Week 5 - Day 21

Friday
Yowsers
I have been gone for most of the day and this is what I came home to.

Week 5 - Day 20

Thursday

It has got very cold here today, start of things to come, I guess. Still planning to get the roof opened up today and some structural being done here and there.

Poem stakes himself outside the garage door.  He knows Lulu and the food is in there.

Week 5 - Day 19

Wednesday

oooh, lots of cursing and banging this morning coming from the bathroom.  Seems when 'someone' nailed shut a drawer in the bathroom from the other side. The drawer that Linda kept her hair dryer in, took her sometime to get it out. Funny.

It is a beautiful, sunny day here and unseasonably warm, so Will felt a need to take of advantage of the nice weather. Here he is taking the shingles off of the roof. My kitchen will be on the east side of the dormer and the roof will be raised on this side.

Week 5 - Day 18

Tuesday

We have finally made a decision about the stairs.  We are meeting halfway between what is on the drawings and what Will has suggested.  By shuffling the stairs over a bit we gain some room in Linda's living room and the front bedroom will be reduced to 10' width.  The stairs to the basement will remain in the same area, that way it doesn't muck up the 'rec' room and  the whole thing doesn't impact me that much.  

Week 5 - Day 18

Tuesday

Just some odd ball pictures.

This is the front bedroom, the one that is just off the front door.  The wall has been removed to the middle bedroom, which was being used as an office.  That room has always been dark and was not being used so this wall is being removed to bring in light to that area.

The fireplace on the main floor. The dropped ceiling is gone and there are no bricks at the top.

As there are no pictures of me, here is one.

Will removed the pocket door that was off of the main floor kitchen and found some interesting electrical hidden in there. Can see the black running up the groove.

Week 5 - Day 18

Tuesday

The basement footings are all done and it is cleaned up. Looks good, eh?

Week 5 - Day 18

Tuesday

I am going to try hard not to post anymore pictures of rubble.  I'm going to try, really. Drop beam going in upstairs where the walls have been removed. More pictures as usual in the gallery.

Muscles from Brussels

Cat

Lulu beat up the calico kitten this evening.  Hunk of fur hanging out of his mouth when I chased him in, but unable to catch him, so it is somewhere in the basement.

Week 5 - Day 18

Monday

My new digs are tight but cozy, but even I am starting to think this is bordering on the ridiculous. More of the same today. The demo has continued in the front room and my living room. The last three posts in the basement went in, the temp walls came out and the house is still standing. Excellent. 
Not much else to report today.

East Van Special

My life so far

Week 4 - Weekend

Halloweenie this weekend, but not at our house.  Lights out.
Have yet to make a decision regarding the stairs, but I am thinking of a compromise.  We need 3 sets of exterior french doors, like now.  We will need to hot foot it on Monday to find something other than the ugly steel doors at Rona or Home Depot.  We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up a bit and  moving our new sleeping quarters  Linda in the old master and me into the new bathroom area.  I have tried to hermetically seal myself in there, but after one day it is dusty already.  There is only a sheet of drywall between our rooms now and the duelling TVs is a new twist.

Week 4 - Day 17

Friday

Gabe had the day off yesterday for an interview with the BBY Fire Department.  Told him he can't leave until the house is finished, and he did come back today. They finished the ridge beam on the west side of the house and they are currently putting in the ridge beam on the west side. Things keep moving which is great. 

Will has continued getting the master bedroom and main floor bathroom sorted out and we will be moving into there so he can have the two rooms up front for the stairs.  The cement truck came today and the last 3 footings are done and will cure over the weekend.  Booyah!?

Cat doesn't seem to mind the noise at the moment, as long as he safe in my room and knows that no one comes in. So funny if he catches a glimpse of one of the guys, you'd think they were going kill him.

Week 4 - Day 17

Friday
Halloweenie this weekend.

This is what happens to carpenters that don't do a good job.

Gourmet Kitchen

Week 4 - Day 17

Wednesday
Fruit of our grunt work over the weekend. No rubble.

Week 4 - Day 17

Wednesday

Okay, I admit it. The jack hammer is the one thing that may do me in.  They are getting the last 3 footings ready so they can get the city to sign off on them Thursday, pour on friday. Nice to see something other than demo being done.

This is a footing that is ready for inspection by the city.  Vapour barrier and rebar.

New post in.  Hard to tell with the temp walls still in, but good to see the house is still standing.

One of the old posts in the basement coming out.

Week 4 - Day 16

Tuesday

Ohhh, cold this morning.  Didn't sleep well due to my stupid cat. It has rained hard the last few days and some water has showed in one of the footings. Not a big deal, though.  Something to do with the balance of the pressure because two of the posts are out, or something.  Will have to get the scoop on that later.

Carmine the plumber came by and the reset button for the boiler turned out to be right in front of our noses.  If that ever happens again in my lifetime, I now know what to do.  As we suspected, the furnace self terminated due to a short from the water.

Week 4 - Day 15

Monday

Plumber couldn't make it today.  Will played with the boiler off and on with no luck, so we will have another night without heat.  Weather has been warm for this time of year, so the space heaters are enough.  They started framing in the wall for the new bathroom on the main. This is at the end of the master and when done, Linda will move back into her regular room they can start the demo of the front bedroom.  Not sure where I will go yet.  Cat is driving me nuts, yeowling  and whining, all night.

Week 3 - Weekend

Here's a good one.  Sunday night we were invited to a friend's for dinner, he felt for us, I guess, with no kitchen. Excellent dinner by the way, thanks Randy.

I had noticed before we left that the furnace wasn't kicking in. The thermostat had been knocked off the wall a few times already, so I had assumed it had something to do with that.

Picture this. Dark, rainy, windy Vancouver night. We get home around 1am, no heat, no power to half the house and the hole in the roof where the chimney was is leaking. Now the credit goes to Linda, because I would have put a few pails out and gone to bed.  

The first picture shows where she put a door over the joists to reach the hole to try to fix the leak. We taped the vent to the joists in an effort prevent it from sagging and pulling on the plastic. To make a long story short, as there was no rain hood on top of the vent, the rain entered the vent, settled in the curve, and it turns out the boiler shuts itself down if the vent is blocked. If it had been left all night, chances are it would have filled up and entered the boiler and that smells expensive to me.  We ended up poking a hole at the bottom of the vent where the water had settled and propped it up to assist in the sagging problem.  We couldn't locate the reset button, but we both have space heaters in our rooms and we made it through the night!  Good thing we are here.

Week 3 - Weekend

We have spent a good part of the weekend loading up the bin.  Two days up and down two flights of stairs.  Good exercise, but sore, man.  Hamburgers at the pub after real good. The first picture is good example of the type of dust is hanging around.  Linda's brother came by to give us a hand.  No pictures of my family, yet...haha