Floors (pretty much) installed

Aluminum

George started the aluminum work today.  Once complete, the front of the house is going to fully transform into the final vision of the architect's original drawing.  I love this stage!

Paint, tile and flooring

There was a flurry of activity again today... Mick's team was in to prime everything today, just ahead of the arrival of Carlos who arrived to start the hardwood flooring.

Fred managed to rearrange his schedule yesterday in order to get the areas where tile meets floor all set up.  By Friday, the upper floor hardwood should be in stalled and they'll move down to the main floor.

Hmmm....

I caught Freddy in deep contemplation today... I like a thinking man, and Fred always takes a good amount of "planning time" before starting.  This makes the job go very smoothly and quickly once he has his master plan.

Drypack and tile delivery

While the hardwood floor installation is on the horizon, we go the tiles just as the drypackers arrived today.  The drypack guys, arranged by Fred, set a wire mesh and thin, perfectly level bed of drypack on every wood floor, as well as setting up the shower beds with the proper slope.

Primed and ready to finish

We are primed and ready to finish the house!  Well, it will take a bit of time, but it feels good to be clean inside and to see the light at the end of the... skylight.

There's a house under there!

The carpenters were hard at work until yesterday evening, and the morning light revealed, finally, a house!  The roof work that Miguel did yesterday was fantastic and we can finally see the architects vision.

Meanwhile, the tapers also finished sanding today, so we can clean up the inside and show you some more pictures tomorrow!

Final stucco elements

The last finishing touches of stucco were completed today and Miguel and his crew are hard at work on the remaining exterior carpentry items.

Stucco continues

The underside of the porch roof and the underside of the two bay windows are finished in a stucco finish over weather resilient board.  Once the roof is done under hear, the back porch will be really nice.

Assembling a portico puzzle

Thom and the gang were back at it today, working on the assembly of the 16 piece front porch portico.  If there was ever a case for "measure twice, cut once", this would be it!

The heavy pieces were craned in and put in place according to the schematic provided by the supplier.  It's difficult, careful work for sure, and I wouldn't trust anyone but Thom to do it right.

Finishing touches

With the arrival of the last load of brick yesterday, the guys from BHM were back finishing the front portico brick and the back top right wall.  After today, we'll be able to take down the scaffolding and reveal the house!

Stucco progress

While Tom waits for his brick (it just arrived!), the stucco guys have snuck into the front to get their base material installed.  The front's going to look great next week when we tear down the scaffolding.

Stucco details

There are three stucco areas on the house, and we've started the back bump out window today.

Taping

The tapers have started!  That means the interior is moving, but slowly for the next week or so while they do their two or three coats, dry in between and then come in for the final sand.  After that, we'll have the place looking like a real house in no time!

Oval trim

I like the look of the oval window surround.  In general, I'm not a big fan of round windows or doors (energy efficiency, cost and how they are problematic to finish on the interior) but this touch in the center of the house is a nice one.

Front stone section

The hardest section of the exterior was left to last.  We have to bring up smooth limestone panels high enough to cover the future porch roof interior, then continue with rough cut limestone above (with a custom oval window surround to boot!), and then line the side with smooth panels then brick above.  Sounds complicated?  Wait until we have to install the 10 piece limestone portico!

Shit Show

I'm not going to lie...today was a bit of a shit show.  Not really in a bad way, well, not for my customer, as things are getting done very quickly now.  It started this morning with my labourer not showing up to clean the drywall remnants throughout the house so it wouldn't interfere with the tapers....so I had to "labour up".  

Lo and behold, the plumber shows up to test the water pressure and a leak sprung up in the master ensuite - glad he checked.  Crisis averted. 

Then the fire shutter guys showed up, and their service tech was not the friendliest guy in the world.  I'm not used to working with people that can't adapt and look for solutions to minor problems, and this guy felt like a union guy under strict orders not to do anything out of the ordinary.

The drywallers had what felt like two hundred guys inside - taping AND finishing off the last bits of drywall.  I appreciated the speed, but man was it hard to work there today.

Poor Tom and his crew having to deal with all of the commotion in the house, and poor neighbours who have offered up their lawn and driveway for the cars and trucks of the trades in order to avoid the constant parking officer visits.

I'm going to bed now...

Drywall progress

We've had a ton of guys in to get this drywall installed.  As a result, we should be done tomorrow.

It's looking a bit more like a house though, which is great!

Brick continues

Tom's brother Karol runs to the next skid of brick.  These guys can't wait to get out of here :-)  Meanwhile the drywall arrived and the guys have started installing already.  Ugh...Mondays...