Oh boy... Here we go again!!!

Well... Remember in my last post I had mentioned we wanted to be 100% finished this house by mid-May? There's a perfectly good reason for that... We're doing it all over again!

That's right, we're building another house.

Are we crazy?! I think so!

We love this house. We love Lucan. We love our property. But we don't love the distance between the girls' school and home. So we want to move closer. Right now we're about 25 minutes door-to-door. The drive to and from school isn't bad. The issue is when the girls have activities after school, but not until 5:30 or 6:00pm. We don't have time to come home in between and we end up just killing time in the car... for hours! And I don't know how we'd even deal with the distance when one is in high school and the other one is still in elementary school with two different start times. We hadn't really thought all of this through unfortunately. 

So after LOTS of thought and lots of tears, we've decided to sell our pride and joy. 

The first few weeks after our decision didn't feel real, but now that we've posted our house for sale on Facebook and people are coming through it, it has started to sink in. I know we're making the smartest decision for our family, but it's going to be really hard to leave this place. I thought of every square inch of this house in great detail and spent so much time and energy on planning our perfect home. 

I'm sure the next family that moves in here will enjoy everything there is to offer, so that makes it sting a little less. 

When I start feeling sad about selling our house, I try to think ahead of yet another amazing country property. Except this one is way closer to school!

 

 

Here we are... nervous and excited smiles!

I'll fill you in on more, once we know more! We're still working on floor plans and site plans and we're actually excited to do this all over again!

Ugh. Inspections.

This blog post is kind of all over the map... Just a warning! :)

As a condition of a building permit, you must have your house inspected after certain stages of construction. 

We were smooth sailing in the beginning. Foundation, septic, plumbing rough-ins all passed without a single issue on the first try. 

Then onto framing. We've been struggling to get our framing passed since December 3rd. I think we've had 4  or 5 framing inspections so far. And every time they find something new that needs to be changed or fixed. A couple of "deficiencies" the inspector noted were complete misunderstandings, or complete idiocy if you ask me. 

Not to mention, his penmanship is atrocious. 

Our poor framer has been back to fix these deficiencies over and over and just when you think we're sure to pass, we walk into one of these slapped on a wall!

What does this even mean?!  What list?!

So after countless phone calls and emails  to the inspector, we finally figured out what this nonsense was about. He somehow didn't notice that his previous list of deficiencies from December 3rd had been fixed? Bah!

We still have 2 more deficiencies that Jake and I will be attempting to fix oursves between nights this weekend. This house has more "bracing" and "blocking" than any other house, I swear. Our framer actually agrees!

Building a house seems to be 1000 chicken before the egg scenarios. What goes first?! Well, it depends who you ask!

Thankfully, the building inspector has agreed to let us continue insulating, vapourbarriering (new word) and drywalling the areas that don't have framing deficiencies. Yay!

It's starting to warm up in there! Too bad the deficiencies Jake and I are working on are outside in the -20°C weather. 

So... Where are we at with the house now?

- plumbing and electrical inspections - complete!! First try :)

- most batt insulation is in (main floor)

- most vapour barrier is up (main floor)

We got the insulation and vapour barrier on the main floor inspected before moving on to drywall on Friday... FAIL!!

How can you fail an insulation and vapour barrier inspection? Well, our walls are insulated with R22. Our Energy Effiency Design Summary (that was submitted with our plans in order to get the building permit) says that our walls will be insulated with R24. You've got to be kidding me!!!? Thankfully the guys we hired to do this know a thing or two about insulation!

Our blueprints state that the insulation will be R21, but we also have 1" rigid foam insulation on the exterior which has an R5 value. Ta-da! So we actually have a total of R27! More than our original plan. Take that building inspector! Shouldn't he know this?

Now to get him to answer his phone... And to come out and take down his annoying orange sticky notes.

So Monday afternoon we'll get our dear old friend the building inspector out again to (hopefully) sign off on the 2 remaining framing deficiencies and to clear up the insulation misunderstanding. After that we can have insulation blown into the attic and finish drywalling.  

