Next up, electrical inspection #2

Well, we survived the cold. Almost a week of well-below-normal temperatures put us into survival mode. Remember, up to now, we have only the heat generated by our wood stove to provide warmth for our little house. Although we had Superior Propane run gas lines for 3 gas-fired heaters, they have not yet been purchased or installed. We experienced temperatures in the mid minus twenties (-20*C) for about a week, with the mercury hitting a bone chilling -29.2*C one night! We had to keep the fire burning vigorously and continuously, and only then could we maintain inside temps of around 20*C. That meant I was up twice each night to replenish the logs in the fire. We did have two mornings where our water system experienced some minor freezing. The basement is not yet insulated and where the pipes run to the tankless hot water heater, they pass very close to the 5" hole cut for the PVC pipe venting the exhaust gasses outside. We had to place an electric heater by that area for about 15 minutes each morning before the water flow returned to normal. You might think that an electric heater would be an extravagance in a solar powered house, and you'd be right. We ran our generator 24/7 for 4 days, allowing the use of electric heaters to supplement the wood stove. Our 10 kW Aurora Generator ran flawlessly for the entire time we needed it. If we had any worries about whether it could take our winters, they're now history. This thing just plain rocks!
With the weather returning to more normal conditions, we set about moving forward with the drywalling. This meant that we had to have the insulation and vapour barrier inspection signed off and that required that we first have the electrical inspection for the basement successfully completed. Although most of the wiring in the house was done, the basement had been neglected and we had been working to finish off the wiring rough-ins there. Well, it is finally ready for Safety BC to come and check it out. I went to their offices, completed inspection request form in hand, only to find that our inspector was on vacation...again! The helpful lady behind the counter explained that we would probably be waiting a while, but that we should call Wayne (the same guy who came out the last time) and let him know that we were ready for him. He called back within a couple of days this time, and we have a date for this coming Thursday or Friday - yay! Keep your fingers crossed everyone.
Alex and I managed to wrangle another couch upstairs on Sunday afternoon, giving us enough seating now that we can have visitors, assuming of course, that somebody actually want to come and visit all the way up here! I have to say though, it is starting to look more like a home now. Drywall and paint will only help in that regard.

Baby, it's cold outside!

Brrrrrr! We received more than 10cm of snow over the weekend, the mercury is hovering around -20*C, and there's no relief in sight for a few days at least. We've been confining most of our efforts to the cozy interior of the house. The exception is the ever necessary excursions to cut, retrieve and split firewood. We have taken to pulling apart the big piles of felled trees (from where the driveway was put in last winter) with the tractor. I sling a chain around the trunk of the target tree, attach one end of a stout 20 foot long tow strap to the chain and the other end to the tractor. Put the gearbox in low range-4wd and just back slowly up, hopefully pulling the tree from the pile. It is then easy to limb off the branches and buck the trunk into 18" logs, ready for splitting, using our trusty Stihl chainsaw.
BTW, I have become quite proficient at sharpening the chain on the saw. It took a little practice and futzing around to find how to position and hold the saw while carefully filing each tooth to the correct angle, but now it only takes me about 10 minutes start to finish. The payoff is a saw that cuts through the wood almost effortlessly.
Inside, Carol has been busy cleaning, organizing and making the house feel more like our home. She's doing a great job because the place feels very cozy and very much the way we envisioned it. I have been working on the electrical system in anticipation of an electrical inspection in the near future. Almost all of the wiring in the basement is now complete and to code. I have vented the battery box and cleaned up the wiring and conduits around the panels. I have yet to enclose some of that mess with a cable raceway, but that just needs a little carpentry to complete. Hopefully, we get a warmer day soon so I can set up the table saw outside to get that done.
We are in the process of getting some quotes on the drywalling and hope that we can get started on that as soon as we pass our electrical and vapour barrier inspections. Our fingers are crossed!


The dogs have been loving the snow and seem to have boundless energy, running and jumping, sniffing under the snow, and chasing each other around. Eventually they do get cold and they show up at the door with snowy faces, asking to come in so they can lay by the fire and snooze for a while.

Happy New Year!

