North Glenora Reno

I know, I know, I know. It has been weeks and weeks since I updated you on the reno and I’m sorry but, well, umm, I went back to work and well, my whole life has gone crazy.

So here we go, I think that I will do several posts for you so that you (and I) don’t get too confused and stay fairly close with the timeline. I did write a lovely and lengthy post the day before school started but lost the whole thing before I could upload and well look what has happened…

If we go back, way back, we would find ourselves at the beginning of September. The new windows were finally all in and I felt that I could at least leave the house for the day and know that it was secure. The lack of heat was a big issue for us as it got pretty chilly at the end of August, I may have mentioned that. My dad worked like a madman and got us heat early on in the month but in the interest of not heating up the entire neighbourhood, he didn’t run heat into the new space. The day we finally got heat will also go down in history as The Pizza Night. Mom and dad, M and R & I worked all day and we thought that pizza would a great idea for dinner. I carefully chose 4 different pizzas to give everyone lots of choices and then mom and I went to pick them up. Upon returning, we realized that the pizzas we brought home were not the pizzas we ordered. So, I called Panago and explained the issue and they offered to bring us our order but since the starved wolves at the table had pretty much already dove in I said not to worry about it and they offered to add a credit to my account instead. So, no problem, 4 pizzas we didn’t order but we all found something we were willing to eat. Not ten minutes later, a guy from Panago arrives with the pizzas we ordered and told us to keep them all. So we ended up with 8 pizzas between 5 people and meals for the next week and I’m pretty sure that there is a 4 pizza credit on my account! Oh yeah and I’m pretty sure that we each ate about 20 more pieces than we really wanted. We pretty much just rolled away from the table. Anyway….

So the old?, existing? part of the house became warm but the new, not so much. None the less, R stopped sitting in front of the space heater with the dog to eat his breakfast and went back to the table like regular people do. They were priceless (read: pathetic) to see though.

On the day of The Pizza Night, we also made some serious progress towards R and I gaining some sense of normalcy and sanity really. M came over and he and R drywalled the new closet in out existing room. Not sure if I mentioned but we used to have two little closets and we decided that through this process we would combine them into one proper sized one. The closet taking shape will prove to be a remarkable step forward as R and I have clothes all over the house. I mean, I have been making the morning dash into the living room for underwear for weeks. The neighbors will likely be disappointed though…None the less, it needed to be done.

It was a very productive weekend! On Friday morning, the roofers showed up and worked until 10 p.m. and got most of the shingles done. They came back on saturday and finished the job. They roof looks great! The shingles have some variation and texture to them that makes them not seem quite as flat as it was before. The shingles are black and will look amazing with the gray hardie panels and the cedar accents. This must mean that there is another cheque to write in the near future!

The framing has come a long way over the last few days. Rob and Tristan have worked on the interior wall and yesterday got some windows in. R and I were in charge of wrapping and weather proofing all of the openings. We now have both North windows in and the windows and door for the eating area!

The windows are beautiful! And they had better be as, if I knew when we were window shopping what kind of issues and problems we would have with Marvin Windows, I really don’t think that we would have gone for them. Don’t get me wrong. The are high quality, well built, unique and beautiful windows but….we had problems getting clarification on all of the specs and ensuring that they were all correct and consistent from draft to draft, there are now several windows that were not the correct size and don’t forget the screen issue that has yet to be solved. Darryl is a good guy (who talks too much) but is too new to being a salesman I think and has missed details that he simply should have caught. Additionally, the way he speaks to us made him the second person that I wanted to hit in the face yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, he tries hard, he came by within 15 minutes of R calling him yesterday to discuss the current problem with the windows but when you spend as much money as we did on windows, I expect to have a salesman who is at least a touch apologetic for the f-ups. Anyway, when it is all said and done, I will love the windows and be truly appreciative of the unique features that we have and really enjoy how beautiful they are but at this point I will not be recommending them to others quite yet.

Moving on, R took yesterday off and again, it was so nice to have him with me all day. We ran a bunch of errands including investigating the cedar planks we need for the soffet and a bit of siding on the house, we picked up the replacement tile for the main bathroom shower that we had to rip out. We got the backer board, wood stain, etc from Home Depot and also headed over to Payless Wholesale Tile to order the final tile we need for our new shower. The owner or manager (who is always a nice guy) wasn’t there so we ended up dealing with a guy who I have seen there before. This guy is the other guy that I wanted to hit in the face. He was an asshole. There is no better word to describe him. I think that we were taking time from him biting his hangnail and he had absolutely no desire to help us whatsoever. We returned the sample and were asking about the price and wondering if that was the best price we could get. We were not rude or demanding, just inquiring. We would have paid the $3.85 a square foot if he had simply said that he was sorry but that was the best he could do but instead he chewed his fingers and half heartedly called the owner (when we asked him if he would check) and then had to be specifically asked and prodded to take our number and write down what we were looking for to ask the owner when he got back. Needless to say, I did not get a callback. So, I could call but I really want to go back and speak directly to the owner.
“Is this your best price?” “I don’t know. Probably.” “You don’t know? Well, could you check?” “He’s not answering his phone but I don’t think that he will give you a better price.” “But could you check for sure?” “He didn’t answer his phone.” “Could you just get him to call me then?” “I guess.” “Thanks.”
I’m pretty sure that I didn’t paraphrase very much of that exchange. If it wasn’t for the fact that I know that owner/manager is a decent guy…well, I guess we’ll see.

