Well another week has gone by and the lot is now ready for the next phase of construction. Since last week another 3 loads went to the waste recycling area and the lot is now clear of any organic extras. This of course does not include all the roots and concrete pieces that the excavator will need to dig up prior to digging the basements out. I even removed the old chain link fence down the one side and brought the majority to the scrap dealers and got 39$ for this. It worked out to 13 cents a pound. I also went into city hall on Monday morning and initiated the start of my building permit application process. The city now has 10 business days to either approve or turn me down. As of Friday morning one of the inspectors was looking it over so hopefully by mid week I'll have an answer. Once that happens the fun begins.
While waiting for this paperwork I decided to be my own surveyor and with the help of my Mom I surveyed the height elevations of the property. I laid out a grid pattern of 20ft squares and then had my Mom go from point to point with my home made survey stake while I used a transit to capture the heights. Once it was all finished I realized I had  nicely sloping property of approximately 2ft6" from front to back and a lateral slope from East to West of around 10-12inches on average. Here is a picture showing my mother giving me a hand with the surveying. Nice when your family wants to help.

Once this was done I then decided to stake the corners of the house and garage. Now the surveyor will need to come in and do this officially for the excavation process however I wanted to do it as well and then see how close I was to the surveyors points. First thing I did was run a string using a pair of batten boards down the west side of the property 5ft6" east of the property line. This would signify the west wall of the house. I then measured 40ft in from the front property line to get the NW corner of the house. I then moved 54ft down the string placed another peg for the SW corner of the house. I then went 34ft east of the string in the area I thought the NE corner should be. Using Pythagoreans' theorem I then calculated the correct position of the stake and pounded her in. Then measured to the SE corner and pounded another stake in the ground. Checked the stakes from corner to corner and they are within 1/2" of each other. Since this is only be used to find the area to dig the hole this is more than acceptable. I then pounded in stakes for the corners of the three decks and once complete went further back on the property and calculated the garages' position. I'll let you know how close I was when the surveyor actually comes out and does his work.

And that's where we sit so far. Picked up a few more small items that were on sale but still holding back on all the major commitments until the building permit is approved. Had a nice meeting with two of the neighbours and they have no issues at this time with anything I am doing. I've also met a few other neighbours and it looks like it will be a nice neighbourhood.

Well until next week have a nice Labour day Monday and watch out for all the school kids on Tuesday morning. A lot of them head back to class and the roads will be full of young kids either walking or biking.

Harold

Well one week later and 10 trips to the dump to drop off the brush and tree branches and the lot is beginning to look a lot better. Nice thing is the brush will be chipped at the dump and used as a mix in their recycling stream for their organic waste cooker. As well this morning a couple came by and we cut down two cherry trees and one apple tree, they now have a few pickup truck loads of firewood. I still have possibly two more trips to the dump. I have one pine tree left at the front of the lot and if the company that installed the sewers does not come by and clean up the trees and brush they dug up to install the sewer and water lines, I will then also have to clean that debris up as well. So now for the before and after pictures here they are.

I also believe that I now have all the paperwork required for the building permit application. So on Monday morning I will be at City Hall filling in my application. The city has up to 2 weeks to look over it and either approve or deny or request more information. I'm hoping they don't take that long and that within the week I have my building permit. Once this is approved then I need to order my SIP panels and arrange for the basement contracting to start. I also need to then finalize and order the trusses as well. The truss people told me it would be around 6 weeks from day of deposit left to truss delivery, so I need to get on them right away. So I have my Basement company, Cotton Industries, my Framing contractor, Harder Carpentry, my Roofing contractor, Dykstra Roofing more or less lined up and ready to go. Timing will now be the critical thing.

