The week in review and a house plan drawing

Ok, I have been informed that I am not much of a blogger, not having put anything out for over a week now.  That is because our "doings" have consisted of waiting ....waiting to get our insurance sorted out, which includes waiting to hear back from various companies....waiting to contact our plumber/septic dig guy....waiting for the plans to get back to the engineer for his "stamp" and to get started in the permit process.... you get the idea.

So rather than send you a picture of Len sitting at the computer (waiting) here is a picture of our house, or at least a picture of the planned south exposure.  The central part is timberframe and the sides are stick frame.

Insurance and other complications

Well I spent a frustrating hour and a bit at the local BCAA trying to get some Course of Construction insurance. The issues that came up were related to a lack of knowledge about geothermal as a heat source, a masonry stove for back up, and ICF basement construction.  Oh and even though we are 5 km from the fire hall and 150 m from the hydrant, we are in a "rural" area, so apparently a high risk.  Never mind that we are building a house with a metal roof and fire-proof hardiboard siding so as NOT to be a risk.  Anyway the first quote made me literally choke.  Over $200 a month.  We now pay $400 for the whole year for our present house.  So onto the internet I went and have asked for a bunch more quotes.  Meanwhile BCAA is "talking to the underwriter" to see what can be done.   And the good news is that we have third party liability on the bare land as it now stands through our present insurance.  So if someone wanders onto the lot and falls down and breaks a body part, I guess we are covered.

Progress is being made on getting our meter pole put up next to the BC Hydro pole and we are still negotiating small plan changes with our engineer to get to the building permit stage.  Meanwhile, Len is busy accumulating some more woodworking tools to start building our kitchen cabinets.  So far the set up is in the garage on his side with room to store my car. This morning it was suggested that I might have to park outside.  Hmmm, we'll see about that.

Calculating for our electrical permit

All day yesterday and some of this evening, Len has been trying to figure the answers to the many detailed questions involved in getting an electrical permit.  How much wire?  How many outlets?  What is the draw from your stove (which we haven't bought yet) and hot water heater (with geothermal, is this more like a boiler?).  It seems the price of your permit is based on the amount of money you will spend putting in X amount of wire into X number of plugs and powering X lighting fixtures.  Yes, they want to know the price of the fixtures too!  A guessing game at best.  We do have some fixtures, but certainly not all of them.  Len has been drawing and adding and looking up prices (like for a panel, breakers, etc) until he is cross-eyed. And this is just one of the permits.  Luckily our engineer, Jeff, will be the one to sign off the plans and various bits of paper for the main building permit.  But there are always questions we DIDN'T ask the experts....such as, can we put up our pole for the meter BEFORE we get a permit (not laying any wire or having anything attached to it)?  We are making a list of questions so that when we phone we will have it all written down.  Hence the mantra.  Say it with me .... Write it down!

Quick trip to 108 Mile Ranch

Just got back from a quick 2 day trip up to the lot.  It was mucky on the driveway so Len put down some of the woodchips we created from chipping trees last fall.  Very little snow on the lot.  Len put up our address number sign.  On Wednesday we went and met with the local building inspector, electrical inspector, BC Hydro, the power pole putting up people, and had lunch at the Yummers restaurant in 100 Mile House. (owned by our soon-to-be across the road neighbour, Debbie).  It was indeed Yummers and we would recommend it when anyone is going through town.  In the afternoon we had a visit from Jeff, a local engineer who explained why we need to make some

changes to the south side of the house.  Something about sheer forces and wind load with small spaces between many big windows.  He turns out to be a pilot (like Len) and so also chatted about the RV10 Len built and the types of aircraft he had flown. Next came Hector and his son who will help Len with the physical labour part of putting up the house.  Then came Ward and Steve who are our footings and foundation guys.  They looked at the hole that Joe dug for us last fall and did some calculations and measurements to get a final quote on the job.  Everyone was gone by about 6:30 when we had our supper of turkey soup and buns.  Watched a movie on the computer before calling it a day.  Today we were happy to see that it had only gone down to -2 in the motorhome ( we go without heat overnight).  The previous night it had gone down to - 5.  Way better than the unseasonal -12 we had last fall over the Thanksgiving long weekend.  Now that was cold!  A great drive there and back through Little Fort and over the pass on Highway 24.  Very little traffic, dry roads and good company.  The reality of the large scope of this project is being reinforced almost daily and this trip really nailed that home.  So many little details to keep in mind!  If we do one thing at a time and keep track of the next few things coming up I think it will be better than trying to remember everything all the time.  Write it down! has become our mantra.

Pictures from last fall

This is last fall when Chris and Kyla were up to help chip wood. Chris and Len put some mighty big branches through that old chipper. No body parts were mangled in the process - a plus!






Below is the view of Walker Valley - you can see the wetlands.  This is to the West, so we'll see some beautiful sunsets over the water.

Trying to organize things from miles away

Today we had emails from a variety of people we are trying to coordinate.  There is the geothermal guy, the foundation guy, the help-Len-build-it guy,  the engineer, the roofer, the cement pourer, the building inspector, the septic guy and I am forgetting some I am sure.  We are here in Winfield, just north of Kelowna and our property is 4 hours by road, (1+ hour by RV10 airplane) away.   It is a challenge.

We are having the house packaged by Tamlin Homes in Langley.  Yesterday we decided on the colour of the hardiboard siding and cedar trim.    Don't ask me to describe what sagebrush and dusty green look like. It got to the point of saying, sure, whatever.  Green and green.  Should be fine.  Len wants the house to blend into the scenery.  This should do it.  Except that our green structure will not look much like a tree and will not "blend" as it sits atop our slope.

Have decided upon (and bought) interior doors, door handles, a few lights and the kitchen sink (Kohler cast iron, white, very funky).  Everything else is yet to be decided and bought.