bring in some topsoil, as the ground is just too rocky, or has too much clay....We have been lucky to get a little bit of rain, followed by some warm weather, so that has helped the grass. We could use more rain, which we will hopefully be getting in the next little bit.
We had a few moles, but we were able to get rid of them this past week. We still have one, maybe two gophers, and they are proving difficult to remove......
Alberta Paving stopped by as they are paving a neighbours driveway, and we got a quote. Needless to say, we are going to stick with the gravel driveway for a few more years.....I think their quote was reasonable, just more than what we are willing to spend at this time.
The front and back decks almost have all the deck boards down. On the back, we are missing two boards, and on the front, we have to finish building the frame for part of it, and then we still need to put on about 8 boards on the already framed in part.

More seeding...

2008-06-27T12:14:00.003-07:00

The seeding is just about complete. Now, bring on the hot weather with no rain!!!! It is supposed to be fairly warm over the weekend, but then we are supposed to get some rain early next week--let's hope!!!

These are the rock picker attachments. They used a rock sweep type attachment to put the rocks in rows, and then attached the bucket to scoop the rocks up. We have a huge rock pile in the backyard, so if anyone needs rocks.......

The backyard tilled and harrowed, no rocks picked yet, and no seed.

Landscaping--okay, tilling and seeding!!

2008-06-24T10:36:00.005-07:00

The bathroom mirrors were installed last Tuesday--what a difference it makes! It is weird to walk by the rooms though, and be able to see your reflection--takes some getting used to! Main floor bathroom.
Todd's vanity mirror.
My vanity mirror--note all the Kleenex--Nathan loves to open boxes and pull the tissues out!!
Boys' bathroom upstairs. Jacob loves to stand in front of it and make faces!!

The prairie grass was cut with a rough cut mower yesterday, and now is being tilled today.

We had some gravel brought in the last week of May, just before we had all that rain. It was pretty muddy already at the end of the driveway, you almost got stuck getting out. The gravel is holding up well though.
The front deck. We can step out the front door now, but we still don't have steps in place to get up to the deck. We will wait for the seeding to be done, and then we will get a concrete pad poured, or put in some kind of paving stone blocks (depends on what we are going to do for a sidewalk), and then we will install the stairs, and finish the deck.

Todd was also up painting the office dormer on the weekend, and around the front door. We have no other spots that need to be painted brown. We have a couple pieces of trim board that need to be painted white still, but that will have to wait again now until the seed is growing nicely. The seeding company (Kayben Farms) came out a couple days earlier than we thought, so Todd was actually painting when they showed up. We had to move the lift out of the way though.

Hopefully we still get the occassional rain shower to help with the grass--once it is in. The lot has dried up nicely from last week. We had a lot of very big puddles--I think Jacob referred to them as "ponds", actually--they did come complete with the occassional duck, and lots of frogs!!! Oh yeah--and a few million mosquitoes!!!

Kitchen Backsplash Finished and a Few More Baseboards

2008-05-28T19:03:00.002-07:00

Nathan and Jacob were helping Dad this weekend with baseboards--Nathan especially. He wouldn't leave Todd alone for a minute. He had to help hold the tape measure, and he carried sections of baseboard all around the house. Todd placed them where they fit, but didn't nail everything in until the end, so Nathan would take a piece out, and then put in back in place.

Here are a few pictures of the finished backsplash. It now has the sealer on it, so it will retain this "wet" look. We are really happy with how it turned out.

I am still working on getting together a quote for the cultivating, seeding, rock picking of the yard. Hopefully by the end of the week we will of had someone out to look at it.

Still no vanity mirrors, and not sure exactly when either......

We had a few of our hardwood boards replaced, as they had moved, and the fixes look great!!

Grout on Backsplash

2008-05-23T20:31:00.003-07:00

Here are the most recent pictures of the backsplash. It now has grout. It should be sealed early this week, and then it will be complete!!!

I have been working on getting quotes for seeding the yard this week. It looks as though things have slowed down a little bit in Calgary, as we got some quotes that were half of what they were last fall. The quotes were for tilling the entire lot, rock picking/removal, harrowing, and seeding. Looks like we won't be able to get it done until mid to late June though, since I didn't get on this sooner---okay, it isn't all my fault--we were planning on putting in trees this spring, and then seeding in the fall, but we changed our minds just last week......seed now, trees in the fall....

Our bathroom mirrors should also be installed this week sometime, so that will be nice. With all the rain expected this weekend as well, I think Todd was planning on working inside on baseboards, and I will continue to sort through all our stuff in the basement---yeah--unpacking!!!

More Deck and Kitchen Backsplash

2008-05-19T19:56:00.003-07:00

The back deck is finished on the office side, so all that remains is about 5 feet x 14 feet on the west side of the deck, out our bedroom patio door.
Yeah, we have enough deck in place to BBQ--steaks last night, and chicken burgers tonight!!!

The kitchen backsplash--Brown Tumbled Travertine in a subway pattern, with a Tumbled Travertine Renaissance Medallion.

This will still need to have grout applied, which is being done tomorrow, and will have a sealer put on it that gives it a wet look, so the tiles will appear much more brown after that is done.

Deck!!

2008-05-17T19:24:00.003-07:00

Well, we finally decided what to do with our decking. We went with a composite board after much debating between that and treated lumber. We are very impressed with how it looks so far. We should be done the back deck, minus the railings, by Monday.

This is the Shadoe Trac we started out trying to use. You nail this to all your joists, and then the idea is to screw the deck boards down from underneath. This is a hidden fastening system. We tried it with two boards, and just found it wasn't holding it very secure, and the boards kept moving so they were out of alignment. In the end, we just ended up screwing it down from the top--alot faster.....
Here is a close up of the board material.
This is how far we are at the end of the day today.....Almost to the point that we can put up the BBQ that we bought this afternoon--we have really missed BBQing, especially when the weather is so nice outside. The gas line is just on the other side of the fireplace chimney, so we should be able to hook up the BBQ tomorrow.
The deck from the other direction (looking to the east).
Jacob and Joshua playing on the decking material after it was dropped off yesterday morning. Thankfully, that stack is alot smaller as of this evening....

A Few More Finishing Touches

2008-04-19T13:40:00.005-07:00

Todd has been working on a few little things over the last couple months, and they make a big difference. He continues to work on baseboards, headers, casings. Some of the bigger projects were installing the ceiling fan upstairs, painting the stair railings, and getting the deck frame complete. The steam shower door. It took 8 weeks for it to be ordered and installed.

The towel bar and toilet paper holder.

The backsplash in the ensuite. We have just requested a quote for mirrors, so hopefully we will hear back within the week.

The installed ceiling fan upstairs. Jacob, Joshua and Nathan all helped with this one.....Nathan carried tools all over, Jacob and Joshua asked a million questions, and also helped get the scaffold into place.

The upper and lower parts of the railing are stained, and the middle will still need to be painted.

Hard to believe it was 21 degrees last weekend when Dad L and Todd completed the deck frame. This weekend the snow is blowing like crazy.......

The main floor bathroom backsplash. The mirror is temporary as we will be putting in a full size wall mirror, but we haven't ordered those yet. This bathroom looks almost finished.....
Close up of the backsplash.

Inside the shower.

A New Post at Last

2008-02-16T21:02:00.006-07:00

Sorry, I have tried posting several times, but it just hasn't worked!! We had our final inspection completed the first week of January, and surprisingly enough, we only had a few things we needed to "fix". We needed to install a landing at the garage entry, put the swing hinge (self shutting) feature on the garage door, install a smoke detector in the basement, put up hand railings on the steps down to the basement, and get up the hood fan in the kitchen.

The landing out in the garage.

The hood fan in the kitchen. We have to still put the vent up, but we need to move the piping to the exterior of the house over a little bit.
The last door that needed to be put up, other than closet doors.

We continue to work on lots of little things. Baseboards, unpacking, getting the garage cleared/cleaned out, etc. We are really enjoying being out here, and are getting fairly settled--although there is always something to do!!!

In-Floor Heat

2007-12-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were able to get the in-floor heat put in on the main floor. This covered 3 areas--the ensuite, the main floor bathroom, and the mudroom. Those floors were a little bit chilly with the colder weather we have been having.
We had to snake the pipe through all the floor joists in the basement, but we were able to get that all done on Saturday. Todd then worked at insulating the ensuite area, so it is ready to go. We still have to insulate the other to areas, but we have turned the system on, so it is making a big difference.
Todd also put up closet organizers in the main entry closet, and back in the mud room. We were just stacking our coats in a big pile before that, so it is nice to have that finished!

