It's fall already!

The fall weather means that we're going to need to stock up the wood pile again. We had planned to install direct vent space heaters in our home so we could leave the house for more than a few hours without having to worry about everything freezing up. After much online research, we settled on Cal-Gas here in Kamloops to supply the units we needed. Fred uses the Empire brand heaters in his own home and highly recommended them for our situation. Being "off grid" we must satisfy all of our electrical power needs with our solar panels and diesel generator. There are no hydro lines running to our house. The Empire heaters we chose use no electricity at all, burning propane and using convection to heat the cooler air at floor level, allowing it to rise naturally. That's where our ceiling fans come into play. They will push the warm air down from the roof to the rest of the room. Granted, the fans do use some power but it is a very small amount when running at the lowest speed and they wouldn't have to operate continuously.
We chose 2 different models for our home - the DV-35 (35,000 BTU) and the DV-210 (10,000 BTU). We put one DV-35 in the basement, one DV-35 in the dining room part of the great room, and one DV-210 in the spare bedroom on the main floor. This bedroom receives the least benefit from the heat of the wood stove and will not be used most of the time so we can keep it cooler until occupied by guests, at which time they can simply turn up the thermostat to a level that keeps them comfortable. We haven't had to use these guys yet (thankfully!) but are confident that they will allow us to keep the house warm at all times, even if we're not home to fill the wood stove every 8 hours or so. The basement heater will keep our water lines safe from freezing and make the area usable for whatever we want.
Direct vent technology means that the heaters get all their combustion air and vent their exhaust gasses through a double-walled pipe going through an exterior wall. Outside, all you see is a small vent cap mounted on the siding. In testing, the units are very quiet - another benefit! - and seem easy to use. There is a pilot that needs to be lit at the beginning of the season but it has a BBQ-style sparker to ignite it and a thermopile that shuts off the gas if the pilot light goes out. They come with everything you need to install them except for the short flexible gas line that must be installed by a certified gas fitter. We hired Brock from Rivercity Air to come up and install the units and he made quick work of it installing all 3 in less than 8 hours. He's a very nice guy and does great work so if you need someone to help with heating and cooling your home, look him up and give him a call.

Work goes on again this weekend with the siding. We've got to get all the remaining stuff on the front of the house. Then we will need to rent some scaffolding to finish up the siding on 2nd floor. Hopefully, the weather will continue to be dry - at least for a couple more weeks. I missed last weekend working on the house as I took a motorcycle trip to Edmonton, Alberta to visit my family. My mum lives just north of the city in St. Albert and my son and his family live in Sherwood Park, on the east edge of the city. It was great to see my granddaughter, Harlee, again. It has been almost 2 years since I was last there. She was only days old then and the change in her is amazing! She's walking, talking and generally being super cute. It was worth missing some "house" time to spend some time with her!

Oh, and it looks like we have a new addition to our Gull Lake Ranch family - a young colt we rescued from a future at the meat plant. "Whiskey" is a little over 2 years old and is a quarter house/paint horse cross who (we think) will mature to be a little over 14 hands high - perfect for Carol. He was gelded yesterday and had his feet trimmed so will not be in the best of spirits for a day or two. We owe Lea and Sara and the girls at Dreamscape Ranch a big "thank you" for finding him and looking after him until we have our place set up to look after him. He is super cute and seems very calm and friendly. We hope he likes his new home. One of Dreamscape's "retirees", Mystery, will be keeping him company at our place.

September...yikes!

Looking at the calendar, I notice that it reads, "September 5, 2012". We've been living in the house now for just over a year. It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed since Carol's parents visited late last summer. Inside the house is dramatically different with insulation, walls, flooring, a kitchen and two bathrooms all looking much like the finished versions we had in our minds' eye. Our electrical and water systems are pretty much finalized with just the basement and exterior lighting left finish. The mechanical room is looking pretty good with everything organized per the inspector's report.