In an earlier post, I was saying how none of our snow had melted. Forget that. Yesterday saw a significant reduction in the amount of snow left on the ground. In town, we saw double digit temps above zero *C, which must have also resulted in very warm temps up at the house. Some of our driveway is now exposed dirt and gravel, and around the house we are surrounded by a moat of what will soon be mud if the warm weather continues. The dogs are not very "cuddly" when they come in from their run - both are soaking wet and have very muddy paws - yuck!
Over the last few days of our Xmas holiday break, we did manage to complete about 75% of the wiring and splicing in the basement. I still have to clean up the wiring around the panels in the mechanical room by installing plywood on the walls and building a shallow cable raceway between the inverter/charger and the AC distribution panel. This raceway was suggested by the electrical safety inspector as a good way to achieve "covering" some of the larger AC cables, as required by the electrical and building codes. I also have yet to install the external vent for the battery box. I have all the pieces required and have installed the vent outlet in the box itself. I just need to cut a 2" hole in the wall and route the pipe through it. Once these items are checked off the "hit list" we can arrange for another electrical inspection. That done, we can insulate and vapour barrier the basement. Yay!
I managed to install the pendant lights over the peninsula and Carol's chandelier over the dining room table. We picked up some nice LED chandelier bulbs at Costco, of all places, but had to order the G9 LED bulbs for the pendants from a place in China. They arrived the other day and work great. The pendant light bulbs at 3.5 watts each, only use 10% of the energy that the original halogen lamps used. The light quality is about the same, however, when dimming them, they seem to become brighter in steps, as opposed to the smooth transition we got with the halogens. These lamps are rated as "dimmable with standard incandescent dimmer switches" (as opposed to the much more expensive electronic or magnetic dimmers). The 4W chandelier bulbs don't exhibit this "stepping" phenomenon. In fact, we both think they look and work at least as well as the "regular" bulbs that they replace, giving us the equivalent of 200W of warm, white light for a "cost" of only 20W.

Christmas at Gull Lake Ranch

At the airport a few days before Christmas

It was a quiet and mostly peaceful Christmas this year. Alex drove to Vancouver on the 19th to spend some holiday time with his dad and his sister, who had flown in from Toronto. That left Carol, me and the two dogs at the ranch. As per our usual practice, we had closed the office for the week between Christmas and New Year's so would have more than a week and a half at home. We were up early on Saturday, Christmas Eve, baking pies and preparing for the following day's feast. The pies were gifts for friends so we spent the afternoon visiting Bud and Lea Thorson and Sara at Dreamscape Ranch. We have all been busy with our lives recently so it was nice to meet up and share an eggnog and some good conversation. They've been renovating the modular home that sits by the entrance to their ranch and Lea was kind enough to show us the progress they've been making. It looks very cozy and will be a wonderful rental home. We made it home shortly after dark (sadly, only about 4pm!) and spent the evening watching a variety of old Christmas favourites on the tv.

We did sleep in until 8am on Christmas Day but were quickly busy getting the turkey in the oven, in preparation for our planned early dinner (3pm). We opened gifts, phoned various family members spread out across the country, and continued our tv marathon viewing session. The meal was fantastic, if a little much for just the two of us. It's a good thing we both like turkey sandwiches! It was the first real test for our new kitchen, and everything worked out perfectly. I have to say that it is REALLY nice to have a proper kitchen sink and a dishwasher!
Apart from the dogs going berserk every so often, it was a peaceful time. The weather continues to be unseasonably warm, but not warm enough to melt our snow yet. Carol has been working hard on her puzzle (thanks, Reen!) and I have made several forays down the driveway cutting and loading firewood to replenish our wood shed. It is turning out to be a wonderful holiday - one that is well earned after our busy building schedule this year. We are planning to wire and insulate the basement before heading back to work later next week so I had better go and get at it. Happy New Year!

