The Finished Product

Here are a few photos of the house and garage.  Still have some final landscaping to do but the house and garage are essentially complete.

We love living in the country.  It is so peaceful.  We moved into the house on October 11th (my 50th birthday).

Front of the house

View from the road

Front drive to garage

Back deck with fireplace and BBQ as well as screen room

Back of the house and back yard

A Slow June and July

Well, it has been some time since I updated this blog.  It has been a wet June and July and progress on the house has been slower than expected.  We had hoped to be considering a move into the house by end of July, but alas, it was not to be.

Despite the poor construction weather, there still has been significant progress.  The house was completely framed and the shingles now adorn the roof at Fuller-Heit's.  A small little building, called a garage, has emerged from nowhere to nestle beside the house.  Sandy thinks the garage really looks cute.

The windows and doors have been installed.  The windows came from Sandy's former employer (who shall remain unnamed because they were too cheap to pay her what she is worth; no free advertisement here!!).  The windows are triple pane with high energy efficiency.

Drywalling has now been completed.  Sandy and I hurriedly installed our speaker wires in the living room before the drywall installer showed up so we could make sure our home theatre system could be easily connected without wires laying around everywhere (I didn't think wires laying along the floor and wall were a bad thing...apparently that is considered anathema by my darling wife).  So a wall plate with connectors are in place so all the speakers can be connected to the wires so well hidden within the walls behind the drywall.  Sandy is very pleased (happy wife, happy life).

All the electrical and plumbing rough-ins as well as cut-outs for the heating system have been completed.  There are rumours that the basement pad and garage pad will be poured tomorrow.   That is quite exciting for us.  Also, the stinky tank (i.e. sewage holding tank) and cistern are supposed to be installed and connected to the house in the next week.  Power and gas should be installed shortly as well.

We are keen to get out to Fuller-Heit's this weekend to see the progress this week.  I will try to do a better job of updating this blog as the build continues.

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Take care,

Les and Sandy

Windows are starting to go in.  Here you can see the window in my library and the entrance arch to the front door.
 

The roofers are starting to prepare the roof for shingling.  All the windows are now in place.

More progress on the roof.  The vegetation in front of the house provides a good privacy screen.

Yay!!  The roof is complete and the house is really taking shape.

The drywall installer has been busy at work.  Here you can see the view into my library.  The frame is for a gas fireplace.  I will have custom bookcases built on either side of the fireplace.

This picture shows the living room with the door to the screen room on the deck.  The big window looks out onto the forest in the backyard with a SW exposure.  You can just make out part of the kitchen on the right.

View from the Master bedroom through the wall to the living room.
 

Front view of the house.

Here is the garage with matching peak.

 

Things Are Looking Up At Fuller-Heit's

Here are a few pictures of the roof going on the house.  We are quite pleased with the roof line and how it looks.

The house seems to snuggle into the forest...so very cozy.

We are off to Fuller-Heit's in a few minutes for the weekend so this post is short and sweet.  We can hardly wait to see what has happened this week.

Les and Sandy

End of April

It has been a while since I have updated this blog.  A lot has happened since the last posting.

The floor joists showed up one day in early April and before we knew it they were installed with the main beams to support the sub-floor.  After the sub-floor was completed the weeping tile were installed around the outside perimeter of the basement.  Drains for window wells were also installed at the same time.  Soon after that the framers started to build and erect the exterior walls.  Backfilling of soil around the basement has also been completed.  The roof is supposed to go on this week.

Here are some pictures showing the progress to date.

Here is a photo of the tile drain along the outside of the basement foundation.

The basement windows will have window wells.  The vertical tile drain facilitates drainage from the window well.

View of the NW corner of the house.  The corner windows by the big tree is where the kitchen will be.

Here I am standing in my library at the front of the house.

Exterior walls are up.  Backfilling in progress.

I also bought a new macro lens for my camera.  I went out to Fuller Heits yesterday to take some pictures hoping to find some signs of life in the forest.  Well I ended up fascinated with the lichens on the poplars.  Here are some photos of the lichens with my new lens.

I also was able to take a few pictures of the mosses growing on the forest floor.

This little guy (or gal?) was quite perturbed at me for taking his picture.  He just wanted to be left alone.

The snow pack has largely melted in the forest now.  It seems the forest is ready to spring to life any day now as it wakes from its long winter slumber.

Hopefully we will see the roof framed this week.  Stay tuned.

Les and Sandy

Foundation poured

April 1st, 2013

Yay....the basement foundation was poured this morning (no fooling).  I was able to catch the last cement truck and the cement boom as they were just finishing up the final touches on the pour.  Now the "lego" blocks are full of cement.  The site superintendent said that the cement will be "rock hard" by tomorrow.

The floor joists are supposed to come tomorrow.  Weeping tiles still have to be installed and the utility services installed (power, gas, phone, cistern and septic).  Then the backfilling and grading can begin.  I can hardly wait for the piles of soil to be removed as they are used for backfill and grading.

It was a beautiful Easter weekend out at FullerHeits.  A flock of common redpolls showed up to help clean up the birdseed spilled by the black-capped chickadees.  It is so relaxing to sit in the lawn chair with the sun shining on my face and watching the little birds argue over who gets the best sunflower seed.

Here are some more photos.  Enjoy.

The basement ICF forms are now ready for the pour.  The basement is six ICF blocks high from the footing.

The ICF forms full of cement.

The boom truck reaches to the farthest point to fill the forms with cement.

Common Redpoll visiting FullerHeits

 

Common Redpoll checking for more fallen seed.

Black-capped Chickadee taking off with a sunflower seed.

Well thats it for now.

Take care,

Les and Sandy

The Lego Basement

We went out to the acreage to see if there was any progress since our last visit.  The weather here has been terrible as winter tries to maintain its hold on us.  Tons of snow and cold temperatures over the last week left us feeling that any progress from our last visit was unlikely.  However, much to our surprise, as we drove up to the lot, we saw that there had been activity.  We were shocked to see the "lego basement" walls up and the footings poured.

A traditional cement basement is constructed by cribbers who use plywood to create a form within which cement is poured for the basement walls.  Once the concrete has set the plywood forms are removed leaving the concrete walls on top of the concrete footings.  We chose to build an ICF basement after discussing the benefits of this approach with the president of Green Living Homes, Arnie Gable.  Arnie has been a joy to work with and really makes us feel that he wants to build us a beautiful house.

An ICF basement (Insulated Concrete Forms) consist of blocks of styrofoam that are hollow in the middle.  The block is held together with plastic struts.  See picture below.

The blocks are stacked one on top the other to form a wall on top of the footings.  Rebar is laid in the hollow and rests on the plastic struts.  Once the lego wall is completed then the cement can be poured into the hollow space in the wall.

Once the cement sets, the styrofoam is left in place to provide a well insulated basement that is supposed to be much warmer than the traditional cement basement.  

The cement still remains to be poured in the lego walls but we suspect that will happen any day now.  Here are some pictures of the finished lego basement.

Well that is all for now.  Needless to say, today was an exciting day!!  Stay tuned for more updates.

Les and Sandy