November

Thursday, 1 November --- Video: MPEG

Another month has begun. I've named this month `stuff' because I don't really know what else to call it. Here goes:

Monday night -- it rained. Just like it was supposed to. It passed fairly quickly though and was mostly sunny Tuesday. I talked to the Derek on Tuesday about the concrete pour -- yep, it was going to happen rain or shine. Obviously the concrete wasn't going to be adversely affected by the rain, but the slab could pit & we wouldn't want that, so...they erected a sort of tent to keep the rain out.

The heating guy should be out & about soon.

The front deck started going up today.

We made one tiny little change that turned out to be quite a bit more work than I expected : in the downstairs bathroom we were going to have a tub/shower combination. We decided on just putting a shower in. No problem, right? Well, apparently a tub only needs a 1 1/2'' drain, while a shower needs a 2'' drain (why? I don't know). This necessitated cutting into the slab & replacing the drain. Luckily only about 2' of the slab had to be cut. Had we known, we probably would have kept the tub.

Friday, 2 November --- Video: MPEG

Monday, 5 November --- Video: MPEG

Tuesday, 6 November --- Video: MPEG

Wednesday, 7 November --- Video: MPEG

Thursday, 8 November --- Video: MPEG

We've window's! I went out to talk to the heating guy about the zones we want (we're to have three zones). He already knew about them & walked me through the house showing me the register, thermostat, and return locations. He also walked me around the outside to show me the gutters & downspout locations. I hadn't really thought about downspouts.

Our windows were also delivered and were being moved to their final locations for installation. These windows look a lot better than the ones we saw in the showroom. They're double paned, aluminum outside & wood inside. Looks like we're going to have to replace the locks though. Easy enough.

Finally, I talked with Derek (``Don't worry, we've a plan'') about the plan. We're waiting for the retaining wall to be built in front of the house so we can get the driveway & remainder of the lot work done (driveway, etc.). With the windows in it looks like they might be ready to button up the house soon, which means we can move on to the electrical rough in.

Friday, 9 November --- Video: MPEG

Saturday, 10 November --- Video: MPEG

Sunday, 11 November --- Video: MPEG

Monday, 12 November --- Video: MPEG

Rain, rain and lot's o' rain. This is our first storm of the season and it looks to be dumping at least an inch or so. It looks like they were going to start the front retaining wall today.

Lynn talked to Derek about moving the heating vents in the kids' rooms. Currently they're located directly under where we plan to put the beds.

Tuesday, 13 November --- Video: MPEG

The front retaining wall went in. The vanity sign's back also. I've been wondering if it would return soon.

Wednesday, 14 November --- Video: MPEG

Thursday, 15 November --- Video: MPEG

Went out to the lot today. This was supposed to be a very short meeting. Mostly we wanted the shower heads 6'' about higher than they are. I'm tired of kneeling to wash my hair! Here's what happened:

Derek had questions & comments:

What are we going to do about the hole where the downstairs fireplace was to go?: Leave it open. We'll put in a bookcase or bar or something.
We can't put in a drip-pan under the refrigerator, otherwise the refrigerator can't be slid into place.: 'kay
Did we know that we were supposed to meet the electrician on Monday morning?: No.
How far off of the floor do we want the washer/dryer raised?: We'd like 12''. We're putting a stackable washer & dryer in the upstairs hallway & need a place for soap, bleach, & other washer/dryer type stuff.
What make & model washer & dryer, kitchen hood, stove are we going to use?: We'll get back to you.

We also mentioned to him we're raising the floor in the kids' closets. The plan says this, but doesn't give minor details like how high. We're going to put drawers here.

Finally, Dave showed up & he & Derek talked about the new stairs that we want on the deck. They must to be drawn by the architect & passed by the structural engineer. Who knew? They're only stairs!

We also talked with Aaron about the driveway, manhole & fences. Everything is coming along. We're thinking about tinting the driveway roughly the same colour of the original (see here). This might be outrageously expensive, but we'll look into it. He also noted that the carport & garage are already plain concrete and adding a reddish driveway might look rather odd.

We also talked to him about the walkway (there's a 4' walkway that runs along the front of the house). We were thinking pavers. Again, he pointed out that now we have a lot of different textures working & it might not look very good. He suggested putting the same tile that we're using on the deck. Duh! That's why we have professionals.

Bob from CW excavation is back!

What's happening inside? Looks like the fire sprinklers are almost done, all of the windows that have arrived are in (we're waiting on the front windows), and the heating vents are mostly done. Once the remainder of the windows come in, the house can be sealed & stucco'd and a bunch more work can be done.