Kitchen Sink

Home Depot called on Friday morning to inform us that our kitchen counter tops were ready for pickup. Of course, I had driven the car to the office so I went home at lunch time and swapped it for the truck. A few hours later, I was home with the counters. It is fiddly work getting them put together and mounted correctly so we opted to wait for daylight and do it on Saturday. The smaller chunk went in just fine in the corner between the stove and the fridge and looked great, but the larger piece comprising the peninsula had a problem. We were missing the draw bolts for that section and a small piece that finished off the backsplash at the end. The draw bolts (4 of them) hold the two sections of counter top together at the long mitred seam in the corner. Without them we couldn't mount the counters on the cabinets and therefore couldn't install the sink. I took some pics of the offending backsplash piece but seeing as it was very late in the day decided that an early trip back to HD on Sunday morning was in order.
After a beautiful early drive down the hill, I quickly located Carmen (our HD sales rep), showed her the pics and told her my tale of woe regarding the draw bolts. She quickly got me fixed up with the bolts, ordered the missing backsplash piece and got me on my way. The part should be here on Wednesday, she said.
So, back at home, I managed to get the two pieces of counter top bolted together and slipped into position on the cabinets. It looked great! Carol was busy prepping for an early mini-Xmas dinner for the three of us - Alex was heading to his Dad's place in Vancouver the next day. When she finished with her pie crust pastry, I screwed it all down, marked the position of the sink and proceeded to cut out the scary large hole in our beautiful new counter! We had assembled the sinks, drains, taps and water feed lines and just had to drop them into the opening. I must be getting better at this stuff because it fit perfectly! I still needed to make the connections to the supply lines and glue the drain pipes and trap in the correct position. Again, it all went smoothly and the sink was ready to go.
Carol came over to be the first to try it out. Remember we have been without a sink, other than the small one in the downstairs bathroom, since mid-August. This was a big moment for us! Luckily, it all worked great! We are very happy with our choices regarding the kitchen. The cabinets, counters and sinks all look really nice and work exactly as we'd hoped. The kitchen has been through several "looks too small", "looks bigger than we planned" phases as we got it all put together. I have to say though, that we're very pleased with how it turned out, and the size seems perfect.
Now that Carol is home from her trip to Ontario, we were finally able to get the Christmas tree and decorations out. Alex helped his mom put the tree up and Carol played `elf` decorating the place with the few bits and pieces that we have. The house looks really nice and the tree, nestled in the corner, really "warms" it up.

We will try and post again before "the day", but if we don't, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest New Year. Thanks, for following along on our blog and we hope that you are gaining something from our experiences building this house.

Kitchen Coming Along

In preparation for the counter tops arriving sometime in the next day or two, I worked on the peninsula wiring and installing the range hood and associated ducting. The roughed-in wiring was already in place but needed to be tidied up. The space under the counter for the dishwasher also accommodates a GFCI outlet and switches for the dining room chandelier and pendant lights that hang over the peninsula. While not difficult, the openings for the electrical boxes have to be cut into the decorative wood panels. My dremel tool came in handy for this job, but a steady hand is required as you can't easily repair a gaffe like you would if the boxes were being installed in drywall. The result looks great!
Installing the range hood was much more involved, requiring a 4" hole in the wall to the outside and a series of galvanized tin pieces. The hole went right through my precious cabinets, but was not such a big deal after cutting the 3.5"x 10" opening for the range hood exhaust itself in the bottom of the same cabinet! The range hood installed under the cabinet quite easily with only 4 pan head screws. Hooking up the wiring was a snap as was installing the breaker in the panel. A little metallic duct tape to seal all the joints in the tin parts and we were ready to go. Well, almost...I had to install the 2 LED downlight bulbs into their sockets, and then...Bazinga! It all works! The fan is very quiet, which was one of my requirements and the lights illuminate the stove surface perfectly.

Dishwasher

I managed to get the peninsula that houses the dishwasher and the kitchen sink in place on Sunday. It is quite fiddly as it needs to be anchored to the floor so it stays in place and presented a variety of wiring and plumbing challenges to boot. Our plumber, Jeff, had earlier roughed-in the 1 1/2" drain and vent pipes and ran the supply lines to the correct position, but it is our job to get it all connected up properly and to code. The vent for the drain is the most complicated in that it must be routed through 3 different cabinet bases and then make a tall loop under the sink - not really difficult but it did require a bit of planning to get it all to work. The drains are easier in that all the action is right there, under the sink. The dishwasher plumbing is quite straightforward if you have the correct pieces in place. I hooked up the clearly-marked power feed cable in the panel (thanks, James!) and voila, clean dishes! Yay!
After getting the cabinets and fascia panels in place, I made the final measurements for the counter tops and took them down to Carmen at Home Depot. We were hoping to have them back and installed before Christmas so I had to make a concession. Carol and I had chosen a rounded bull-nose edge for the laminate tops, but they would take 2-4 weeks to arrive as the shop had to custom order that profile. They could deliver the counters in a week if we would instead accept a rectangular profile that had rounded edges. With Carol away until next week, I made an executive decision and went the more expeditious route. Hopefully, I won't regret that decision later!
I found a nice Broan range hood on Craigslist and picked that up last night.
Today, it is "Seniors Day" at Rona, so it is with mixed feelings that I am off to buy a new kitchen sink and faucet - at 55 years old, I qualify for the 10% discount! The good news is that I might be able to have the counters, sink and taps ready to go by the time Carol gets home. Here's hoping...!