Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Elvis Has Left the BuildingIts done (officially at least). Thanks for your support over the last few months. Drop by sometime.
posted by Craig at 5:01 PM
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
"Finished" isn't a state, it's an attitude... so I'm firing up the barbie to celebrate (and to give myself a deadline).
Drop me an email for full details and to let me know you're coming. Bring along family and friends. Lawn chairs could come in handy as well. The party may go into the late evening so you are invited to stay over. If a chunk of floor in middle of the living room floor doesn't float your boat a tent is recommended. Catherine -- beautiful work on the new logo.
posted by Craig at 11:26 PM
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Thinking of building a house? Don't. No, do, but block off about a year in your Palm. So, what have I been up to since mid-march? The snow did melt eventually and the oil truck paid a visit. But that was ages ago. By now traces of plant life have taken hold in the new landscaping. Mom has been promoted to chief gardener on the project since she seems interested in advocating the growth of the right kind of flora, and me, well, the lawn just isn't on my radar screen at this point. She's doing what she can to encourage the moss, ferns and clover. Apparently moss likes yogurt? I don't know. The sandy bits get clover. Clover is not without its merits: it doesn't grow too tall (I may let it go feral), you can make tea out of it, honey bees think its the bee's knees, and that's saying something.
The concrete floor has been finished to a high gloss shine using a product call Buckeye Castleguard. 5 coats so far, 1 or 2 more later. I gathered intel on industrial-strength floor care products by lurking on the janitorial newsgroups and apparently this stuff is the cat's ass. I spoke with reseller and the chemist at Buckeye in Missouri, and I think I have the right product. Its all about the polymer. Check out this
testimonial.
The trim is all on, doors are hung and door knobs installed. Lots of varnishing. Kitchen cabinets took longer than expected to assemble and install but the result is good. Dad taught me how to tile, lent me his wet saw and now I'm a tiling machine. My sister dedicated a day of her long weekend to tile application.
Some of this is captured in the latest photos.
I'm looking at weekends in mid-August for a bit of a party... will keep you posted -- hope to have some details for you soon.
posted by Craig at 11:15 PM
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Alright, enough already. I'm ready for a good spring melt anytime. The laneway is now about 7' wide with 4' snowbanks on each side. All winter my stategy for getting up the hill boils down to momentum. Hit it with speed baby. My laneway is the reason they put those handles above the passenger side door. Now that we're down to 7' of width the skids have to be a bit more precise. Still fairly doable with the car, but the rear-wheel drive power skid with the truck is becoming tricky, even with the chains on. Unfortunately its more than just inconvenient now, I'm just about out of oil and there's no way an oil truck is getting in there at present. Need some warm rain to solve this problem.
posted by Craig at 10:30 PM
Sunday, February 23, 2003
Construction goes pretty slowly at one day a week. I have the panel wired and almost all the plugs and lights installed. Rob is back now and he is going to start trimming and hanging doors this week. He built the stairs and we put them in last week. The price of pine doors was prohibitive. I took the chains off the truck and drove it to Rona in Ottawa for a combination of pine and hardboard doors. The first time the truck has seen road salt in a while.
posted by Craig at 11:59 AM
Monday, February 03, 2003
If you are going to work in drywall you might as well take up smoking. A little nicotine and tar are the least of your worries. After breathing drywall dust on my visits to the job site I eventually bought a respirator. The drywall is on and looking good. A coat of primer is on as well. Paint continues and then trim. Some not so new, but new to the website, photos up.
posted by Craig at 10:07 PM
Thursday, December 19, 2002
As Glenn Frey says, the heat is on. After some wiring and plumbing we fired up the boiler, so the slab is now toasty warm and that's keeping the house cozy. A crew of four drywallers is boarding the place right now. The fireplace rocks and throws enough heat to keep the house liveable.
The drywallers will still have work to do after Christmas, so I am expecting a little leisure time over the break. Fine by me, I'm starting to get tired of construction. I was very busy getting everything ready to go for drywall. I guess I could start livening up electrical circuits. There is always something.
Some new photos up. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
posted by Craig at 5:58 PM
Thursday, December 05, 2002
My original electrician is no longer on the project because of (a) a failure to perform duties and carry out obligations and (b) a habitual pattern of failure to report for duty at the assigned time and place. After 3 weeks of waiting for him to make the fix to the service, I gave up and figured out how to do it myself. The fixed service got the nod and Hydro One had power hooked up to the house within a few days. Since then I fired up a couple circuits and found an electrician, a good one this time, to help me with the more obscure stuff. So, electricity is happening, now its on to water and heat. I am trying to get enough electric heat going so that those two things don't have to happen simultaneously. Its chili con carne inside at present.
