Okay.....We got the floor poured but was it ever cold.  The coldest day this fall.  -11c or more.
The concrete is not curing properly so John has been over every hour trying to power trowel it but it is still quite wet.  We have put plastic on the window and door into the room plus hooked up a heater by the door and a couple of big lights to help keep it warmer.
Because the concrete was sticking in the chute Cecil put some extra water in it and it is not firming up as well as it should.
We will see how it is the next time John gets here but it may end up being a rough floor.

The water pipes here keep freezing so we have to go and turn them on every half hour to make sure they don't burst.

The power company was here and hooked up the new service today so we were also without heat for a part of the day until Brian got the wires we had run hooked up.  Still nothing hooked up in the addition but hopefully we can run a few pieces of equipment now without tripping a fuse.

All we need to do now is get the parts for the doors and close in the first floor and we will be warmer.

One wheelbarrow at a time.

We were trying to keep some of the concrete off the floors.

Russell moved almost all the concrete.

You had to lift the wire up a bit so the concrete gets around the tubes.

E/B

Okay the pressure test worked so we are on track to pour concrete tomorrow morning.
Not having to go through every tube to find a leak is a relief.  It turns out it was the manifold connections, they were not as tight as needed to maintain pressure.  Oh how happy I am.

Obstacles always gets in the way of my well laid plans.  The tub that I thought was perfect will not fit in the space that Bill allowed for one.  Unless one does not mind the toilet and tub touching.  Now we look for another one.

The doors are not deep enough for the openings which means trying to find a solution that everyone can live with.  Whatever we do for these patio/garden doors will have to be done for all outside doors because the foam is so thick.

I hope the doors we picked out for the other openings look nice.  It is not easy for Brian and I to go out and pick out six doors that we both like so when we did find them we ordered them right away.   This was at Lowes too.  When we went to pay for the doors the price had increased by 50. to 100. dollars a door.  That is a big spread when we were buying six doors.  Brian was great and asked why the difference and when he was told they had to be ordered in because they did not keep some of them in stock he was very firm about why would you have a price marked on the wall when you knew that would not be the price......etc.  The salesman did give us the lower price on everything but we had to fight for it.

I am hoping this gets closed in by next week but we will see.

The basement stairs may prove to be a problem since they are not 36 inches wide and the new code is that is the min. requirement.  Lisa the inspector was over and is going to see what can be done.  If nothing else we will close them up and use the old stairs and try to make the old ones wider.  That is a whole new adventure.

Ready for the concrete tomorrow.

This is still not deep enough for the ICF walls.

The new closet.

These stairs down will only be 31 inches so they would not pass inspection.

E/B

Here I am awake at 2am worried about concrete again.  It is so bloody annoying to have these delays be a constant part of the build.  And this is someone else's fault.  Brian was ready to test the in-floor heat on Monday but Bardons never delivered the part needed so Brian finally drove to some warehouse to pick it up.  It was sitting on the counter and did not make it to the three trucks that had made deliveries to Picton.
Then when he went to test the pressure yesterday it will not stay at one number so that means there is a leak somewhere.  If you look back at the photos of the tubing you'll see how hard it is going to be to find a leak in all that tubing.

We had wanted to pour concrete today because Friday Hydro comes to wire in the new service and disconnect the old.  That means we have to go into the dark basement and hook up all the old wiring to new.  While that is happening we have no power so pouring concrete is out of the question because it is a floor that needs to be power trowelled so no power no concrete on Friday and that means next week it is.

It also means I won't be going to our other house  to pack next week because we still won't be able to close up the kitchen area which means water pipes that will have to be checked to make sure they are not freezing.

Speaking of freezing lucky for us Evan was going past our other house and needed a washroom because I guess the temperature in the house was 13c.  We were able to call Brett from B.C.  Mechanical and he got out right away to fix the ground source heat beast.  It is always the same thing with that system, the fuse blows because the furnace filter gets dirty too quickly and the furnace has to work too hard.  It should not be dirty since no one goes in the house for long periods of time and there are no pets.

Mean while the windows continue to go in and the guys are not happy after Drew was here he really mucked up the yard so they are getting pretty muddy doing the windows.

The windows going in.

Master bedroom, look at the mud.

The problem sunroom

From inside the man cave.

Old fuse panel.

Such a rats nest mess.

This mess  drives Brian crazy.

Brians work.

Look at that new panel and wiring.  Nice and neat.

The new tub for the girls I know who like to have a nice deep tub for bathing in.  It will cover your knees for sure.

I just hope we get to close in that main floor soon.  PLEASE!!!!!!!

E/B

What a cold weekend for Brian and I.
We worked out in the sunroom to get the in-floor heat tubes down.  The wind was quite cold on Saturday so I blocked up a couple of the doorways to keep from freezing.  Even then our hands and feet were stiff by the time we finished.

The rolls of tube had to be held in the air and only let out a few feet at a time.  That was me hold the roll for about an hour and a half at a time while Brian tied it down. That took three rolls of tubing done in a very precise pattern.
It was so hard to work with because of the cold it did not go around the corner well.
The wire underneath was also pulled up because the tubing would not sit flat in the cold.
We just put in some rebar anchors we had sitting around.

It is still not hooked up and tested which is what we have to do before we can pour concrete.
Brian is waiting for Bardon to deliver some washers he needs that are special to this system.