Finally, there was still demo for us to do last night. I am so tired of demo. There us rebuilding in the midst of all of the demo but enough, enough, enough. We haven’t even had to do all of it. Rob and Tristan have had to do a ton of it. We have a bit of a running joke now. Rob is not allowed to add more debris to the pile anymore unless it is someone else’s fault, like the window issue yesterday. The great shining note on the garbage thing though happened yesterday. I called my best friend Chad and asked him when plans to come and get the concrete debris and he said that they will come next week after Rob is done so that they cam take it all! That means that we will not have to haul all of that shit again. Chad will send out a digger and a dump truck and take care of all of it! I don’t even care (very much) how much that will cost, I am just thrilled that it will soon all be gone! See? I get excited about garbage!

Today, I need to harass a few people and go and prep three more window openings for windows and receive our new furnace! That means we are one step closer to heat. It is chilly, to say the least, in here. As I write this, I am wrapped in a blanket and I’m pretty sure that it is warmer outside than it is inside.

Off to get more work done and warm up!

There has been a threat of rain all week and luckily there was mostly just some spitting yesterday so we didn’t see any more delays.

Rob and Tristan and their new super worker Colin worked really hard to get the roof all ready for the roofers (who start this morning). We are again amazed to see a flat 2D drawing come to life. The ceiling heights in the bedroom/bathroom and in the eating area are amazing. The best part to emerge in the last day or so though is the covered areas by the back door! One of my biggest pet peeves about the way the house was before was that if it was raining or snowing, it sucked to have that falling on you and all of the stuff, I alway seem to have, while you are trying to open the door. Now we have a covered area so you can actually set things down and they won’t get wet. This area will also be really nice for barbecuing in inclement weather as well. We are going to be covering the ceiling there with cedar and some really neat mid-century pendant light and it should be really beautiful.

This week, we finally have all of the power lines under ground and the trench nearly all covered as well! It is so nice to have a little bit less mess and disaster.

The garbage pile has become insanely large. I have decided to rename it an art installation as it’s size seems well beyond what you could reasonably dispose of. For my final week before I have to go to work, I will be filling several? dumpsters and watching with glee as it all goes away. I have told Rob and Tristan that they need to stop making such a mess and adding to the junk pile and I think that that will help tremendously! 😉

Today should see the beginning of the re-shingling of the roof…assuming they show up before too long. I must be getting too used to Rob’s 7:30 arrivals, as at nearly 10 am I am getting antsy that the roofers still haven’t arrived. I have talked to Debbie this morning and I know that they are coming but at this rate they won’t be getting burgers for lunch as they won’t have time to stop.

Wait….he just pulled up!!!!

Today was another busy and exciting day. Rob and Tristan tore the roof off of the eating area and reframed the one that the door will be in. Now the house is completely open to the elements. The only thing that keeps the kitchen as an indoor one vs. an outdoor one is a thin sheet of plastic. It is very exciting though because we can see what the other side of the house is going to loom like today. I am constantly startled by how tall the whole structure is.

Darryl and another guy, who came up from Calgary, came to mull together and install the four pack of windows for our bedroom. The windows look spectacular and it is so nice to have another step towards sealing up the house complete, now for the other hundred ones. One nice surprise is that we noticed that the screen on the operable window in that four pack is wood! Not white aluminum. One less screen we have to fight for from Marvin Windows!

Mike and his helper (Steve, the one that doesn’t even make eye contact) came and got the primary power up and running. I know they looked into the mouse pit but don’t know if they actually had to go in. For obvious reasons, I stayed clear.

My dad came by to get the hot water tank hook up started. I even helped…dad said that I was a natural (pushing on a pipe and giving it a tiny twist). I know, you’re impressed. 😉

Tile Town called to let us know that the pale gray tile that we wanted to order for the shower is back ordered for two months! Great! Now I have to go and choose something else. On a good note, the rest of the tile is in, so I will go and choose a new tile and pick up with others, hopefully tomorrow.