We are slowly reducing the piles of "stuff to be installed" and getting some of the boxes of personal items put away in their new homes.
Outside, it's still a different story. The siding we were hoping to finish by the end of August is, of course, taking much longer than I first anticipated. Don't get me wrong, it's coming along nicely now, but it will be another month before we have it all done.




Where the siding is up the house is looking really nice. Finally, we are managing to hide the Tyvek house wrap under our Autumn Red fibre cement Certainteed siding. It goes up quite quickly but slows down around all the items that interrupt the clean expanse of the walls - stuff like windows, doors, vents, faucets, and outlet boxes. Since we have 19 windows, 3 doors, 5 vents, 4 outlets, 2 taps and a couple of conduit entrances, the installation goes "slowly," if I have to choose a word. Before they are nailed to the wall, the siding boards are easily broken if not handled properly. 



Compounding that concern is all the cutting and manipulating that has to happen to go around all the aforementioned obstructions. Tedious and fiddly work, this satisfying the Building Code! As I said earlier though, the place is starting to look good!
I have to get my butt in gear. We're running out of warm weather (not this week though, with highs forecast to hover just below 30*C) and I will soon have to focus on our firewood supply. Some good news on that front is that we should have our direct vent propane space heaters installed by the end of next week, courtesy of Fred and his team at CalGas.

That will take some of the pressure off our wood stove this winter and allow us to leave the place for more than a few hours without fear of freezing up all the pipes. We will use more propane with these in place but if you consider that we have only used about a third of our tank over the last 11 months, that should not be a big problem.

Busy Weekend

Carol's birthday falls on a Monday this year, so we decided to celebrate it on the weekend just before. I had invited our friends Roy and Patou to join us for dinner and drinks on Saturday evening. Within a few minutes of that invite going out, Paul, Tamara and Paris emailed to ask if they could come to visit over the weekend. I figured the more the merrier, so we set it up. If you remember, we haven't done the floor in the guest room yet so we decided to take the day off from the office and get it done. It would also give us some time to vacuum up the dog hair before the Paul's bunch arrived later in the day.

We were up and at it early and had the floor finished by 3pm. It looks great, and it's nice to have the last of the flooring on the main and upper floor finally done. I went down to meet them at the highway so they could follow me up to the house. Right on time, they pulled up at 5pm and we wound our way up the tight switchbacks on the east end of Robbins Range Road. Carol and the dogs were standing on the deck as we pulled into the drive beside the house. Much barking and carrying on later, we were finally able to make our way inside.
The weather was predicted to be hot, in the mid to high 30's all weekend and it didn't disappoint. It was smokin' all weekend! We BBQ'd some steaks, had some wine, and settled in to enjoy the evening. Now THIS is why we put this big deck out here!
The next morning I took Paul for a tour in the Bobcat ATV showing him how it worked and where a few of the local roads/goat trails went. The plan was for him to take Tamara and Paris exploring. It was a good plan and the girls really took to it. I think the 3 of them spent about 5 hours over the weekend travelling many of the back roads and trails in the area. My take on it was they had a blast!
Saturday evening, as I said before, our friends were coming over for dinner. It turns out that they have two students from Germany staying with them, Maria and Peter. Of course they were welcome to join us, and as it turns out, it was Maria's 21st birthday on Saturday! Carol had made some of her famous BBQ spare ribs and potatoes, and with Patou's salad, Tamara and Paris' awesome cake decorating and the cake that I baked (yes, it was from a box!), we had an awesome meal! Carol and Maria took turns blowing out the candles. It was quite late by the time we got cleaned up, said goodbye to our dinner guests and fell into bed.

Another beautiful morning on Sunday meant we spent the entire day on the deck with most of us getting some good sun. Paris' paddling pool was a big hit as a place to cool one's feet after walking around on the hot deck. Another ATV ride and then Paul and family set out for the coast around 4 pm. It was left over ribs and steak sandwiches for dinner for us and another excellent episode of "The Newsroom" before bed for we Gull Lake Ranch residents. A really awesome weekend. Thanks, everyone!

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.