Day 60 - the team assembles again

The big brains got together again to have a final (final right?) discussion on the design of the kitchen and the family room wall unit. Actually the idea was for Eleanor, the kitchen designer to take final measurements so the order could be placed, however all of the necessary elements have not been finished and therefore she needs to come back. And she can't do that for 2 weeks. Shouldn't impact our timelines yet but we can't afford any more delays on that front. 

Day 59 - A new roof, just in time

One day before the rains started to fall, our roofers came onsite to finish the job. Everything went well except that upon removal of the remaining flat roof they discovered that the plywood and wood joists at the edge closest to the eaves were wet and rotten. Sure, let's replace that, what the hell. 

Oh and the sun tube that we bought for them to install had a plastic flange instead of the required metal one so that couldn't be installed as planned. Nothing is never easy but at least we're dry now :)

Day 55

The changes are less dramatic for the moment now that the framers have moved on (though I'm trying to get them to come back for a couple things!)

Wally continues to run new HVAC throughout the house, some easy and some complex. His counterpart Richie was in on the weekend to start on his piece of the project, running new gas lines and installing the exterior venting. 

Our roof has been waterproofed and the plumber made an appearance on the weekend. Lots on the go!

Furnace exterior venting into laneway

New furnace

Hiding ductwork behind what will be built in shelving

Our best solution for running supply upstairs

Day 52 - that's a wrap on the framers

Paul and the boys finished up today, taking care of the misc items on the list that still remained: framing in the closets upstairs, moving the partition wall on the main floor by the front door, building the knee wall down into the basement, reinforcing the ceiling and securing the back.

Things went without much controversy I'm happy to say and they got everything wrapped up nicely and are on to their next job. 

The roof gets water proofed tomorrow (which is good since rain is coming this weekend) and discussions are on going with Wally the HVAC guy. That is proving, thus far, to be the most challenging and frustrating part of the design process. The vents and returns can only go where they can go given where studs and joists are but at the same time we are trying to minimize or eliminate the number of bulk heads and/or double walls on the main floor. Some compromises will definitely have to be made. More pictures to illustrate this to come. 

The new knee wall

Adjusted partition wall by the front door

The reinforced ceiling joists, slightly higher than before but no longer in danger of sagging further

The current state of the main floor

Day 51

Paul and the guys are finishing up and have moved to 'misc' items - like levelling the ground floor which drops a little over an inch from the old kitchen into the dining room. The solution was to take off the floor boards and install new floor joists beside the existing ones at 1/8" increments until we get back to the right level. 

Paul removing the old floor boards

After that the mail floor ceiling needs to be levelled. Below you can see the portion of the ceiling where the joist running across the house were cut so that a heating duct could be run. When the dividing walls were taken out, whenever they were taken out, the joists were not reinforced, the resulting pressure has caused the joist to crack and drop over an inch.  

This is fixed tomorrow by installing new joists beside the existing ones. It will add the strength necessary to keep it from sagging further but I don't believe we are going to get the ceiling levelled much if at all. 

Cracking on either side of the cut joist

The heat duct runs from left to right in this picture. The 2x8 joists have become 2x4 where the duct work was.

Day 50 - Basement framing

Back from the long weekend and there was a lot of action down in the basement today. Wally the HVAC installer got started while Paul and the boys framed out everything down there as well. 

Everything went well, the rooms are a good size and the play space is very generous. 

Start of the day

Mid day

End of the day

We lost some space at the front so that we can hide pipes and drains

Day 45

Paul and the boys finished framing upstairs, below we're looking at a long shot down our new hallway into the master bedroom as well as that same hallway from the other direction and at our closet and en suite. 

Overall looks good, though the rooms are not generous, a good size but certainly not extravagant :)

Day 43/44 - roof construction and a concrete floor

Dan and his guys poured the concrete floor today. I was at a conference so I didn't see the process in action but I'm sure it was quite the site to see them do this wheelbarrow load by wheelbarrow load. 

Here is the end result. I'm told this is a good looking pour. 

On top of that Paul has completed the bulk of the roof including the light well. It doesn't look big form the picture below but it is large and is going to bring in a lot of light. 

Looking at our roof and the new light wheel from our neighbours roof

Looking up again, at the northern wall of the well

Looking up at the top of the light well. 

Day 42 - Pod people

Our storage pod was delivered this morning. The process of placing this thing on parking pad was very cool, the truck carrying it slides out from under and a spider-like machine is remotely controlled by the driving as he positions it into place. 

Our living room is now empty. 