I have a drywaller lined up to start next week, once the heat is rolling. Not sure about this guy, his reputation is that he does good work but he is slow, like 4 weeks for my house. Some houses are half-built in that time. I have a feeling drywall will be another whole adventure.
My truck is so good in so many ways, but it is a terrible vehicle to get stuck. Every rose has its thorn, every night has its dawn, and every cowboy sings a sad sad song. If you don't have a good load on, there just isn't enough weight on those back wheels. The laneway is a challenging hill at the best of times, but put some snow on it, pack it down a bit and do some spinning and it gets really tricky in the Chevy Wrangler. Last night I got stuck on the way up with a load of insulation. Backing down, the truck started to slide down the hill on its own. I had done the backwards slide earlier in the day, but this time things got a little out of hand and before long I had my back right corner off the road and up against a fence post. Can't go backwards because of the post and can't go frontwards because its hard to get unstuck heading uphill. So there I am. Conventional means proved unsuccessful, so I gave up and went to bed. In the morning, I was supposed to be at work and was in no mood to do construction or play human tow truck, but the road was blocked and that was no good. Back from town with an electric construction heater for the house, a big-ass jack and tire chains. I had the back end of the truck jacked back onto the road and made it to work for the late shift. No job too big, no job too small.
posted by Craig at 10:56 PM
Monday, November 18, 2002
Those scum-suckers over at Tripod.ca decided to shut down, so welcome to the new and unimproved site here at Tripod.com. What can you expect for nothing? You may notice that my advertisement-extraction code is only partial working on this site; try not to be bothered by any disembodied dropdowns or banner ads you see. Refresh sometimes helps.
Construction progress has slowed down now that I have stopped showing up at the job site on a regular basis. My winter job is a bit warmer but its sedentary and I don't get to solve many problems using a hammer or chainsaw. This is unfortunate. Rob is still working on the place part time, he has the vapour barrier finished and a few other odd jobs done. The heating guys and plumber are ready for electricity, and so am I. The electrician has one small fixup to do on the service before I am connectable. But no fixup -> no electricity -> no water -> no heat. I'm ready for drywall, although I still haven't found a drywaller for the job. Christine sold a house recently to a client with drywall experience. He had only been in the country a couple hours when I started to recruit him for the job. Unfortunately we have been unable to come to terms. His prices are way out of whack with the going rate. I think he must be doing some U.S. dollar to Canadian dollar conversion or something. If he doesn't get real I may have to wait for the rush to subside.
posted by Craig at 11:33 PM
Monday, November 04, 2002
All good things... its back to work today. I like my job but of course I'd prefer to keep on building full-time. However, employment has this to recommend it: the deposit (that long-lost cousin of the withdrawl). Lucre. Dinero. Yenom. Makes the world go around.
Its hardly safe to be in the country this week anyway. Lanark County basically shuts down for deer hunting.
Status report:
Outside work is mostly all done. Windows and doors are in, roof, siding, soffit and fascia all done. Entranceway concrete and posts in. Upper and lower decks are built, although handrailing and screening will get done in the spring.
Inside, the walls are up and the floors are down. Wires, pipes and ducts are in the walls and are covered with insulation. There is still some vapour barrier-ing to do and a list of odds and ends before drywall. Probably about 3-4 days worth. However there is a chronic labour shortage at the moment: I'm back to my day job, Rob is off at a broomball tournament. Aiming to get the heat on sometime next week, although that is mostly out of my control.
I know that I was born, and I know that I'll die. The in-between is mine. - Edward Vedder
posted by Craig at 8:53 AM
Saturday, October 26, 2002
There has been some discussion of late as to whether or not I should get a lightning rod. Its true that the house is a high point on a high point of land. Given that the entire outside of the building is steel, its true that the building is going to be an attractive path to ground. Now, to quantify this a bit, a typical lightning strike consists of 25000 amps at 30 million volts. Without getting too precise about the resisitivity of 30 gauge siding, I think it would be fair to say that that much juice could do some fairly interesting things to my building. My electrical service runs down the building in 2" rigid steel conduit which is bonded to a grounding plate so I guess that will do the job for now.
