Progressssss....s as in SLOW

Well as you may have already guessed, I (meaning Carrie) have taken over temporarily to post at least one update.  Brad has been swamped.  Between my bitching and having to jaunt to Italy, he's been kept rather busy.  So I get to give you a run down on things as I see/experience them.

It has been about six weeks since my arrival, and things have changed drastically.  Although somedays it feels like nothing has changed we are now living a quasi normal life, amongst the remaining chaos and filth.

We now have a completely functioning kitchen, with only a few small things left to tackle.  We have a very interesting cabinet maker, who if you met him on the street might think he's homeless, hmmmm after typing this I have to rephrase, if you in fact saw how he lived, you'd be convinced he's homeless.  He's eeer how do I say this? Eccentric.  And Gabriella is in love with him.  He's probably one of the nicest people you'd ever meet, but I'm not sure I'd use his bathroom.  He's done some amazing work for us, but gives slow a whole new meaning.  In any case, we are nearing the end of is chain of excuses and explanations, deflecting the question of 'when exactly do you think you'll have this done?'.

This move is a test of everything in the patience department, which I have so little of.  Between floors that have taken the better part of eight weeks, yes eight weeks, and crazy pot smoking tradesmen that show up after a two week absence, as though they just ran to Tims for a coffee.  We are making progress, real live progress my friends.

I will leave all of the technical stuff to those who know, or more aptly care, to explain what's happening in that department.  I will attach some pics of the other prettier stuff that has gone on.

We were lucky enough to use the pool almost everyday from the day I arrived until about a week ago when things started to cool off.  Gabriella is now a full fledged swimmer, she took to the water like a duck and spent endless days soaking up the chlorine and the sun.  The big kids arrived mid August and we had some nice hot lazy days enjoying settling in.

Now for the work.  I guess I will let the pictures do the talking, you'll be able to see how far things have come from brad's earliest posts.

Let there be light!!!!

So I am a little behind on my posting, sorry about that!  Things have been proceeding apace here for a while, I had to make a trip back to Calgary to pick up a helper (Gabriella) and help with the packing etc. for the movers (not that I really did much Carrie had everything already taken care of by the time I got there).  In any event I am finally getting back to this.  :)

So I think where I left off was with the installation of the new pool liner, the next day we started to fill the pool, well we started that day with hoses which were not exactly super fast, so the next day we brought in water trucks, much faster.  I have posted some shots of the pool as it was being filled below, it took two days with the hoses and the truck (8 loads with the truck).

I think this was with the hoses and the first load of water.

A little more...

Almost to the shallow end...

Almost done!!!  Just down to filling with hoses.

Laura (Gabs named her) checking out the pool during the filling process.

Finally all full, and the guys are working on pouring the concrete to repair all of the parts we had to dig out etc.

And finally the pool all lit up at night full of water and with the new lights on, hurray!!!

Dawning of a new day!

Yesterday was a great day!  We got lots done and I am really feeling like we are making good progress now.  :) The laundry room got tiled yesterday, the first coat is on the ceiling in the family room and the kitchen, the main part of the roof is off so the installation crew can start on Monday and drum roll please.... the liner is in the pool!!!  Awesome!!!

Dallas working tirelessly to prep the pool before moving the liner in, they must have cleaned the inside of the pool at least a dozen times to make sure they had everything out of there.

The folded up liner ready to go!

Partially unfolded to make sure it is orientated correctly in the pool (luckily it was, I can't imagine having to fold it back up and try to move it around)

Liner is almost completely installed, just putting the last end in

This is the liner fully installed... well it is fully in the pool, there is still lots to do with getting it fully stretched etc.

So the plan for today is equally exciting, hopefully the weather cooperates and we can get the pool liner fully installed (get the gaskets done and the liner fully stretched etc.) as well as getting some water into the pool.  The tile guys are back and should get the bathrooms done today.  I think they are also hoping to get some of the tiles they have put down sealed so they can start some grout...  Not sure how that is going to go though since we are still waiting on some of the tiles to dry out, we will see how that goes.  I had a look this morning and they didn't look like they are ready yet but we will see.  :)  They drywall guy is already here working away on the ceilings so that should be finished today as well.  I really hope so, he has been an ornery cuss and is pissing off the rest of the contractors.  Yesterday was funny he got into a scrap with the tile guys about how things should be covered on the floor, the drywaller was concerned that they not be covered with plastic because if he is walking on his stilts it is very slippery...  good grief!  

The other stuff that we gone done yesterday is not nearly as exciting, all a bunch of in wall stuff that I am working on as I can, vacuflo outlets, removing and sealing heating pipes for the upper floor as there is a new unit going in that will feed from the top down so the old stuff has to come out.  I managed to get most of that done yesterday as well.

