Day 41-42: Plumbing and Electrical Pt 3 and Brick!

This once again may be our last post for the next little while as I go into the school system for yet another French gig.  I may not speak the language, but I'm endearing enough to get by.


There is not much to report in terms of work that I've done, actually.  The last little while has been playing catch-up on Kelly's side of the house.  All of Tuesday was framing her basement in.  While we did that, though, our side was being wired for electrical.

It is really interesting to see how the whole thing is set up.  I know that we'll probably get a basic layout and diagram for breakers, but I took a bunch of pictures just in case.

Oh yeah.  That seems simple and straight forward...

The big big news for today, though, is that the brick people have started.  There was a small delay due to races and rain, but now the brick is going up, and it looks really sharp.  It will probably take somewhere around 3 to 4 days to finish, and then the exterior will be mostly done.

When the scaffolding is gone, it'll look much nicer.  That's what I hear, anyway.

Now all the big decisions have been made.  We have chosen what kind of flooring, which colours of paint, who will cut the grass (hint: it's me) and we'll post a bunch of pictures once everything is installed.  Linzi says that we have to keep our choices under wraps so that we'll get more hits.

Friday is insulation, Tuesday is drywall, and from there we might as well move in, right?


Later days.


Alex and Linzi.

Day 40: A day of rest.

It's been a long, long few months and a lot of work.  Thank goodness it's Victoria Day and my first real day off in almost two months.


Taking a day off brought us, interestingly enough, back to the house.  Linzi and I decided to have a picnic lunch in our dining room, effectively our first meal in our new home.

I`m thinking we just leave it the way it is.  No? Ok.

Later days.


Alex and Linzi

Day 38-39: Back to work.

Hey there, house.  Long time no see.  It's been almost a month since I worked at the jobsite, but now I am back and ready to go.  Kind of.

Before I begin, there are two things to set up for you.  The first is that everything has been set up for the brick to be laid.  I say "set up" because apparently the bricklayers are avid truck racers, and the first big race is this weekend.  Instead, all of the bricks are partitioned out, but unfortunately not yet adorning our house.

I said we could just leave it like that.  That was not a popular idea.

The second is that we have been pouring concrete in the last short while.  One thing you ought to know about concrete and Linzi is that they invariably bisect.  Exhibit A:

See, Alex Lalonde? Initials.  That gives you deniability.

Anyhoo.  The first thing to do in the morning was take down the forms for the concrete.  That included the front step for both the houses, as well as the sidewalk out front that we broke earlier in the process.  It also included the backyard, where pillars had been poured for the deck.  That was my job for the morning.

This was the rustic option.  We went for the upgrade.

Following that fun little task, finishing the basement was our next task.  The framing has been finished on our side, as you can see in the next picture.

Things are looking just peachy.

Just before we left, the electricians came to install boxes in the main level.  Everything is coming along very nicely.


Later days.

Alex and Linzi.

Day 36: Trench Foot

Good evening beloved followers!


It was another productive day on the job site. (Which is a good thing... because we aren't paying these guys millions of dollars to be unproductive.) Thankfully, our basement and garage floors were both able to dry vandalism free! With the floors poured and sealed, the remaining basement window was installed (this is where the concrete went in) and framing of the basement began.

Despite the rain, they also dug a trench in the backyard today. And although it looks like a sloppy mud puddle, it will actually magically transform into a deck in the near future.  

Apparently the "moat" look went out of style a thousand years ago. 

That’s all for now – mostly because American Idol is on…! But the brick layer is expected to make an appearance by the end of the week, so come back soon for even mor(tar) fun.


Cheers!

Alex and Linzi    

Day 31 - 35: Plumbing and Electrical Pt 2

Hey there, folks.  You'll be pleased to know that my short stint as an immersion french teacher has finally come to an end and I may be back to the work site sooner than you think.  That being said,  let's bring everyone up to speed.

The last few days most of the heavy lifting has happened on Kelly's side of the house.  Some of the subcontractors, however, have been working on both sides of the house, and one of them was the plumber.

Showers are more uncomfortable than I remember...

Another big step is the ventilation that has been installed.  The stove is now vented to the outdoors, and most of the register placement has been roughed in.  Electrical has also been marked and some areas have been roughed in, like the thermostat.