More Steam Shower

2007-11-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here are more pictures of the work they completed yesterday on the steam shower. So far, I think it is looking pretty good. Shower bench.

Steam Shower and Lights

2007-11-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is the work being done on the steam shower. The tile work should be finished by the end of the week, and then we will have to order a glass door, and the steam unit itself.

These are the new lights in the kitchen and over the table. The only fixture we have left to put up is the fan up in the TV room.

We will continue to work on baseboards, casings, etc this weekend.

2007-11-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

We continue to stay busy--we are working on baseboards, casings, headers, or chair rails any given evening--I guess I shouldn't say we, because it is Todd that is doing all that!!!!

Our kitchen cabinets are now 100% complete. They came down on Wednesday to install the toe kicks, as well as seal up all the edges, and adjust any doors, now that things have settled slightly.

All our dirt piles have been flattened. We can actually see out of all our windows now. Our driveway is in better shape. We will still have to have some gravel brought in in the spring, and probably have to smooth it out again. We will be planting grass and trees in the spring as well.

Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie were here helping this past weekend. Todd and Dad started to work on the front deck, while Eliza and Mom finished painting the lower level of the house. All we have left to paint are the dormers, which Todd is working on this afternoon.

We had Jaywest Construction back in to finish up the corner boards (The white strips at all the corners), as well as to put soffit on the covered porch areas. They also install all the eavestroph and down spouts.

We still have to paint the back wall as well.

2007-10-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

We have been busy here, but it is all the fine finishing stuff we have mostly been working on. We only have one more door to install, and then we need to start to work on closet doors. Todd is having to make all the headers for above the doors and windows, and he will also been using chair railing to create a similar look on the bottom of windows.

We moved the great room furniture into position, and put out our plants--it actually looks somewhat finished in there!!!!

Todd continued painting today. The siding crew is coming back tomorrow to put up the corner boards on the exterior, so we wanted to have all the corners painted so that we don't have to cut in. We also had to paint the corner boards--Ultra Pure White. We are also having someone in tomorrow to start on the dirt work--he will do the backfilling around the house, and also slope the dirt away from the house (for drainage). As well, he will also get our driveway in good shape and ready for some gravel. We are hoping next week we will be able to get a grass seeding company in to get the the whole yard tilled up, and then get grass seed down.

2007-09-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

Not too much is new around here. The flooring was finished over a week ago, but they need to come back and replace a few boards of the hardwood. One is not sitting level, so you catch your toes on it when you walk over it. Another board has a chip out of it, most likely from the nail gun, so that needs to be replaced as well.
We will be picking up our special order doors tomorrow--they are the same style as the other ones, but are 2 x 6 frames rather than 2 x 4 frames, as they are being put in support walls, which are framed out of 2 x 6's. We (I) still need to pick up the paint for the doors, which I will try to get to this week.
We are slowly getting the garage emptied out, which is good, because I am sure the snow will be coming soon.
Someone may be starting on leveling out the lot on Monday, but I'm not sure if Todd heard back from him regarding the cost..... This guy will also make a smooth driveway--won't that be nice compared to the bumpy path we have now!!!!
We've had the dishwasher in for a little over a week, and I am really liking that!!! I was sick of having to wash all the dishes!!! My mom and dad helped me to bring in the fridge last Saturday, so that is really nice as well. Before that, I was having to run out to the garage for everything.
My mom and I helped my dad to move the construction stairs around to the front door, so that is nice as well. If anybody came to the house previously, they had to come around to the back (if I didn't see them drive in), or knock on the front window.
Well, that's about all for now. I will take some more pictures this week, and get them posted on the weekend.

Hardwood, Doors, and Paint

2007-09-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

Todd worked on painting the exterior of the house again this weekend. The colour has turned out great!

This is the door style we are installing through out the interior of the house, as well as the door handle we will be using on all the doors. This door happens to be the upstairs bathroom and shower door.

Hardwood throughout the great room and into the kitchen. They started at 7:45 this morning, and should be finsihed by mid day tomorrow. So far it looks great--needs to be cleaned, but still looks nice.

Exterior House Colour

2007-09-11T20:00:00.001-07:00

Here is one picture I grabbed of the exterior paint. Not the best, so I will try to get some better ones tomorrow. The colour is Lost Summit.

Finally some pictures!!!

2007-09-11T07:35:00.001-07:00

So I finally found the camera cord, so here are a few pictures...

These pictures are of upstairs. The one with the railing in it, is looking from the top of the stairs into Josh's room. The other two are of the upstairs bathroom.

These are the pictures of the ensuite. There are two vanities in there--this one is Todd's.

Pictures of the cabinets. They turned out great!!!

The carpet that Todd and Jacob picked out!!!!

Moved In....

2007-09-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

We have been living out at "the Land" for just over 1 week now. We spent last Saturday through Thursday in my parents holiday trailer. Friday night was the first night we spent in the house, in our own rooms. We now have water, although it is only cold water. The boiler panel will get hooked up tomorrow, and then we need Dad H to hook up the electrical parts so that the fan coil works, and such....hopefully Dad H will be down tomorrow as well. We have carpet in, cabinets in, are continuing to work on jambs and doors--we have hung 5 doors so far. They still need to be painted, and some door handles picked out, but overall, they are looking good. Hardwood is still set to go in tomorrow and Wednesday. We should have phone and internet at the house on Thursday.
The boys seem to like living in the new house. Even though there are no doors on their rooms, they have been going to be great, and sleeping in quite late--8-8:30........
I probably won't get a chance to post pictures until later in the week, as I need to find the cable that allows me to download the pictures from my camera.....
Thanks to Mom and Dad L who were down for part of the day to help out!!!

Jaywest Country Homes Is The Best!

2007-08-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

First of all, a big thanks to the siding crew at Jaywest Country Homes! No only did they finish the job ahead of schedule, they did it on budget never once complaining about anything. I would definitely recommend them for any project you're working on and have already asked for a quote on the eavestroughing for the house.

Another big thanks to Coulter at Jaywest for honoring the Viceroy policy of having enough material for the project. We were told several times that Viceroy guarantees the amount of material required to finish your home to lock up. However, when I submitted my receipts for a few extra sheets of plywood and some other lumber, I was told that it's unlikely they would reimburse me for those materials. Rather than have to go to bat with Viceroy, Jaywest simply reimbursed us for those materials and saved us lots of phone calls and emails that would have likely gone nowhere.

We are officially moved, and living in a trailer, down by the river.....

2007-08-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

Lots has been done over the last week. The siding has been finished, other than the caps that need to go at the edges once we have painted the exterior siding that is up. The hardwood flooring was supposed to go in yesterday and today, but they didn't get started today, and then they said the humidity of the wood was too high today. They may try again tomorrow, but I have a feeling it won't be until next week. We are still set to get carpet in tomorrow. The cabinet installers (Ponoka Cabinet Makers) arrived this morning and started unloading the truck. They should hopefully have all the cabinets installed by tomorrow evening. The appliances were delivered yesterday afternoon. Our water, toilets, sinks, and such all get hooked up on Friday. The boiler panel will be hooked up on the following Monday (Sept 10th), and we should get phone service out there on Sept 11th--I think we can actually keep our same number.......

Garage Doors......

2007-08-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

Our garage doors are finally in!!! They were installed yesterday afternoon. Dad H will be working on the electrical over the next couple days, and I think he was going to get the garage wired so that we can actually use the garage doors (right now they have no power to them unless we run an extension cord).

Our house here in Calgary is slowing getting packed up--I never want to move again--I really dislike packing. So does Jacob--he asked yesterday why we don't just get those mover guys to come and move everything......Even still, he has been a great helper!!!

The Boy's Rooms

2007-08-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who has helped us out over the last couple weeks--Dayna (and kids), Mom and Dad L, Mom and Dad H, and Eliza. We are moving right along with the painting. We have at least one coat on all the walls, and the kids rooms each have two coats. We will most likely leave the main floor until after everything is done (flooring, cabinets, moving, etc) as we will probably have to fix up a few nicks.....

Only 6 more sleeps until we are living at the new house....we have a busy week ahead of us. Anyone interested in helping move??? If so, we will most likely be starting at 8:00am Saturday morning......

This is the tile in the upstairs (boy's bathroom)

The railing is finished, and you can kind of see the chandelier on the left. We might have to have them back to do a few touchups on the railings--some sanding.....

The brown wall has 2 coats of paint on it now....