Sweat this week, not so much. It has cooled off: cold on the fingers, but I'll take it over that 35° stuff that seemed to last all summer. Should be done all essential outside work sometime next week. We put in the posts that are supposed to support the overhang above the entranceway. Turns out the overhang is self-supporting -- some weight is now bearing on one post and the other is hanging about 1/32 of an inch above the concrete. I'm not surprised its not falling down right away -- I built it cantilevered on a 4 ply 2x10 beam at the corner. Rob tends to over-build stuff and then I do a few things to make it stronger. A structural engineer could probably optimize out a tree from my structure, but the cost of framing lumber relative to other building supplies is small, so I am not going to worry about it.
Justin has been building the porch with us. He's looking like a strong contender for handiest friend. It will be a screened porch with an open deck above. We are working in mixed media -- steel 4x4 posts are holding it up -- so we have been drilling steel. We are running about 20 minutes per hole. It is a four bit process. I need an arc welding kit, a good length of 220V extension cord and that chick from Flashdance.
posted by Craig at 5:36 AM
Sunday, October 20, 2002
INSULATION PARTY: Sunday October 27, 9am-5pm Help me prepare for the Canadian winter! No previous insulation or vapour barrier experience necessary. Its just like stuffin' a turkey. Bonfire. Genuine Hungarian Goulash. Give me a call if you are interested.
Needing to trim insulation and poly, I spent nearly two hours this week looking for my utility knife. I would have been quite happy to have found either my principal utility knife or my backup utility knife. However both were MIA, just when I needed them most. The backup utility knife was added to the toolbelt several weeks ago after similar problems 'cut' into my efficiency. Twice the number of knives, half the time knifeless, or so the logic went. I don't have this problem with other tools. Frustrated, and knifeless, I'm now the owner of a third utility knife.
Otherwise the week was fairly uneventful. The building inspector admitted he didn't see much to complain about. There was some question as to whether I should have gotten tempered glass in some of my windows. He gave each of the windows in question in good kick with his boot to make sure they wouldn't break easily. The electrical safety inspector was also happy with what he saw. I pointed out to him that the connections were wrong on one of the 3-way switches and that I hadn't gotten around to fixing it yet, and he assured me that I was free to wire 3-way circuits incorrectly if I wished and that he didn't feel it was his place to interfere. He was just there to make sure stuff was properly grounded and to code.
There is intense competition for services space. The plumber got in first and roughed in half of his stuff and then disappeared for a week. The heating guys came and did half of their job, said they'd be back tomorrow, left their stuff piled everywhere and then disappeared for a week. We did some wiring. The plumber comes back and does another third of his job. The heating guys come back and realize there are now wires and plumbing in the space they thought they might like use. There is always a way but not always a good way. Plans, we'd don't need no stinkin' plans! This all makes the general contractor on the project somewhat angry. But it will all work in the end, its how things are done.
Seems like a nice week to build a porch.
posted by Craig at 1:32 AM
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Passed electrical rough-in inspection today. I have official clearance to insulate. Odd jobs for a few days first though.
posted by Craig at 10:56 PM
Framing & plumbing inspection today. Looks like a pass, he said he'd see me next when i was insulated & vapour barriered. Elec wed.
posted by Craig at 10:06 AM
Sunday, October 13, 2002
Happy Thanksgiving. Hope everyone is enjoying turkey coma this afternoon. Finishing up wiring, Dave and Christine have me connected for voice and data now.
posted by Craig at 4:03 PM
Friday, October 11, 2002
Had the truck in for an oil change this week and to get an explanation for the clouds of coolant vapour that billow out every time I turn on the heat. Nothing serious. As well as getting my truck troubles sorted the mechanic saw me with a roll of 14-2 and said "so you're an electrician?". "Part-time". There was a time not so long ago when I wouldn't have passed for an electrician. The work boots and the loomex, I would imagine.
Dave and I are almost done wiring rough-in. We were at it today and are planning to finish up tomorrow. In the meantime I am in Kanata for steak (mooched) and a trip to O'Connors. We are bringing Christine along tomorrow to inspect progress. She'll let me know if I need lights above my mirrors in the bathroom etc. We're having a beer and Steve is whining about the smell of his beer. Sleeman is meant to be skunky, that's why it comes in a clear bottle.
posted by Craig at 10:11 PM
Tuesday, October 08, 2002
My apartment is such a mess that I've started leaving a small amount of cash near the entranceway, just so I can tell if I have been broken into. I am back after an evening of curling. A tie this evening turns my one game winning streak into a 2 game unbeaten streak. In curling, a tie confuses the issue of who buys the beer considerably, but not irreparably.
