It is so nice having heat in the new part of the house.  Even though the heaters were keeping it from freezing the even heat we get now is so nice.

Dave had to come back again and fix the leak in the fireplace.  It was so annoying that he could not smell gas but Brian and I certainly could.  He thought once he replaced the blower on the fireplace it would fix that problem but it did not.  I would also not get a Continental Fireplace again.  Not only are the logs ugly and look a bit cartoonish but there are so many things that can go wrong.  The wiring and all the mechanical parts are under the firebox and there is no insulation it seems so the stuff gets extremely hot and I'm pretty sure it won't last long with that kind of heat.  Maybe all fireplaces are like that but I'm not sold that that is a smart design.

Brian is very happy that his heated floors are working and all the concrete floors are nice and warm which makes the room warm.

I may not be on again for a while since Christmas is coming and we will be busy with things other than the house.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone.

E/B

Here we are just a week before Christmas and Brian is taking apart the house.

Brian is running pipe to the old part of the house but I need this table room for Christmas dinner.

That job required him to also empty the pantry.  I'll have it cleaned up before we have neighbours in for drinks tonight but that is a Really ???? moment.

Let the bells ring out and the banners fly the boiler is a go!!!!  After all this time it is finally running and it was such an easy fix.  It turns out that the pipes to outside were still plugged so no animals or nasty weather could get into the house and without air being brought in the machine would not fire.
I have not been this warm in the place for a long long time.  The new part is toasty warm but the old part is feeling much chillier.  It is nice to have the air temperature the same in every room of the new build and not freeze while trying to shower.  I love it.

Finished off another colourful part of the floor.  Still really hard to clean because of all the dirt in the concrete but I hope it was clean enough for the paint.

E/B

When the floor was poured the rain made holes in the concrete so Brian was finning them first.

Pink because a little girl asked for one room to be that colour.

We'll paint the block walls a light colour at some point and the hot water tank will be removed from this spot so I did not worry about paint on the tank.

Still no boiler.  The stupid thing won't fire up so Dave is now waiting to hear from the company on what might be wrong.  So annoying but what can you do but wait.  We don't have the skills to fix it ourselves.

The eaves trough has all been installed even the sunroom. we are happy to take something else off the list of things to be done.

Right now we are cleaning and painting the basement to try and keep the dust down.  The dust from all the construction is hard to get out of the cement and if you don't get it out the paint will  not stick.  I am vacuuming, brushing, sweeping and washing the floors before painting.

We decided to have fun in the basement since it will be storage only and are painting each room different colours.  Some rooms have more than one colour so we can divide areas.  It will be easier to give instructions on where to find something.  Just tell the person looking to go to a colour, and it's fun to let loose with paint choices.

Some day we will white wash the walls here.

The yellow room it looks so much cleaner.

The orange area where the plumbing is.

The green area which is tool storage while the workshop gets done and the old furnace.

E/B

Still trying to finish the wiring for the heating system.  It is very picky work and Brian is the only one who can do it with me helping when he needs it.
The house is pretty warm though and it will be interesting to see how warm it is once we get a cold snap.

John and a crew from Quinte Aluminum are here to put up the eaves and downspouts.  They are working very quickly and in one day have almost finished the job and should be done tomorrow.
I guess that is the difference between by the hour and by the job.  They worked from 9am till 2:30 and finished 80% of the work.  Not bad.

E/B

I'll try to get a better shot of their work once they are done.

We have the hot tub in place it is so nice just to have it here.  I am hoping we get it hooked up soon since it is the one thing I miss about moving here and that is giving up our hot tub, and friends of course.

St Lawrence Pools, who be bought from, have been very patient with us since we put the downpayment and ordered it over a year ago have never really pressured us into taking it before we were ready.  Although they had to move it from the warehouse into the showroom for the last four months.
When they were ready to deliver the tub we were told to have a few guys handy because it is very large and had to go four feet up to the window and then two feet down into the sunroom.  So we had Tim and his uncle lined up to help which made four of us and the two guys that would deliver it.
We had asked for a late morning delivery but they showed up at 8 am which was a bit early for retired people.  They decided to wait until the other crew were finished and have them help us as they did not think we could manage the four foot lift and if they helped the other crew they would get them done faster.
Long story short seven guys showed up.  It went in very easily with that kind of crew and I love just sitting in it and having coffee even if there is no water in it yet.  I can dream.

