Well Strike the master bathroom off the list.

Well as my old boss, Dick VanderEnde use to say "time for a shit, shave and a shower". I'll talk more about this later as the progress from the preceding week is discussed.
On Sunday I went in and grouted the tiles above the shower stall. This was not as easy as it seemed. First off the work is vertical secondly the tiles I had chosen have beveled surfaces which meant it was even harder to work the float across the surfaces. I actually had to stop grouting 2/3's of the way through and start sponging off the first side I started on. However we persevered and a few hours later the grout job and initial cleaning was done. Twice more during the day I went over the tiles deglazing them from the grout and cleaning them. In between all this work I also managed to install the basement handrail with the help of the brother in law, give my storage shelving a second coat of paint and I also did some more mudding in the northerly basement rec room. Here are some pictures showing the work done today. The third picture is a little dark but still shows how the hand rail was installed using, first a piece of 2by4 pine and then a piece of oak on top.

Well on Monday I drove back and forth to London to pickup my mother who had been visiting the brother so no work done. On Tuesday I had to work so the next day at the house was Wednesday.

On Wednesday the HVAC guys came to install the Air Conditioner and the final thermostats thus hooking the entire system together. They spent the entire morning working on this and shortly after noon hour the install was complete and tested out. The funny thing is that so far there has been no requirement for AC. The warmest it has been in the house is 21C or 70F without any AC running. The house has remained nice and cool so far even with some of the heat we had recently. It will be interesting to see how long this lasts. Once they were finished I spent a little time in the Master bath installing the baseboard and then called it an early day after returning some of the unneeded stone sills back to the brick yard. I will also be returning some brick and stone eventually as too much was ordered. Sorry no pictures of the AC however they all look the same. The only difference with mine is, is that it is a SEER 16 rating which means it is among the most efficient so far on the market. As well because of the efficiency ratings of my furnace and air-conditioner the provincial government will be giving me a cheque for 650$ to compensate for buying the more efficient equipment. That money will go to the cost of flooring the house.

On Thursday and Friday I was back at work while the masons continued bricking the house. By Friday at 2pm the brickwork was done and they are now complete. I am really pleased with the look of the stone and brick. So pleased that I forgot to take a picture to show you the finished product. Now all I need to do is install two porches, some tongue and groove soffiting in the porch areas and then frieze boards all the way around the house. As well I will need to fill in the area above the doors and windows with board and batten siding similiar to my gable ends.

Now on Saturday I went in with the express purpose of getting the bathroom complete. First thing was giving the baseboard one final coat of paint. I then test fit the vanity to ensure the plumbing would work. I then cut the copper stub outs and installed compression taps on the three stubs. Next we installed the toilet and turned it on, success it worked and no leaks. I then went back to the vanity and finished installing the taps and then the drain system. Again turned it on and success no leaks. However I did notice that when I tested the overflow system that although it works the drain line from the overflow will in no way take all the water that the taps are capable of giving at full throttle.  Next we went on to the shower and installed the taps and the shower head. Again tested it and no leaks. I am one happy camper. I am I believe just two little railings away from getting an occupancy permit. Hopefully after next week Tuesday is done I should be all ready for this. Then it will just be a matter of scheduling the inspection. This brings us back to the first comment I made. I am now capable of having a "shit, shave and a shower"in my house. Here are some pictures showing the completed items. You might be able to see that the shower is actually running.

Well that's all for now. On Tuesday I'll finish those railings and then try and schedule the inspection. As well I start to work on prepping the Master bedroom for the flooring that has been acclimatizing in the house. Then we'll install the trim and finally I'll bring in my bedroom furniture. 

So until next week all the best.

Harold

I'm so excited the Brick and Stone look amazing

Well it's been an interesting week. The House is now starting to look like a house as it slowly gets it's skin. Over the past week the Mason's have almost finished installing the stone work and they even managed to install some brick while waiting for extra stone. Here are two pictures. The first one shows the last area of stone being installed and the second one shows the first area that brick was installed.

I am extremely pleased with the look of the stone brick combination. 

As for myself on Sunday we spent some time buying stuff at Lowes during their beat the tax event. As well some of the stuff was on sale as well so we had the double the savings. Then on  Monday I started working on installing the tile above the shower enclosure on the back wall. Here is a picture of that work.

On Wednesday I went in and installed the tile on the one side wall as well as started work on a set of shelves for the basement storage room. This shelving unit used a couple of 4by4's in the corner and vertical 2by4's notched out to accept the horizontal supports. Once assembled a piece of 1/2" good one side plywood was used as the shelf itself. Here is a couple of pictures showing the work from start to finish.