The chandelier over the stairs. We have a similar one for over the kitchen table.

Jacob got his wish--a purple and green room. He went down to Home Depot and picked the colours himself (can't you tell.....) The green is so bright it actually glows.......It actually isn't that bad, and all worth it to see the smile on Jacob's face!!!

This is Joshua's room. He picked the yellow, and I picked the blue. The blue happens to be the same as in Nathan's room.

This is Nathan's room. He didn't pick any of his colours--poor guy!!! He seems to like his room though as he had a 3 1/2 hour nap in there on Saturday....

Paint, Railings, Tile, Lights, Drywall, Soffit, and Siding

2007-08-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

It continues to be very busy out at the house. We had 15 people out there working today. The railings are going in, a slow process, but at least they are getting done. The tile in the ensuite bathroom went in today and looks amazing.....The drywaller was there to finish off the basement stair case. We also had a crew working on siding and soffit. And lastly, we had our family helping us paint....We are still set to move next Saturday, Aug 25th. A week and a half--kind of scary......

Here is one of the potlights in the painted ceiling.....Cottage White
Here is on of the painted walls--Cliff Rock
Part of our painting crew.....

Crazy guy, up on the scaffolding, over the staircase......

This is the wall that has been painted a couple of times--we could never find the right colour. The original colour is the orange that you can see near the top, and then we tried a gray brown, and then a gray brown that was a little browner, and then finally, the winner--Balance..... It is just the colour we were looking for....
Siding and fascia board crew
Primer on the walls.
Basement staircase.
Priming around the ensuite tub.

More siding.
The tile in the ensuite---I love it!!!!

Paint!!!!
Paint and railings--I will need to paint/stain the railings at some point.

3 weeks.....

2007-08-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

The drywall is finally done, so we starting priming walls yesterday afternoon. We should hopefully be done all the painting by the end of next weekend (Aug 18th). Only 3 weeks until we move in--if anyone is interested in helping paint (this weekend or during the week), or help move on Aug 25th-26th, please let us know!!!! We are gladly accepting help!!!!

Looking up the stairs into Jacob's room.

The kitchen is primed.

Putting on primer in the great room.

Siding on the south wall of the master bedroom.

3/8" plywood in the mudroom--we needed to put this in so that the tile can be installed on it.
Todd putting in the 3/8" plywood in the master bathroom
Thanks to Corey for dropping off the tractor to mow the grass
The yard looks much better with some of the grass cut.
Aren't the garage doors nice??? We showed up Friday night to no doors, and when we finally talked to them this morning, they said they showed up, but something isn't framed right (they were supposed to be coming back to double check the site before hand, but I guess they didn't), so now we are meeting with someone on Saturday, and then we are rescheduled for an install on Aug 21.

Sorry it has been so long.....

2007-08-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

Things have been busy around here--making sure everyone is on schedule to complete their jobs before we move in at the end of this month!!! Garage doors should have been installed today, so I should be able to grab a picture of those tomorrow. We ordered all of the flooring--the hardwood will be dropped off on the 13th to get acclimatized, and will be installed sometime the following week. Tile is set to be installed on Aug 20th, and the carpet on Aug 27th. Our railings go in on Aug 14th, and the cabinets, countertops, and vanities should be installed starting on Aug 27th as well. We will probably take delivery on all of our appliances this next week, and just store them in the garage. We are going to start painting the interior on Sunday and Monday of this week, assuming the sander shows up to finish on Saturday--he is supposed too!!! The drywalling process has actually gone quite smooth, took a little longer than we had hoped (by about 1 week), but not bad. They have done a great job. We will also start to move some of our stuff out and store it in the garage--we'll take one load each time we go out!!! We will probably make the final move on Aug 25 and 26.

Todd installed the deck support (green pressure treated wood) so that we could start siding in the back. Joist hangers will attach to this, and then the floor joists for the deck will come out from there.

This is looking up at the peak of the great room--lucky us--we get to paint way up there this weekend!!!

The fireplace wall. It will be rock on the solid wall, but painted all around the windows.

This is our heating system--a little complex..... The boiler is the grey unit, and the rest is pipes--for what, I'm not sure!!!!

This is the fan coil, that uses heat from the boiler, to circulate that throughout the house--this essentially replaces a furnace.

Cleaning potatoes from the garden--Jacob couldn't believe it when I pulled out a potato plant and there were potatoes on it!!!!
They made for a delicious supper!!!
More of the siding. Rock will go where you see the Tyvek.

These are the 49 fascia boards that my mom and I painted--there was supposed to be 50, but I broke one..... Hopefully we will find someone to install them sometime soon.....

Sorry--no pictures

2007-07-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I once again forgot the camera when I was out this afternoon. The mudders are making good progress on the taping, in some spots I would say it is almost complete, maybe only one more layer of mud needed.
The flooring guy from Simply Floors in Okotoks was out today. He did all the measuring and should have a quote to us by tomorrow. Here is a sample of the tile we picked out: Slate Valley Ginger.
We will be going with laminate countertops for now, due mostly to timing. Templating granite after the cabinets were in would have put us to mid October without any sinks or countertops!!! Here is a sample of the laminate we went with: Formica Colorado Slate
We'll be out working on the house all weekend, and I think my parents are coming down for the day on Saturday, so we should hopefully get a fair bit accomplished!!
Check back after the weekend for pictures!!!

Only 38 more days....

2007-07-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

The countdown is on....only 38 more days until we need to be in the house. We will be ordering our flooring tomorrow--tile, carpet, and hardwood. It will hopefully go in the second week of August--except maybe the carpets, as we will most likely wait until the railings are installed on Aug 14th. Once the floors are in, we can get the cabinets put in. Once the cabinets/vanities are in, we can then get all our plumbing put in. We will also be painting some where in there....... At this point, we really have to keep on top of things and be organized--who is coming in when, and what do they need done prior to arriving. Our garage doors are going in on Aug 2nd--bettter late than never---they were supposed to be in over 3 weeks ago......
The taping and mudding continued today. They have most of the corners/edges now taped upstairs, as well as most of the joints on the mainfloor taped. If they work at it all week, I would think they should get it finished--keep your fingers crossed.

Taping in the great room.

Taping in the kitchen
Taping and corners taped upstairs....
Siding--another 3 weekends and we should be done....

Working on the west wall--not fun in this heat!!!!

Taping

2007-07-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

Taping upstairs.
Taping in upstairs bathroom
Taping in Jacob's room and closet
Siding on west wall of garage--we finished this today.
The last door was put in place last night.

Latest Pictures of Drywall

2007-07-16T07:56:00.001-07:00

East wall of the games room. Door leads into Nathan's room.
Door into the bathroom. That is the only room they haven't started on yet upstairs.
Other side of staircase wall in the "games room". We will probably put our TV here. There will be railing on the lefthand side.

Around the bay window, which will be where out kitchen table goes.

Other side of bay window, with the front entry of the very left.
The fireplace. All of that drywall will be covered with rock--some day...
West wall of the great room.
Going up the stair case. There will be railing to the right of this, in the space you see.

Making some progress--there is still hope....

2007-07-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

The boarders made some good progress today.

This was already done yesterday....

The mudroom closet...done yesterday....

This is the entry from the garage. This room certainly feels smaller now that it is drywalled in. This was completed yesterday.
This is the front entryway. This was already completed yesterday.
This is in the great room. This wall is opposite the fireplace. This was done today.
This is all the scaffolding in the great room. All the drywall you see was already done prior to today.

So...your big question--what did they do today???? They actually got a fair bit done upstairs. The put up several boards in the games room area upstairs, as well as some in Jacob's room. I don't have pictures, as I would have had to climb the scaffolding, while holding the camera,a nd most likely would have fallen. The stair case is blocked off right now with 2 x 6 's and plywood, so that they can stand on that to put up the drywall.

More work on the siding...

2007-07-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Todd continues to work on the siding. We put in the back garage door, so Todd can side most of that side of the garage. We will be putting a vertical strip of siding in the corner, and at all edges, that will be painted white. The main colour for the house will be a dark brown.

We have a "soffit guy" stopping by the house today to take a look at it, and then get us a quote and timeframe.

We have had only one guy working on hanging drywall, so it has been going kind of slow. He is hopefully getting some helpers today, but we'll see.... Yesterday, the boarder completed the back mudroom, the mudroom closet, the mainfloor bathroom, and the front entrance. It's getting there....The taper is hopefully going to get started on Monday.

2007-07-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

Siding!!!