E/B

These guys are very efficient. 

This was the easy part.

And there are still more guys inside.  They put cut pvc pipe on the window ledge to roll it on then had steel pipes for the floor.

Well today we had to call Tim back because there was a leak in one of the pipes.
It did not take him long to fix that but he had a friend come over to give Brian a quote on doing the electrical work for the boiler.
As is the norm with the County two guys walk in and off to the basement to look at the job and confer with each other.  End of the discussion was they could take it on next week sometime but it would require two of them and two full days at $80.00 and hour.  Really?  Really guys???
Just before they arrived Brian had been explaining to Tim about the system and how to wire it because Brian has been studying the books that came with it and looking online.  Tim had just told him that it looked pretty simple and why didn't Brian just do it himself.
But these two guys will take two days to do that job.
E/B

So Brian and I decided it was time to install the fan over the stove.
Another adventure in frustration but we got it done with some ingenuity and patience.

The fan is incredibly heavy and has to be worked in sections so Brian gets the plug into the top of the stack and we put together the steel cover.  But to plug the fan in I have to hold up the steel covers while Brian reaches through the top to access the plug but the steel covers won't stay together so we have to take them down and try again. After doing it twice I suggest we use that lovely silver tape to hold the sides together and that works very well.

So we get the thing up and realize we forgot the glass cover that goes on the hood.  ARGHH!!!! so we take it down and take it apart to install the glass and realize there is no way I can hold it up while Brian screws it on and he can't hold it up while I screw it on.  That glass is really heavy.
Another suggestion is made, lets stack boxes and various items so we can lever it up into place.  Yes a great idea so we get boxes and plywood and whatever else we can find until we can use a jack to get it the rest of the way.

And the hood is up without anyone wrecking their backs in the process.

E/B

Looks odd but it worked.

There's no way we could hold that up.

It looks great but I keep bumping my head on it. Lucky we can fix that when we build the cabinets. 

Well Tim and Brian are done with the piping and plumbing.  It has been quite a project.
It is not installed often here and we have had people lining up at the door to come and see the system.
Tim is promoting it as an alternative and I think some guys just want to see the whole thing installed.
One guy showed up with two bottles of wine, I like that kind of viewing payment.

I think we should name it.

So many pipes all over the basement.

The hallway I had wanted as a wine cellar is now a utility hallway.

We are still not getting heat out of it because Dave has to come and hook up the gas and Brian will need some electrical help to run all the lines to and from the machine.

I think I am going to buy some pretty stickers and add some bling to the beast when it is done.
There is still a lot of clean up to be done but at least we will have our evenings back.

E/B

I think we are almost finished the boiler install.
At least Tim's part, we still need to call Dave and have him come and do the gas hook-up.

Tim has proved to be a very good worker and is here till 11pm some nights to try and get it done.  He has also bringing people in to see the system as I don't think boiler systems are that common.

Once Tim is gone we can also start doing more work since Brian is still working with him so not much else is getting done.

More copper pipe.

The new hot water tank.

Valves for garage.

Valves for workshop.

E/B

Another week of trying to set up the boiler and all the pumps and pipes.
It is a massive system and will never be able to be serviced by us.
This will require the attention of someone who installs these so Tim has a job for life servicing this monstrosity.

I really feel we were not led down the right path with this and our designer and the HVAC designer should have stopped and explained that this system is way over the top for a house built of concrete.

We really just need a simple furnace and air-conditioning for this place.  As it is now this will be the most expensive part of the build and we are not done yet.  Now there is a new hot water heater to be hooked up to the boiler as well.

So disappointed with this job not angry just feeling like it is never ending.

E/B

To be installed yet.

It is even bigger now.

This is another time consuming job.  The pipes running to and from the boiler are numerous and takes a lot of thinking from both Brian and Tim.

Tim has been here late every day since he started on Wednesday.  He is one of these guys who works through lunch and dinner and does not want anything we offer.  He must be very hungry by the time he gets home.

The house smells of soldering and is smokey which is setting off the smoke alarms.  It is nice to know they work and they are the new ones that have a voice that tells you there is a fire.

And yes I am still moving boxes.

E/B

More sheets of plywood to cut up and hang pipes from.

This is turning into quite the mechanical storage basement.

The up-sized boiler that seems monstrous. 