R came home and added concrete to the pile that Rob will need to use tomorrow and we boarded up the house and off we went with our tons and tons of free time to the Cirque de Soleil show, Alegria. It was amazing, although we may have enjoyed it a bit more if we had been slightly less tired.

Finally, the Hughes came home today and K and E came by while we were out to help clean up a bit and steal wood scraps and other goodies. So nice to have them home!

Framers and decent weather greeted us at 7:30 this morning. We are thankful for that. My dad came by after lunch to disconnect the old hot water tank and reconnect the new one but was stopped within 45 minutes when Epcor (who were supposed to show on Thursday and called before they arrived today) arrived to move the services from the house to the garage. I asked them how much time I had to inform everyone who was here, find them alternate power and to call our electrician and they said they were going to just do it. That meant 30 seconds for the unaware. I told all the people, tried to shut down our computer, asked for power from the neighbour, reconnected the tools and they were pretty much done. Within 10 minutes of arrival, they were gone. Poor mike has to crawl into the mouse pit (a.k.a. Mouse grave yard)….I won’t go back downstairs until he seals the crawlspace back up. I warned him.

As for me, I have found myself with a nice quiet (sans dog) day of getting some chili and lasagna made and frozen for the fall. Why have I never done this before? Another A type teacher and close friend of mine (I know, there really are more people like me out there) does this periodically and I had to jump on that pre-planning and organization brilliance! Thanks, K!

We lost nearly two framing days to rain at the end of last week but bright and early Saturday morning Rob came back to continue to try to sort out the issues with the roof line over the closet extension. Sonny came by on Thursday morning and sent us a concept solution but it was a “concept” and not quite possible in “reality.” Rob had a look at the drawing and quickly determined that it would not work and thus spent a good amount of time on Saturday, staring at the roof and trusses, trying to find the right solution. He is amazing and I know that he will come up with a suitable one. I, I have to admit, don’t really care what it looks like as long and we meet code and don’t get any water in the house. I trust that Rob will save the day.

We finally, finally decided on our tile for the bathroom yesterday. We not only high fived our choice, he ordered it and got a pretty decent deal. Despite that, we are stilling spending about $1500 on tile. The tile decision was a difficult one. I would bring home samples and we would debate it’s beauty, price, colour, texture, price, colour… Finally, we went together. We found things we liked, negotiated a price we could live with and then took the samples home to see in the proper light. Success! Ordered!

Today we cleaned up the yard and purchased the vanity and cabinet for the bathroom. Now we just need to order the sink and faucet, find a stone remnant and find a decent price on tempered glass. Wow, until I listed all that, I was feeling pretty good about the progress we had made on the bathroom. Shit, still so much to do and SO much to spend.

Tomorrow, Rob will be back and if the weather holds up this week, he will finish the framing! Then roofing, electrical, plumbing, insulation, vapor barrier…..ahh, never mind there are months to go and no end in sight.

I am almost starting to look forward to going back to work. Did I actually say that?

A busy day already but the weather is horrible. As of 10:30 this morning Rob and Tristan have left, soaked to the bone. Not sure if they are coming back, they probably will once they are dry and warm. They put sheeting on the exposed parts of the roof and that will help keep water out of the house.

Mike the electrician and his guy are busy working in the garage and along the trench getting the power line into the ground. I guess that we can assume that the inspection went well! Yeah!! With the crazy rain, I decided to watch from afar.

None the less, this is what Rob and Tristan worked in towards day’s end yesterday….(can you see the beam?!?!)

Okay, I know. It has been days and days since I have written but who can find the time what with all the errands and framing and digging and cleaning and people and….did I mention the framing!!!! And the digging 🙁

So, the week started off well. R took the day off to sort out some details. It was great to have him with me for the start of such an important week. The framers, Rob and Tristan, showed at their exact start time of 7:30 a.m. We sorted out a few initial details and off they went! It was mostly a measuring and thinking day for them. The electrician let us know that the 24 inch trench we spent 6 hours on this weekend was not good enough to pass inspection and that we still had another 12 inches to go. Yeah! Amazing K & K came by to help. The crazy storm coming in halted the progress after a few short hours.

We spent two units on a lift of 50 sheets of smooth, slate gray, hardie panel! The exterior of the house is going to be amazing! Researched reveal materials for it and picked up 1250 pounds of glulam beams for the ceiling. M came with his trailer and endless willingness to help and knowledge to pick them up. I would be lying if I said that the trip home with them was less than scary but we made it and even got some help unloading them.

On Tuesday, Rob and Tristan really went to town. By the end of the day, they had built all of the new exterior wall and had framed for the crazy, giant windows! It was so amazing to actually see the walls. I had been waiting for this day for months…the pictures in my head finally became reality and somehow, this reno was worth all of the work so far.