 

There's just one more 'chicken before the egg' situation we need to deal with.  In order to keep the insulation being blown into the attic in place, the soffits need to be on the house. We currently have the front and 2 sides done. So the soffit guys (official job title I'm sure) need to finish the back by Tuesday morning at the very latest.  I know it's been freezing out this week, but these guys have been only putting in a 3 hour work day... Frustrating!!!

The soffit guys have also told us that we need to have the back timber frame up on the porch before they can finish the soffit. And the timber frame guy is on vacation in Mexico for a week. Oh boy. 

We've decided to go ahead with the soffits at the back of the house, and have the timbers work around them after. We NEED to keep going on this house. No delays!

Here's how it's looking now! 3/4 of trim and soffits up!

I am impatiently waiting too see how the siding looks!! Hopefully soon!

Timbers & Tile!

IHola! We took a little Christmas vacation from the blog... And we also didn't have a lot of action going on at the house to really blog about. Until this week that is!

All of our rough-ins for electrical, plumbing and HVAC are done. Woohoo!

It's hard to really see what's going on when it's pictures of a bunch of studs (but Jake wasn't in any of those pics? Kidding, kidding!)

One thing you can definitely see as soon as you pull up to the house is the timber frame front porch!

I'm in love!! They will be working on the back timbers this week... I can't even tell you how excited I am to see them up. 

We also picked all of our tile for the floors and tub and shower surrounds over the holidays. I'll try my best to explain what we're doing. 

The main bath is going to have 7" hexagon tiles in white. 

We love the retro look of hexagon floors, but thought the giant version might be kind of cool. 

The tub in this bathroom is going to have white 4"x16" subway style tiles laid in a brick pattern. 

We wanted to do a border, but nothing flashy because we (ok I) have some big plans for this little space. So we decided to sandwich one row of tiles with white 1" square tiles... Confused yet? 

We made a big decision for the flooring in the ensuite bathroom this week... We are going to continue the hardwood flooring from the bedroom right into the bathroom. Hardwood in the bathroom? Yes, you read that right. We researched it, and we're willing to give it a shot. We've promised each other that we're going to be diligent at wiping up water and running the fan. 

So that just leaves the tile in our shower. Again we decided on the same white 4"x16" brick pattern. But this time we're going to do 1 row (about 6' or 7' off the ground) in gray, and we're going to sandwich the gray tiles with black 1" tiles. 

Here's a rough (really rough!) idea of what I'm talking about.

I think it will be a nice touch and hopefully simple enough that we won't get sick of it too quickly! I'm not sure if you remember that there's a 16"x16" alcove in the shower wall for shampoo and stuff? We're going to use the white 1" tiles in there as well. 

I'm hoping we made good, smart decisions. It was a bit of a challenge concentrating and imagining how everything would look with 2 crazy kids running around. I have learned not to give my  kids hot chocolate and expect them to sit calmly while I picked "boring old tile".

There's not a whole lot going on at the house this week. Once our back porch timbers are up we'll be having our framing inspection (again) and hopefully pass so we can start insulation and drywall. Siding, soffits and fascia will start going up on January 5th. 

Thanks for checking back in... We'll have an update on our hardwood flooring this week! 

This week could have gone a little smoother...

This week at the house had it's ups... And quite a few downs. I should have made notes so I wouldn't forget any of them! 

Ask my dad how many times I called him crying! :)

Where should we start? How about Monday?!

Monday went fairly well. We locked down our new mason and quickly ran out to order all of our stone. We needed it by Wednesday because that's when the mason could start. The stone was in stock AND we could have it delivered by Wednesday. Sweet! That's an up.

The framers were working away trying to finish everything up for our framing inspection that was scheduled for Wednesday. 

The roofers also started on Monday! 

Tuesday:

Framers were at the house working, the main guy was sick, so not a lot got done. All the windows were in except the one that hasn't come yet and the one that needed to be fixed. Although I noticed that the master bedroom windows were in the wrong places... Despite my window labeling, so they needed to come out and be switched. 