Friday, 16 November --- Video: MPEG

Saturday, 17 November --- Video: MPEG

Sunday, 18 November --- Video: MPEG

Today we took the plans over to the house & walked through it to make sure the electric layout was correct. Good thing too because we found loads of problems, some relatively minor and some rather major. I gave up my copy to the contractor, but here's what I remember:

downstairs
- no light in the entry area
- no lights over the carport
- we want a ceiling fan in the family room
- we want a fan in the bathroom
- numerous phone/data outlets
upstairs
- lights & outlets on each post on the deck
- outlets in the eaves for Christmas lights (with a switch in the garage).
- various outlets on the living room floor
- a chandelier over the staircase. The ceiling over the staircase looks to be about 15 - 20' tall.
- moved the switches in the master bedroom. since we changed the swing of the door, the switches ended up behind the door.
- This was weird: the dining room had a three-way switch, one at the arch to the living room, and one next to the hallway, maybe 15' away. The hallway also had two three-way switches, one on each end. So, to get to the bedrooms one had to turn on the dining room light, cross the dining room, turn on the hall light & turn off the dining room light. We removed the 3-way dining room switch by the hall & moved the 3-way switch for the hall into the dining room.

Monday, 19 November --- Video: MPEG

Tuesday, 20 November --- Video: MPEG

Wednesday, 21 November --- Video: MPEG

Monday, 26 November --- Video: MPEG

The weekend is over & power is restored! Due to a storm that swept through bringing high winds & rain, the power failed to the camera on Saturday morning and wasn't restored until about Midnight this morning. Big thanks to Alex for turning everything back on. There was only a small pocket of houses that lost power, and his was one of the lucky ones.

Last week the drainage system was put in. I'll try to get a diagram up soon. Basically, it starts on the north side of the house, wraps around the east side (opposite the camera), and ends at the Elk St. side of the driveway. It consists of four or five large drains to which the downspouts connect and are also left open for misc. water to go down, connected by 4'' pipes to a drain directly in front of the sump pump and to which the sump pump pumps (how much sump can a sump pump pump?). After that, everything is taken by a 6'' pipe down the middle of the driveway to large drain which takes all of the water to Elk St.

Here's where it gets kind of funny: everything was connected before the storm except the last little bit from the final drain to Elk St. To prevent problems, a sump pump was put into this final drain. This no doubt would have worked wonders had the power not gone out!

Big kudo's to Derek who came out every day including Thanksgiving to make sure there weren't any problems!

The stairs have hit yet another snag. Ken started working on them and apparently they don't fit quite as neatly as we had hoped. As drawn, they actually extend into the driveway. Back to the drawing board.

Tuesday, 27 November --- Video: MPEG

Wednesday, 28 November --- Video: MPEG

You'd think by now I wouldn't be surprised, but I am. The next part of the driveway was to be poured today, but the city now claims that the drainplan doesn't work, or something was installed incorrectly, or the drainpipe broke. They want a letter from Mike Beautz (the civil engineer) that says the drain plan he designed will work. Of course, the city did OK it, that's the whole point of the building permit, yes? So, now we must get ahold Mike before we proceed.

On a happier note, I met Kevin the electrician and we went over the electric plan. There are only a few things to note about it:

We want to one day be able to put in a whole-house generator. This seemed easy enough, and luckily it is, though not quite as easy as we would have expected (though, oddly enough, we're not really surprised by this).
The electricity enters the house at the north-west corner (upper left in the plan). The generator would most likely go on the slab (upper right in the plan). We need a cutoff box next to the generator. I foolishly suggested moving the place where the electricity enters. This would actually be more expensive because the utility company would have to dig the trench. Damn! So instead, the wires will be run from where the electricity enters the house, over to the cutoff panel, and the house will be powered from there. Estimated cost: $3,000.
Upstairs we need a sub-panel. We assumed it would be in the master closet. Surprise! The code no longer allows these panels in closets. There's no other logical place for it, so it will be in the center of the wall at the end of the hallway. We'll be hanging a picture there.
We foolishly wanted outlets in the master and children's bathroom. There's yet another law that an outlet cannot be within 5' of a bathtub. Must make sure stupid people don't dry their hair in the tub or somesuch. For the children's room, that's not a problem. Their vanity has plenty of room for outlets. For our bathroom, it's a bit more hairy. It seems the only outlet we get is on the left side of the vanity. What's the point of GFI outlets if code isn't going to allow stupid people to do stupid things anyway?

Thursday, 29 November --- Video: MPEG

Spent the better part of a day trying to get ahold of Mike which is especially difficult since he has no answering machine (what century is this?). No luck! The head building inspector came out & blessed the work thus far & said we can continue. He agreed everything is working correctly, and nothing is broken. The driveway should be poured tomorrow, weather permitting.

On another front, we've window problems. There were to be two bay windows : in front of the kitchen sink, and in the office. Well, Anderson doesn't make, and apparently cannot make, anything to fit the holes. Neither Lynn nor I like garden windows, so the resolution is to use a plain window in the kitchen and downstairs. But (you had to know that was coming) the foundation is poured with a cutout for the bay window. It sounds like we're going to put a normal window in, and two solid walls where the sides of the bay window were going to be. There are two reasons for this. First, since the foundation was poured with this opening, it would have to be hacked out. Second, we fought tooth & nail for every single square foot & we're not going to give up any of it!

Friday, 30 November --- Video: MPEG