Siding and trim started

I really felt like a farmer this last weekend. Our weeds have been growing out of control, with thistles and mullein over 5 feet high along parts of our driveway. We talked to Brian and Louise about effective means to control the weeds while not causing any harm to the cattle we have grazing on our property. TNRD has a system in place to "loan" spraying equipment to land owners at no charge. With this system, we can just buy the herbicide required (in our case, Grazon) and the spraying equipment is free! We get it for a week with the only catch being that it must be returned clean and that we must apply the chemical on a day where no rain is forecast for 24 hours.
Saturday looked like the only day for a week where that might be the case so by 8am, I was up and had the sprayer installed on the ATV. I filled it up with a mix of the Grazon and water. Grazon is a great product if you have grazing livestock. It kills all the common broadleaf weeds quickly (within a few days of application), remains effective for up to 5 years, and is completely safe if consumed by cattle or horses (although they do suggest a waiting period of several hours before allowing the livestock on the sprayed areas). It also allows and promotes the growth of natural and introduced grasses. The Bobcat ATV allowed me to go anywhere I needed to spray the weeds easily and in fact seemed ideal for the job. All in all, it took about 3 hours to spray about 2.5 acres of land in a small strip all along the driveway and up to the well. We used 1/2 a jug of the Grazon and the sprayer unit worked great. A job well done!
We've had the Certainteed ColorMax fibre cement siding since the house material first arrived. This product virtually identical in every way to the more well known HardiePlank siding. This stuff has a great reputation for durability and is a great alternative to traditional cedar planking. The type we chose even looks like a painted cedar board with all the grain and character moulded into the surface, then painted at the factory with a durable coating. Apart from sealing the edges after cutting, there is no painting or staining is required.
You just nail it up to the sheathing on the exterior of the house. Now that is what these guys would have you believe anyway! The siding itself is great and it appears that it will live up to our expectations. But we have discovered that there is a lot of prep work required before you can "just nail it up". As with almost every aspect of building your own house, there is a ton of stuff to learn. In addition to the "best practices" promoted by the manufacturers, there is the building code to consider. And as usual, I know nothing about this part of the code!
Satisfying the building code is turning out to be one of the most stressful and difficult challenges to overcome. Building inspectors love to find all the ways that your house doesn't comply so they can send you back to re-do those areas that don't meet the requirements. Ok, the Building Code is relatively easy to access - you can find it at your public library. (You remember the library, right? It's the big building with lots of books inside. Yeah, that's right...kind of like the Internet, but you actually have to go to this big building to use it!) So, you go and find the part of the code that applies to "building envelopes" and learn that. Not so fast! This stuff is written by lawyers, for lawyers, so they can fight about it in court when your house doesn't work the way you want it to. It can also be wielded by insurance companies trying to refute your claim for damages after a fire or flood. We're good people. We want the house to be built correctly and safely. We want to satisfy the Code! But gosh darn it, couldn't someone please put this info into a format that is easily accessed (online), cheap (the Canadian Electrical Code book alone costs several hundred dollars!) and written in language that is easily understood by mere mortals?!
We would far rather "do it right" to paraphrase Mike Holmes, than do it over, or perhaps even, do it so badly that our house becomes dangerous to us or others.
With our current project being the siding and trim, one of the challenges is flashings and how they should be installed around the various openings  (windows, doors, vents, etc.). I discovered (after much Googling) that these things require "end dams" to meet the Canadian building code. Ok, so what are these end dams. More Googling....find Jon Eakes site and his "Origami Guide to the Building Code". In words and a super video, Jon describes exactly what is required, and as the title suggests, shows just how you need to "fold" the metal to make these Code compliant end dams on your flashings. I haven't posted any in line links before in this blog, but this one is just too good to ignore, so here it is...