Todd started on the siding last night. He made pretty good progress! We will still need to paint the siding once it is all up.

This is the framing that Todd did around the garage door openings, so that the doors could be installed.

Todd also had to frame under the two dormers in the back so that we had something to attach soffits to. He then put in the bracket for the potlight.

We also managed to get the back garage door in last night, with the help of Chris and Denise!! Thanks guys!!

2007-07-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

The drywall boarders were missing on Friday...hopefully this isn't going to become a problem! They certainly aren't moving as quickly as we would like, although I don't think the taper/mudder is ready to start yet anyways....

We went to Stairs, Spindles, and Railings on Friday morning and picked out what we wanted. We got the quote back that afternoon, and it was considerably less than we had budgeted!! Yeah!!! We will get them to start on the railings next week--as soon as I drop off a deposit. It should take them about 3 1/2 weeks to get them finished. We are going with a stain grade maple for spindles and railing. I will be painting the spindles (a square with 2 flutes cut into them) an antique white, and then staining the railing and posts a dark chocolate brown. We are trying to keep the railings, spindles, in the same colour scheme as the kitchen.

I have been working on picking an exterior colour for the house. It is down to these three. (The sample houses below look similar to ours, so you can get an idea) . We have shutters rather than the oversize window casings. We are hoping to get posts similar to the ones below as well. We might go with that kind of rock, although we haven't made a decision on that yet!

Just when Todd thought he had all the framing done--he finds out he has more work to do. The garage door installer was out yesterday to make sure the site is ready. Todd had to frame around both doors, so now it is ready. The doors should be going in anytime now...

Drywall progress as of July 3

2007-07-04T17:30:00.001-07:00

We stopped in at the house after our weekend away, and we saw that a little bit more had been done. They certainly didn't work all 3 days, but they may have locked themselves out..... We put tape over the bottom lock on the door so that it won't happen again!! Our master bedroom and walkin closet is completely boarded, as well as a few other random spots around the house. So far it is looking good! Hopefully they will be done boarding by mid next week (maybe sooner.....) and then the taping and mudding can begin. Todd and I are hopefully going to get to Stairs, Spindles, and Railings on Friday morning to get our railings picked out. They will give us a rough estimate based on our blueprint, and then we can go from there. They should be ready in 3 1/2 weeks from when we order. We will get our flooring ordered next week.

Spray-in foam insulation.
Drywall on the east kitchen wall.
Drywall around dormer in master bedroom.

Looking from the master bedroom into the walkin closet and bathroom.

Master bedroom west wall. Our bed will sit between these two windows.

Drywall status as of Wednesday June 27

2007-07-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

The boarding began on Wednesday, around noon. When we went out after supper, this is what they had accomplished. They had also completed the dormer area in Joshua's room, but the pictures I took of that were too dark. The house is feeling a little more finished all the time--your voice echoes off the walls in certain spots now, and it is certainly a lot quieter in the house with all the insulation.

West wall of Jacob's room.

West wall and ceiling of Jacob's room.

One strip of drywall up on the west wall of the great room.

One strip up under the dormer in the master bedroom.

North wall of Nathan's room.

Drywall dropped off

2007-06-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

The drywall was dropped off yesterday. The insulators finished up by about noon today, and the boarders have started to work up stairs. All in all, it is moving along smoothly. Hopefully the drywall will be finished in about 3 weeks.

Todd and I put in the final window last night. We had been waiting for the drywall to be lifted through the big dormer window, and since that was done yesterday, we put the window in! We need to put the 2 garage doors in, as well as the overhead garage doors (which should be arriving any day now!).

I can't wait to see the house with the drywall up--it will change the whole look of the place! I will try to grab some pictures tonight of the progress.

Not quite finished!

2007-06-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

The insulation isn't quite finished yet. They were hoping to be done today, but I think it will be at least another 2-3 days. The have most of the upstairs complete, except for right at the peaks. They were waiting for their scaffolding to be delivered to complete those areas. A fair bit of the main floor is complete as well. They still need to do the basement, as well as the great room ceiling. Most of the other outer walls are complete on the mainfloor. They haven't started on the ceiling in the master bedroom yet. The house was extremely itchy tonight--even though we weren't in any of the insulation, there is lots of "dust" laying about.
We are still trying to find someone to do the soffits--no one is returning our calls...... Drywall should hopefully still start mid next week--keep your fingers crossed. We talked to Jaywest homes again (the supplier of the Viceroy home package) about the Hardiplank siding we need to put up. We were going to cut the siding to the right size, and then paint it, and then put it up--but Jaywest recommends cutting it, putting it up, and then painting. This actually works out okay, since we don't have to decide on a colour right now, as we were going to start putting some of the siding on in the next week. We'll just have to be extremely careful when painting not to spill/drop any on the shingles, or get in on the windows...

Insulation

2007-06-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

The insulation installation has begun. They started on Tuesday morning, and are hoping to be finished by Friday. They started working on the 2nd floor, and so far have Joshua's and Nathan's rooms complete, with Jacob's almost done. They have started on the office dormer, and a little bit in the games room.
Todd was out working on the shingles on the east side of the garage last night, as well as putting the last few bits of Tyvek in place. We are still looking for someone to do the soffits, so hopefully we will hear back from someone soon!

No insulation yet!!

2007-06-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

Todd was out at the house last night, but the insulators hadn't made it out yesterday. There was a small chance that they might make it there in the afternoon. They should have been out there this morning, and had a full day's work. It is supposed to take them about 3 days, so we have our ATB financing inspection scheduled for next Monday--then the drywall can start. I am very excited to see the house with insulation, and then drywall!! Once the drywall is done, we will paint, then get flooring in. Hard to believe we are getting this close.....

Already a delay...

2007-06-15T18:52:00.000-07:00

Talked to the drywaller today, and it now sounds as though the insulating won't start until Tuesday or Wednesday.... I told him I already had an inspection scheduled for next Monday, June 25th, and the insulation needed to be done for that--so we'll see if they come through or not. The insulating is only supposed to take 2-3 days. Our heating guy was out finishing up his stuff today, although we need to cut two duct pathways slightly larger, so we will do that Sunday night, and then they will finish up on Monday.

We Passed!!!

2007-06-13T21:31:00.001-07:00

We passed the framing and electrical inspections today. We did have to make a few minor adjustments, but nothing major!!! For framing, we had to put in a few extra nails in the joist hangers, and add a little bit of vapour barrier in Josh and Nathan's closets, as they are on outside walls. For electrical, we had to put in a few bigger outlet boxes, provide some backing at switch plates, move one outlet as it was too close to the steam shower, and install one electrical outlet closer to the central vacuum outlet. We picked out a hood fan, as we need to get the ducting in place for that, as well as hook up the electrical to that. A big thanks to our Dads for all the great work they did!!!! The house is looking great, thanks to Mom H and all her cleaning up. There isn't too much in the way for the insulators to start on Monday.....

This is the corn starting to grow.
And the pumpkins
The only place that still needs Tyvek is the office dormer in the back, and Todd just needs to move the lift around to there.
Look how clean Nana has the house!!!

Garage Doors

2007-06-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

We also have the garage doors ordered, but it was a 4 week delivery time, so they should be in the next week and a half. We ended up going with a Wayne Dalton Sonoma Paneled door, without windows. We needed one 16' x 8' door and 0ne 9' x 8' door. I am looking forward to seeing them installed.

Our Garden

2007-06-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that the garden is sprouting!!! We have sunflowers, corn, onions, carrots, marigolds, and candytufts starting to poke through the soil. Jacob was absolutely thrilled!!! We'll have to see how they fair from here on out......

Busy, busy, busy

2007-06-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

The garage door
The white pipe is part of the rough in for the central vacuum system
Dirty boy!!
Another dirty boy!
One sad boy!
All the tyvek.
The front window--only 1 window left, and it can't go in until after the drywall has been dropped off.

ATCO put in the gasline Friday, and smoothed the driveway while they were at it!!!

Putting in the infloor heat!

Insulation--ready for Monday, June 18th.

Emptying out the container.

Inspections scheduled!!

2007-06-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

We have the framing inspection, as well as the electrical inspection scheduled for next Wednesday. Hopefully we will have everything ready by then!! The electrical is almost complete, just a few little things. Todd is going to finish framing the basement walls tonight, and will then rent a concrete nail gun to nail the walls to the floor. Todd and I still need to rough in the infloor heat for the 2nd floor bathroom, and we also need to install the central vac roughins. We will keep busy for the next week for sure--all those little things add up!! The insulators are still set to start on the 15th, although I have a feeling they will probably start on the Monday. While they are insulating and drywalling, we will be working on siding, and putting shingles on the east side of the garage roof.
I will hopefully have some pictures to post tomorrow evening, as I am staying at home tonight!!

