A look at a week of building.

We are, unfortunately, only able to see the work in person on the weekend.  It would be nice to be around when the work is happening, to see the place taking shape.

We took a drive up on Nov.5, excited to see the progress.  Amazing to see walls, where for so long there was just a big cement pad!  The weather has been great, co-operating with our building schedule.  Some years, there would be snow long before the beginning of November.

Iain and I took a walk around the interior.  With walls, the space seems very small, but I keep reminding myself that it is actually larger than the old cottage, and we will have enough room!

This is the last view of the sky we expect to have from here for a long, long time!  The roof is to go on next week, though there was a hiccup in the delivery of the trusses.  Dan is making hay while the sun shines, and expects that once the trusses arrive he'll get the roof on quickly. 

There's going to be plenty of insulation in this baby.  Styrofoam on the outside, fibreglass in the walls.  R36 in the walls and R40 in the ceiling.  I like to be warm!



The building is going up!

November 1, and building is beginning! Dan and his help show up bright and early (long before this first photo is taken, but that's when the camera has enough light to work).

They get to work right away, setting up a workstation and discussing their work.

In no time at all, the east wall is up!

The second wall is up by day's end.

Day two, and the south facing wall is up by 9:33 a.m.!  Two of the windows are incorrect, but Myles snapped some photos when he was up, working on his shed project, and we were able to get Dan to change them the next day.

Mid-day, and the last wall has been raised already.

By the end of day two, the interior walls are going up.

Day three:  Dan has changed the window in the living room to the large one we had requested, and also the one in the dining room.  Here, the chipboard is starting to go on.

Styrofoam insulation for the exterior; we intend to be warm, in this building!

Applying the strapping.

And the peak above the front living room window is up!

October slips by

October was the month our cottage was supposed to be built.  Sadly, it didn't turn out that way.  Dan the builder man got held up at another job and couldn't get to our place.  So, it was a quiet month.  Here's what happened:

Susan and Mark, our plumbers, finished up connections to the septic.

Iain filled in some holes while I shot pics for the panorama (which I posted on Nov.13 in this blog).

Carl and Iain pulled wire.

The wire-pulling got messy: the conduit had collapsed.  After much digging and making repair efforts, it was decided that a heavy duty cable that doesn't require conduit would do the trick.

And that was pretty much it, for October.   Dan started building on November 1:  that's the next installment.

Something I am so happy to see!

Onyx and Snaps curled up together on the couch.  Snaps has finally weaseled his way into Onyx's affections!

If you want a gander at our view...

Go to this address and open the Quicktime VR movie there.

QTVR from the cement pad

It's a panoramic view I took from the centre of the cottage pad in early October.  It is unfortunately full of watermarks because I used a free version of the software to create it, but you still can get a sense of why we love it there!  I am hoping it will work for you.

My thanks to Jayme for telling me what I needed to do!

And still more septic!

This is what the weeping tile looks at, sitting comfortably on its bed of sand.  I wish I could have been there to watch all of this!

Weeping tile.  It isn't really sad.

Not sure what this is, but it goes into the septic tank.  This is probably the spot where  you are supposed to insert the dead animal (I am not kidding, we were told that's the best way to get the bacteria going in your tank; we aren't doing it).  A skunk was suggested, or perhaps a well-aged groundhog.   Blech!

Once they're done layering sand and stuff, it all gets covered up again, nice and neat.  No heavy vehicles are allowed on it now.  An ATV is okay, though.

And that's all I've got to say about that.

Last week of September - septic time :)

Lots more digging and filling in:  first off, the trench for the hydro feed.

Iain is supervising, natch.

Ralph's fine touch with the backhoe.

 Once the trench was dug, we had to constantly remind ourselves it was there, especially when wandering home from Dodie and Myle's place, in the dark.

Iain had to dig some bits by hand, as the area was too delicate for Ralph to attempt with the backhoe.  Here, he is working on the water line trench.  We ended up only going part way with it, as it seemed best to not hook everything up, only to have it freeze.

 Septic systems are necessary, but how many of us get a close look at them?  Well, this is the time, before it gets all nasty and smelly.  Just a few pics to give you the basic idea of what was happening;

The big white box on the upper left is the tank, being craned into place.  Ralph has made a nice deep hole for it.

An area had to be excavated for the weeping tile.

Hard at work to fill things in.

I have a few more pics, and I'm going to post them, too.  That's up next.

The second week of September, wherein not a whole lot happens

...but we have pictures of it!

The cement was covered for almost a week, as it cured.  I was amazed by the amount of heat it gave off the first day or two.  At first, it was almost too warm for you to comfortably lay your hand on it for any length of time.

All covered up, wet and warm.

Neighbours watered it when we weren't there, and then Mother Nature took over and kept it damp for a few days more.

Not quite a week later, it was time for the forms to be removed.

We picked up the tarps and disassembled them.

And then, nothing happened for a while.  Iain pieced together some conduit for the hydro feed, but there was nothing more to do with it right away. 

My funny cousins decided to liven things up a bit!

Finally, on the 23rd, Ralph came back with the backhoe and did more digging.  This was to expose the foundation sides so we could apply styrofoam.  This is to keep the frost from getting under the foundation and freezing our toesies when it gets cold (at least, I think that's what it's for).

A bit of catch-up blogging...

Mom's birthday was on September 3.  She turned 94!  Just a few pics from that day.

Here she is with our little cousins Taylor and Hope.

With our niece Janet.  It was a very tiring day for Mom, but she had a good time.

Finally, the foundation!

At the end of August we were finally ready for the foundation to be poured!

Iain and I stitched together tarps, so we'd have them ready to lay over the cement as it cured.  Keeping it protected from direct sun, and keeping it wet, makes it cure better!

The first truck arrives, and the cement is wheelbarrowed into place.

This looks like hard work!



Wonderful to have family around to help out, since Iain and I couldn't be there.  My cousin Leon has experience with cement-laying, and kept an eye on things.

The finished floor; doesn't it look gorgeous?  And our little cousin Hope put a 2011 penny in, to christen it!