Cement trucks at last !

A lot of tasks out of the way to this point. Here is our electrical guy with the power company crew moving the mast/electical entrance over a few feet so it will clear the new roof configuration. Inside, the electrical box is being upgraded to 200 amps.

Wonderful to see the cement trucks roll in today! We had to cancel them last week as ice buildup was discovered in the ICF walls and it was too cold for the calcium carbonate treatment to make much headway.

Ben brought in a construction heater which he aimed into a hole in the foam wall form, and to suck up the meltwater he McGyvered together an 8 foot pvc pipe to the hose of a wet/dry vac. Worked like a charm!

So first they filled the voids under the window bucks.






 Then Ben trowelled them off smooth,

and screwed on pieces of pre-cut OSB on top of the wet cement.

The rest of the walls were filled from the top with the guys up on the staging. Then the anchor bolts were set into the concrete  for bolting on the top plate next week.

The 3 sono tubes that will support the deck and the 2 that will support the mudroom were filled with concrete and steel brackets placed in the wet concrete to later receive the 6x6 posts.

We are so glad to have this all out of the way with the next crazy ice and snow storm barrelling up the coast towards us tomorrow night and friday !

Backhoe Back To Work

 Lots of work accomplished yesterday with the backhoe repaired and tackling the frozen ground heroically. Here is the crew getting the hole sized right for the septic tank. It will be good to have working plumbing again.

Everything went smoothly, the concrete  tank is settled nicely in it's new home and connected to the drainage field.

Next came the excavating for the plastic "bigfoot" sono tubes. The tops will be cut off and the tubes filled with concrete when the truck comes to fill the main floor walls. These three will support the posts for the deck.

Meanwhile young Dominic and I worked on laying another drainage pipe alongside the existing one as this side of the house sees a lot of water coming down off the hillside. We laid it to the front corner of the house and in the spring when the ground thaws it will be continued under the driveway to make another exit for storm water. We got the pipe laid and covered with coarse gravel just in time for the trench to be backfilled and the next excavation started.

Good to finally get that hole backfilled.
The next digging was for the supports for the mud room entry.

Two more sono tubes going in.

Ben worked away at chipping an inch of ice off the floor from the rainstorm 2 days ago, so that he could finish bracing the ICF walls to the floor. Just in time for today's surprise 20cm snowstorm!

Looking like a house...

This week's snowstorm which dumped so much snow in the eastern US and Nova Scotia all but missed us, thank goodness. More good news is the backhoe is up and running again so John will be back here next week to resume the backfilling and dig the postholes for the front deck and side mudroom supports.

Hoping hoping hoping all goes smoothly for the main floor walls to be poured next week.....Now that the outside sheathing is nearly complete we can see the shape of the windows and doors. The morning sun will shine in the front of the house and the afternoon sun will come in the large side windows.

More wild and crazy weather..

A week of above freezing temperatures has been a welcome respite from the week of temps in the minus 20's, however it was ushered in with 140 km winds and widespread flooding..

Very discouraging, the winds were strong enough to rip out a series of braces holding up the ICF block wall.

So now, not knowing what Mother Nature will throw at us next, Ben is applying the outside sheathing as he rebuilds the walls. The ICF has imbedded plastic strips inside the foam, to screw the sheathing to, and this will brace the walls on the outside , as well as the 2x4 bracing on the inside.

The windows and doors will be cut out later.

In the mild weather I can work comfortably outdoors so I moved my table saw out to the deck where I have a pile of 1x6 to rip to size for trim boards.  The backhoe is proving perplexing to fix, we are hoping they get it going this coming week as we need post holes dug for supports for the cottage deck and mud room, as well as the backfill to finish.

The snow is almost gone now and the driveways ice free, winter will be back this week though for sure.

Back at it..

Finally, a decent day to work outside! Since the last post we have had three snowstorms, a week of -23C to -26C bitter cold, followed by a freak temperature spike of +13C, accompanied by torrential rains complete with thunder and lightning (in january !), and then today a return to freezing cold which has caused the driveways to turn into solid very slippery ice. At least the heavy burden of ice from the Christmas week ice storm has melted off the trees.

The ICF forms for the main floor took a beating in last nights gale. You can see where a chunk has blown out above. With all the horrible weather and holdups we haven't got to the cement stage yet. The guys have spent a lot of time digging out the building supplies and foundation wall ..(numerous times)

All the blueskin is on ready for backfill, which was brought in a couple of weeks ago and since buried by several snow dumps.

Here is the backhoe doing some tricky backfill in a tight spot at the back.

A nice neat job.....but things were going too well. The backhoe machine broke down and we will have to wait til next week for parts and or repairs, still a septic tank and some deck support posts to go in.



Ahh..Canadian Winter...

Well, shortly after the last post we joined the many thousands without power due to ice laden trees falling on electrical wires. Crews from out of province worked long hours to restore the power but it was 6 long days and nights without.

It was interesting that just as in a third world country without the basics, people naturally gathered at the community watering hole, in our case a roadside springfed hose just outside of the village.There news and gossip was traded and coping skills shared. We were most thankful for our old fashioned coffee percolator and our wood stove which produced quite a magnificent Christmas dinner for ourselves and some neighbors. Future survival purchases will be a hand pump to access water from our well and enough solar panel/battery storage to run one light bulb for reading without eye strain.

We have some broken trees and everything is coated in a thick layer of ice, but with the power finally back on we feel immensely cheerful, even with the next storm bearing down on us as I write. 25 or more centimeters expected today and overnight, turning into freezing rain at some point. There's never been a winter like this one, I'm sure.

Ice and more ice...

We're now on day 4 of continual freezing rain and counting our blessings such as having power, where thousands from Ontario to the Atlantic provinces are without. We look out gloomily at the stalled building project and say, Thank God all this wasn't snow....

Many trees are bent over to the ground with their weight of ice and wont be able to carry much more without snapping.
I'm lucky to have a workshop, cosy with a wood fire, to get on with projects for the house.

I have been building this frame to hold this piece of glass I sent away for, which arrived last week. The glass is actually made to be a sidelight in a vertical position alongside an entrance door, but what I have in mind is to install this arrangement horizontally high in the mudroom wall above the coat cubbies. (None of which is built yet.) I looked a long time to find a glass design that is agreeable to the inside door that will go from mudroom to new living room.

Which is this one, presently serving as a side door in the kitchen of the old part of the cottage. When it is taken out, the hole will be filled in and become the new home of the fridge.

Another nasty weather project has been this decorative bit, to go on top of the door frame for the basement door.

The green color is the exact green of the steel roofing, to be. All the little triangles are off cuts from making around 500 pointy shingles, to continue the design around the house that was started on the old cottage. The frame is cedar to blend in with the cedar shingles that will butt to it.

For readers who celebrate Christmas (or not) all the best wishes go your way for a peaceful and warm time with lots of good friends, good food and family.

All the best from our coop to yours!

(Freckles is put out and sulking because she didn't get to be the angel..)