More Tyvek and another window

2007-06-04T18:48:00.001-07:00

Another day out at the land!! Todd rented us a rototiller this morning, so the boys and I got our garden in--we planted corn, sunflowers, onions, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins and strawberries. I had fun running the rototiller--and Joshua had fun running through the dirt.... Our neighbour to the west was nice enough to come over with his front-end loader and scrape the top layer of dirt off for us, so it was a lot easier to till the ground.

Dad H and Todd worked on electrical today. They put up the potlights in Joshua's room, Jacob's room, the chandlier box at the top of the staircase, and a few other lights
These are the potlights in Joshua's room.
Todd also Tyveked the east side of the house, and put in Nathan's window. We only have 3 windows left to put in--2 in the garage, and Jacob's!!!!

My wall fit!!!! We put this wall up last night. Dad L and Mom L were down yesterday to help out. We finished off the mainfloor staircase, and put up Tyvek on the west side of the house and the front of the house.
Todd was working on the ridge vent yesterday. You can see it along the peak of the dormer. It is a SOS material, and then shingles cut into 1/3 laid over top and nailed down.

More of the ridge vent.
Tyvek on the west side of the house--I went up in the lift to install some of it yesterday--my first time!!!
A picture of the house from the front.

Lots of little things...

2007-06-03T07:10:00.001-07:00

We have been working on lots of little things that need to get done--backing at the peak, backing along the south wall with all the windows, framing in the bathtubs, etc. Todd also started to Tyvek the outside of the house. We put in Joshua's window as well. We are down to only having 4 windows left, and 2 doors. Jacob's window can't go in until after the drywall has been delivered, as they are going to lift the drywall through his window so that they have some drywall sheets on the second floor.

Todd Tyveking the south wall.
Framing around the 2nd floor bathtub--we are going to have a little shelf to place toys, shampoo, etc on to.
Backing around the windows on the south wall. Lots of little cuts with angles.....
Backing at the peak (kind of hard to see, but it is there...)
Tyveking the outside of the house.

This is the west wall. It now has Joshua's window in, and the tyvek has been started.

Nathan enjoys playing in his playpen out at the house. He plays with his toys, and has his naps in there!

Some pictures of the progress..we are getting closer!!!

2007-05-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

Another busy night out at the house!

This is the basement wall that I built--I'm quite proud of myself--since it has to fit around the pipes for the infloor heat--and there has to be something for the pipes to be mounted on.

The basement stairs, from the main floor.

The basement stairs, from the basement up.

The basement framing!!

The fireplace is in place! We still need Canyon Plumbing to come back out and hook up the gas line.

The dormer window in the master bedroom. Todd also completed the framing at the dormer for the drywall (can't see it in this picture, but it was one of the things on the list!!!)

Sloped ceiling in the ensuite steam shower (another thing we can check off!!)

2007-05-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the finished shingles--minus the ridge vents!! I will get a few interior pictures tomorrow hopefully!

A rainless weekend...

2007-05-27T19:59:00.000-07:00

We made it through the weekend without rain--and we have all the shingles on!!! We need to put the ridge vents on still, but it is so close... We only have 2 partial walls to finish in the basement, and a little bit to finish on the main floor staircase. The basement stairs went in on Saturday morning. We will continue to be out there every night this week--I promise to get pictures tomorrow (as long as it isn't raining....which it shouldn't be!). Looks like the drywallers should be ready to go on June 15ish.

The rain.....

2007-05-23T07:30:00.001-07:00

******I forgot to mention that we did finish the North side of the house with shingles. All that is left is the southwest roof slopes (great room and masterbedroom), and the east garage slope.******

Well, the rain (or should I say snow...) prevented us from finishing the shingles as we had planned. The crew worked on the basement walls instead on Monday, but it was a shorter day as it was quite cool and wet out!! The basement stairs were delivered yesterday, so now we can put in the landing, and get the stairs put in. That will be quite handy, instead of always having to go outside and go through one of the basement windows. Here is our list of things that needs to be completed before the drywallers can start insulating, and then drywall.

1. Landing for basement stairs and install stairs
2. Frame mainfloor staircase wall (to put railing on)
3. Backing at the peak of the ceiling (so drywall has something to be attached to)
4. Backing at dormers
5. Complete dormers to join up to wall (false ceiling)
6. Ceiling backing in games room
7. Backing at Nathan's closet in office
8. Shingles
9. Tyvek entire house
10. Windows put in (only 6)
11. Basement walls (we are about 2/3 complete)
12. Electrical
13. Finish fireplace
14. In floor heat in upstairs bathroom
15. Insulate corner of master bedroom
16. Heating
17. Plastic barrier over potlights

So, it is a fairly long list, but hopefully it won't take us too long to complete it. I think we are planning on having the insulation installation start on June 15ish. A lot of these jobs only take one evening, and some only an hour--like all the backing--it could all be done in one evening. Todd has been out there every night, and I try to get out to help him as well.

Fireplace

2007-05-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

It was another windy day out at the acreage!! Made it tough to work on the roof, but Todd and Dad L stuck with it. They should complete the north side of the house today.

I insulated and put in the vapour barrier behind the fireplace. Hopefully I did it right.....

Here is the fireplace. The plain glass door comes off and we have an arched glass door, but we won't put that on until we have moved in and the rock is all complete on the fireplace--just in case!!!

Potlight Installation

2007-05-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to taking the camera out to get a few pictures. We enjoyed a wiener roast for supper this evening. We should have another productive weekend, hopefully finishing off the shingles on the north side of the house, as long as it isn't raining. I took a few pictures of the potlight housing, way up in the ceiling (I think the peak of the ceiling is about 24 ft, so the top lights are maybe at about 21 ft).
I ordered the fireplace this morning, and it is going to be dropped off tomorrow, so we can work on getting that installed over the weekend as well. The "stair guy" came out to measure the steps on Wednesday, and he should be able to have those ready either by tomorrow, or Tuesday. We would still need to build the landing before they are able to be installed.
Our house is technically "locked up". We installed the garage entry door, so now we can lock the main floor. If someone really wanted to get in, they could still gain entry through a couple of upstairs windows, or get into the basement, but at least there is a little bit of deterrent.
I also did some excellent Tyvekking yesterday in the upstairs bathroom dormer, and then Todd and I put in that window. We are down to only have 7 windows left to install, and 1 door.

Potlights in the great room

Some of the electrical in the master bedroom.

Todd has about 5 rows of shingles started on the north side of the house. Hopefully this will allow Todd and Dad L to start right to things on Saturday morning.

Chris, Denise, and Alyssa joined us for the wiener roast this evening.

Alyssa, Jacob, and Joshua playing outside.

More on the electrical

2007-05-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I think we have proven to be difficult to our electrician--on maybe the roof vaults are at fault!!! Just joking--Dad H is doing great and hasn't complained once--even though I changed my mind a couple of times....
We have 26 potlights that need to go in insulated areas, and 16 potlights that need to go in uninsulated areas, 2 chandeliers (one over the kitchen table, one at the top of the staircase, hanging from the vaulted ceiling, which is not easily accessible as it is over the staircase--I know, I ask for impossible things.....), 2 wall sconces, 2 hanging pendant lights (over the kitchen island), 2 ceiling fans (again, hanging from the vaulted ceiling...at least these ones aren't over staircases...), undercabinet lighting in the kitchen, and 4 light bars over the bathroom vanities. We have walked through and figured out where each switch needs to go.
The drywaller stopped by today, and let us know where we needed to add some backing (so that drywall has something to be nailed to...). All in all, Todd hadn't missed too many spots. The drywaller is also doing the isulation/vapour barrier, and we have him scheduled to start the first week of June. We need to get the backing done, the shingles finished, the basement framed, the electrical finished, and the heating finished. Needless to say, we have a couple of busy weeks ahead of us.... Lucky for us though, we have both our parents down this upcoming weekend to help out!!! I'll try to get out in the evenings with Todd during the week, but it will all depend on how much the kids want to cooperate!!!
I finally picked out a fireplace, so we will get that ordered so that it can be installed. It is going to have a 6" trim, black louvres, and an arched painted black decorative door. I have also heard back from all the garage door places, so I can make a decision on that as well.