Ok I have to get at it, more to come later.  

Disaster Strikes!!!

Oh no, now what???  So I get a call from our cabinet guy two days ago, normally he is a pretty upbeat talkative guy, he has a million stories and ideas.  He is great to talk to but you want to make sure you have some time set aside when you are going to be talking to him.  :)  So when he first called I was right in the middle of dealing with some other stuff so I let the call go to voicemail and then called him back.  As soon as I heard his voice I knew something was wrong, he was not sounding like his normal self.  He proceeds to tell me that he has had an accident in his shop and that he broke his back... what do you say to something like that??  Of course I asked how he was doing etc. but it just seems so inadequate.  As it turns out he didn't exactly break his back (see my earlier comments about him being talkative and having stories) but he did break four ribs in his back and ripped up all of his muscles etc. in his back and shoulder so he is way out of commission.  I guess he was trying to get a sheet of material out and he had ten other sheets of plywood fall on him and pin him against a saw horse.  He was there alone and apparently struggled for over half a day to get himself free and manage to crawl to a phone to call an ambulance.  Not good at all.  So he is busy making arrangements to have all of our stuff taken care of but of course the schedule is going to sleep big time (probably by a couple of weeks :( ).  We are worried about how the quality is going to turn out now as well...  Time will tell.  I am planning on heading out there later today or tomorrow so I will take some pictures while I am out there.

On to some good news, the tile guy has been working tirelessly to get tile installed.  He is very particular and loves what he does so it is great to work with him (even if he does have a bit of a short fuse sometimes lol).  When he opened the tiles he freaked because they looked like two different colors so he ran off to the supplier to give him what for, turns out that the tiles were just wet.  :)  After that he was installing the tiles in the front entrance and somebody walked on the tiles, he was not happy about that he came flying outside accusing everybody of walking on the tiles.  Luckily is was still very wet and he had no problem fixing it up, but it was funny to see.  Here is a time lapse of the tiling of the entrance, the tile guy (Dave) is the guy in the first picture.

Step one, get all of the concrete board and kerdy board down and set.

Start the installation of the tiles.

The finished product.  

Dave stayed and worked late with me last night so we also got a bunch done in the bathroom and laundry room.

This is the first half of the Laundry room tiled.

This is the bathroom with the concrete board and in floor heating in.

Ok, I think that is about it for now.  :)  Things are coming along the tile guy and pool guys should be here shortly, the drywaller (John) is already working away on getting the ceilings and walls in the family room and kitchen completed, he says he will have all of that done by tomorrow, hurray!  From there he has to finish the bathroom, laundry room and Elliots bedroom.

I see the pool guys driving up so I am out of here, catch you all later.

Let there be water... Please!!!!

This is my optimistic post for the week!  Today is the day, I just know it!  The weather gods are cooperating it looks like a fantastic day out the sun is shining and we are on track to do the pool liner today!!!  This will be a tremendous accomplishment and a bit of a landmark if we can get this done.  :)

Yesterday was a good day, things are starting to come together and I can actually see progress everyday, that is hugely exciting since it marks the completion of the one thing that we absolutely wanted to do when we looked at the place... funny how that goes!!!  I am hopeful that the completion of the pool will lead to good Karma and everything else will start to follow suit.  :)

Here are some pictures of the pool as it currently stands.

The roll of silver space foil is the insulation for the upper portion of the pool.

This is Len one of the pool guys, he has been tireless working on all of this stuff.  He basically lives here, he has been here pretty much everyday for the last four weeks.

This is Dallas the owner of the pool place, he also basically lives here, he is here everyday checking in on things and working on things... he even mowed the lawn for me the other day.  :)  I have to say they have been amazing for the amount of work they are doing and what they are getting paid I can't complain one bit.

Here is is the magical mythical pool liner!!!  :)  It is pretty amazing the pool is 20 ft by 40 ft plus the Roman ends and is ten feet deep in the deep end, the box for the liner is about 12 inches deep by 30 inches long by 18 inches wide, I can't wait to see how it all goes together.  It is hard to believe that it is going to be big enough to cover the entire surface area of the pool.

So I was talking to Dallas yesterday about filling the pool etc. and he says oh ya you need to go to Walmart and grab the salt for the pool, I say sure how much do I need he says well at least 50 bags... what???  50 20kg bags of salt??  Holy crap!!!  So last night after I finished up for the day I went to Walmart... what an experience that was.  :)   To make a long story short (I know not something I do very often) I eventually got my 50 bags of salt... well 49 bags.