I am in town because I pulled the plug on the electrical rough-in inspection for this week. A number of factors contributed:
1) Too much wire to pull
2) Curling
3) Electrician works 11-4
4) Dave's truck died this morning so he couldn't make it
5) Plumber hasn't yet returned to finish his rough in, so I am not as close to insulation-time as I might wish
The only advice I can offer, should you ever find yourself using a slab-on-grade construction and exposed floor joists: run some conduits under the slab for the electrical. Pulling wire around the perimeter sucks. If I can reach one person with this message it makes it all worthwhile.
Nature is happening. Today was the perfect fall day. The leaves are starting to do their autumn thing and the northern lights were dancing earlier this week. Some new pics up. Could someone please put a mercury switch into a digital camera so that I needn't manually rotate images. Thank you.
posted by Craig at 11:35 PM
Monday, October 07, 2002
Electrician not accelerating wiring as much as hoped, but progressing. Wed inspection target looking unlikely, but Dave to pitch in.
posted by Craig at 11:25 PM
Saturday, October 05, 2002
Some craftsmanship has gone into this place. Rob takes pride in his carpentry. I'm not overly skilled but I'm careful. But Andy's plumbing is perfect. It will be a shame to cover it with drywall. When he cuts a hole its not more 1/16th bigger than it needs to be. He has a broom and dustpan and cleans up all his sawdust when he is done. Then there are the heating guys. They are doing a competent job, but I'd like to see a bit more attention to detail. Everytime they reach for the reciprocating saw I cringe a little. There is a level of trust required when you let people with power tools into your house.
Goal: Be ready for electrical rough in inspection on Wednesday of next week. The inspector only visits on Wednesdays. Plan: Dave and I and any help we can find do as much as we can tomorrow, Clint (a real electrician) and I carry on Monday and Tuesday as necessary.
posted by Craig at 10:53 AM
Wednesday, October 02, 2002
Soffit run II. This one is partly my own fault, somehow that makes it better. If you are interested in the details, what I really need is one length of drip, some 3/8" J and I need to exchange some red acorn screws for some red pan head screws. Didn't think so.
Perkins Farm has been a hive of activity this week. Today was a 6 truck day, which means I do less hammering and more talking than usual. Rob and the siding guys are using up materials as quickly as I can keep them in stock. The plumber, Andy, roughed in a bunch of drain piping. The heating guys are getting their stuff in. Dave started the wiring. Things are hopping.
New pics. Look for the red and galvalume building. Yes, galvalume is a color. Its the new black.
posted by Craig at 11:16 PM
Friday, September 27, 2002
I'm on my first ever soffit-run, so I brought Grandpa along just to have some experience in the truck. Grandpa never turns down a ride anywhere. He had me make up the couch for him here in the hovel and then he took my bed. Experience. Wisdom. He tells me he has only one good foot and one bad knee, both in the same leg.
Soffit is the stuff that goes under the eave and I was supposed to get the rest of mine yesterday. It didn't happen. This is JIT construction, I need that soffit. I have a couple guys with scaffold set up who would like nothing more than to put on that soffit. And I want them to put on the soffit too. So its off to the wholesaler in the morning. Construction problems have solutions, most of which involve time, money and a truck. I would yell at someone except that that rarely does any good and it would make me tense.
There is a bunch of siding on now (no photos yet). Also a septic tank and filter bed. The septic guys had a laser level to lay out the system, and I can now confirm the aphorism: shit does flow downhill.
posted by Craig at 12:07 AM
Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Celebrating the 3-1, admiring the residence. Siding application in progress. Looking quite smart, if I may say. Also septic action!
posted by Craig at 6:38 PM
Sunday, September 22, 2002
Really, framing is the best. Its gratifying work. Spike together some lumber, tilt it up, presto, a new wall. We framed most of the second floor interior partitions this week. Should be finished interior framing carpentry in a couple days, at which time plumbing, electrical and heating contractors can do their thing inside. Meanwhile, siding will be applied outside. If only my plumber would return my calls.
My friend Dave has a good handle on how to do the wiring so he and I are thinking about doing most or all of the electrical work sans electrician. I must admit, the incident with the construction power supply being wired incorrectly by an electrician and approved as such by the Electrical Safety Authority didn't impress me. I would have thought the white wire connected to the black wire would have aroused some suspicion. Anyway, Dave has spent some time reading the electrical code and has done the planning. There is a lot to know there. And me, well I think I'd like to be involved. Electrical is the first part of this project I actually know something about. When it comes to electricity, I am a double threat: I have both a small amount of household wiring experience and good theoretical understanding of how electricity works. Ok, my mastery of Maxwell's equations isn't going to be of any value whatsoever (still waiting for that to come in handy) but a 3-way switch doesn't frighten me. So pass the physics guy the pliers and look out.
posted by Craig at 3:57 AM
Friday, September 13, 2002
The only advice I can offer, should you ever be in the market for 2x6 nominal pine floor decking, is to be very specific about what you want. Just in case you are talking to someone who has no idea. You want the tongue milled to fit perfectly inside the groove. Go see George Duncan in McDonald's Corners. Don't mess around with the big companies in Pembroke and their Canadian Lumberman's Specs.
