Bonfire

Jayson visited me at the store on Friday and indicated that he was basically done what he could do at the property until some of the snow melted off and we received our building permit. He has finished hauling all the sand and gravel up for the drainage around the foundation and basement. The sand will also pad the trench holding the water pipe from the well down to the cistern by the house. So now...we wait. It is only three weeks until we get our building permit. That realization has grabbed our attention. We need to get the ball rolling on a number of fronts. First, we need to decide on colours for the exterior siding, trim  and roofing materials and then we need to actually order the house! Linwood tells us that once ordered, it takes 6-8 weeks before the house is ready to ship to the site. We want to start building sometime in May - as soon as the load restrictions placed on the soft, thawing roads are lifted. Then we can get concrete trucks up to the site for the basement and foundation pours. Soon after that happens, we can actually start framing the house.
We will be using Certainteed ColorMax fiber cement siding and Certainteed Landmark roof shingles so we will be looking for some local installations of these products to help us with our decision.

Carol with the bonfire on March 5, 2011

On Saturday, Carol and I went up to the property for our weekly visit and to install the hideous black and yellow "No Trespassing" sign on the gate. We want to discourage "tourists" who might be tempted to drive away with some of our materials! Being a little warmer than recent visits, we thought it might be nice to have a small bonfire and spend some time just enjoying the views. We had packed the new Stihl 290 chainsaw and found a suitable fallen tree. I limbed it off and cut it into two foot lengths (bucking) and built a small bonfire on top of the snow near the house site. A little diesel fuel from the gerry can helped get it started. It was very satisfying to enjoy the warmth of the fire while standing just a few feet from where our new home will be built. We are both very excited at the prospect of getting started with the build. Here's hoping all continues to go according to plan.