No work for 3 months!

When I last updated the blog I had started 2 weeks of unpaid leave to try and get a massive amount done on the house, and to get it closed up before winter arrived. That attempt wasn't quite as successful as anticipated, and we were left with a lot to get done once we both went back to work in October.

As the days shortened we were keen to get the roof sheetd and shingled so we would finally be able to keep the inside of the house dry. This resulted in a few evenings spent roofing in the dark. This actually turned out to be something of a bonus, as it was a lot less scary standing on the edge of the roof when you couldn't see the huge drop to the ground beneath you.












Roofing was a job that we were able to do on our own (albeit very slowly), but Stan and Nicole continued their helpful visits and we spent our time alternating between roofing and installing windows and doors. The windows and doors were finished first, as we only had the scissor lift for a limited time, and installation was a 4 man job (although somehow Lea always managed to get the easy part!). We eventually got the last window in late one night (and again, just in time, as the generator ran out of gas just as the last screw was tightened). Finally getting the windows and doors in meant that we were able to send back our storage container, which had been the very first thing delivered to our site way back in May. However, the window and door installation was not enbtirely without problem, as we found that our patio doors were defective. We have since had someone out to fix them (which was a bit of a shoddy job), and we have now found another fault with them. Lea plans to thrash the issue out with the manufacturer tomorrow.

It seems like such a long time ago that we started the roofing, that I can barely remember it. I do know that we had days of glorious sunshine, and at times were up there in shirtsleeves. This was all very different to the final few days of shingling, when I had to sweep frost off the roof every morning, and finish the shingling in the snow. The reason the roofing took us so long was that we had to first put down a waterproof membrane, and then nail the shingles down over the top. In addition to this we also had to tar every shingle before it went into place. This was a result of the low pitch of the roof combined with the high wind which seems to be fairly constant here in the prairies.

We weren't helped by the weather during the roofing either. Over the course of two weekends we lost a day to rain, and then a whole weekend to high wind. This was made much worse by the fact that during the weeks, when we were at work, we had great shingling weather but couldn't get any shingling done. The weekend of high wind also caused us a few problems as our scaffolding was blown over, and landed on our generator. Luckily no-one was around at the time so there were no injuries, and looking back, the damage could have been much worse. However, it was still a hugley frustrating episode, but hopfully we can put it behind us and get through the rest of the project incident free.

These photos appear to be in something of a random order, but the views of the roof were taken on the day before we finished with the windows and doors. They illustrate quite nicely how little we had actually achieved on the roof at that point.

We must send our apologies to Carter and Cassidy for ruining so many of their weekends over the summer. While Stan and Nicole helped us out with all our work Carter and Cassidy were left to amuse themselves in and around the house. Hopefully they haven't been too bored.

It was approximately 5 weeks after we started the roof the it was finally finished, and by this time we had had several contractors in to get some stuff done inside the hosue. The electrician arrived and connected the house to the grid so we now have power. It was a huge relief to be able to work without the sound of the generator running constantly in the background. It is quite annoying to think that all over the summer we were burning gas to provide power when gas was close to $1.50 a litre, and now that we don't need to burn gas the price is down below $1 a litre!

Also we have had some of the ductwork installed for the heating and ventilation system, and we had some poeple out to excavate and pour a footing for the garage. This all happened pretty quick and meant that we were able to build the pony wall for the garage (out of polystyrene blocks, and pour the concrete on Monday this week. This was all going very well, until on of the polystyrene blocks broke and we had loads of concrete pouring out from the bottom of the wall. Luckily Lea threw herself at the hole and we managed to get it patched before the whole situation was lost. The worst news was that our geothermal pipes have been ruptured during the excavation of the footing (twice we were aware of the breaks, but there still appears to be a hole somewhere which we can't find). This is very frustrating and is leaving our geothermal contractor with a few headaches at the moment.