Things were delayed this week as I received a useless load of tongue and groove pine flooring, which was sent back and replaced with another batch. The second batch was somewhat less useless but still not right. Beautiful wood, but the tongues didn't fit tightly in the grooves, so there is nothing to stop one board from moving relative to surrounding boards when loaded. Squeak, squeak, squeak. The mill said they were milled to their spec and therefore correct (sounds like software developers), however the supplier did agree to take back the lumber. However it would have taken me another two weeks to get the correct stuff in, and that would have been an unexceptable delay, as it would have pushed back all interior work.
So, screw ups are the mother of invention. Some top minds in Lanark and Frontenac Counties were consulted on potential workarounds. We were using subfloor adhesive to glue down the boards and its some serious goop. Other glues drop around to ask it for advice on how to be more sticky. We figured out that a couple dabs on the loosely-fitting tongue took away the squeaks. Assuming that fixes the squeaks the only concern is that when boards shrink as they dry out further, the glue could split the wood, or the squeaking will start again. I guess we will see, cause that's what I did.
So it wasn't a great week. But we did get some soffit & fascia done and, in the end, the floor down. Had to make progress. Rust never sleeps.
posted by Craig at 11:38 PM
Screw ups are the mother of invention.
posted by Craig at 12:11 AM
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Statistics Canada just called, interupting Grandpa's & my euchre game. I am considered a 'non-agricultural operator' of Perkins Farm.
posted by Craig at 5:35 PM
Monday, September 09, 2002
I have 2020' of useless T&G pine flooring. Tongue milled too small for groove. Das ist nicht gut. Exchanging it but its a delay.
posted by Craig at 11:00 PM
Saturday, September 07, 2002
In honour of my Dad's birthday, I showered today and I'm in the city. The main excitement this week was installing windows and taping Typar. Once the Typar was taped, I was told that if I lived in Watson's Corners, I'd have a finished product. Typar is like Gore-Tex for a house: keeps rain and wind out, but allows water vapour to pass through. We taped all the pieces together with red Glasclad Tuck Tape, which is better than packing tape but not much. I'm mostly sealed up to the elements now, but I don't trust that tape to take me through the winter (this is Canada), so I want to get the siding on. I wouldn't mind subcontracting out my siding installation, if I could find someone to do it. Good contractors seem to have lots of work this fall.
The windows went in fairly uneventfully. In a macho-moment, Rob and I put in a 6'x6' picture window by ourselves. This involved lifting the window up almost above our heads. No injuries, no broken glass, but I think we might get some help for the upstairs one.
posted by Craig at 5:43 PM
Sunday, September 01, 2002
Today I did some carpentry. <1/16. Grandpa C would be impressed. No 'chainsaw carpentry' happening at the site today (for a change).
posted by Craig at 10:32 PM
Friday, August 30, 2002
The roof is on. I can tell you that granite looks very hard from 34 feet up. I am not a huge fan of heights and consequently I was fairly useless up there. I would install one screwnail for every five of Rob's. The death grip I had on the trusses cut into my productivity. Its a steel roof with a 4 in 12 pitch. The sheets of steel were 17' and 27' long and 32" wide. Gimme shelter.
posted by Craig at 10:23 AM
Sunday, August 25, 2002
The trusses are up. I cancelled the crane and we hand-bobbed the trusses up -- they weren't that heavy or even awkward, but it is a difficult place to work up there: 25' into the sky above a very hard-looking chunk of granite bedrock. Some strapping and gables to build before we put on the roof. Also need to figure out how to get the sheets of steel up there, some 27' in length. Unfortunately my Grandpa sold his block and tackle to an antique dealer last year. I want to add a block and tackle to my arsenal of simple machines.
Selection of comments regarding height of building:
'Can we stop building up now?'