A busy weekend......

2007-05-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

Things moved a little slower this week/weekend as we had Eliza's graduation, and Todd also had spring meetings and evening events this week.

Basement load bearing interior wall.

House acrosss from us (to the north)--pretty nice...

House to the west of us...he has borrowed our lift for the week.
House to the east of us. It's for sale if anyone is interested!!!

Eliza and her boyfriend Connor.

I was in at Ponoka Cabinet Makers on Friday morning just to finalize a few things. We have changed our minds--yet again--and are going to with MDF cabinetry through out. This should lower the cost a fair bit--so maybe I can get my granite countertops now--keep your fingers crossed for me..... We are still going with a bead board door on the outer kitchen cabinets in an antique white, and then the island, all vanities, and the cabinets above the washer/dryer will be in a dark chocolate stain, in a flat panel door.

Todd and I had to decide on what kind of lighting we wanted where as our electrician is flying right along. We agreed on most things, so that was great! We will be putting in quite a few potlights (in all the bedrooms and the office), a few pendant lights (over the island), a couple ceiling fans, 4 or 5 wall sconces, and a couple of chandliers (over the dining room table and in the staircase area). It is all very exciting.

Our drywaller is going to meet us out at the house on Tuesday, just to let us know the final few things that need to be done before they can start (ie: backing we have missed...). He is also hoping to give us a better timeline as to when they think they will be finished by--we are hoping to have them start by the second week of June....

Electrical and more windows

2007-05-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

One side of the garage and part of the north roof is now shingled. We are about 1/2 done shingling.

Dad H started on the electrical on Thursday. It is going quite nicely, although Todd and I have to make decisions on what kind of lights we want, how many lights, where we want switches, etc. Mom H, the kids, and I made a trip into High River today to get the electrical permit. All went smoothly, so that was nice.

Todd, Jacob, and Joshua looking for frogs. The boys can hear them croaking from the house, but aren't quite quiet enough to sneak up on them....

The basement windows went in today (except for one), as well as 2 garage windows and the office dormer.

Todd was working on sheathing the back wall.

ATCO Gas stopped by today, and they are thinking the gasline should go in within the next week--weather permitting of course!!

Thanks again to Mom H who did a lot of cleanup around the lot!!!

Bath Anyone???

2007-05-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

The plumber (Canyon Plumbing) and heating guy have been busy!! We have our two bathtubs installed, as well as most of the mainfloor duct work. It is great to see all the pipes and ducts running everywhere--really makes it seem like we are getting closer to moving in....

Ensuite tub--we will be putting a tiled surround around the tub. Toilet goes in the little room on the left, steam shower on the right.

Rub-a-dub-dub--room for three in this tub???? This is the tub in the boys' bathroom.

The hook-ups for the washer and laundry sink in the mudroom (in the entry from the garage).

Pipes and duct work in the basement.

Surprise!!

2007-04-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

Our plumber started to work 2 days earlier than planned!!! He wasn't supposed to be in until Wednesday, but he was out at the lot first thing this morning. His rough-ins shouldn't take him too long. It sounds as though Dad H will be down on Thursday to start drilling holes for the electrical as well.
All of the mainfloor house windows are now in. The garage entry door is still missing, as are the windows in the garage, but it is a good start. Certainly keeps out most of the wind now!! It is really starting to feel like a house. I will hopefully get a chance to get garage overhead doors ordered this week, as well as stairs for the basement. To see a sample of the garage door we will most likely be getting, please click here and then choose "Double 1".

Lots of Pictures!!!

2007-04-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

Another great weekend, other than some really windy conditions today. Thanks to Uncle Steve, Uncle Nigel, Darren, Leah, Paul, Tanya, Dad L, and Todd for all their hard work as well to Chris and Denise as they brought out a delicious meal Saturday night! Ponoka Cabinet Makers were down today to mark out the cabinets and take all the measurements they needed. Abe, our heating guy, dropped off all his material on Friday, and is going to start to work on Monday. The slab went in the basement and the garage on Friday, and that looks great. The plumber is going to come in on Wednesday, and rumour has it that our electrician might be in town later this week as well.

Keep on Shingling

2007-04-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Jacob, Josh and I loaded up the back of Grandpa's (Dad L) pickup truck with wood last night (Grandpa took a day off of work to come down and shingle!! Thanks Grandpa!!) We wanted to be able to move the construction stairs back to where the patio door is out of the great room, so we needed to move the wood out of the way (as that is where I threw it when cleaning out the house!!!).

The heating guy was also in yesterday, and made all his markings for the ducts. He is hoping to get started on Friday. Todd will be cutting them out this evening.

Here are a few more pictures of the shingling. It is moving along nicely. The plumbers will be in next Tuesday or Wednesday to get started on roughing their stuff in. We are hopefully going to be getting the slabs poured on Friday, but we will see how the weather looks.

More Shingles

2007-04-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

The weather just wouldn't cooperate yesterday. It was supposed to get up to 10 degrees, but it certainly didn't make it to that temperature while we were shingling. The shingles were a little hard to work with, and everyone's fingers got a little cold, but they kept on working. Luckily, we didn't get any rain.

We are doing a Closed Valley for all of the valleys. This means that you will not see the valley flashing as the shingles overlap (I quite like the look of it).

Shingles

2007-04-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the work done so far this morning. Thanks to Russ for joining us and helping out today.

Shingling over the office and the dormer.

Snow, Snow, Go Away.....

2007-04-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

The boys thought it was really neat out at the house today--it was raining inside the house while it was nice and sunny outside the house!!! We had a little bit of snow over the last few days, and it was melting this morning. Hopefully by tomorrow the house will be dried out, and I can do a good clean again!!
Todd worked on finishing up the backing (putting is spare pieces of wood so that the drywall has something to be nailed to) inside the house this morning. Something that needs to be done, but you can't really notice anything different about the house.
Some good news--the shingles were dropped off yesterday. The bad news--they wouldn't drive down the driveway to drop them off close to the house, so they dropped them off right at the road. Todd managed to get stuck trying to move the first load of shingles closer to the house (on his truck). After that, it was pack one bundle in at a time, so not too many bundles made their way to the house itself.
After supper tonight, Todd and Dad L were just starting the roofing of the office. They had a row of shingles on when I left. It will be a long process, but hopefully we will be done shingles by the end of May.
Joshua had a great time out at the house today. He found a great mud puddle, and played in and around that for about an hour this morning. He had dirt/mud everywhere!!! Jacob really doesn't like to get too dirty, so he laid down some wood to form a bridge across the puddle!! Nathan had a nice little nap....
I will take some pictures tomorrow morning and post them in the afternoon. I will then hopefully post some more tomorrow night as well.

We changed our minds...

2007-04-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we changed our minds on the shingles. We are now going with a 30 year, I do believe it is IKO Cambridge, still in Driftwood colour though.

IKO Cambridge 30 year

2007-04-17T17:00:00.001-07:00

UPDATE--The slab in the garage and basement will not be poured until next week. The weather is just not going to cooperate, and rather than sitting around waiting to see if we can pour or not, we just made the decision to wait until next week, when the weather is hopefully better!!

Or maybe not...

2007-04-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

Looks like the weather may not cooperate for us this weekend either--we are supposed to get more snow--YUCK!!! It is supposed to start raining or snowing tonight, and continue right through the weekend. 70% chance of rain or snow on Saturday--will spring never come???? Hopefully we can get the basement floor poured tomorrow so that we can start working on framing the exterior basement walls instead of shingling if the weather isn't cooperating....

A decision made!

2007-04-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

I was having a hard time deciding on exactly what shingles to go with, but now that we need them for this weekend, I've had to make a decision. We are going with a 25 year IKO shingle--Aristocrat, Driftwood coloring. We are planning on having either olive green siding or a dark beige siding, so I figured these shingles would look best. They will hopefully be dropped off either tomorrow or Thursday. We are going to be getting the shingles from Roofmart, here in Calgary, but we will be getting the rest of the roofing supplies from the local (Okotoks) Home Hardware.

Link to see the shingle: http://www.iko.com/products/residential/residential.asp?product_id=155®ion_id=30&task=ProductDetailsColours

It also sounds as though the garage slab and basement slab will be poured tomorrow, as long as it is not raining too hard. Since we don't have shingles on yet, rain could come through the roof and make a mess of the floor, so we will see. We may end up putting up some tarps to keep the rain out.
Roofing will hopefully only take about 3 weekends, if we are lucky. Todd plans to work on it after work as well for the next few weeks, so we will see!!
Our heating contractor was out last week to determine where we would place the vents, so he should be starting in the near future as well.
It seems to be all coming together, so keep your fingers crossed!!!

