Turn your back for a day or two and things really start taking off. The windows arrived a few days late and the first couple seemed to take an eternity to install while the builder worked out the hiccups. We were watching the feed when the windows and doors arrived, just by chance, and I was thanking Jeff (for about the millionth time) for having the forethought to set up the camera on the shed. He has since put a second camera on one of the garden posts so we can look at the house from two different perspectives. A very nice add, and once again, so grateful to be able to watch the progress from my desktop some days.
We now have all but one window installed. There was a mishap at the manufacturer and our biggest window, the view window that will go on the front of the house, broke before it left their warehouse. Lucky for us, they were able to get another one on the way relatively quickly, but it would be delayed a week (or has it been two?). The rest of the windows made it in, albeit slowly, and the crew has plenty else to do to keep them busy.
A make-shift shelter was set up to start working on the porch posts. The rough 8x8s were delivered a bit dirty and needed to be planed and sanded before they could be installed. They are truly beautiful though and I can’t wait to see how the porch turns out.
We have been working through our fix on the bathroom orientation upstairs, electing to make better use of the space next to the girls bathroom to put in a second stacking washer unit. We already get backed up quite regularly at the washing machine, AND the though of having all of our laundry chaos taking over the mudroom is pushing us to at least plumb the upstairs for a second set. We’ve reconfigured the bathroom and water closet to move the linen into the bathroom and create a space for the laundry in between. A much smarter design in the end, but its taking a bit of time to work it out.
At least we are making progress on the plumbing in general though, having finalized all but the shower pans and getting that order started with the suppliers. Super happy with most of our choices there, but like many things, I (we) are having to decide to accept a lower cost item instead of what we really want. A good example is the premium that you pay for different finishes on fixtures. We quickly discovered that we could afford the style and level of quality we wanted for the fixtures, but the finish was going to another level and we had to be ok with chrome.
We’ve also looked at our flooring again, and have an appointment to see the cabinet maker in Calgary in a couple of weeks to get a look the stain samples. We will hopefully have both the floor and cabinet colors chosen by the end of that visit. Fingers crossed. We have a starting point at least, with the shades picked…just need to match up the stains! (the darker color is our cabinet stain and the lighter color is the floor. Red for the door (a nod to Nana) and black is for the window frames and roof color which is a mix of metal on the covered porch roof and shingle for the main roof. The paint sample is for the exterior and window trim.
Back to the porch! The crew has busied themselves with preparations for installation of the porch posts while we waited for the last one to arrive. The hardware for under the posts came and was installed, and once the sanding was done, the posts could go up. To keep them from being damaged or muddied (we are definitely nearing “mud” season) they have been wrapped so we won’t see how it really looks until the posts can be revealed. Jeff has a chunk of wood to play with though and we’ll be testing out stains to see what looks the best on the fir.
Our last and very large and heavy window did finally arrive and is currently under a tarp at the front of the house waiting for install. Our builder has sourced some equipment to make sure it can be lifted and placed with as little risk to his crew and the window as possible, the working theory being that it is oversized enough that even the manufacturer had difficulty handling it. I learned something this week…many manufacturers choose to do on-site glazing for large windows to reduce the weight (and risk!) of installation errors. Hmmm….I can see why. A tense moment with the equipment continuing to alarm (signaling that the battery for the suction cups on the lift might be low) meant we are further delayed on the install of that window. They have decided to leave it out while they prep the main floor for the concrete pour expected to happen next week. From what I hear though, our weather is due to get a bit cold. Here’s hoping we don’t see more delays there. The plan is to be able to start with the sub-trades at the beginning of April.
We’ve had some discussion with the engineer about the cathedral roof on the kitchen side because some of the iron work is proving to be difficult to install. There are tension bars that affix to the beams that are supposed to go through the beams and we were hoping to have them go on either side of the beams. Not so…more work to be done there as we (Jeff and Adam) try to solve the problem of how to install the iron work without making it look like a hatchet job.
As spring nears we are looking to get on with installing some of the water lines. Jeff is busy looking and relooking at all of the things that need to be in the floor before the pour next week and I am doing my best to support at this point. My work will come once they get to the finishing parts and at the moment I feel mostly useless. I’m sure Jeff wishes I was a bit better on the construction side of things.