http://joneakes.com/jons-fixit-database/2062

Thank you, Jon!!! (BTW, I just went to the CSA site and the publication describing the CSA standards for Installation of Windows, Door and Skylights can be purchased online for $229. A PDF version can be downloaded for $208! I will leave it to you readers to decide if that's a worthwhile investment.)
This is the end of my rant, now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Reviewing the "details" on our building plans that illustrate the positioning and type of flashings required for each window, door and vent is the easy part. They only show a typical cross section, both vertical and horizontal and even then they do not show what the finished installations are supposed to look like. After installing and then removing the flashing, trim and underlying 1x3's twice, I managed to get what I consider to be a good interpretation of those drawings. Of course, this was the reason that I chose to start by working on the basement level first. It has one door, a large fixed window and one narrower opening window. It also has a flush mounted exterior light that would serve as a model for the other exterior lights on the main floor. In other words, I could screw up this small area a few times until I got it right so that the main part of the house didn't look like crap! It was a wise choice.
It took me the better part of the last weekend to get the basement level trim and siding 90% complete. I have another few of hours work and then I can move on to the main floor. It is exciting to finally get an idea of what the finished house is going to look like from the outside. Very cool!
Sorry, but I have no pics yet as the weekend weather was not very nice (lots of thunder storms and rain) but I will post some up as soon as I do. We are taking next week off from work so we can dedicate ourselves to working on the house. We have lots to do before the snow flies!

If you want help with a 3-way, I'm your guy!

Huh!? Oh, not that kind of 3-way! Get your minds out of the gutter - I'm talking about 3-way electrical switches! Our house has 6 circuits which are controlled by 3-way switches. These allow you to, for example, switch on the light over the staircase at the bottom before ascending the steps, and then switch it off from a switch at the top of the stairs. It doesn't seem like rocket science but it has taken me a while to understand how and why they work the way they do. In the meantime I haven't attempted to activate any of these circuits. Well, until this last weekend...
We needed to bring in the 28 foot extension ladder to install both our new dining room light fixture and the big overhead fan in the great room. It has been hot - mid to high 30's - and that prompted me to get off my butt so we could get the air moving in the house. The light fixture went in easily and looks great (pics to follow when computer and camera are in the same room), but the fan unit has a light fixture attached that uses one of those pesky 3-way circuits. All the wires had already been run when the rough-in was completed. The challenge was to learn how they hook up to the fixture/switches to make it all work properly. I made it my mission last Sunday to do exactly that. It took me a couple of hours of reading and tinkering before the light came on (really bad pun intended!). With the fan light working correctly, I tackled the hall lights downstairs and the stairway lighting to the second floor. They all work now! I can't believe what a big load that takes off my mind. For some reason I must have been worried about not being able to figure it out!
We also have all the doors installed on the main floor now. We even have a locking bathroom door! The doors for the upstairs bathroom and closet are still on order so they will still be a while. 

Deck Railing Finished

 Clayton getting ready to assemble the railing

 It was a while coming, but we're thrilled to have our deck railing finally in and complete. It looks great and impedes our view as little as the building code allows! Clayton, from Renovation 911, had the railings custom made from black, powder coated aluminum to fit our deck precisely. With all the weird angles there were no "off the shelf" posts that would do the trick.

Almost finished across the front.

Clayton had planned to come on Saturday morning but again, the weather stepped in with lots of rain soaking everything. He said he needed 4 hours of dry weather while he did the installation to ensure that everything stayed waterproof. We postponed until today (Monday) as the forecast was for a dry day and that's what we got. Dry with sun trying to burn off some high clouds - perfect working conditions. Clayton and Alex (his helper) managed to get everything completed in the 4 hours he had guestimated.
Finally, it's nice not to have to worry about stuff blowing off the deck, given the crappy weather again this summer. Hopefully, we get a few warm sunny days now so we have the chance to enjoy our deck.

All done! It looks great.

We had the guys put a gate on the railing right by the back door. It's not that we needed a gate, but since at least one side of the deck is always in the shade, we thought it would be nice to leave the dogs out there occasionally where they wouldn't be able to leave the house, but would be outside.

North side deck showing the gate.