Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Updates

Ok - once again, I've been reminded that time has passed & there are no new updates. I've not taken any photos since the 'un-natural disaster' because it's rather depressing & I've not seen much to take a photo of.

We were lucky to have Phil's family (Norm, Rose & Louis) stay for a wonderful week of sunshine & Norm helped Phil work on the house. They started to put up dry wall in the first floor bathroom (should have taken a photo...) & they also figured out some siding installation techniques.

We've found another fellow in town to help us - Malcom Richards - & he's a hard worker. I sure do appreciate his help!!

Just the other day, the crew finished the whole of the north wall & are now working their way around the east first floor wall & Phil said last night they installed the siding under the first floor decking on the south wall.

Phil may have put in the work order to Hydro to get us connected - but they only come out every other week or so, so it will be a while still before we have power on in the house. It will be nice because then we can get some more fans & heaters & a dehumidifer going.

Our cabinet maker spoke with me today - the hickory doors have arrived ahead of schedule!! They look fabulous in the raw. He wants us to pick a couple of stains so that we can get some sample pots & try it out - see if we want to go natural, or a light or a darker stain. The wood is all clear grain - meaning no knots & has the wonderful hickory swirl of light & dark grains running all through it. To keep life simple, I was thinking that both kitchens should be in the same stain, but realizing that the upper kitchen is going to be very full of natural light from the huge wall of windows.......I am going to have to look at the stains & see what they've got. Mark said that hickory soaks up stain very much like oak so look at the oak samples (they most likely don't have a hickory sample).

I'm not sure what's going on with the insurance claim for the roof & windows - we had hoped to install a metal roof over the shingles just to be done with future damage, but insurance is covering repair not replacement.......bummer.

So, until I get out there with a camera, this is it for updates!!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Un-Natural Disaster.....

Sunday - November 11th brought in a nasty storm. It was blowing 50 knots in the harbour with gusts up to 80 knots. (1 knot = 1.16miles/hour). Our house took a beating & got a few scrapes & gnashes. We are ever so thankful that we have builder's insurance, but this is setting us back a few more weeks so we will more than likely not be moved in before Christmas........

We awoke Monday, the 12th to a wonderfully sunny day - NO POWER & a horror show over at the house. As you see, this is the east side of the roof with chunks missing. We found all the shingles (yes, someone asked me if we found the missing ones....) & they were shattered all over the lawn & around the house.

This is the west side of the house with only a few smaller chunks missing. Looking at it all in the bright sunshine was a bit unreal, but we quickly got the camera in action & called the insurance agent to see if we would be covered for replacement material. As it turns out, we have excellent coverage that also includes cost of labour!

By-the-by - the shingles are warranteed for 35 years in 145 kph winds, so there really wasn't any reason for them to rip off like they did. The carpenter spoke with his roofer buddy & was reassured that he did put them on correctly......

This is the sliding glass door frame which was damaged also. It will need to be replaced but we can still use the old one for a shed or something (greenhouse??). We are lucky that none of the windows shattered because then the house would be even more wet!

This is the 2 x 5 foot window directly above the sliding glass door. It has a nasty scratch & a hole punched in the frame. It will be replaced as well.

This is the dining room window beside the sliding glass door. The taped areas indicate some nasty scratches that I don't think I could live with for the next 25 years. It will be replaced as well, but with tempered glass.

By Tuesday night (this photo taken at 5 pm when I returned from work) the boys had come & put up a huge blue tarp that can be seen very plainly from across the harbour. While the paper under the shingles did not rip off, any extra protection is extra protection.

The end of the tarp flaps & is keeping me up at night. I can't tell if it's just flapping gently in the wind or being ripped right off the roof!!

The power was off from sometime early-early Monday morning til Wednesday at 3 pm. Lucky us to have it back on for a few hours - we are quickly washing laundry, dishes & ourselves. When I left work & stopped by the store, there were about 300 sea gulls in the harbour seeking protection around the docks. You may find it interesting to note that while we are a coastal community, our typical sea gull population is very small - only a dozen or so. That's why, when we see very large numbers in the harbour - we know that it's going to be a nasty night. Hurricane force winds are being called for on the north part of the island & the rains have returned.

I'm not sure how much more of this house-building stuff I can take. Just when we seem to be moving forward, something keeps us from getting too far (either lazy-ass workers or forces of mother nature).

