Finally Concrete!

Despite the last week of cold and snow we finally gave the go ahead to pour the concrete.  It was a bit disheartening that the whole reason we were delayed was to save $500 in tarps as the weather always looked good in the forecast.  As the days passed the forecast changed too for the worst.... In the end we just bit the bullet and paid for the tarps.  

The pour went pretty easily the concrete guys seem to know what they are doing.  There was a little bit of a mess with the sono-tubes in the garage... I guess 8 ft of concrete in a tube does not like to keep vertical. 

Ready and waiting to cover the house!

Things go pretty quickly with the right tools

Keeping warm in the cold

Mother Nature Wins :(

Well who would have thought that mother nature would celebrate the start of spring with a blizzard and minus 20 temperatures.  Unfortunately it was too cold for the workers to finish during the week, and we would not be able to pour concrete at this temperature unless we paid for a bunch of heating, so the cement will have to wait until Monday.  A bit frustrating for sure but at least it was something that we couldn't control.  Hopefully the real spring will arrive shortly!

Brrr...

Getting closer!

Foundation

Well the start of the foundation started to take shape!  The main part of the house foundation is up, but we needed some additional rebar to strengthen the concrete that we didn't expect.  Turns out since the house is so deep and the concrete is a bit higher than we thought it would be. Not much we can do at this point other than watch and wait!

The weekend

Well David's impatience led to the first of many grumpy weekends I'm sure :p  Ok so not really that grumpy, but people should want to work 7 days a week so we can get everything done quickly right?

Saturday the only activity at the site was they had one guy putting all the wall forms into the hole so the process will go quicker during the week.  Sunday was a day of rest for everyone.  Cant wait for the week to start and see things taking shape!

Ready and waiting

Footings

Friday was a big day for us, and was a GC's dream day!

The excavator blew a hose just prior to the end of the day so was not able to finish removing all the dirt on Thursday.  He ran to the store right before it closed to get the piece to fix the excavator.  He started at 7am Friday morning to get the last of the dirt out before the surveyors showed up at 8:30am.  The surveyors started at the back of the hole mapping out where the basement foundation was while the excavator was still taking out dirt at the front!

Then pretty much as the excavator was being loaded onto a trailer and the surveyors were finishing the cribbers showed up to start!  It took the cribbers about 4 hours to lay the footings and they were not even finished and the concrete truck showed up!  They tied the last of the rebar while the concrete was being poured.  They had to bring in a special smaller pump as the power lines near the road where a bit to close for comfort.  You can see the front wheel of the pump truck hanging over the hole!

This was a very productive day!  And we couldn't have scheduled it better if we tried, hopefully this is a sign of things to come :)

Marking where the footings will go

The hole is done!

Ready to go! The concrete guys pulled in as the excavator left

Putting the pump in place, you can see the cribber finishing up to the left

The concrete guys were very quick

Footings complete!

Excavation

Today we continued to remove the dirt to create our big pit.  We were hoping it would be completed today, but due to an excavator breakdown there is still a few truckloads to go out tomorrow morning.  

David was a good GC today, as him and the excavator guy made sense of some wonky surveying measurements.  The cribbers showed up today as well and stared to put together the ladder package to help speed things along next week!  Tomorrow we have another survey for the footing walls, a few more truckloads of dirt out and we are told the footing should be poured with concrete tomorrow as well!

Debris Removal

Yesterday they took away all the wood that was crushed in bins, they sort it from the concrete as it can be recycled as well as take out tin and other metals that can be reclaimed.  The concrete should go tomorrow!

It's quite the tidy process considering the demolition that occurred

Gotta get it all! And yes we did limp to the end thanks to the 3rd hot water tank 

Look how big our backyard is now! The new fence will extend from where the green one currently is.

Demo Videos

Started demo from the front

Finished it off in the back

! DEMO !

Well, this past week has felt like a year, but hopefully the legal issues are behind us and our construction can continue at a good pace. We got the word this morning that we were able to begin demo, and thankfully the amazing demo contractors we have came and started with little notice!

Today we watched the house get crushed and is sitting in the basement of the house until they come take things away tomorrow.  It was a pretty crazy feeling watching the house be crushed, we are excited but a bit sad to see it go at the same time.  It took less than an hour to bring down the house... if only building it would be so easy.

Here are a few photos of our exciting day! Videos to come tomorrow!

Gotta make sure all the safety information is up!

I'm ready for demo!

I think this might be the point of no return...

I never realized the closet was blue until now, just a little house remaining

It looks like the house is still standing... but this was the only wall left
(It was freezing cold, if you can't tell by my attire!) 

No house left... just a pile to clean up tomorrow.

New Parking Spot

The demo company found a new parking sport on the front lawn!!

We will put up the construction fence tomorrow and just waiting to sign the document with the lawyers and they can start this thing up!

Cant wait for things to get rolling!

Pre Demo activities

Well I guess we can now confirm why the house was always so cold, this is what was behind the plaster in the exterior wall.... just the outside wall.

Whoo! Found $50 bucks behind some trim! 

Goodbye little dysfunctional kitchen, and dishwasher that made dishes dirtier!

Saving some of the nice wood for future use.

Bear Moves again...

Bear likes to commemorate the fireplace in each house he moved out of...

This is when he moved out of his warm house in Aspen

And moved to the house with a fireplace that never worked :(

He hopes he will never have to take a sad moving photo again!

Delay #1

Well we officially have our first delay.... And we really haven't started anything yet.  Demolition was supposed to happen on Monday, but its looking more like Wednesday or Thursday now.  We are waiting for a document from our lawyers, outlining the conditions of using the shared easement with the neighbours, as they are now requesting a written document in order for us to use the easement during the construction process. Of course they didn't bring up this stipulation well enough in advance...

The water was turned off on Wednesday, and the power and gas on Thursday this week!  We have everything over at Trent's basement suite, but still working on moving in.  Mostly just clothes left to tackle, the pups seem to have adjusted okay, and are loving that its not freezing inside anymore!

The old house is pretty much empty but we will head back next week to remove some of the wood and doors that we would like to salvage.  Its -30° C today, so we are happy not to have to set up any fencing or be outside without a place to warm up in.

We shall have a better update next week as to when things are going to commence!