We have also received all the insulation for the house. This is a little bit early as we haven't yet put the building paper on, so we have about 50 pallets of insulation waiting outside for us. Hopefully we will get round to insulating pretty soon, although before we can do that we have to frame the garage and paper the entire house. I'm planning on getting the papering done this week, as I am once again off work, this time for 3 months (I should be back at work on Feb 1st, but have been told that I may not be needed until March 1st!!!!!!). I have a lift being delivered tomorow from Hertz so intend to get most of the papering done by the weekend.

We should have our driveway built next week too. This will be pretty useful as our current driveway is very low, and once the snow starts to fall a bit more heavily, will probably be impassable for our small car.

In non house related news this time: the company Lea works for has been bought out by a large engineering firm and has moved into a larger office; the football season has started for me; we attended out very first halloween party in Canada (never dress up in a cow costume when there are kids around!); we will be moving out of our flat at the end of November (however, we are not moving into our own house, we are moving into the basement at Stan and Nicole's); and finally, Hannah has set the date for her wedding (the end of August), so we are likely to be back in England for a couple of weeks in late August/early September.

Please vote in the fish naming poll tune in next time to see what the winning names are.

Until next time,

Rob and Lea

And how could I forget, I started my trapping program in the basement in an attempt to deal with the mouse problem which we seem to be having. I was very impressed with the catching efficiency of our traps when I found 2 mice in the first trap I checked. Sadly I haven't had any more multiple catches since then, but I still hoping for a triple!

Racing against the coming winter.....

Just after the last installment of this blog I took some unpaid leave as Lea and I desperately needed to get the house weather proof. We spent the first week raising the remaining walls on the first floor, which proved to be pretty interesting as the south wall is 14 feet high and we had some windy days when we were doing it. Luckily Lea's mum was still around during that time so we had an extra pair of hands to help us out.













Once we had finally got all the walls raised it was time to prepare for the roof to go on. We thought this would happen pretty fast, but (unsurprisingly) underestimated the amount of time it would take us to get the house sheeted and the headplates in place for the roof to sit on. We also decided that life would be much easier if we rented some machinery to help get the job done. We had a lift for four days during the second week which allowed us to get everything done. At first it was slightly unnerving being 35 feet above ground in the windy prairies, but it turned out that the wind we were experiencing at that point was nothing compared to that which was to occur a few days later.

We also had to prepare the roof joists before they could be lifted into place. In total we had 65 joists to cut which didn't really seem like too big a job. However, once we realised that it took all 3 of us to move the joists we realised what we had got ourselves into. It took us more than a day just to cut the joists, but eventually we were ready for the crane to come and lift them onto the walls.

The day that the crane arrived seemed to be a nice calm one, and we looked forward to getting the job done reasonably quickly and easily. What followed was a steadily increasing wind, and a non stop 8 hour slog to get all the joists up. While Lea and I were on top of the walls waiting to secure the joists, Lea's mum was on the ground responsible for guiding everything into place. After being pulled around by the wind for 6 hours she was given some assistance when (another) Rob arrived to lend a hand. By this point the wind had really picked up and there were a few hairy moments with joists being ditched in the neighbouring field after swinging wildly out of control. The crane driver was close to aborting the whole job, but luckily stayed on to help us get it completed.

Unfortunately we don't have many pictures of the joists going into place as there was never a moment, or a spare pair of hands, to take a picture. For James' benefit though we do have one crane shot, as he seemed to enjoy them previously.

Once the roof joists were in place we still needed to get them sheeted, and shingled so that they are weather tight. We had the weekend scheduled to get the sheeting done, but were hit by the windiest weather that we have experienced so far on the build. We did attempt to get some sheets in place, hauling them onto the roof with a rope. At the point when one of the sheets nearly knocked me off the roof I decided that I was too scared to stay up there any longer so we quit for the weekend with only about 10% of the roof sheeted.

This week has also seen Lea and I return to work, so we have been using the evenings to get the sheeting finished. This has been made harder by the shortening days, but we managed to set some floodlights up on the roof to allow us to work in the dark. This was going well until the generator stalled on Tuesday night, leaving us stuck on the roof with no lights! Once again Stan and Nicole have been giving up their free time to help us out and their help is much appreciated.