As small plane flies over: 'Watch out for that plane'
I've become the ultimate mooch. Food: Grandma has been feeding me for most of the summer. Grandma's free meals are very good but can get monotonous. To mix things up a bit, I have had some success stopping by to visit people at around 5:30pm. When friends gather to barbeque, its been my observation that people almost always have extra burgers, sausages, kebabs and whatnot. I don't even bother bringing a token hot dog anymore. I'm living off the fat of the land. Accomodation: Besides the spare room chez
Grandparents, I have been taking advantage of my cottage country setting. Earlier in the summer I rented a cottage and the owners have very kindly invited me to continue using their cottage from time to time. This weekend I am pet sitting at my uncle's cottage, where I have been given run of the fridge. I will need to throw a very large thank you party at some point.
posted by Craig at 1:36 PM
Thursday, August 22, 2002
Grandpa is waiting out in the truck so I better keep this short. He always rides shotgun. The rain and the need for some cash (large bills) has brought me to town. Since the library is open, here I am online.
Framing on the second floor exterior walls is complete and we started placing the trusses this morning. It's tall. I don't like heights but I am getting over it.
The issue with the window that is too tall for its space was resolved this week in framing. Not quite the way I wanted it, but resolved. I will end up having a bit of a window well in the studio down into the in-between-floor. All the other solutions where too difficult or too expense at this stage in the game, or were going to expose me to building code risk.
We should have the trusses up and strapped tomorrow, roof on early next week.
posted by Craig at 4:34 PM
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
We are up into the clouds now. Second floor framing in progress.
posted by Craig at 8:50 PM
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Ok, I’m online and I have some updates for you. My apologies for the delay on these, dear reader. It would be wonderful if the information superhighway went all the way to my grandparents’ telephone, but alas. My grandparents have been renting the same rotary dial telephone from Bell for $2/month since 1974, which is outrageous, but they can’t change anything or their $7/month connection fee will increase. These are the benefits and drawbacks of being the last surviving member of the neighborhood party line. Grandpa put the ‘grandfather’ in ‘grandfather clause’.
About the house, it’s all happening: slab, walls, sweat.
The slab looks great. I have grown quite fond of concrete. So fluid and paradoxically so permanent. The father of a friend of mine has recently retired and is slowly phasing out lawn and replacing it with concrete. Now I understand.
The day after the slab day we started framing. I’m now working with a carpenter, Rob. Since I don’t really know what I am doing and he does this is a positive development.
On Rob’s second day on the job site, a rag tag crew of friends showed up to hammer some nails. As many as six of us were busy nailing and assembling as Rob orchestrated. We got most of the walls up that day and then celebrated at a nearby cottage. It was a good day, both in terms of progress and time spent with friends. Afterwards Rob commented that my friend Rob C. seemed the most experienced of the crew. I am not sure if this is because of the skill he displayed or the fact that he kept talking about his tool belt and was doing some “Lee Valley” name-dropping.
Floor joists are now in place. After tieing some loose ends, second floor walls are next then roof. Check out the pics.
posted by Craig at 10:59 PM
Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Yes, it is hot enough for me. Input: 4 litres of water. Output: <0.5 litres (estimate). Framing is progressing. Details demain.
posted by Craig at 11:02 PM
Friday, August 09, 2002
The boss gave me the afternoon off so I'm on the way to the lake. Happy to report first floor exterior walls are up.
posted by Craig at 1:03 PM
Wednesday, August 07, 2002
Slab is done and today we started framing. One wall tilted up this morning.
posted by Craig at 12:52 PM
Saturday, August 03, 2002
There was some more slinging of stone this week, mostly human powered. Eventually the foundation was full,
and the stone was then leveled and covered with styrofoam insulation and a vapour barrier. Next the
tubing for the radiant floor heating system was laid. A radiant floor heating system is just like a McDLT: its critical that the hot side stays hot and the cool side stays cool. As with the McDLT, styrofoam is the great enabler of this thermal juxtaposition.
It was a tough week for working outside. Cloudy days, cool weather, sign me up.
I was ready to do the slab Thursday morning but there was a general consensus to postpone the pour. Bad things can happen to good slabs in hot weather. I’d like a smooth, level surface so I am in a holding pattern waiting for some more reasonable temperatures. As Grandpa says: its better to be wise than otherwise. Maybe Tuesday morning. Once the slab is done we can start framing, at which time progress will become dramatic, I am lead to believe.