Ah well progress has still been made.

Still open to the weather which results in pipes being frozen some mornings.

Who needs a stove anyway?

This is three separate sets of tubes.

It will make the sunroom one of our favourite places I think.

Still no idea on what windows we want to install.

E/B

It's taken all this time to get the roof finished.  There is a relief that sets in that it is finished and we can move on.  We'll just have small porch roofs to do later.  The roof was a real surprise as I was expecting it to be a costly part of the build since it is so large.  It is costing us less than our roof in Eden Mills, with a better underlay and upgraded vents as well as a really good shingle.  Bourque Roofing(Tony bottom photo) have been great.

We have been trying to get the sunroom ready for concrete but once again are delayed.  The plumbing and electrical pipes/conduit are not where they should be so we need to move them.  Bill(plumber) has not been well so he only started his work yesterday.  This is when we found that not all of the material he wanted was delivered and this slows us down.  We cannot pour until all the pipes and drains in that room are finished.

Yesterday was crazy again.  Two guys digging a trench and backfilling , two guys working on the sunroom, three guys doing some electrical, one guy plumbing, two guys on the roof and all of them needing to talk to Brian or needing him to go get something.
Evan arrived and was immediately put to work drilling holes through concrete.  Turns out the second hole was in the wrong place.  We just did not do final measurement on the tub.  DUH!

So far we have broken two hammer drills and one nailer.  Bills special plumbing drill keeps breaking on him as well.  These tools are working hard and not surviving.

The guys are happy with the weather so far.  It has been so nice none of us are looking forward to the cold that is coming next week.  While Bill is messing with the pipes they will start the windows today.  That should be satisfying to them, to see a more finished house I mean.

What a mess!  This is material for the yard and sunroom.

Sunroom and pipes that need to be moved.

Adding some final pieces to the deck.

I am going to love this deck.

This was the street before two more big red pickups arrived.  Not a great option for a shortcut these days.

Trying to get things done so we can pour.

Drew digging the line for a buried electrical line.

cutting through the roots.

Tony/David.  He really reminds me of a brother of mine.

E/B

This has been a great week.  There are some setbacks but it is all right since in the end we are just finishing the roof earlier than we wanted.

It would have been nice to just tie the new roof into the old but the mess the guys found up there meant they had to fix it before they could carry on.  The trusses were almost three feet apart in some places and there was a fair bit of rot and wood so dry it split when they walked on it.  Not something you want to leave and since the roofer is here they want to get it done so he can finish everything but the porch roofs.
I knew there would be problems as soon as we looked inside that roof.  This roof has square nails so it is not something that has been touched for many years.  The shingles may also be almost as old as the house.  They are very thick, black and fall apart when moved around.

We bought John and Russell  harnesses because we were so worried about them falling.  They have been using them so that makes us happy.   Probably them as well.

Today we have the plumber, Bill, here getting some venting etc. installed while the roofers are here.
Tony the roofer is here as well starting the shingling.
Brian the hot tub guy is supposed to show up to do a site inspection.
Wes the electrician is also supposed to show up.
It keeps Brian very busy running around to talk to each one.

For those who will question us about the roof choice we made since we were looking at metal.  It was not easy to make the choice but at four times the price of even the best fibreglass shingles we decided this would work for us.

It looks complicated and it is.

The dark wood is where the old wood was with nothing in between.  Not to code.

A very busy street again.

The front was not as bad.

John using the harness, thank god.

This is what this dry wood would do.

Looking much safer.

I don't think these guys take time to notice the view.  They work really hard.

Brians new nailer which he needed as the last one is giving them lots of trouble.

We got all the sheeting finished by the weekend and the bracing is almost all finished.
That went better than expected and we can now try and tie the new roof into the old.
That will be a bit of a challenge since there is no design for this part.
We just have to trust that between an engineer and two guys who have done this before it can be done.

John had called this morning and was not in due to a broken toe he hit on the bed getting up.
Had to go for X-rays to make sure that was why it hurt so much.
It may make climbing the ladder a little tough tomorrow.

The electrician showed up today as well as the guy who will dig in conduit for the cable from the house to the pole.
Tony Bourque also showed up to put a waterproof barrier on the roof so we can keep the floor drier.
He will come back in a week with the shingles and finish the new part of the roof.
The old roof will get done later as we want to concentrate on getting the windows in and a floor in the sunroom.  That has to be done before we completely block off access for the concrete trucks.

We also had a great weekend and did not do any work on the house.  Jude and Rick came down and we went out Friday night to the Barley Room and did not stay long. The trio turned out to be two very quiet singers.  Sat. was the Acoustic Grill and saw Jerome Godboo with Eric Shenkman from the Spin Doctors.  These guys were very good.  Sunday we went and saw Blackie and the Rodeo Kings(Awesome!!)  They had Amy Helm(Levons daughter) sing some songs with them. They put on a great show.  What is so great is that we walked to two of these events. The Barley Room is too far.  That is what Brian and I are looking forward to, having friends and family come down and we can go out to see bands four nights a week.

There is a lot of wood up there.

Still working on the bracing.

The angled room is the laundry room.

Plywood ready for the tie in to the old roof.  If it is still there in the morning since it is very windy tonight.

The barrier going on.

The tarp is the only thing keeping the old part of the house dry right now.  Again I hope the wind does not blow it  away.

E/B