The intention is to get the sheeting finished tomorrow night, and then spend the weekend getting the roof shingled. No doubt there will be plenty more delays though. We are feeling the pressure now though as the weather forecast is predicting snow in two weeks time. It seems strange to think that the temperature can drop from 23 degrees (today) to a predicted 4 in two weeks time, but it's something that we will have to deal with.

In the past two weeks we have also had the power trenched in to the land. We are currently waiting for our electrician to come and connect the house to the transformer, and then we will be able to stop using the generator and save ourselves some gas money! Also we have installed one window, which was more out of curiosity than anything else. It was quite a learning experience, and leaves me slightly concerned about how we will manage to get the other 20 windows in place!

In non house news this time, we were lucky enough to be offered some tickets to go and see Sheryl Crow on Monday. This was something that we had considered a while ago when the concert was announced, but decided that we wouldn't have the time. However, when Al and Cindy called us up and said that they had a spare pair of tickets (in the second row) we decided that we should probably make the time to relax and have a night off. Thanks very much to Al and Cindy for the opportunity!

Also we have a new address, as we will soon be moving out of our flat here in Saskatoon (well, hopefully at the end of November). The new address is:

Box 316

Grandora

SK

S0K 1V0

Feel free to address any correspondence to us there......

Also we have two new memebers of the family. Following the depression caused by the windy weather at the weekend I decided to invest in a fish bowl and some goldfish. You can see the fish in the video below (mostly because I wanted to try putting some video on here). Also this allows me to throw the blog open to a bit of audience participation. Currently the fish are nameless but I would like to give them names. So, if you would like to suggest names for both fish (please leave them in the comments section below) when I next update the blog I there will be the chance to vote for your favourite suggestion. All suggestions will be entered into the poll (although please appreciate that this is a family website, so no offensive suggestions please). The person who suggests the names will receive a (as yet unspecified) prize for their input.

This talk of polls brings me nicely to the poll from the last installment. Thanks very much for all your suggestions, and it seems that Princess Leia is the overwhelming favourite. I will take that into consideration when I eventually get round to planning the costume.

I think that pretty well sums it all up for now. I hope this blog entry makes sense, I apologise if not, but I am not really 'feeling it' at the moment. Hopefully we will be overwhelmed with suggestions for fish names and the next installment can rival the upcoming election for excitement.

Until next time,

Rob and Lea

Progress at last

So as I left you all last time we were hoping to have the basment slab poured, and amazingly, it actually happened! Our crew turned up bight and early, and the pump truck duly arrived along with the concrete and the job got underway. Lea and I had been out at the house at 6 in the morning as we thought we may have to bail water out of the basement before work could start. Luckily the basment was dry and we had a perfect day for pouring concrete. I left Lea out there for the day so she could make a start on the walls on the first floor while I was sitting at my desk at work. By the time I returned after work the job was pretty much done so all I had to do was admire the craftsmanship.

At this point mum and dad were still with us, so Lea continued to work them hard for their last day in Saskatchewan. Lea was delighted to see them leave a second time, but is looking forward to welcoming them back to a finished house next time. However, with Lea having put up with my parents it was my turn to welcome the mother in law, as Lea`s mum arrived from Denmark for 3 weeks.

Having the basement slab poured meant that we could finally get backfilled. We were pretty pleased to finally have the hole in the ground filled in, as it meant we only had 13 feet to drop if we fell off the edge instead of 22 feet! And it also meant that Lea could put her mum to work straight away as the pair of them made a start on finishing the sheeting on the main floor. I followed progress from the comfort of my office, and was pleased to see that they did pretty much all of it, so that I didn`t have to do much!

Once the sheeting was finished it was time to make a start on raising the walls on the first floor. By this point I was starting to get a bit concerned. I always knew that the house was going to be big, but once we had been backfilled I realised that we could quite easily have put a roof on instead of the first floor, and the house would still be huge. Added to this we have a 14 foot ceiling upstairs on the south, and the size of the house was starting to be a bit overwhelming.

When they heard that there were walls to raise Stan and Nicole, once again, volunteered for a day of labouring (I dread to think what we would have achieved without these people!). Sure enough they turned up at 9am ready to get some walls in place. They even bought Carter and Cassidy with them who we dutifully put to work carrying wood around for us (I don`t think they have laws about child slavery here).

