Water and sewer lines

As part of the agreement with the city when redeveloping the owner is responsible for replacing the water and sewer lines so they are up to the current code.  We got incredibly lucky as most companies were booking to have this service done in September!  This company was supposed to be doing a neighbouring house so was going to do both at the same time, the other house fell through but we still got our services completed! 

It was quite the operation.  The had to tear up the whole street, so we blocked traffic for a day and a half! They dug down to where the water and sewer lines were located and laid new ones.  They had a little bit of a set back as they accidentally hit out neighbours power line!!  Needless to say there was a big bang and Enmax had to come out so the job took a little longer than expected.  The neighbours had to spend the day without power but once the new line was placed Enmax was quick to put things together.  They came back this morning and put new asphalt down.

Preparing the road for digging

They had a huge assortment of toys to get the job done.

One side of the street we had blocked off

It was quite the trench

Oh no!  Enmax to the rescue

Finishing up.

Good as new!

First floor completion

Things were pretty busy last week!  David kept busy in the basement installing the underground plumbing for a future bathroom and the weeping tile tubes were connected to the sump pump.  This is part of our setup to hopefully keep our house flood free in the future.

Things are taking shape on the main floor as well.  The framers and David worked through a soggy snowy/rainy day to get all the heavy beams up to support the second floor and all the interior walls are complete.   I cant wait to start the second floor!

Looks like more of a mess to me :)

Our framer is an artist with a chain saw

David working hard!

I just came by once the rain stopped to check things out!

Backfill

It was an exciting past two days!  They had a lot of work to do with backfilling as they had taken most of the soil off site as there was not enough place to store it.  I don't even want to know how many truckloads, but they trucks were lined up all day ready to drop off more dirt.  They had 3 machines on site moving the dirt around, and had to use a wheelbarrow to get the dirt down the one side of the house... glad we didn't have to do that!  Things look so much more like a house now that we can finally see our how big our awesome yard is!

There were 3 trucks in a row!

The garage was a huge pit to fill!

The back deck area

The hardworking man with his wheelbarrow on the side

Almost there!

1st floor walls going up

Its quite exciting to see the main floor start to take shape!  Its looking just as we hoped although the windows seem SO much bigger in real life than on the drawings but I am excited to have a house with natural light!  

We helped out at the site for the past two days.  David was eager to help lift the walls into place, despite not having changed out of his work lunch clothes! We passed our first of many inspections!!!  Now we are able to back fill so I helped move piles of lumber from the front to the back to help leave room the trucks on Friday.

The very weird electrician came and ran the underground cable for our power.  The whole time he was talking about safety and then we catch him making his own plank to do his work over the pit... David spent a good portion of the day digging in the garage and running the new water and sewer lines so they will be ready when the next contractors come to connect us to the city services. I am so glad I didnt have to help out in the hot pit!

At the end of the day we are just missing the garage walls, front door wall and the edge along the staircase!

Im glad someone had to take the photo :)

This looks safe right?

The final back wall is up.

Garage

Back of the house

Floor and Waterproofing

Things have been busy at the site, and are progressing quite nicely.  The foundation was sprayed with a waterproofing substance, and then wrapped in a plastic membrane.  Weeping tile was placed along the foundation and then filled with stone.   The stone slinger was quite impressive as the workers could be very precise in where they wanted the stone.

While the waterproofing was happening the framers were wasting no time!  They started putting the main floor beams on despite having to walk and carry everything along the planks.  After about 3 days the floor was all plywooded and ready for the walls. 

We were very pleased to know that our house is exactly as tall as we hoped, we couldn't have gotten it any closer as per our survey that the city requires. 

The planks that everything had to be carried over. 

Floor beams started!

Floor completed

Waterproofing stone going in!

Would hate to be under this shower.

Cleaning Up

We spent Wednesday at the site helping the cribbers put away all the forms and clean up the site to start the building!  Boy was that hard work!  Glad we are not concrete people and have to lug those heavy pieces every day... All the holes were filled in the foundation and it was ready for the waterproofing spray late in the day.  We had to dig around the foundation on the one side of the house as the dirt wall had collapsed a bit and the waterproofing wouldn't have been completed correctly.  Quite exciting tho! Its actually starting to look like a house!

David makes hard work look good

Holes filled waiting for spray!

Basement looking at where the stairs will be

Whew!  It was tough work...