I have been informed that it's not a periscope.  That was a little disappointing.

Also, we've almost completed the set for doors and windows with a working electric garage door.  We were given a button for the door.  Linzi promptly confiscated it.

Last, but not least, the garage and basement were poured today.  I don't have a picture of that, and it was still wet when I saw it, but I do have a picture of the wire placed in the floor to give it some strength and structure.  By tomorrow, it will be dried and sealed.

Fingers crossed that it will be signature-free.

That's all ladies and gentlemen.  Who knows, by the end of the week I might be wearing a hard hat again.


Later days.


Linzi and Alex.

Day 29 - 30: Plumbing and electrical, pt 1.

Bonjour.  Comment ca va?  As you can see, I am practicing my French for class.  As promised, we did not wait for two weeks before posting again, though we don't have too much to update on for the house.


One thing to note that we now have an attic.  The area above the garage is kind of a loft area where we can store things like Christmas lights and Riley when he has nowhere to live.  It is complete with a trapdoor for access, Christmas Vacation-style.

Not shown: old bathrobe and home movies

The biggest news in terms of progress is that the major plumbing pipes have been laid in the basement.  It all still needs to be brought up to the main level, but most of the tough work is done now.  Once the pipes are tested, they will be able to pour the garage and basement floors.

"Hey Linzi, nice pipes."

Also, because it's so gosh darn big, we have our tub in place in the bathroom.  It looks kinda funny, given that everything else is just frame and plywood, but there it is all ready to go.

At least the important things are done.

Last, but not least, today we decided on all of our outlets, switches and electrical fixtures for the house.  The decisions were much easier than I thought, but I suppose there aren't that many options for us to choose from.  


Well, that's all for now folks.  Tune in the next couple days and who knows, maybe I'll be back to work.


Later days,


Alex and Linzi

Day 21 - 28: The Hiatus.

Well, hello. I almost didn't recognize you there.  Yes, it has been quite a while since we last posted on the blog, mostly because I have been teaching high school French for the past two weeks.  Note: This is Alex, and I am wildly not qualified for that.

So, this will be quite a large update laden mostly with pictures.  A lot has happened since last we met, so let`s get started.

First things first, We have a roof.  After a pretty amazing April snow day, the crane came and helped us lift all the trusses into place.

While the crane pulls up the trusses, they have to be tacked into place, as well as strapped in order to keep them two feet apart and square.  That means scrambling atop the roof like a monkey dodging large wooden structures and working at not falling.

After all the trusses go up, the roof is covered in plywood.  The plywood is what the shingles will get attached to.  While that sounds simple, it takes about three to four days in order to cut all the pieces properly and physically drag them up to the roof.  By happy accident, I was working at the school.  Aw shucks.

No, Kelly is not getting a skylight.  Though I wouldn't put it past her.  She has the fancy side.

Once the plywood is up, the shingles can go on, and on they went.  We had some help from three snake tattooed men with Jersey Shore suntans.  Now that the roof is is up, we`re like the US postal service: working rain or shine.

While all that roofing business was going down (or up! Get it?), we were getting an electrical hookup from the city.  What is amazing about this picture is that the giant cable that Jeff is pulling on is actually the same cable that the orange man in the background is also pulling on.  Funky, eh?  Now we can retire the generator.

So electricity? check.  Roof? check.  Blowing all our money on appliances? Check.  What's next?  Well, you may have seen the brick in some earlier photos.  That is NOT next.  First the interior of the house will be partitioned, making the whole place start to really look like a house on the inside.

This is the view from our dining area... if you had x-ray vision.

Also on the inside of the house was the first bit of drywall to be hung.  The two units are now officially fully divided by the middle firewall.

The last big excitement for this update is that the windows and doors for the house were installed.  The basement windows won't get installed until the flooring is done, but now we have a venetian red front door and a back door in the kitchen.

Linzi's dream is complete.  We could probably just stop building now.

So folks, that's what's been going on here.  Hopefully these posts will go back to being more frequent.  Then again, less posts probably means more teaching for me...  Gotta pay the bills somehow.

Later days.

Alex and Linzi.