This is what 49 bags of salt loaded in the back of the mighty Kia (I have renamed it after my experience with it last night).  Each bag weighs 20kg which is roughly2,200 pounds.  This is harder to see, but this is what the Kia looks like with that much weight in it...

I was very concerned that the truck was going to break on the way home, but it was fantastic, no problems at all.  :)

So we are all set for the pool today!  Dallas has a load of water lined up so that will help get the pool filled, I think that the pool is around 180,000 liters so I am not sure how long it will take to fill that from the hose... a week maybe???  I will have to see if I can figure that out.  :)  Stay posted for more pictures and updates.

Houston we have lift off!!!

Well it was an epic day yesterday the new hot water heater was finally commissioned (although I still need one more electrical line installed to complete the whole thing) it is totally cool, the unit is amazingly quite and I can't believe how efficient it is in getting the water up to temperature.  On top of that we got the old tanks removed and the new hallway framed in ready to go for drywall, hurray!!!

Not an exciting picture I know but this really is a huge thing, it gives us a straight entrance from the garage and straight access for Elliot from his room to the upstairs, very important.  :)  Without this we may have never seen Elliot!  :)

Oh and here is a another picture of the new water heater all plumbed in and operating, so far so good we have everything working and even the hot water re-circulation is meeting my expectations (of course with only me here there isn't exactly a huge demand on the system.)

LOL, ok I started this yesterday morning didn't get back to it until late last night and then fell asleep while I was trying to update it!!!  Good grief!  Ok, it is early Saturday and I see that the dry waller just drove up so I am going to suspend this for now, more to come shortly!!!  Today is going to be a huge day!

I am Dinosaur, hear me ROAR!!!

Meet my new friend

He is a rescue dinosaur and I am happy to report that he is recovering nicely after being buried the backyard for an unknown period of time (he is still pretty broken up about it so he is not ready to talk about it just yet :).

So what exciting news can I share with everybody today?  It feels like I go non stop from the second I open my eyes until I close them at night but I often look back at the day and have a hard time feeling like I accomplished anything significant :(  Things are coming along, I know that and I can see the progress it just feels slow.  But enough whining!  The major things that are underway right now are mostly outside, progress inside is waiting on a very slow drywaller, he is making progress but it is slow going.  It looks to me like is mostly done the family room and the kitchen apart from the ceiling.  He says he is going to work this weekend and be done so we will see.  The other job that is happening inside is the tile, he has been a busy putting down Hardy board so there is not really anything exciting to see there, today he will hopefully get some stone down, that will be exciting!  Here are a couple of pictures of the tile sitting in the garage.

There are also different sizes but they are in boxes.  Funny story from the tile guy he was at the warehouse picking everything up and it was before the store opens so the sales guy was operating the fork lift (never a good idea) and he accidentally went forward instead of backward and knocked out a huge shelf of material which fell into an outside wall with windows, it knocked the wall and the windows out... apparently it was so bad that an ambulance that was driving by rushed to the scene because they thought the building had exploded.  In the end nobody was hurt but it sounds like the tile for this job is going to cost the company a whole lot more than they are going to make... I hope they have insurance.

The roofers are chugging away on things they have about half off the roof off after three solid days of work, they have filled the most enormous garbage bin I have ever seen.  I could literally drive the mini van into the bin and have a bunch of room left over.

This is not a great picture as the truck looks bigger since it is closer but you can see that the bin is higher than the truck.  At any rate the bin was changed out today because it was overflowing.  I don't think they will get to putting new roof on this week but probably starting on Monday.  Here are some pictures of our new white roof in the mean time.

You can also see the safety tape that we put up around the pool in this picture, they didn't want anybody falling in!

So the other major activity right now is focused around the pool, and the news of the day yesterday was that the pool liner has now arrived in Comox, hurray!!!  Dallas (the pool guy... I will have to get a picture tomorrow) is going to start on that ASAP, they have to clean up all of the concrete etc. in the pool before they can put it in, but that will start tomorrow (Thursday).  The new cover for the pool is all cut in now and they concrete guy was here forming things up today so they can come and repair the damage as well as adding a new walkway to the pool house (this was where we found my new friend... I am going to have to come up with a name for him!).  Try not to let these pictures frighten you but here you can see what is going on out at the pool.

In this pic you can see the new cover housing in the ground and the new pathway from the main pool area to the pool house on the left.

The stairs to no where???  This used to be grass in the middle of a bunch of concrete around the pool, we are replacing it with concrete and fixing the stairs with a very small pad at the top of the stairs until we decide what we want to do with the space above.

Just another picture of the house and pool, you can see some of the track for the cover in the bottom right of the picture along with a drain that we had to move.  You can also see the new lights in the pool they are the two holes about two feet below the lip of the pool.