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Another Rainy Week

I avoided the house all week in the hopes that the crew would actually put in a proper 40 hour week as they promised. This hasn't happened since August & we are starting to wonder when they will complete the job! So, I stayed away (while Phil worked as much as he could with the crew) & Saturday I ran over quickly to take some photos. We got 4 out of the 5 promised days - which is still better than we expected.

What did they do?

Brian, our electrician, demanded stairs & the siding to go up on the side of the house where the electrical panel would run out to the pole. Let's see if that was done:

This is our siding - called Mountain Sage. I love the effect of the cedar & the hardi plank. I didn't know what was going to happen when the siding was put up, but I think the carpenter has made a good design decision.

But have they done what the electrician asked for? Not quite - only about half way......

These are the stairs going up to the second floor. There are a few supports that will be added because even though it's built to code, it's still a little wobbly. I will need the extra support for those days when I stomp REALLY hard down the stairs in order to make a silly point in some silly unimportant aspect of life.

We really wanted to have a door at the bottom of the stairs - with the rest of the stair way going up open to the 2nd floor. That way we avoid putting a door & walls up in the 2nd floor thus enclosing the hallway from the entrance through to the kitchen. Just makes things a bit more light & airy & open. Well, as you can see in the stairs photo, there is a landing with a step down. We would have to put the door above that last step - but should it open into the stairwell or into the room? Either one is not allowed by building code - we checked, so we might just have to install it after the building inspector is finished inspecting our house......There are actually quite a few things that we are putting in after the fact - some of them the building inspector has told us to wait til he's gone & others we haven't said anything & won't.

So - conclusion as to workers' week - not bad, but could have been better. The electrician is scheduled for Tues-Wed-Thurs & I hope that he is able to complete it all in that time frame so we can order our hydro, get some heater fans & start drying out the house properly.

Oh wait, the soffits & siding need to go one first........

This is just another picture of the siding with the cedar accents.



Both the decks wrap around the house from south side (front) to west side (side entrance) & here the boys have framed the upper level & finally installed the cedar posts under the covered porch. Phil & I stained them to match the cedar belly band & window trim & we left the posts raw (meaning we didn't sand them down). I think that will be something for us to do next summer when the wood drys out. We still haven't figured out the stairs (2 sets) to get up to the upper deck. One comes off the end there by the posts & the other will be on the front (south-west side) leading down to the laneway.
This is our room full of insulation. We got this shipped in last Tuesday & were actually expecting about twice this amount. I hope that we have enough to at least do the important walls when they are ready. I want a few of the interior walls to be insulated - not with the R-20 (whatever the exterior walls get) but with a lesser R-12. It's more for sound insulation than heat.......Important in the bathrooms......I may have to order some more.

We had a tough time deciding what to do around the edge of the loft. Do we put in railings & leave it all open? Do we put in a 2 foot wall with railings on the top? Do we put in a half wall along the whole edge for a bit more privacy from below? Well, to make life easier for the carpenter (I wanted the short wall with railing on top) we opted for the half wall around the whole edge. BUT - I went & bought a really awesome piece of artwork at the end of the summer from the NetLoft Gallery where I put my Soaps & Salts. It's a piece of glass about 3 feet long by 1 1/2 feet high with sea life etched into it. Something spectacular. Guess where I want to install it?
This is the view from the loft now. The glass will be built into the half wall on the left side & will allow lots of light to come back into the loft (which is now more framed in & is an amazing 16 x 16!!!! )

We have a knee wall on either side of the loft - defines the room better, allows for less pine that is being installed on the ceiling & will give us some much needed storage space. We grabbed a few rubbermaid totes - (which is another sign that you are becoming a 'Bamfield local' - wheelbarrows & rubber totes are the main mode of transportation & movement of any kind of item) - anyway - the totes fit into the space created between the roof & the knee wall. Perfect! We even have the option of putting in built-in drawers for clothing storage & another wacky idea is to put a closet system on either side of the window so that we can actually hang some of our clothes. Again - ideas that will become more solidified later on down the line......

I guess that's it for the week. Phil & I are supposed to go into the house today (Sunday) to clean up & get ready for the electrician. We shall see - it's one of those days where all I want to do is curl up on the couch with a trashy novel & I think Phil just wants to play on his computer. He's been rather busy & may be going through withdrawl.......