Ready for Shingles!!!

2007-04-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

Looks like we are ready for shingling next weekend--any helpers??? I was in at Home Hardware today to get a quote on shingles and all the other supplies. I am going to check at Home Depot, and Totem tomorrow, as well as Roof Mart (which specializes in roofing materials--go figure with a name like that!!!)

Sunday's Work

Leo and his crew were up today to put rebar in the the garage so that the floors can be poured this week. Looks like we will be bringing in a pumper truck to put the floor in in the basement.

We are now accepting guests at the front door!!!

The entire house is now sheathed--we were missing a few sheets on this west wall (you can see it in the previous post-I do believe).

This afternoon, a few more windows were put into place. We now have a total of 15 windows in, plus the front door. I lied earlier about there only being a total of 22 windows--we still have about 20 windows to put in, plus 3 patio (sliding) doors, and 3 doors.

Windows in the master bedroom. Our bed will sit between these 2 windows, with a side table under each window.

The west wall of the house, as well as part of the south wall. We won't be putting in any more windows until the shingles are done, as we need to lean ladders up against the upper part of the roof, etc.

Saturday's Work (and Party!!!) Great room completely sheathed with the roof extension and overframing completed on the back peak (can't see that from this angle!!)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

Office dormer sheathed.

Header in above window--still needs to be sheathed.

Updated Pictures

2007-04-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

These pictures were all taken today. Todd was working on filling in the space above the rounded window, and the boys and I cleaned out the garage (again!!!) as well as all the small pieces of wood laying around in the great room.

Nathan's closet.
The games room looking out to the great room fireplace. We will have railing where it is currently open.
You can see the small piano window that is in our walk in closet.
The piano window from inside.
Another view of Nathan's room.
Back wall (south facing) with 2 of the windows put in, and the fireplace chimney framed in. You can see on the roof where we are missing plywood.

Jacob and Joshua were helping Daddy today with their new toolbelts from Nana.
Nathan was just watching, and then he had a little nap!!!
The bathroom wall upstairs is now framed in. Jacob's room is on the very right, with the bathroom in the middle, and then Josh's room off to the left.

Fireplace Chimney Complete!!!

2007-04-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted--things have been crazy around here!! Anyways, we have still been working on the house. It seems like it is getting so close, yet there are so many little things to be done. We would be ready for shingles if this weather would ever change. We have about 1 1/2 days of work left on the roof to get it ready for shingles (completing the great room roof, and the office dormer), but the roof is like a skating rink with all this snow/rain/sleet we have been getting. Maybe this upcoming weekend will prove to be nice!

Todd rented a Bobcat on Friday, and moved some dirt so that the concrete truck can (hopefully) get in to pour the basement. We were afraid they would just end up getting stuck--we should of had them in when the ground was frozen solid, but we just didn't think about that!!!

All interior walls are framed--hooray--and for that matter, all the exterior walls as well! We have a total of 7 windows in (out of about 22), so we are making progress--3 windows in the office, 2 in the great room (one of them the big rounded ones at the top), the little "piano" window in the walk-in closet, and the front bay window.

Todd, Dad L, Mom L, and Uncle Nigel worked on the house this past Friday and Saturday--but was it ever cold. The wind was blowing in from the southeast and it was chilly. They still managed to get the chimney fireplace framed in. We don't really need the chimney, as we are installing a gas fireplace, but it is more for looks. The entire chimney is covered with rock (inside the house and out), so we need a frame to put that on.

If anyone is interested in helping with shingling, please let us know. We would probably be looking to shingle not this upcoming weekend, but the one following--April 20-21.

A belated thanks to Mom H, as she was down a few weekends ago and did some cleanup around the site for us!!

A few windows in

2007-04-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

We were able to get a few windows in yesterday. We put in the two office windows on the east side, as well as the other office window that goes beside the sliding patio doors on the south wall. The entire roof is sheathed, minus about 4 parital sheets required on the west roof of the great room, and the dormer roof of the office. To finish off the roof (and have it ready for shingles), we just need to extend the great room peak (it is essentially a big dormer) so that it joins up with the other roof line. This entails putting in a few "false rafters", and then sheathing it.
Nathan's room is now complete. The last wall of his room was put into place yesterday (where we extended it). Thanks to Chris for helping out yesterday.
I think Todd and Dad were going to work on the fireplace wall today (outside piece of it).

Even closer!!

2007-03-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

The dormer over the office. Todd and Dad put in all the extenstions for the covered porch area, and then sheathed the roof.

This is where we extended the floor in Nathan's room. Not really a big change, but gives a little extra space.

Almost there

2007-03-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

We still need to sheath the west roof of the great room, the entire office roof and dormer, and a little bit of the west wall. Inside, we need to finish off Nathan's room (one wall), and I think that is about it. Then we need to put windows and doors in! We will also be able to get the garage doors ordered as we now have the garage completed to take measurements.

Todd and I finished with the in floor heat in the basement slab. Hopefully we will be able to get the floor poured in both the basement and the garage next week. We will put the infloor heat in the other areas of the house at a later date.

We hired our heating contractor. He is going to meet with Todd and I either this weekend, or one day next week, to discuss where we would like to put ducts, etc, and then he plans to get started shortly after that. We are going to run a boiler with a fan coil, and a hot water tank, to heat the house--no furnace.

We are going with Ponoka Cabinet Makers for all the kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and laundry room cabinets. I am doing a beadboard style door on the kitchen cabinets, in a white or antique white, with the island and all the vanities being a dark brown, flat panel door. The garage is completing framed in. Now we can order our garage doors.
The back wall is framed, but not sheathed. It is mostly windows anyways. We have also decided on a fireplace.
This is the dormer over the office. There will be a covered porch out the office sliding doors. There is actually going to be deck the entire length of the back of the house.
The bay window at the front of the house. That is where our kitchen table will sit. The front door is to the right of the window.
Another picture of the garage.

Slight change of plans

2007-03-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

We are going to make a slight change to the blueprints and extend Nathan's room a little farther over the office (to be the same as Joshua's room over the master bedroom). This will make Nathan's room a little bit bigger, because as of right now, it is rather small. Todd went out to the MD of Foothills on Friday to obtain approval, which they gave right away and didn't charge for the change in square footage. The only thing that they need to see is the changes made to the original blueprint, so Todd stopped in at Jaywest homes to get them to start on the change. Jaywest homes will not be charging for the change either, as the original blueprints had a build a wall taller than it needed to be, so it had to be cut out. They were going to pay us for the time it took to build the wall, as well as remove it, so now we are even. This is looking at Nathan's room (east upstairs) from Josh's room (west upstairs). Jacob's room and the bathroom are on the left, with a games room and staircase down on the right.
Looking into Jacob's room. Jacob's room is now completely framed in.
The tricky roof lines. This is where one roof line meets another over the great room.
This is looking at Josh's room from Nathan's room.

The bay window was put in last night, just before everyone headed home for the weekend. The house is getting so close to being done. We have a 2-man framing crew in for the week (from Lethbridge), as we are looking to the get the house to lock up really soon. Hopefully they will all but get things finished by the end of the week. I'll try to get out to get some pictures over the next few days.

Trip to Montana

2007-03-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

Todd took a trip down to Great Falls, Montana, on Monday to pick up some scaffolding. He got three sets--that reach up to 18'--for the price that he could have bought one locally. It is in great shape, has outriggers, and a safety rail. We will use it for drywalling, and painting mostly, but it has come in handy already for putting in some of the backing (for the drywalling).

Our lake lot!!!

2007-03-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it isn't quite that bad out there--although there is a fair bit of water sitting around, back away from the house, and there is a lot of mud--the kids love it!!!

Getting Closer

2007-03-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful day out at the lot. The septic tank and manhole access was put in yesterday.
Sheathing on the east roof of the great room. Now that this is on, the rafters to the left (over the games room/staircase) can now be put into place.
Dad L continuing to work on the bay window.
Todd and Uncle Nigel working on the west wall for Nathan's room (another tall one!!!)
Looking at the sheating on the east roof of the great room from Nathan's room.

Beautiful Weather

2007-03-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, the guys got all the sheathing in place over Jacob's room (big dormer).
Thursday afternoon, Todd and I worked on the in-floor heat for the slab. If we didn't have the kids with us. We could easily get it done in an afternoon.

