'Twas the week before Christmas . . .

And all through the house, Len was stirring, not at all like a mouse.

Ok, so that is pretty poor poetry, but true enough.

Here is what is up.  #1 the house is warm - 18C on every level.  Of course, it is quite warm outside (nothing much below -8) so that helps.

Len keeps finding the LAST bit of electrical wiring to finish.  He is completely done in the basement and main floor, and only has a little to do in the garage.  (Behind the boxes, of course).

the powder room through-the-wall fan in place

Our excitement was that Len lost his wallet and of course only after  he replaced everything did Tim Hortons call to say it had been found.  So we wasted 1/2 day digging in the boxes in the garage to find his passport to get a new drivers license and another 1/2 day driving around to get things replaced.  Ah well, all's well that ends well.

Pocket doors also got put in

I got all the floor/ceiling boards stained for the loft/office/powder room.  They are tongue and groove fir, and the finished side will be the ceiling of the office, powder room and front entrance.  We'll put flooring over it for the loft.

Dressed to do a messy job

All stained

We also spent some time cleaning up and since Len got the built-in vacuum put in, that helped.  We bought a unit made in Kamloops, all Canadian parts except the Lamb motor.  We put in two outlets on each level.

The built-in vacuum under the stairs

One of the outlets

Len doesn't let a little darkness get in the way of completing the electrical work!

Now we are getting ready to drive to the Sunshine Coast for a wonderful respite of food and family.  Can't wait!  And the house will be here when we get back, ready for more excitement.

Heavy snow on the trees - beautiful

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!  Hope 2012 is the year we finish this off especially since the world is supposed to end in December 2012 and we would really like to have it finished before then.

The fire will come

Nigel Pearce came over about 9AM and the work started.  We cut the first flue section to accept the damper and the cleanout door. Then some refractory mortar is used to connect the flue to the damper assembly which Cathryn fitted and mortared last night. This is the second time we have set this unit.

setting the first course of bricks

Now the bricks get placed to bring the chimney to the same size as the fireplace. A small space is left for expansion between the flue sections and the blocks. bricks were stacked until it was about seven feet high.

More bricks

Now the chimney is finished as far as the masonry is concerned. A coat of parging to seal it even more till the rocks get placed.

A view from the top

Now I go into town and talk to Jason about the rest of the chimney. This will be complicated as we are going from a square flue to a round stainless chimney.  More on this later.

Two steps forward, one step back

Another week of happenings, some good, some not.
Firstly, we managed to finish putting up all the silver bubble-wrap insulation on the floor heating tubes under the garage loft.  Then we put in fiberglass insulation below that.  Now we are really toasty in the loft.

Putting up the silver bubble wrap

Insulation 

Yes we had to move everything again to do this job!

Speaking of heat, we had a moment of happiness and hope when the geo system was turned on and the light turned green and heat was made.  Unfortunately, something was amiss and we had to shut it down after only a few hours.  So we are back on the electric boiler which seems to be working fine.

The green light is ON!

Manifold into the heat pump

We are almost finished all the vapour barrier.  Today Len is risking life and limb to do the very top of the great room.  He says it is scary up there, reaching out to staple and tape while perched upon a workhorse on top of the scaffold.  When Len says it is scary, you know it really is.

Nice to have a wall to hold onto.  Working in the middle is a different story.

High wire act?

Meanwhile, Len is planning to get started on the masonry fireplace finish.  We have hired a mason to do the brick and rock work as this is not something we want to learn on the job.  It will be the center piece of the great room afterall.

So we hear Christmas is on the way.  This is our only nod to the season so far.  It does feel Christmassy, though, with all the snow sticking around.

A fund raiser for the Goldrush Grannies - a Stephen Lewis Foundation group I belong to

Ok, back to work!   More later, Cath

VP (visual progress)

Having been away for a whole week, I can't say it was immediately evident what Len had been up to.  All that wiring is mostly hidden away in walls.  Len likes VP, as do we all.  So this weekend we did some work that made for quite the feeling of accomplishment.  Could have done more, but we ran out of plastic.

The light at the top of the stairs.  Those who have stumbled up or down would appreciate this.

We started doing the vapour barrier on the bedroom and kitchen.  It went very quickly with two of us.  I was the "driver", pushing the small scaffold from one area to another as Len stapled.

He's under there somewhere!

Easy peasy

The finished product

The handy electric stapler

Then Len got serious on the great room loft.  Sorry, you are on your own up there until there is a floor anyway!

Not quite so easy peasy

The plan is to get more plastic and continue on the hard work in the great room.  Stay tuned!

Cath

Making a hot room a cold room

The heating guys have pretty well completed all they are going to do for plenum work. They have been here and almost got the geo thermal going.  One small pump error and they had to leave.  Of course we are too far away to come here just to correct a small problem so I am waiting again for them to show up.  One drawback to all of the tin work is that the main hot air out and cold air return run right through our "some day" cold room.  It seemed easier to shorten the cold room than try and frame around all of the large ductwork.  So I divided the room in half which will give us a place for skis and cold weather gear.

Much ductwork

A smaller more friendly cold storage room

I have been working on finally completing the wiring. The code book, which I should have read more closely, has pointed out a couple of errors that I am correcting.  The laundry room plugs cannot come from a lighting circuit.  They must be all by themselves and the suggestion is a circuit for each plug, Hoo boy. The other item is the kitchen counter plugs which run on three wire 20 amp breaker circuits.  The problem is , they can't supply two plugs adjacent to each other.  You have to skip over to the next one and the one in the middle is on its own. Tomorrow I will be completely finished except for the shop.
I did finally get to the main panel. I shut off the main power while Cathryn went to town to do laundry. I converted a mess into art

More good news, our roof leak is back.  As soon as the weather warmed up the roof valley by the garage started to drip.  Again, hoo boy.