Observation: the radio in my truck actually works better when it is tuned to a country music station. I can’t explain the physics of this. All the speakers start working, the signal comes through clear and the sound is crisp. The circuits seem to like those hurtin’ frequencies.
posted by Craig at 2:13 AM
Saturday, July 27, 2002
I now have concrete walls on a rock, mostly filled in with crushed stone. The Super Stone Slinger didn't quite live up to its name. Stone Slinger, yes, that would be appropriate. There was stone and there was slinging. But the 'Super' implies a slinging capacity exceeding what I saw. The stone was slung into piles at which point the shovel and wheelbarrow saw some considerable action. 6 loads of stone == a lot of shovelling. Some new photos up.
This week there was a problem with a window being a bit bigger than it ought to be, but we've come up with a strategy I can live with. As compared with building software, house building issues can be equally difficult/expensive to resolve, the difference is that with software, often only the developer ever knows about the issue. A house is a highly componentized system developed by a large team. Changes to the characteristics of a component can impact lots of other components and people.
I had great help this week. Dave, Erika and Cheryl helped tear off the formwork on Sunday. Shona stopped by to cut some forming ties on Thursday. Alan was solid again, agreeing to an early start after a late night, in order to move around a 335 lb Wacker packer and 150 tons of crushed rock, get soaked in a thunderstorm and get a speeding ticket.
Next week: level crushed stone, lay sub-slab insulation, rough in sub-slab plumbing, radiant floor tubing installation, pour slab.
posted by Craig at 3:59 PM
Thursday, July 25, 2002
Crisitunity ~ I'm told that in japanese the words for 'crisis' and 'opportunity' are the same. Too tall window. Erika help!!
posted by Craig at 8:19 PM
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
'Well, we'll go to bed and to hell with it. The sun'll come up tomorrow and we'll go again.' ~ Grandpa's words of wisdom
posted by Craig at 9:28 PM
Friday, July 19, 2002
There are some new photos up, many featuring forms and concrete from various angles. If that doesn't increase traffic I don't know what will.
Concrete was poured yesterday. There is no turning back now. I'd say it was a success, although I won't really know until I put on the sill plates. Alan's advice: if you don't know how it should look, you might as well say is looks great, until someone tells you otherwise.
I suck at estimating how long it will take to do things I've never done before. I scheduled myself too tightly and it was a bit of a manic effort leading up to arrival of the concrete. Dad came up on Wednesday and worked with me all day to save my bacon. It took a while to get all the rebar in and to add bracing and other finishing touches. Building inspector came to have a look and the crane got itself positioned. Thursday 8am the concrete truck arrived. It went like this: load 0.5 cu yd of concrete from cement mixer into cement bucket on end of crane. Crane operator positions bucket over formwork. Dad, Alan and I dumped the concrete into the forms and then hammered, hoed and poked to work air pockets out of concrete. At the end we screeded off and stuck anchor bolts in. The only complication was my innovation that was intended to permit concealed insulation between the slab (hot) and exterior walls (cold). The blocks were difficult to get in and tended to float up, making it difficult to get a flat surface on top. Its kinda tough to prototype these things.
It took about 16 cu yds of concrete, two truck loads. The forms didn't budge. The forms were certainly the biggest thing I have ever built and now I get to tear them apart. Anyway, done. After this, its all textbook wood frame constuction. The only advice I can offer, should you choose to build on a difficult building site: expect to spend some time on the foundation.
posted by Craig at 11:26 AM
Monday, July 15, 2002
I know there are some problems with the formatting of this website at present -- I may get those fixed later in the week, and maybe I'll get some new pictures up. How exciting. I'll have some time once the concrete is poured and is curing. Some people have requested it, so there is a place to add comments now, should you want to do that. TTYL
posted by Craig at 12:42 PM
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
My uncle says that when you build in billy goat country, when you get the foundation done half the work is done. Hope so.
posted by Craig at 2:37 AM
Friday, July 05, 2002
Its been so hot (35 deg +) that I've been on Mexican time most of this week. Start work at 5:30am (hard to believe I know), quit for lunch, siesta until 5pm and back at it for the evening. Its quite a change -- when I'm in the office the weather so incidental that I hardly pay attention to the forecast through the week.
Welcome to the grid. I've got the juice hooked up now, so I'm making the move out of the hand tool into the power tool era. More power, bring it on. Of course, they hooked it up wrong originally -- if you ever want to know what happens when you deliver 240V to a 120V receptical just ask.
posted by Craig at 1:27 PM
Wednesday, July 03, 2002
I'm off to a slow start. I am sitting here sweating instead of working.
My participation in Canada Day celebrations was required, but now its
time for the work to begin.