The septic system is finally going in

The guys brought the bay window into the house last Sunday, and started to frame for that.

Lots of Pictures!!!!

2007-03-03T16:21:00.001-07:00

This is part of the wall for the back wall. A big window fits in the opening. Dad, Tyler, and myself worked on it (mostly Dad and Tyler, but I did help a bit!!)

Dad and Tyler putting the wall into place.

Looking at the great room.

This is the dormer over the master bedroom. Todd and Uncle Steve were working on it this morning. This is what stage it was at when I arrived at 12:30pm.

Todd placing plywood on the dormer. (This is before I did the beer run!!!)

This is the dormer after I got back from the beer run at 3:30!

Nathan was lending a helping hand this afternoon!

This is part of the sheathing over the great room.

Thanks for helping out Tyler!!

The rafters for the dormers over the master bedroom and office. I carried them into the house, and they are heavy!!!

Pictures

2007-03-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hotdogs for lunch!!

Rafters over the master bedroom. The empty space will be a dormer.

The wall above the master bedroom--Josh's final bedroom wall!!!

Dormer sheathed in in Josh's room

The view east from Josh's room. Jacob's room is on the left (you can't see it), the staircase down is on the right, and you are looking at Nathan's room on the far end.

The drywaller was out today to take measurements, so we should have a quote back by next week hopefully. I talked to ATCO gas, and the earliest they will be ready to install the gas line would be the end of March, but that works out okay, as they have a $10/m winter charge, so we may even ask them to come in a bit later than that (mid-April). I have all 3 kitchen quotes back, so now it is decision time. I think it will be between Ponoka Cabinet Makers and Legacy Kitchens here in Calgary. There are some advantages to each one, and a few disadvantages. They are all priced higher than we had hoped, but what can you do (other than go with a completely different cabinet style than what we are looking for!!). Todd was working on the wall, and closet, in Josh's room that would look down to the master bedroom (if it was open to below) today.

Rafters on Master Bedroom

2007-02-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Todd was out at the house yesterday. He laid down some more of the insulation for the in-floor heat (we are now about 2/3 done). It was a little too cold to start running the pipe though--it didn't have enough flexibility.
Todd also got all the rafters on above the master bedroom (9 rafters, including 2 double ones). He is then going to start to work on the extension from those rafters, as we have a covered porch off our master bedroom. The extension needs to be put in place before we can start sheathing the back of the roof.
I am meeting a drywaller out at the house today, to get our first local quote. We do have one quote from a company out in Ontario, so we'll see.
I recieved a quote back from Ponoka Cabinet Makers on the kitchen, bathroom vanities, and some cabinets in the laundry room. It ended up being about $1000 less than Legacy, but Ponoka's also included the laundry room (which was about $1500 worth of cabinets). I should be hearing back from Adora Cabinets by the end of this week, and then we will make a decision.

Roof Partially Sheathed

2007-02-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

Insulation for the infloor heat

Another busy weekend out at the lot. Some more interior walls were put into place, and a fair amount of plywood was put on the roof at the front of the house. Gravel was delivered in the basement last week, so I started to put down the insulation for the in-floor heat in the slab today. I think Todd and I will try to get out there a few nights this week to get that finished, and then we can get the slab poured in the basement and garage (and then put some toys down there for the kids to play with when we are out working on the house!!!). Our hope is still to be locked up by the end of March, so we'll see if we can meet our deadline.

A good weekend

2007-02-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

The weather cooperated, and we had lots of help, so a fair bit of progress was made this weekend. With all the extra help, we were able to get the big beam that runs the width of the great room up, and then the rafters that sit upon that beam up as well. The dormers in the front of the house were completed, as well as all the exterior walls on Joshua's room. The only exterior wall left to complete is the back wall with the windows, and it is partially finished. For interior walls, we need to put up the back walls on all 3 of the kids' rooms, as well as the walls that overlook the great room. Todd and Dad L were going to get the last 4 trusses in place in the great room, and then they were going to start sheathing the roof. Thanks to Nigel, Louise, Tanner, Mom L, Dad L, and Todd for another great weekend of work (and I guess I should mention Tayler and Eliza since they did load up the truck with 2 x 6's and packed that into the house, as well as Grannie [my Grandma] for helping out with the kids and around the house).

Looking at the house from the Southwest.

Looking at the house from the Southeast.

The big dormer is Jacob's room, the middle one is the kids' bathroom, and the outside on is in Josh's room.

This is looking into Josh's room, with the bathroom on the right.

This is the kids' bathroom. The toilet will sit under the window, and the tub sits on the left in the framed in area.

Kitchen Quote

2007-02-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

I met with Legacy Kitchens this morning, and received the desgin that they have been working on for the kitchen and bathrooms. I really like what the designer did. The cost was about $10000 higher than we had hoped though. I apparently picked one of the more expensive cabinet doors, so if we go with a different door (maybe a dark wood) for the island, we should be able to cut the cost by about $5000. There are also a few other things we can do, without taking away from the look, to cut some costs. I am meeting with Adora Kitchens in Coaldale on Thursday (as the roads weren't great today).

Another snowy day...

2007-02-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

And it snowed some more today. Todd started to work on the back wall today. He actually had a fair bit done when I was there at lunch time today. He had framed in the wall on the left side of the fire place, the wall for the fire place, the section of the wall that went above that, and had put a post in place. The person lift has come in quite handy, as Todd is able to use it to lift things he wouldn't be able to by himself otherwise.

Finally some pictures!!!

2007-02-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

I know, it's about time I had some pictures to post!!! Things are looking good out at the lot. Todd has sheathed the entire garage, minus the front wall, since it isn't built yet. This afternoon he may continue with the sheathing on the west side of the house. We are hoping by next weekend to have completed the back wall (if Todd has someone around to help him out), and then we can get the rest of the rafters on the roof, and then put the sheets of plywood on that. My dad has gone back to work at the gasplant, so he is not as available as he once was. He is most likely going to be down tomorrow to help out though.
I will be getting one more quote back on a kitchen Monday morning, and then I am heading to Lethbridge in the afternoon to see another company about a kitchen design. I am also going to get a kitchen designed by Ponoka Cabinet Makers. I wasn't all that impressed by the one design I got back a few weeks ago (I found it was a rather boring design), so we'll see how these others come in.

Mom and her boys out at the house.

Rafters above Nathan's room. We are considering putting a flat ceiling in the office (rather than vaulted, as the plans call for), and making Nathan's room a lot bigger.

Back of the house. Master bedroom is on the far left, and will have patio doors that open onto a deck. Josh's room is above that, at the front of the house. The great room sits in the middle, at the back of the house.

Front view of house.

This is the office wall (main floor) and Nathan's room above, with the garage wall on the right.

A little more done....

2007-02-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

Todd put in a full day's work yesterday, and got all of the sheathing on the east side of the house complete. I don't have any pictures to show as my camera batteries were dead when I arrived out at the site. Maybe I'll get a chance to get out to the lot mid-week to grab some pictures. With the days getting longer, Todd is hoping to get out to the lot after work on nice days to continue working on it. We are hoping to be at lock-up by the end of March--we'll have to see if the weather cooperates!!!

Nathan's First Visit to the House!!!

2007-02-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

Nathan had his first visit to the house today!! He slept through it all though. Maybe next time he'll open his eyes for a quick peek.
The house is really looking different these days. We really only need the front garage wall, the big wall (with all the windows) at the back, a wall in the front of Joshua's room and some more rafters on, and then we are close to having a complete shell. All of the the sheathing would need to be finished, but it would really look like a complete house with those last few walls up and the rafters.
We received our one quote back for heating, and it came it at what we were hoping it would. We are still getting a quote from one more company, just to be sure that we are getting a reasonable price. Things seem to be slowing down a little bit here in Calgary in terms of construction, so we are at least hearing back from contractors now. Their prices are still slightly elevated though. We are going to put in our own in-floor heat--in the basement slab, ensuite bathroom, laundry/mud room, and upstairs in the kids bathroom.
We have received a couple more quotes on drywall--both from companies in Ontario. On my "To-Do List" this week, getting some quotes from local companies.

Getting Closer

2007-01-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

The house is getting closer to being locked-up. Over the weekend, a fair number of rafters were put up, and several more inside walls were put in place. It is really starting to look like a house. I will hopefully get out on the weekend to get some updated pictures, and see for myself the progress. Todd is probably going to be backfilling the rest of the trench the next couple evenings so that Fortis can hook-up power. We are getting one quote back for heating today, so we will see how that turns out.