Someone also hit the door frame of our patio door with a hammer...

It was an accident but if it wasn't so cold it never would have shattered this way. I've been told it can be "capped", whatever that means!

We also met with our plumbing/electrical/HVAC company Tuesday as well. We went through and showed them where we wanted everything as far as plumbing and lighting/outlets. 

Roofers were still working away, even with frost/ice on the roof. 

Wednesday:

Pre-inspection: Masons started, yay!! Framers were getting a lot done in anticipation of the afternoon framing inspection. 

Post-Inspection: 

What?!! Moving the windows AND changing the cathedral ceiling porches to flat?! I don't think so!!

This is when frantic, crying phone call # 37 to my dad happened. Along with an email to our timber designer (who had our timber drawings reviewed and stamped by an engineer). He seems to think it's just a misunderstanding... Let's hope so!! 

Needless to say, we failed our framing inspection. They also won't pass it until the timbers are completely installed. But the timber guy won't make them until he knows we don't actually need collar ties. Awesome. Our timber guy is also booked solid until the week of Christmas. So looks like our insulation and drywall will be waiting. 

 

Thursday: 

Plumber and electricians start with the rough-ins. Yay!

Our fireplace was delivered. Yay! But it doesn't fit in the opening. Boo. 

It's 4" too wide for the opening. Easy solution, just make the opening bigger. Except it's not that easy... There is honestly not enough room between the windows, not to mention the entire back porch is supported by this wall. Annnnd now we're sending the fireplace back and getting a new, smaller one. One plus is it's about $500 cheaper. Yay!

Roofers were finishing up after needing 13 more bundles of shingles that Jake had to drive an hour + to get. 

Framers were framing the basement and correcting any deficiencies from the inspection. 

One issue with the inspection was with a roof truss (all that girder talk in my text from the framer, Steve). What happened was the truss was delivered and it was 2" too tall. So they had to cut it down and repair it. But because it was different than the original plan from the roof truss engineer, it needed to be re-engineered. The fix that the engineer recommended was impossible to do because there wasn't any space to do it. By this point, the roof was shingled, and they were talking about taking trusses down... Oh boy. 

Friday:

Roof is done. Woohoo!

Plumber was finishing rough-ins.

Electrician was working away.

Framers were raising the two front windows to eliminate the need for cutting the top layer of stone all the way around and finishing framing the basement. 

Masons were working on the back of the house. 

Timber guy came by to take measurements and assess the situation. 

Jake bought a stain colour for the timbers that looks nothing like the colour in the brochure. Ugh. 

Roof was leaking in one spot. We figured it might not be an actual leak considering it hasn't rained or snowed since the roof has been on. But there was water dripping from the roof onto the floor in the kitchen. 

For now, we're assuming that it's from that frosty day earlier in the week and the water was coming from under the shingles. Fingers crossed!!

We also blew multiple breakers at our neighbour's house this week. We've been using their hydro until we get our own... We're going to have to get them something REALLY nice as a thank you!

So hear's hoping next week goes a little smoother!

Getting stoned... You had to know that one was coming!

It's true, it's true. The last 2 days have been spent getting stoned. Obviously I'm talking about the house!

We actually changed masons last minute which made us a little nervous, but those nerves are gone now that we can see the stone on the house!  The mason we had previously hired works alone, and would take 4 weeks to finish the stone. This time of year, we couldn't afford to take that long, so we hired a local guy from Lucan who was happy to postpone his other jobs to work close to home. Best part is, it's him and 2 others which means he'll be done in less than 2 weeks! Since the weather is hovering around zero, they need to tarp the house and use heat to keep the mortar from freezing. Another reason we need the job done faster... 2 weeks of heat will end up costing about $700-800. Yikes! 

We are still waiting for our arched kitchen window which I'm told will be here on December 12th. I had no idea this window would be such a pain. It's going to be beautiful, but had I known it was such a specialty item, I would have compromised!

I guess the complicated part of this window is having the 2 parts open as an arch. Hopefully all the deer I'll see out this window will be worth it! 