BTW: I had both my cell phone number of cell phone email address wrong
on a previous version of the contact page. Thanks to Dave for QAing
this for me.
posted by Craig at 12:09 AM
Saturday, June 22, 2002
Hard Learned Lesson 1 (HLL1): When a job seems impossible, you need to get a better tool. Today’s better tool was a rented laser level on a tripod that made leveling the formwork a breeze. It was super duper. I am finally winning this battle. Things are becoming relatively square, plumb, level, straight.
Updates: The static level on the well is 10 ft – so its 155 feet deep, but the water we hit has filled up the drilled well to within 10 ft of the top. So I’ve got me a 200 gallons of drinking water just chillin’, subterranean style. I gather from the well driller’s comments that this is quite exceptional and that I should be very happy about this, perhaps even proud of my static level. A good bit of news indeed, because a neighbour was telling me I was the talk of the village last evening – word on the backroad has it that I had to go deeper than 200 feet. Were really cool, I’d have 10 gpm of great water at 60 feet, but at least with a 10 ft static level my 150 ft well won’t sound too bad.
I hope the water tastes good. The vibe is right. I cut myself a switch and divined the well location myself last fall, a rare opportunity to use that skill passed along from my grandfather. Not being extremely confident that I have “the gift”, I thought it prudent to also let the community’s well-witcher have a go at it. The ground reached up and grabbed his switch in the same place it did mine, and so the spot was marked. Of course, when switching a well, the standard proviso always applies: I know there is water down there, I just can’t say how far down.
posted by Craig at 10:00 PM
Monday, June 17, 2002
I'm back at the hovel, on glass two of Hunter Valley Semillion. A load of whites is spinning downstairs. Friends have been contacted, city life is back on track. The well is drilled, at 3.5 gallons per minute I won't be able to do a lot of lawn watering, so there, its settled, no lawn.
Schedule slip 1: Talked to my carpenter and he is happy to start two weeks later than originally discussed. Its taking me longer than usual to move this project from the abstract to the concrete.
posted by Craig at 9:43 PM
Sunday, June 16, 2002
I’m knackered. This weekend pretty much sucked. So much rain, I thought about building an ark instead. My dad and I made some good progress on the forms on Friday. Saturday was rained out. Sunday I worked through the rain, I guess it was worth it. The party people have been in bed for an hour. They don’t see any reason to wait for the sun to go down before going to bed.
Drilling a well is like a trip the casino, with less potential upside. We’re down 140 feet and not much water. That’s starting to get pretty deep. I am paying by the foot. Monday they are going to send down a surge. A “surge” is not a extremely skinny French-Canadian, its water under pressure with the goal of opening up any cracks to increase the flow. If that doesn’t work, we keep going towards Australia.
posted by Craig at 9:29 PM
Saturday, June 15, 2002
Im bored for the first time weeks. Its quite a luxury really. Of course i could be out pounding nails in the rain, but its a miserable day. Instead I'm hangin with the party people. Drawing on my yoga and curling background, I am entertaining G&G by doing a variation on the tree pose that involves balancing Grandpa's cane on the free foot. Fun stuff.
posted by Craig at 1:19 PM
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
Holy moly, PTL. I'm holding a Bathurst Twp Building Permit. There are a few unresolved issues to be worked out by various stages of the project, but basically I good to go. Giddy up.
posted by Craig at 10:48 PM
Sunday, June 09, 2002
I'm right smack dab in the middle of building the forms for the concrete. The concept is easy enough – make the walls the right length, make it square, level, and plumb – but its testing my abilities. Partly I am just nervous I will screw it up, I mean, it’s the foundation for the whole place, it kind of needs to be right. My uncle got me started on the right track, but I'm not sure I'm still headed the right direction. I've already gotten help with this one from a bunch of friends. Hopefully my Dad and I can get it all back on track this week.
posted by Craig at 10:43 PM
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Here it begins. Today was a milestone. I bought myself a truck and submitted my building permit application. The truck is a Chevy Wrangler. State of the art, 1986. Fully loaded, heavy-duty suspension, V8 with four barrel carb. No rust, perfect. It’s like stepping back in time. Men who appreciate trucks and chicks that wear acid wash really dig it. Owning such a fine machine gets me a small amount of rural cred. And it gives me the carrying capacity I need.
Dropped off building permit application. Was not able to meet with Chief Building Officer, but will see him next week. Planning phase is basically complete. It’s been a long haul. I first wrote down my ideas for the place last July. Got the final drawings from Erika last night (midway through Toronto’s crushing defeat of Ottawa in Game 7,ouch). I look at the drawings and I think: “this is going to be great”.
posted by Craig at 10:36 PM
