Friday, September 30, 2016

Insulation Inspection

The City inspector was in this afternoon, which made the work of installing the vapour barrier, batt insulation around pot lights and skylights, and caulking all of the wood to wood joints a little time sensitive this morning.  By afternoon, the inspector arrived and all was good.  We have the go to start drywall!


Thursday, September 29, 2016

North side

I hate to say I told them so.... the North side brick is brutally narrow.  Oh well, the weather has been nice?!?


Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Sound insulation

Mick was in today to work on sound insulation.  I usually recommend, at a minimum, to do basic sound insulation between the master suite and the rest of the upstairs, around bathrooms and laundry rooms, and in the ceilings above entertainment areas.

We chose pink insulation.  Hardware stores try and sell Roxul "safe and sound" which also provides a modicum of fire protection, but at roughly double the price and negligible extra sound dampening, pink works well.


Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Foam insulation

The owners have opted to foam the entire house with 2lb, dense foam insulation.  The foam is far superior to traditional batt insulation in that it acts as a vapour AND air barrier.  Blocking air passage from inside to outside and visa versa means the building envelope is much tighter, therefore reducing heating/cooling costs and making the environment very comfortable inside.  The downside is that you need to make sure enough fresh air is coming into the house - this is done using an HRV unit that works in concert with the furnace in the basement.


Monday, September 26, 2016

Brick to the back

The boys have a lot more breathing room, but they're not completely happy as moving up and down between the houses is still a nightmare.  I hate to say, but it's going to get harder when they get to the North side...


Thursday, September 22, 2016

Extra narrow spaces

Like I said yesterday, the space between houses is quite narrow.  Today, Thom set up the first and second level scaffold around the entire house... looks more like a submarine galley than a proper scaffold.  Sorry Thom!


Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Brick by human scaffolding

Due to the tight working space on site (the side yard area between houses is VERY tight), Thom has taken a hybrid approach with the brick.  Instead of doing one full side at a time, he is wrapping course by course around the entire house.  It allows him to spread his workforce more efficiently, and will make the next level, when he has to use scaffolding, easier as well, as people will not be going up and down the scaffold all day, but rather walking around the house on the scaffold.


Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Front and side progress

Half of the crew started laying brick on the south side of the house, where coincidentally there was lots of shade and a nice breeze....


While the other half worked on the front, eventually installing the custom limestone address bar above the garage.  Perhaps by Saturday we will have the scaffold down and we'll be working on the back and upper half of the south side.


Monday, September 19, 2016

On to brick

When we started the stone, we quickly realized how small the front of the house is.  It's making working conditions pretty cramped, though there's not a lot of material to install so it should move smoothly.  Today, they finished the stone on the bottom third of the house, and were able to install a bit of brick too.  I'm liking the look so far!


Saturday, September 17, 2016

Stone work begins

The boys from BHM Exteriors are back and quickly completed the small bit of stone work on the bottom of the house.  On our front exterior, we have a mix of Indiana rough cut limestone, Indian smooth panels, brick and custom and non-custom limestone sills, surrounds and panels.  Over the next week, we'll see the front of the house transform into something closer to the final product, which I'm looking forward to.


Thursday, September 15, 2016

Plumbing rough-in continues

The plumbers were in again today.  Some of the showers had a fair bit of complexity, especially the master shower, which has multiple controls and outlets, four body jets and a steam shower that connects to the main steam unit in the master closet.


Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Coffee time?

Big coffee orders usually means lots of activity at the house.  We had Miguel's team in for the whole day doing the "rough in" framing (basically, all the odds and ends that are required after a lot of internal things are done, like the stairs etc).  Tony, Mario and Rui from Trivent plumbing were also in, installing shower equipment and cleaning up the water lines.  Finally, Kevin was in doing some touch ups on the electrical and making sure we are all good for insulation next week.


One of the key areas for framing was the master drop in bathtub.  It's going to work out really well, with lots of space for candles and maybe a glass of wine or two!



Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Stairs! Stairs! Stairs!

Three exclamation marks for three sets of stairs!  Both upstairs sets of stairs and the basement set were installed today.  With the late, late arrival of the plumbing rough-ins today, we can finally get moving with the inside of the house.  Tomorrow should be a busy, productive day!


Friday, September 9, 2016

Enbridge Service Installed

Well, the guys won't be cold this winter.  Enbridge, with help from my trusty insider contact, was in today to install the gas line.  This is usually a big relief, as they can sometimes delay things for quite some time and force us to use alternate heating through the colder months which is not a good substitute.