Day 41 - first signs of the "light well"

The light well made it's first appearance today, looks awesome so far. There were of course some issues that came up when Paul went to frame it, most notably that the southern of edge of it was designed, as it turns out, to sit right where the plumbing stack resides. Obviously we aren't moving the stack so we had to slide one end of the well a few inches. The new position has it resting on top of the old wood stove chimney in the shared wall. That chimney is of course hollow, as chimneys tend to be, so we are going to have to fill it in with concrete to get the load bearing capabilities that we require. There are only a couple feet to fill though so the cost with be 'minimal'.

Paul cutting the exterior wall for make room for the light well beam to rest

Light well frame from the kitchen

Light well frame from the second floor

Plumbing inspection is set for tomorrow in the basement, assuming that passes, the basement floor will be poured Thursday and the first crew will be 'done'.

Paul tells me that he expects that he will done by the end of next week.

Fast!

Day 38 Part 2 - we have walls!

Paul and the boys continue to make great progress, the demo is over and they have moved back into building mode. Today the east and west of the main floor went up, as did the powder room and the extension of the kitchen floor into the family room. 

The tough questions continue to come fast and furious as he asked for a few measurements that we didn't have off hand (the distance from the north wall to the top step coming down and the location of the pocket door in the powder room for example) but I think we figured them out OK. I think.

I'm afraid of decisions that are made today that may negatively impact things 5-6 steps into the future that I just haven't consider yet. Hopefully we can avoid too many of those. 

the west wall including the powder room

the ground floor including the extended kitchen in the foreground

the back of the house at the end of the day

the side of the extension as seen from Roger and Susan's laneway

Day 38 - The team convenes

During a 2 hour summit with Joey and Eleanor this morning we covered everything from the cabinet hardware (none) and stove hoods to wine rack location and the termination of the back splash. But the most important (and controversial) discussion revolved the composition and design of the "pantry wall". I honestly can't remember exactly what we decided but I think we ended with general consensus (and removed a post over by the window wall while we were at it). Really glad we have such great people to work with, it would IMPOSSIBLE to do this without them. Worth every penny. 

These conversations take a long time and there are a thousand decisions to make but we're making good progress. At this point I think we our kitchen colour picked out, except back splash, as well as the bathroom. The picture on the left shows the various elements which Eleanor promises will come together nicely :) 

Day 36 - Bye bye kitchen

Jodi felt this one, the kitchen is no longer!

Hard to get a feel for the new open feel of the space because of the tarp oh and the huge pile of stuff stacked in the living room. 

The sub floor is pretty uneven and the wiring in the ceiling was definitely not done correctly, otherwise, looks good and the rest of the back wall comes out tomorrow!

Oh, and Ted is missing a wall in his room now too...

No surprises there apparently, except perhaps that the drywall was installed right on top of the old plaster and lathe, so we will have to decide if that is all coming down or if we are working with that. 

Day 35 - framing begins

The next big stage of the project began today as the framer, Paul from PTR Carpentry and his guys started on site today. And boy did things start getting complicated fast. Quickly after the hellos were over the questions and concerns began. First we thought that the footing inside the addition which will support the first floor was in the wrong place but that turned out not to be the case. Then there were questions about the location of the bearing wall on the footing, the location of the pins in the concrete block. That was the first 15 minutes. 

I left and went to work only to get a call 90 minutes later asking for details on the location of the walls on the second floor since his bulkheads had to be located directly beneath them to ensure they picked up the load appropriately. (Like how I make it sound like I know what I'm talking about? Don't be fooled, this knowledge all came from discussions today!). I head over and find that the interior walls of the addition are up already, these guys do not mess around. Meanwhile the True North guys are still working away, including back filing around the foundation. I love watching multiple trades work at the same time, feels so efficient!














We weren't able to get the architect on the phone in real time so we made some measurements from the drawings hoped for the best. Fortunately we were correct. (I suppose that is what the drawings are for after all aren't they?)

Finally we ended the day with a discussion about how to handle the fact that the new foundation is not perfectly square - it was off by 2". We could build the addition un-square as well but that would cause problems for every trade to follow. So then it became a discussion of where to minimize the impact of putting a square addition onto a non-square house, either on the shared laneway side and have an exterior that jutted out slightly or on the party wall side and have a little of the floor joists exposed. My inclination was to the laneway side but we learned after speaking with Joey that Roger and Susan (the neighbours) are planning a deck off the back of the house that will be above the height of those joists. As a result the overhang won't be visable, so we can clad it and be done with it. 

I did more PM'ing on this project today than I have in the last 4 weeks combined, and I get the impression that isn't going to slow down any time soon! That will be a little tough to manage when, on days like tomorrow for example, I'm going to be in Hamilton and Burlington all day and can't 'swing by' like I did today. But I tell you, it is a lot of fun to visually see this thing come to life, there is a great joy in watching that happen.