I mentioned last week that I was heading to Lowes to get some Blu wood for the basement bearing wall. Well this turned into an interesting lesson. I really thought this Blu wood was more prevalent. The product has all the endorsement it needs in Southern Ontario with people like Mike Holmes, Brian Baumler, and Scott McGillivray. These are local HGTV hosts who are also home contractors. However it turns out only Lowes carries the stuff in Ontario and they only carry 8ft lengths. They can order other lengths however the price was double the price of a standard 2by6. Unfortunately found this out after I bought my 8ft pieces to use as studs for the main bearing wall. So instead of using 12ft sill plates for this wall I'll just use 8ft pieces and ensure I place my anchor bolts carefully.

I also have decided that I will install a relatively pricey door in the front entrance. This door will be a 7'6" tall Mission style door with appropriate window and exterior shelf under window. As well this door will have a three point locking system. I think I may also have gotten lucky in that I have found another brand new door that also has three point locking system but normal size for almost a 1/3 of what it is worth. Only issue will be getting a locksmith to cut new keys for the door as they have gone missing.

Other than that not much else to talk about. I spent most of my week out on the site cleaning brush. And believe me cutting down a double row of cedar bushes/trees was not fun. It may have been a great tunnel/play area for the kids, but it was dirty messy work cleaning it up. So until next week have a great week.

Harold

Well at 1114AM on the 15th the Lawyer called and advised me we had closed and the property was officially mine. Which meant that promptly my liquid assets just dropped in half. Am really going to have to look for all the sales out there to save a few dollars. For instance this weekend Lowes is having a sale where if you buy a certain amount you get 15% discount. Well since I need "Blu wood" 2by6-8footers for the basement bearing wall. I'll pick them up tomorrow and save some money. I'll also try and get the 12footers I want for the Sill plates and possibly the garage windows as well.

So this morning went down to the lot with Weedeater, Lawnmower, Lopers, and small saw to start clearing the brush along a fence line and start cutting some of the grass and weeds. Here is a picture of the lot at 0800am this morning and the fence line I will clear is on the right hand side of the picture. The fire hydrant is just three feet to the left of my property stake on the West side of the property at this time you are facing south looking into the picture.

Well after about 4hrs of work this is what she looked like. The brush along the old fence line was all gone with the exception of two trees that will most likely come down on Monday. As well I managed to cut about 15ft worth of grass by 150ft. At that time, around 1300pm the rain was starting to come in and out and the trailer was full anyway so called it a day. I'll bring the trailer to the recycling dump on Monday and then fill it up again with another load. All the brush to the left of the truck in the picture above also has to be removed and then we have three rather large cherry trees to cut down. Anyway here is the after picture.

Now prior to my getting the lot one of the things they needed to do was bring water and sewer to the lot line. As you can see in the picture above since there was a fire hydrant, water would not be an issue since it was right there along the road. Now sewer was an other issue. The main sewer trunk needed to be extended at least 100metres and then they had to cut in the laterals to my property and the other half of the property they severed off. Well a week ago they laid the main sewer trunk this caused a few traffic tie-ups due to single lane traffic. However this week they cut in the laterals and when they did that they shut down the road for the day to install one lateral. Since they had to install 2 the road was closed down on two successive days. I heard a few people complain about this. Oh well. Here is a picture showing the lateral being cut in.

At the end of the day all I wanted to see were the two 2by4's coming out of the ground showing where the end of the sewer and water lines were. In the following picture you can see the sewer board (painted green) and the water board (unpainted). If you look carefully about 5ft to the left of the water board is a small orange survey stake showing the eastern edge of my property.

Some of the other things that occurred this week were the decisions on who to use for the basement installation and who would do the framing of the basic house structure. As of now Cotten Construction will install the basement and the garage concrete as well as do the basic grading around the house. One of their first jobs will be to dig out all the stumps from the brush and trees I will be cutting down. Secondly I've decided on using a company called Harder Carpentry to do the framing. This fellow has done numerous SIP panel houses for a local contractor. This means we won't be learning how to install them as we install them. After this will come the roofing company and as of now this will be Dykstra Brothers roofing. A local company that is on it's second generation of family members in the business.

So for me next week it will be clearing land until it is all done.
See you next week for the next instalment.

Harold