One of our great room windows had some damage to the bottom jamb, so we've been waiting all week for someone to come fix it. 

Of course they show up once our framers are gone... So now it will have to wait until the 12th too. 

Oh well... It wasn't the worst thing that happened at the house this week! More on that later. 

We've got shingles!

Don't worry, not the infectious rash... Just the roof!

The roofers started shingling on Monday and they'll likely be finished by the end of today. Hooray!  They have been really good and we are quite impressed by them. Super nice guys who are getting the job done well and on time. 

The house looks great. Everything seems to be coming along quickly now. Framers are finishing, which is good because the house inspector is coming today!

Our mason has everything set up ready to go. The stone arrived this morning. 

Drywaller came out to measure today too. 

Plumbing, HVAC and electrical walk through was yesterday to make sure we're all on the same page before they start. 

Jake and I even did a bit of work ourselves! We had to insulate, vapour barrier and hang a sheet of plywood in the mechanical room for our hydro panel.

We just happened to take my car today, and the dog... Which wasn't the best idea since we had to go buy insulation.  

This was the only spot left for me!

I was laughing in the beginning. But then I started to feel trapped and panicky! Who knew I had confined space issues?!

All the more reason for me to NEED a truck! The want is now officially a need. :)

I Heart the Heart of Our Home

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home... Well I know where my heart is!  Actually it's kind of a toss up between the kitchen and the floors.  But I guess the floors are also in the kitchen... So the kitchen it is!

We just got the drawings of our kitchen this week... I am thrilled!!  I know I shared a little detail about the kitchen in an earlier post, but here's where it all comes together!

This is the basic floor plan of the kitchen:

My kitchen must haves were an island, and an arched window.  You can thank Houzz for the arched window idea.  

The window faces the back of the house in front of the sink where we've actually already seen deer! It's big, and round and well... I like big windows and I cannot lie.

We have chosen a white, stepped shaker style door for our cabinetry.  We wanted something simple and classic in hopes that it won't become outdated in a few years, as opposed to picking something super trendy.  Here's the door style we chose, but obviously not in our colour choice!

I was so excited to get the drawings of our cabinetry. Now we can order the handles and knobs we picked!  We ordered samples and are really happy with them! 

We've decided to go with 2 different colours. Black for the perimeter cabinetry and brushed nickel for the island. 

These will be for all the perimeter drawers.

And these will be for all of the cupboards. They remind me of the nailheads on leather furniture, love them!

And these are for the island drawers. They are the same as the black ones, just a different colour!

In an earlier post I showed a picture of our island colour, but I'll show you again! It's call Icy Moon Drops and I think it will look great against the white cabinetry and reclaimed floors. 

Our island top will be a variety reclaimed wood species like this one:

Since we are kind of going to be living in the country, I didn't want our house to be too contemporary, so we've added some legs to our island to add some character. 

And lots of drawers!! I have 1 small bank of drawers in my house now so I'm excited to have big ones! And lots of them!

And we added the same legs to our desk on the pantry wall and the open shelving will be reclaimed lumber as well. I can just see all my cute tea cups on display :)

I'm excited to have not 1, but 2 pantries to be able to store all of our jars of PB. 

On the floor plan the fridge is kind of in the center of of the main wall. It was cutting up the counter space, so we moved it to the far side. We're also taking our cabinets right up to the 9' ceilings so there isn't that awkward dust collecting space. I don't own any fake ivy to display so this seemed like the best choice for us! ;)

And my FAVOURITE wall of all... The window!! 

Ignore where I had drawn the handles... They'll actually be in the middle. 

What's missing? Counter tops! 

We've decided to go with laminate counter tops for the perimeter. And we're actually picking the ones I have in my house now. So I know we'll like them!

We would have loved to have gone with a quartz counter top, but we decided to splurge on other parts of the house that can't be upgraded down the road. 

 

As for a backsplash, we don't know what we're doing yet. I want to wait until everything is up to decide. 

So there ya go... The heart of our home!