On Thursday I finished installing the tile on the last wall in the shower. I then went downstairs and gave the shelving unit a coat of semi-gloss white paint. Once that was done I went upstairs to install the shelving unit in my Master bedroom closet. This system is made by Rubbermaid and is the metal shelving units that are flexible layout depending on what you want, The nice thing is that the kits are such that after installing my closet there was enough left over to do at least 1/2 of the closet in the spare bedroom. After that was done I started a little mudding of drywall mud in the second bedroom in the basement. Here are some pictures showing this work.

Well that's all for now. Next week I plan to grout the shower tiles, then install the trimwork in the bathroom followed by the toilet and then the vanity. Once that is done I have a handrail to install and once complete I should be able to get my occupancy certificate. Hopefully by end of next week the work will be done just waiting for the inspection. 

Well time to go and we'll see you all next week

Harold

The Stone and Brick begin

Well sorry for the late post as well sorry for no pictures as I left the camera at the house.
To be honest very little happened from my point of view this week. I went in on Sunday just to give my basement railings a 4th coat of Varathane. Since I worked on Monday and then Thursday to Saturday all the time I had was on Tuesday and Wednesday at the house. I had made arrangements for the stone and brick to be delivered on Tuesday so I initially started by preparing the area to accept these items. I laid out a large tarp for the sand to sit on and then placed some skids around the house for the  brick cubes to sit on. I knew the materials was coming in three trucks. Sand in one, Stone on another and then finally the brick straight from the company. Sand arrived at 0930 and was placed nicely on the tarp. After he left I used the remaining part of the tarp as well as another tarp to cover the tarp to keep it dry. An hour later the Burnstein truck showed up with my stone, lintels and mortar. We placed the stone around the house and then I proceeded to wait for the brick truck. While waiting I worked on a few small items. I installed the shelves in the two closets in the back room and installed the clothes rod in the larger closet. I also did some cleaning around the house. Finally around 2pm I called Burnstein to find out about the brick truck. The sales rep called me back within 5min and said sorry but the company decided not to come to day and  would come on Wednesday instead due to delivery schedules. So packed it in for the day.
On Wednesday the Masons showed up and started their setup and then started to lay the stone on the West wall. About mid morning the brick truck showed up and they placed the brick around the house. During this time I started installing my tile above the shower on the back wall. I did this in two stages and by mid afternoon the tile was installed. Since I had to work for the remainder of the week I did not finish the other two walls. I plan to finish the tile tomorrow on Monday. Well by the end of the day the Masons had placed stone on half of the west wall.
On Thursday they finished the west wall and on Friday they finished the rear wall and started on the front of the house. I expect they will be back on Tuesday to continue. I theorize they should be finished somewhere around the middle of next week. Once they are finished then I will have the HVAC guys back to install the Air Conditioner and finish their portion of the work. With those two jobs done that should be the end of the trades people working on the house. All the remainder will be done by me unless I win some money.
So today Sunday went out and had a late breakfast at a great little restaurant in Niagara Falls called the Sunset Grill. This is on the same plaza as Lowes and we were going to go there to pick up some items on their beat the tax days. This restaurant specializes in eggs and is only open for the breakfast and lunch crowd. Their portions are large and the meals are great. For info their omelets are 6 egg omelets. So after breakfast over to Lowes to pickup my bathroom vanity and vanity top. As well I picked up some Rubbermaid shelving units and Mom and my sister picked out the paint for my spare bedroom and bathroom. The colours are Sweet Carolina and Ironclad which are in the green family. The plan is to paint the bathroom and the headboard area with one colour and the rest of the bedroom with the other colour. Not sure when I'll get around to it but I do plan on doing this soon before I start on the flooring.
Well that's all for now. I hope all you Canadians have a great Victoria day weekend.

Harold

Two steps forward One step back

Well I really was hoping to say that the bathroom was either  done or almost done. Unfortunately that is not the case. Two things conspired against me, one was being one piece short of the tile I was using for the first row above the shower stall and two a bout of the flu. Oh well not as if there haven't been other setbacks along the way. However we still keep going forward.

On Tuesday I worked on the side porch again and managed to finish most of the railing area for the front of the porch. The two sides will need to wait until the bricklayer has finished later this month. I was going to install the spindles on the steps when I realized I needed a piece of 2by4 to act as filler along the stringers. Well before I went to pickup subject 2by4 I decided to install 4in pieces of 4by4 along the soffit as freize blocks for a future freize board that I will install after the bricklayer is done.
Here is a picture of the blocks installed on the house. The Freize board will most likely be a piece of 1by6 Fir coloured the same as the posts.