Siding is finally almost finished.  The guys did a super job and I would recommend Ely to anyone who needed work done.  He is such an honest person who takes pride in his work.
We were pleased with the caulking they used to finish the doors and windows.  It is Exact Color.  The paint you are trying to match is injected into the tube and then an activator is put in and you have a perfect match.
There is still a little cleanup to do but we have had rain or big winds.  Like today I'm hoping none of the old trees lose branches.

Next are the gutters and piping to the boiler.

I am of course still moving boxes.

E/B

Another Monday and we are still into siding.  There is not a lot left to do and the guys should be finished with it and the cleanup in the next few days.  We are very happy with the colour.

There may be problems with the old porch roof as it is not meeting the house now.  It is out by 2 and a half inches.  Brian will try to put flashing on it to keep the rain from getting into it and ruining the bead board ceiling.

Last of the company is leaving tomorrow and then I will move more boxes so the workshop is free to do woodworking.   I am moving about 8 boxes a day so in 10 days I will have moved 80 boxes and freed up most of the shop.

Sigh
E/B

It will be a narrow porch but lovely under the trees.

The sunroom will not be done for a while.

The lights by the door were just installed.

Workshop/garage side.

All the cutting around the windows slowed the guys down.

Now they are caulking as well.

The porch really will look better once it matches the rest of the house.

It is strange to be sitting here with so many people in the house and just Faida and I awake.  That cold is still hanging around.

The front siding is moving faster now that the guys have the new shingles.  The reason they ran out was because when Brian went out to check one day they were using Tybec under the shingles and piecing it together since there was not much of it left.  Brian had them rip the shingles off and put a proper waterproof barrier under the shingles.  So.....we ran out of shingles to finish the roof.  We had hoped they would be done today but I guess they will be here another week.

We had also ran out of trim and had to order more so that has been done and is painted and on the house.

Living in this space without the cupboards has given us an idea of how we want to use the space in the family room/kitchen.  It is a great idea since it will serve many purposes and has to hold many people at once every once in a while.  We may change some cupboard configurations because it is a long way around the island to get anything or think very carefully about where we put things although all those steps go towards 10000. steps a day.

I'm still unpacking boxes so we can empty the workshop and move Brian's stuff in there.  He won't be able to do any of the shelving or cupboards until that happens.

This porch balances the front.

E/B

The old porch has to wait until next year.

This will look so nice when done.

Trial run as a kitchen.

It is a long way around the island.

This has been a slow period for us.  We have had my mother and sister here since the 6th and our daughter and granddaughter since the 9th.  The rest of the family have been here on and off with 16 of us for Thanksgiving.  It has been fun and we have found that the house works really well with this many people, which was what we wanted.  There are so many places to gather or escape plus sleeping this many was no problem we could have slept more.
There is also a nasty cold that is going around so Brian has been sleeping most of the last two weeks.  It has hit him hard Kate and Esther are now sick as well.

But the guys continue with the siding and have just about finished the back and side and are now doing the front of the house.  They are building the frame for the screened in porch at the front because they need it done to put flashing on that side and bring the siding up to the frame.
Eli had his father-in-law dig the post holes which went smoothly but there were problems with framing the roof and, of course, there was framing that had to be redone as it was not long enough to reach the wall.  Sigh!

This of course after a rain.

Brian has been looking forward to using these bigfoot footings.

Eli is always so happy.

We are going to love this porch.

This will be in the shade so we need to have it screened here.

E/B

Although we do not have people hammering outside the bedrooms we still did not get to sleep in as Dave and Marshall were here to hook up the gas to the stove and fireplace.
It was so nice to have those done and I could actually cook a dinner for the first time in a year.

There may be a short in the fireplace though since it won't keep the air circulating since the fans shut off.  It was the one job that took the longest today, setting up the fireplace, it just seemed to give Dave quite a challenge and Brian and I were surprised at how many wires and circuits run under the fire box.

Evan and Brian are busy with the main bath which is still not finished even though it is nice to have the toilet and sink running none of the shower or bath fixtures are attached yet.
They have also been busy connecting lights and switches in the family room/kitchen.  Evan who is a new homeowner is trying to retain all the information he can for when he has to do it.

E/B

Another side of the house done.

Setting up the temporary kitchen.

Shelving in the pantry that will eventually go to the basement or garage.

More shelving and the china cabinet is in I just need to oil and clean it.