The electrician also came to start work on the service relocation. We are moving the overhead power lines from the house (and by default, across the yard) to the garage and then trenching in the lines underground. Since we were still not quite deep enough, I spent the afternoon in the hot sun digging some more. Mike, our electrician lent me his shovel and things moved along much, much faster. R and K finished the job before dinner.

Today was a much quieter day for me. Thank goodness. Don’t get me wrong, I had my share of crap going on but it wasn’t go go go like it has been for the last week and a half. M and I went off to get more lumber this morning. A gong show, of course.

Then, the hot water tank was delivered and I convinced the guy to take it all the way to the basement. It cost me $20, more than worth it. I spent a bunch of time today removing nails and screws from all over the place and my dad and I carried the hot water tank to it’s new home. That’s right I carried a hot water tank, I am a super hero! We got a free upgrade to a better tank and it felt just a bit like Christmas.

Rob and Tristan put up three of the glulam beams. They are each 250lbs and they seem to lift them up there like they are only…well…100lbs. None the less, they are amazing. they finished the day with the roof starting to come together. I love this!!!!

R and I began removing the clay and concrete debris from the basement but were saved about half-way through by R’s parents delivering dinner for the second night in a row. Wow, we are so lucky!

Now I am tired, tired, tired…I think that Rob and Tristan might be as well…

The last three days and really six if I’m counting have the the hardest ones I have had in as long as I can remember. I actually had a mental break down today. But more about that later…

On Friday, the basement floor was poured, along with the sewer trench in the basement and the seven piles for the deck and roof support. Although it started a bit late, it went fairly well. I ran my ass off. The My Rona delivery guy came around 9:45 right after I pulled the tarp off of the floor with 50 bags of insulation and some more construction materials. Peter is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and has also made it to the top of my best friends list. Rarely do you come across someone who is so willing to help out and be friendly. Together we rolled bales of insulation into the garage chatting all the while. He even gave me a Rona pencil before he left. While we loaded up the garage, Jason arrived with the concrete pump truck, the concrete truck arrived and we all waited for the finishers to come. Finally, about 30 minutes late everyone got to work and away they poured. Unbeknownst to me, I ended up being responsible for getting the rebar to put in the piles once they were poured. Luckily, Jason, who lives 2 blocks away had some so R’s dad and I went off for that. It was a crazy and busy morning…I don’t even remember the afternoon. I’m pretty sure my grand parents came for a tour, I know that because I have garden veggies in my fridge!

After Friday’s excitement during the day, we ended up not getting the trench started and just took a bit of a break in preparation for the weekend ahead. On Saturday morning, we began digging the 40 foot trench for the power line. The electrician wanted the trench to be 3 feet deep, we dug it to 24 or so inches through super hard packed clay (have I mentioned how much I love clay?). It was some of the hardest physical work that I have done in memory. Two of our amazing friends came to help out and it still took 6 hours, four pizzas and a case of beer. K & M worked so hard and we were so thankful for their help. There is no way that we could have done all of that with out them.

Today we finished the demolition. It was awful, messy and exhausting work. My parents came to help along with K and later in the day my brother came, left and came back again! My dad took care of the crazy security blind on the arched window and all of the rest of the siding…did I mention that it was super hot out again today as it has been all week? And then he tore down the ceiling in the eating area. Mom and I took care of the drywall in the eating area and demoed our closets. R & K took on the nasty and awful spare room. The eating area was built about 15 years ago and had regular drywall, fiberglass insulation and vapor barrier…the spare room had 60 year old plaster and drywall walls, paper barriers and wood chip insulation. It was the most horrible job imaginable. It was only slightly worse than the clean up of that shit. After everyone else had gone home and it was just R and I shoveling out that room, I started to hit the wall. It felt insurmountable. We went outside to move the garbage out to the junk area around the garage and I finally lost it. After a few minutes I was back to work and then proceeded to step on a nail. We took a short break, needless to say perhaps.

K made us an amazing dinner before we met M back at home to finish the clean up. I am exhausted as I know that everyone else that helped us out today must be too. I cannot even begin to explain how thankful we are to have such amazing friends and family. I guarantee that I would have lost it WAY before today if not had not been for all of the help and support of all of these people.

Mom said that today would be the worst day and that it would get better from here. She is right, tomorrow the building begins and I couldn’t be happier. I have lived the last 7 weeks (more really) for the week that is to come. This week, my vision grows walls!!!

Concrete floors and piles!

Now if we can clean up the basement clay and concrete, then maybe just maybe we will be able to clean up one area…I just set myself up for failure, don’t I?