Over the course of the day we managed to get the whole north wall up and half of the east wall. Carter managed to get hos own back for being put to work by eating all my cookies and all my lollies. I managed to forgive him though, as Nicole had made a dinner for us all. This was very much appreciated as I was dead on my feet as we packed up in the dark after a full day`s work.

Today Lea and I spent the day out there hoping to get some more of the exterior walls raised. However, it was far to windy to be raising any sheeted walls today, so we settled for the interior walls instead. The good news is that my TV lounge now has four walls. I am tempted to just put a roof on it and forget about the rest of the house, but I don`t think that Lea will allow me to. We also had a bit of a tidy up, so that we could crate some space to make the remaining walls. You can see in one of the pictures below quite how tall our walls are going to be at the south of the house. You may be thinking that such a tall wall doesn`t belong where it is standing, and you would be right. However, we bolted in place there so that we could create a bit more floor space to work on.

As we were packing up this evening I noticed that I was being watched from behind a pile of materials. A curious little weasel was wandering round checking out what was going on, so I sat down for a while to be at one with nature. Luckily weasels like to eat mice, and seeing as I found the first mouse inside the house today I look forward to having the weasel in the area for a long time to come.

I now have 2 weeks of leave from work so that we can get the house to something approaching weatherproof. Hopefully this means that we should be making some pretty quick progress over the next couple of weeks.

In non-house news this time, I am finally off my warfarin. This is pretty handy as the indoor football season is just about to start, and I have managed to get my place back in the squad. It`s also pretty handy as it means that I will be able to poison rats and mice with my left over prescription (Incidentally I do plan on setting up some mousetraps around the house using tin cans, wire, a bucket of water and some peanut butter, I`ll keep you posted on the success of them!).

Also we received a phone call from Hannah last weekend who told us that she was going to be getting married in September next year. I can only assume that her fiance Andy is either stupid, or insane, but good luck to the pair of you! This means that we now have plans to be back in the UK in 2009. Hopefully we will be able to catch up with a lot of you while we are back.

That`s pretty much it for now.

Laters,

Rob and Lea

Cowboy Concrete Contractors

Before I get into too much detail about the last month, I have a very important announcement to make. If anyone in Saskatoon is ever wanting to get a contractor in to pour a concrete slab, DO NOT, under any circumstances, hire Milan's Concrete. Having booked Milan, and his self confessed 'very professional' crew we were disappointed to have to cancel pouring the basement slab due to a poor weather forecast. We were more disappointed to have to cancel a second time when the house was flooded and the rain continued to pour down. What really annoyed us was cancelling the third time. Having got ourselves out to the house early one morning to check conditions, and with concrete due to arrive at 9am, we received a phone call at 8:30 from the 'very professional' Milan to tell us that we should cancel the concrete. Apparently his weather sense told him that we were due to get a huge downpour that day, and there was no way we should go ahead. In fact, there was no rain that day, and when we tried to rearrange the pour we were told that the 'very professional' Milan was not going to do the job after all. The fool had wasted 3 weeks of our time, at a time when we were starting to get very stressed indeed about making some progress on the house.

Just to recap that paragraph: DO NOT USE MILAN'S CONCRETE. EVER.

Anyway, moving on to happier things. Since I last updated the blog the Tuffs arrived in here in Saskatoon for their building holiday. We managed to create enough space in the flat to accomodate the four of them. They arrived late on a Sunday night and we had little idea of the whirlwind to come. At 5:45 we started to get a bit more of an idea. Being woken up by Mollie saying "I can't wait for the day to begin" left me trying to bury my head under the pillow, as I was fully prepared to wait a few hours.

The arrival of the Tuffs coincided with the end of Lea's life as a member of the working community, as she started an open ended period of unpaid leave from her job. Now she is a full time builder, as we desperately race to get the house closed up before winter arrives.

