Drywall!!

Things are really starting to heat up at the house! Almost literally!

We are fully insulated (inspections passed!) and almost entirely drywalled. 

These guys are efficient! They started insulating on Thursday, boarding on Friday and they'll be done boarding and starting taping on Wednesday. We're really impressed. 

We've been running 2 electric construction heaters to warm things up inside and they're working quite well. 

The basement was + 7°C yesterday! And today with the temperature feeling like -30° the basement only dropped by 2°C. 

From the kitchen, looking into dining area and great room. 

Master Bedroom

Shower in the ensuite... And someone sweet! 

We also got our water softener and hot water tank today. 

We decided to buy the hot water tank outright versus renting. It has an 8 year warranty and we would have paid for it in 3 years if we went with renting from Reliance. Seemed more economical to us!

Our garage door frames are up and our garage doors should be installed by next week! 

We are really happy with how everything is turning out. It's hard to believe that we're getting to the end! Sort of :)

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!

Reclaimed wood, claimed kitten.

We've known what we wanted for hardwood flooring forever, we just didn't know how we were going to get it in our budget! 

What we wanted:

- wide planks

- reclaimed

- lots of colour variation/patina

- affordable

What we're getting:

- wide planks but varying widths

- 100+ year old hemlock reclaimed from Southern Ontario barns

- lots of colour/variation

- affordable!

- 1 free kitten

Meet Samantha, our newest family member. Named by the girls, in case it wasn't obvious!

We are quite pleased with ourselves for finding the exact flooring we wanted, and within budget. Even if it means now having a cat! 

There are a ton of reclaimed hardwood flooring options out there. But you're paying at least $10-15/square foot, plus install, plus finishing. When you're putting hardwood throughout almost your ENTIRE house, that's steep!

Once I realized the cost of reclaimed floors, I started looking for barns being demolish or barns that are on the verge of falling over to source the wood myself. I was willing to do whatever I had to do to get them. Thankfully we came across a man who demolishes barns and sells the lumber at a reasonable cost. Waaaay easier than tearing down someone's barn and carting it home in the Jetta! 

Once he gathers enough barn boards in decent condition, he'll take them to a mill to be denailed and planed flat and to equal thickness. After that they get sent to another man to be kiln dried and tongue and grooved, turning it into flooring. 

Kiln drying removes excess moisture, and BUGS!!

We will have our own installer install the floor at this point. Because the planks will be wide, they'll need to be glued and nailed down. Some planks will be over 10" wide and they could have a tendency to cup with humidity, which is the reason for using both nails and glue. 

When it first goes down it will still be fairly rough looking. We want a rustic look, but we also want the age and patina to be visible. We'll be hiring someone to do a very light sanding and finishing. We don't want to stain the floor because we like the natural look of aged lumber so we're going to go for an oil finish. 

It is kind of risky picking flooring without actually being able to see what the finish product will be... But it's worth the risk if you ask me!

I'll be sure to keep you posted on the many steps it's going take to get the perfect floor!  I'm hoping to be able to see our cabinets in production sometime in the next couple of weeks too.

I love seeing how everything is made! 

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! 

Shake it Off

I stay up too late
Got too much in my brain
That's what people say mmhmmm
That's what people say mmhmmm

Baby I'm just gonna stain my shakes, shakes, shakes... 

We had all of our cedar shakes delivered this week. We wanted to stain/seal them before they were installed and we needed to do that somewhere warm... Our house it is!

The shakes will be going in those two peaks. We decided on are real cedar mounted onto plywood panels. This gives us the look of cedar (we struggled to find a decent faux cedar shake we liked) but makes installation a breeze. Or so we've been told!

We love the colour variation in cedar so we wanted to find a transparent stain that wouldn't cover this up. We also have pine timbers going up on the porches and a sienna colour pressure treated deck. Try finding a stain that coordinates the three of those!

We initially found a stain called Taupe by Cabot. In the brochure it looked great! It was a great match between the brown pressure treated lumber and the cedar shakes. Until we got it home... It's taupe. I'm sure it would be fine for the deck and timbers, but I didn't want to chance ruining the cedar colour on the shakes. 

So back we went looking for a different stain. This time we decided on Red Cedar by Behr. I love it! It's semi-transparent, so the variation shows, and it has a more brown than red tint. 

Here it is going on... I was sold on the first swipe!

This kitchen table has seen more projects! It's the table I grew up with... For the longest time Carla's French homework could be seen etched into it as well as the spot where she set a cloth covered in nail polish remover :)

So a little stain won't hurt it!

Doesn't it look good?! Now we just have 200 or so square feet to stain tomorrow and we're ready to go!

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.