The big puddle has dried up considerably from what it was

I now have all the parts I need for the fireplace and the okay from the manufacturer to use 12 x 12 flue liners so I can go ahead and cut for the damper and the chimney cleanout.  I got the cleanout shipped Purolator from Burnaby and, due to the lack of packing material received the door damaged.  They sent out another door and now I am ready to go.  I have engaged the help of a mason to get the stove ready for final finish which I hope to tackle myself.  He'll be here tomorrow so we'll see how much I can do.

Len

A Warm(er) Shop

While I was away working in Vancouver, Len kept busy.  He went back and forth to the 108 Lumber Yard picking up enough insulation to get the shop done.

Another load

The ceiling is finished and the drafts stopped

Meanwhile, on the heating front, green stuff was pumped into the lines going to the garage and shop and has started circulating warmth.  To help circulate the air in the house, we were given a furnace fan which Len installed below the radiator and which is now blowing out warm air.

The furnace fan pre install

installed and working

Today we are going to purge any air out of the garage lines.  Then Len will complete all the wiring for the outside plugs and lights.

It is the weekend, so possible fun events might include doing laundry in town.  Banjo and I will definitely go on walkies.   We got a light dusting of snow last night so, yes, we are still white and beautiful here.  While Dave and Doris are landscaping in Sechelt (see their blog - http://secheltsights.blogspot.com) we definitely are NOT.  We did buy some rubber matting for beside the hot tub so that we can keep our feet out of the snow.

Cath

A little more framing in the basement

To start off with, I foamed all of the cuts and wiring boxes in the basement. I'll have to do some trimming when the foam has hardened but that should be the end of the wiring in the basement.  I have completed all of the lighting and the setup for the media room. 

By the back door

My next task was to add a closet for the basement bedroom.

Voila, a closet

I have never seen a 1000 dollar bill but I have a plastic barrel in my basement worth the same.

Propylene glycol for the best heat transfer

So the boys didn't show today but , since it has warmed up a bit, I went into the shop to continue with insulating the ceiling. Tomorrow I will be roughing in the wiring so I can finish the insulation.

Had to move everything to get at the ceiling

All of the soffit vents in place

It is supposed to be really warm tomorrow which will make work in the shop a bit more pleasant.

So close... and yet so far

First of all, thanks to one and all for the emails and calls.  I guess begging works!

Today, Saturday, we had the heating guys here, supposedly to get the slabs in the garage and shop heated.  Things just didn't work out, the header in the garage is cracked and has to be replaced and the glycol mix was so cold it wouldn't flow in the shop.

So if we are lucky they will be back on Monday and they will continue to work on getting things completed.  I sure hope our damaged unit arrives soon as it is the part of the system that heats the main floor.  Len says we have tri-level heating: not bad in the basement, cold on the main floor, and toasty in the loft.  I like working in the basment because if my feet are warm, I am warm.  And the floor is nice and warm.

Len is almost finished the wiring of the basement.  Just one little change in wiring. Then we will be looking for more to be done in the basement. Mom and Dad, we took down the temporary walls of your bedroom down there so you might want to wait until the drywall is up. 

Len is complaining that all the pictures have him in them.  Well it makes sense as he is the one doing the work.  I do the clean-up, and domestic duties.  Anyway, I captured a couple of pictures when Len wasn't looking and here they are.

those headlights sure come in handy!

one of the heating guys, Mike?

Len had to work out in the -15 cold to get this light wired

How to put wire in foam blocks using a skill saw - makes quite a mess too

Ok, that's it for now.  Take care everyone!
Cath

Ongoing progress

Hi all.  No pictures, sorry. 
The good news is that the heating system is up and running....sort of.  By that I mean that the basement floor is being heated (yes!) but the air circulation system isn't (rats!).  Also we are just using the electric boiler and are not hooked up to the geothermal wells yet.  Still, it is toasty warm in the basement which has inspired Len to get all the wiring finished there.  On the main floor the temperature is creeping upward, only to 8.5 so far.  Unfortunately the blower for the air circulation was damaged in transit and we are waiting for replacement parts.  Meanwhile the house is ready for vapour barrier and then drywall.  Oh yes, I guess there is a little bit of plumbing still to be done.

The days are shorter and shorter, so it will be nice when the house is warm enough to work in during the evenings.  Once we get it above 10 consistently, we can stain, paint and do other work more comfortably.

It sometimes feels like we are talking to the air.  I know you are out there! We would love to hear from our friends from far and wide!  Let us know what you are up to.  Email us at lcaune@shaw.ca or give us a call or even (dare I suggest it?) send me a message on facebook -  cathanurse@gmail.com.   Stay warm, be happy.  Cath

What we did on the weekend - instead of vapour barrier

We wanted to move all the insulation from the house, so decided, what the heck, let's insulate the garage. This was a bit of a challenge as it is full of stuff! Len put plywood on the door openings and we insulated that too. 

Garage full of stuff

Len had to crawl behind boxes to get the job done

We also did a big cleanup of the house, vacuuming up all the little bits of Roxul everywhere. 

Cleaning required a mask and a hat - quite the fashion statement

Len went out and did some reorganization of the wood piles and made sure everything was snow-ready.  Then to top off the weekend, we went up to the Lone Butte Pub and then to Deka Lake to celebrate Elmer's 70th birthday. Had lots of snow over that way, but once in 100 Mile, not very  much.  Just a dusting overnight and now the sky is blue and the ground is white.  Beautiful!

Hoping for heat today.  We'll keep you posted.