The first task for Lea and the Tuffs was to get the basement completed so that we could get the basement slab poured. This involved filling the basement with 5 inches of polystyrene insulation, installing a vapour barrier and, finally, installing around 1000 feet of rebar and tying it all together. This all went very smoothly, and set us up nicely for the saga with the highly unprofessional Milan (the last time I will mention that idiot, I promise).












My fears about having two small children on site remained, but the girls were very well behaved, and their whole stay passed without any real incident. In fact, it seems the biggest incident involved Nikki, who managed to get hit in the head with a floor joist during the operation to get the first floor joists in place.










Luckily the day we chose to raise the floor joists was not too windy, and over the course of a few hours we managed to get all the joists into place. We had to keep the kids locked in the car while the crane was on site, but they seemed pretty content to just watch from a distance. It turned out to be a roastingly hot afternoon, and once we were done it was a welcome relief to be able to collapse and have a rest. We still have some joists remaining, as we have not yet made any progress on the garage, but hopefully we will be able to make a start on it soon. I look forward to finally getting the garage up, so we have some storage space, but I can't see it happening anytime soon.














Midway through the Tuffs visit, they made the trip over to Alberta to see something other than the prairies. This coincided with a field trip for me, and left Lea on her own for a few days to make some progress. The weekend that the Tuffs returned coincided with the long awaited 80s party. A trip to Value Village provided both Lea and I with our outfits. I chose to go as Mr. T, while Lea went for a (not very) classy 80s hooker.


















As it had been a very hot day before we went to the party I found myself somewhat dehydrated the next morning. With the weather forecast predicting 36 degrees the following day, I decided that another day slaving away in the sun might not be the best idea. As a result we took a day off from building (shock horror), and headed to Waskesiu for the day. This was a much better option and allowed me to lounge around on the beach, and rehydrate in the lake for a few hours. Waskesiu seemed like a great place, and once this house is finished I hope to be able to spend more time at the lake (in true Saskatchewan style).

Once we were back in building mode it was time to get the subflooring on to the first floor. This went surprisingly well and with the help of the Tuffs we got the job done in pretty good time. The only gap this left in the flooring was the space where the stairs will eventually go (when we will actually get some stairs is anyone's guess). In order to prevent too much rain getting into the basement we are now in a constant cycle of nailing tarp down over the gap, watching the tarp get blown off and nailing it down again. However, we are due to have the basement slab poured tomorrow (by a different contractor) so we may soon be able to do away with the tarp for good.












Last weekend, coinciding with the start of the football season back home, we had a 'super sunday' of our own. Mum and Dad were back for another week, the Tuffs were spending their last weekend in Saskatchewan before flying to Vancouver, and the neighbours (Stan, Nicole, Cassidy and Carter) came over for the day. We set out to have the exterior of the basement walls finished, the polythene wrapped around, the weeping tile in place around the footing and the gravel in place on the weeping tile. This looked like being a big ask, but luckily Stan brought the 'Gator' over and we were able to truck the gravel around the site all day instead of hauling it in a wheelbarrow. This was comfortably our biggest workforce on site (12 people), although 4 were kids and 2 were pensioners. However, we managed to get everything done and made it out for the Tuffs leaving dinner feeling very satisfied with a busy days work.










That pretty much brings us up to date. Mum and Dad have been with us for the past week, and will be heading back to Simo and Arin's on Sunday (bad luck Arin!). Lea has been working them hard on the building site, while I have spent the days sitting at my desk at work.

Our only piece of non house related news is that we have received our passports back from the High Commission in London. We now have our shiny visas, and are very close to being permanent residents. All we have to do is leave Canada, and then return so that our visas can be activated. We will not be going anywhere until the house is sealed up, but then we need to decide if we will race to the border and race back straight away so that we can keep building. or if we will make more of a trip of it (I am eyeing up a trip to Vegas so we can win enough to pay for the house).

Anyway, that's all for now. We have concrete arriving at 7am tomorrow, and I need to be up at 5am to get out there and make sure the hosue isn't under water again. I think it's probably best if I try and get some sleep.

Hopefully the next update won't take quite as long as this one did. Tune in next time for news of the basement slab, the first floor walls and maybe even the roof.

Until then..........