This is a good picture you can see the roof and almost all of the pool work that is going on.

The other big thing that happened today was I finally got the remains of the previous tile and subfloor all sanded off the floor, hurray!!!  It looks so much better and they tile and hardwood guy are both happy with the surface now so that is a huge relief!  I don't have a picture of that as it is pretty boring, maybe I will post one later.

Last but not least here is a picture of the on demand water heater all plumbed in, tomorrow (Thursday) is start up, woo hoo!!!

I fell asleep typing this last night so sorry for the delay, I have to get back at it, more updates later today!!!  :)

My triumphant return!!!

So for those of you that don't know I had to leave the job here for about ten days because I missed my family so much and also because I had a work commitment that required me to travel to Africa.  The trip home was fantastic and made me realize even more how much I miss everybody.  It is a very weird thing to feel how much I miss them but to also be anxious to get back to the renovations to see how things are progressing here so we can all move on to the next phase of our lives together.  Soooooo enough rambling on about all of that good stuff I will get on the reason that most of you are likely reading this, what is happening with the house???  In the time leading up to my departure we were furiously attempting to get everything ready for the drywall guys to come in and close everything up.  The night before I left was an all nighter for me with two separate crews also working here until about 1:30 in the morning.  Of course as these things go we did not finish everything that we needed to finish to have the drywall guys come in and do what they needed to do.  Consequently we had to delay them by a couple of days and thanks to some amazing people here (Dev and Robert) the remaining work was completed and the drywall guys got in here a week ago.

We have not had a chance to see anything that has happened since I left so we were very anxious to see the progress that had been made while I was away.  While it is still a huge mess I think we are finally starting to see some real progress and are finally on the path of putting things back to together vs. tearing them apart.  :)  It was huge day catching up with all of the various contractors, but I don't think I will bore you all with that tonight... well maybe later.  For now I am going to attach some photos of what things currently look like, and leave it at that!

Of course this will now represent a real challenge to my newly acquired blogging skills to see if I can successfully incorporate some pictures...

 This is the inside kitchen wall, this wall will have the 60" Dual fuel, Dual Oven and cook top centered on the wall with banks of cabinets on either side (about 44" each side).  It doesn't look like much but I am particularly proud of this wall, we had to move all of the plumbing from upstairs out of this space to allow for a clean wall.  We also had to run the new electrical service for the ovens and we had to run the new vent for the hood fan which is a 12" round duct (you can see it in the top of the pic).  One of my goals is to create a post for each major area showing the full evolution so hopefully you will all get to see the huge changes here.  :)

This is also the kitchen, this will be where the sink is looking out the window over the pool.  No huge changes here, some minor electrical and plumbing clean up.  

This is another view of the kitchen looking towards the eating area (for reference the whole kitchen used to be the yellow and white stripes so you have some idea how much of the kitchen we demolished... down to the studs everywhere)

This is a picture of the revised family room.  Where the small wall is on the left of the picture used to be a load bearing wall that extended across the entire room.  We knew we wanted to take this wall out from the get go, but it was a huge undertaking.  We had to put in a 16' 6" 14" triple laminated beam that is about 8" thick.  You can't see the beam because we also dropped the entire ceiling in the room by about 4" to cover the beam so now it is a flat ceiling in the room.  This is a huge improvement and has totally changed the feel of this part of the house.  

This is also the family room looking back towards the kitchen (the wall is shared with the kitchen).  If you look at the pictures of this room from before there was a bar on the left hand side of the room beside the door that you can see there now.  

LOL, this one is really exciting... it's a hallway, cool hey?  :)  For some unknown reason it used to be offset and open to the laundry room on the right hand side.  We straightened the hallway and added a wall to the laundry room, additionally we demolished and reconfigured the bathroom on the left hand side of the hallway. I will try to get some pictures of the laundry room and bathroom tomorrow.  They are not that exciting right now as they are just empty boxes.

I had to take this one for all you geeks out there... this is all of the cable that we have installed for home networking and AV (well not all of it but a good chunk of it... terminating all this is going to take some time...) You can also see the new on demand water heater on the right...  the whole utility room is in fact new.

This is Elliot's new room with the walk in closet on the right.  Previously this room was two smaller rooms and a hallway.  You can see the division in the ceiling where part of it is finished and part of it is new.   

This is another view of Elliot's new room.

This is Elliot's new walk-in closet.

This is the sunken living room on the main floor.  You can see we have removed the old fire place and are awaiting the new unit.

 That should give everybody some small idea of what has been going on... :)  I am off to do some work but I am hoping to get at least one other update done on here tonight so wish me luck!