On Wednesday I managed to finish those railing spindles and install a pair of solar lights on the 6by6 newel posts. I then spent some time in the house working on cleaning up and trimming some clear Pine and a piece of Red Oak that will be used for the basement hand rail. The clear pine is a 2by4 size and will be fastened to the wall slightly lower than hand rail height. Then the red oak which is a 1.5by6 will be fastened to the pine such that approx 2in sticks up higher than the pine. This will be rounded sanded and varathaned to a smooth finish for the hand rail. So today we cut the wood to size rounded it over sanded it and gave it a coat of Cabernet stain. Lastly we spent some time moving some dirt from the front yard to under the future front deck to raise the ground and give it good slope away from the house. The dirt was from the city when they installed my culvert they asked if I wanted the dirt they would dig out. I said yes, big mistake it was mostly clay from the moat I had. Oh well it still works well as fill under the deck area. As well I started to work on the shower tiles cutting the first row to size, that is until I realized I was one short and would need to pick one up. Here are some pictures, first the more or less finished side porch, second  the handrails after staining and third a picture of the front yard showing one of two piles left from culvert work and the dirt from the other pile under the deck area. The large dirt pile is topsoil from the initial excavation.

Today Saturday the first thing I did was give the railings a second coat of Varathane. I actually managed to give them their first coat on Thursday evening after work. They should have received their second coat on Friday after work however I spent all day Friday in bed fighting a 24hr flu bug. This meant that even today I was not 100%. After the varathane was done I went outside to spend some time moving dirt and gravel around trying to sweat out the flu bug. I finished moving dirt under the front deck area, at least for now. I then moved 10 wheelbarrow loads of gravel that was left over onto the driveway in various spots to help level it out. I then also leveled of the side of the house where I had dug a ditch to drain water away before the eavesthrough were installed. This also ensured a smoother area for the bricklayer to stand his scaffolding. Lastly I spent some time moving a little topsoil around one side of the garage. I figured might as well start on this as it was just grunt work and nothing was in the way. Towards the end of the day I went inside and quickly installed the casing on the window and the cubbyhole in the Master Bath. So here are some pictures showing the topsoil along the garage and the casing in the bathroom.

Ok so on Tuesday the brick and stone get delivered and the bricklayer should be starting shortly thereafter. As well I plan on installing the tile work on Tuesday and if all goes well the grout on Wednesday. After that one toilet and one vanity are all that stand between me and an occupancy certificate. That is as long as the inspector approves it all. Until next week have a great time.

Harold

It's easier to enter the house now

Well another week has gone by and a little more work has been done. By the way here's a picture of the culvert the city installed. Sure makes the driveway a lot better to use. The Moat I had before was almost good enough to stop a M1 Abrams tank.

I started last week Sunday by working on side porch area. I dug out an area just beside the porch where the A/C will sit. I dug down at least a foot, pounded it down and then laid down a few inches of gravel and pounded it down. I repeated this process for 6in worth of gravel. I then installed some Pressure Treated 6by6 as edging for this pad area as well as edging in the area underneath the side porch. Under the porch area I placed more dirt graded this with a slope away from the house and then installed some landscape fabric. On top of the fabric I spread out 2-3in of gravel.
On Tuesday I spent some time installing some of the Master Bath and bedroom trim. As well I installed four 3by6 Fir timbers at the four corners of the house. They are more decorative than structural however the two at the back will help support the beams for the roof over the back porch. I also dug down and installed two newel posts for the future railings for the side porch stairs. I thought I had them so carefully marked out however when installing the stairs today I realized they were 6in further from the house than they needed to be. They still will work just not aesthetically the way I planned. I also installed the decking on the side porch. Here's a picture of the resultant work.

On Wednesday I initially spent some time a Mom's house with electricians working on fixing up the wiring that the inspector found. Later I went to the house and poured a pad of concrete at the side porch area. Twenty six bags later the pad was poured. I also spent some time moving some of the dirt the city dug out when installing my culvert to the front porch area to raise the dirt and level it out where the porch will be. Here's a picture of the concrete pad. The picture was taken just after pouring and initial troweling. Later once the concrete setup some more I used a broom to give it a rough coating for traction purposes. I also primed the drywall repairs that I had done in the Master Bath.

Since I worked on Thursday all I did was stop by the house on the way home to give the drywall repaired area an initial coat of blue paint. 

Today I went out to the house for a few hours and put the second coat of paint on the drywall repairs as well as on the Master Bedroom window trim. I then went outside and stripped off the forming for the concrete pad and proceeded to build my stairs for the side porch. A little while later this was done. Here is the result of that work. The stairs are done and I've calculated what I need to install the railings for this side porch. Here's a picture of the stairs.

Well this coming week I have three full days to work on the house. Hopefully by my next report I can state that the bathroom is almost done and I'll be really close to getting an occupancy certificate. Until then have  a great week.

Harold