Siding Progress

After a week of hard work, this is the result.
The siding on the basement level is finished.
Siding on the back half of the house is well under way. This (the back half of the house) represents the bulk of the actual siding as there is very little of the stuff installed on the front walls, and although there is more on the front sides, it is easily accessed from the deck.
Access has proven to be a big time consumer. In order to work from ladders and/or scaffolding, the ground must be relatively flat and stable.

 Our driveway and the dirt around the back of the house is not yet  "to grade" and was quite rough in spots. I spent quite a number of hours on the tractor smoothing it out, filling in the low spots and topping it all off with gravel from one of the handy piles left over from early in the construction. It is paying off, and things are progressing much better now.

The first job is to install the pressure treated 1x3's around all the doors,windows and obstructions (vents, taps, outlets, lights, etc.) then the siding itself, and finally the white trim boards. The result is very nice as you can see from the finished product on the basement level. We are targeting to finish this job by the end of the month (August) but that will depend on the amount of time we can take off from our real jobs at the office. This is just another challenge we must face as we move toward successful completion of our home. 

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.

Inside trim started

Finally, we have the finished flooring everywhere in the house except for the guest room (aka the junk collecting room, as everything that's needed but just "not right now", is thrown unceremoniously in there). The laminate looks great and feels so nice on your feet after months of walking on the strand board!


Our ensuite bathroom upstairs is almost complete now too. James from Century Glass installed the wall and door in the shower itself last week and Leo from ST Granite and Marble installed the top on the vanity on Saturday morning. We were lucky as less than two hours after Leo left, the skies opened up and we received yet another soaking from Mother Nature. She seems determined to keep the forest fires under control this year! Last weekend we picked up the lights we had chosen for the vanity and toilet and I managed to get them all in and working. These LED bulbs we use are amazing. Consuming only 4 watts each, they produce 200 lumens of light energy. The 9 bulbs that we have in this bathroom use only 36 watts of power and light the area perfectly. We get these particular ones at Costco for less than $10 per bulb which is a steal for the LED technology and we should never have to replace any of them (they carry a 25,000 hour guarantee!) If you do the math, that works out to more than 3 years of continuous 24/7/365 service!
The walk-in closet upstairs now has lots of hanging space, shelves and drawers available so we can finally stop living out boxes and plastic tubs. Yay! It's funny how this closet seems to be quite large now, whereas when it was empty it looked too small to fit even half our stuff. This is a phenomenon we have experienced throughout the entire build. Spaces expand and contract in your mind all the time depending of the state of completion. Scary at times but interesting nonetheless.
We had also picked up some baseboard trim last weekend, painted it white and have started to install some of it. The upstairs closet and the laundry room are now done with other rooms soon to follow. A few more doors, all the window trim and casings, and the place will start to look darn near like a house! Then if it ever stops raining we can do the siding and trim outside! The work just never seems to end!
Clayton brought up the deck railings on Monday with installing them in mind. However, an incorrectly made post with the angles all wrong for the front - centre of the deck kiboshed that plan. A new piece is being made up and they promise to have it all on before the long weekend (this weekend). The railings look very nice, being the smallest size tubes and railings that we could get and we can't wait to see them up.
I don't have the camera with me today, but I will post up some pics tonight of all the progress.
One other thing I'll bring up here is the flooding. If you've been reading the papers lately, you couldn't help but notice that all this rain we've been getting is wreaking havoc with the rising rivers. Many road closures and evacuations have been the norm lately and many homes on the floodplains are hoping that the rivers crest and start to subside before any more damage is done. In Kamloops, our Riverfront Park walkway is underwater and the beach is non-existant, hidden under many feet of the flooding North Thompson River. We took a couple of photos last week and the rivers have risen several feet since then!

A Brown Bear (this time!)

We have been busy installing the flooring throughout the house. Well, okay, I've been busy! Carol has been slacking off enjoying the nice warm weather in southern Ontario while she visits friends and family. We were hoping that the vanity top and the shower door and glass wall would be in before she got back but that hasn't happened. Just as well because we've had so much rain in the last little while that our driveway has been a soggy mess much of the time. I doubt that anything without 4 wheel drive would have been able to get up here some days!

 Of course, I managed to injure my calf muscle a couple of weeks ago trying to service my motorcycle (I was straining to lift it onto the centre stand!) and that put a crimp on my walking around, let alone installing floor boards for almost a week. I am feeling much better now though and have managed to get almost all of the main floor done. It's looking good but I will save posting any images of it until it is finished! For now, enjoy some recent pics. The brown bear (a brown coloured Black Bear) showed up yesterday in the middle of the afternoon! I guess he was out enjoying one of the few really nice sunny days we've had this spring. The shot of the steamy driveway was taken in the early morning after 4 days of rain. The owl is a Great Gray Owl, one of a pair that we often see hunting around the house. They like to sit on the top of the fence posts waiting for a mouse to run by. They are quite successful as we've seen several occasions where they swoop down and catch one, and then eat it in one gulp!

Picture Updates

The bathroom tiling is now complete! I had James from Century Glass up this morning measuring for the glass wall and door for the new shower. It should be installed by the time Carol gets home. I took a few more pics so you can see the finished tile job. It looks wonderful and the pics don't really do it justice. James commented that he has seen LOTS of showers but never has he seen one with a window and view as cool as ours! Being biased, we agree with him.

I also took a pic of the walk-in closet floor, just because I could. We're anxious now to get the rest of the upstairs finished. The door is still a few weeks away; the vanity should be in by the end of next week and then Leo (granite guy) can measure and make the top. I have to drywall one half of the pocket door rough-in (at least one side must be left open until the door is actually installed so that you can access the adjusters) and replace the piece I removed when wiring up the floor heater control box. Then I have to paint the room with the light blue-gray colour we have chosen. It will look sweet when it's completely finished!
Oh, and here's another hummingbird shot. This time, a male Rufous Hummingbird. We love the irridescent red feathers they have on their head and neck. Very pretty!