Building A 5 Acre Paradise: October 2010

I am writing to you from our beautiful late 80s brass and pink trailer with some exciting updates!

Roofing / Windows / Doors: Our driftwood shingles went up and almost simultaneously, the windows and patio door were installed. The windows are Anderson 400 casements. They are sandtone on the exterior and wood (pine) on the interior. The house is starting to come together !

We ordered all exterior doors and garage doors and expect them to come in November 3rd. Until them, we have boarded up the main door so we can work without chilly winds freezing us.

patio door that leads to sunroom

windows for the living room

back of house..you can see the deck on this one

front with shingles and most windows...

loft windows (middle dormer)

"secret" area for the kid's room..every child's dream

view of the dining room from upstairs

Francis' music room (over the garage)

view of house from music room

a bit more house wrap...

and all the windows in! Notice the boarded up front door..classy...

Electricity: We have been connected and are now the proud owners of our own hydro post in the yard. It looked funny at first but you get used to it. The trailer is much more livable now that we don't have the constant hum of the generator in the background.

The house now has two functional outlets, which are currently being used for the sump pump, some work lights and the occasional radio (Dad can't work without music).

The electrician has installed the boxes for the switches and plugs and is about halfway done running the wires.

Post!

Electricity is on its way....

Trailer Life: On top of getting electricity last week, we also got a Bell Turbohub so that Francis can work from home from time to time. We are not getting full reception because of the trees but it's 75% there. We will likely get an antenna once we move in. It's nice to be able to be back to my normal routine of updating my podcasts and being able to update the blog (no access from work and a pain to do on the iPhone)

We heat the trailer with a little electric ceramic heater. It works wonderfully. Sometimes Chinook hogs it by going to sleep in front of it though.

Speaking of Chinook, he is a great roommate. I mean sure he leaves fur and footprints everywhere he goes and he destroyed a dozen tennis balls but we are totally in love with him.

Goofy smile! I mean really...how can you resist.

He seems pensive..but actually he's staring at his ball obsessively. Typical border collie behaviour

See? I'm sitting! Throw me the ball already!

Chinook sometimes points. No clue where that comes from. The joys of mutts.

As for the property, I feel more and more at home everytime our car pulls in the driveway. I did some exploring in the past weeks. We had walked to the little creek at the back of our property before but neighbours told me there were trails that could be used a little further back so I went to find them. I couldn't believe what I saw...gorgeous well maintained sandy trails surround the back of the lot, each leading to different scenery and wildlife. Chinook and I are at our happiest there. I love to imagine us going for sunday morning walks and four wheeler rides once we are established. I could not ask for anything more.

One of the stops along the trail...

In one of the trails...

and another...

Little creek out back

Tons of photographic subjects

Framing: It's 99% done. They only have a few outstanding tasks left...namely to lower the ceiling where our walk-in shower will be and to frame the basement walls. The strapping is done so once the rough-ins are complete we will be ready for the inspection. We made two framing changes since my last post. The first is to the upstairs bathroom. We felt one of the walls made the room awkward so we changed the layout to have a 45 degree angled wall to open it all up. I think it was worth it. It feels much less cramped now.

Not sure what he was doing in this one...I think framing the laundry room wall?

45 degree wall in the bathroom

Another change, which isn't really a change because it was on the plan but was never done, was to frame a wall behind the refrigerator so we can run some wires and plumbing ther as well as allow us to recess the refrigerator into the wall so it looks like a counter-depth model.

Francis' dad did a fantastic job putting in backing for dormers. This is needed so the insulators can do their job properly. I wish I had a picture. Darn it.

Radiant Heat: The basement is done and has been poured. The garage's radiant heating is complete and pouring will happen tomorrow.

Basement floor poured

Radiant in Garage

HVAC is almost complete...big thanks to Norm Brisson for his help.

Some of the duct work

Plumbing: It's 90% done. Our septic system was installed and we connected it to the house.

Septic System and mantle

We have a few changes to make because of the framing changes mentioned above. We went to Boone's Plumbing to pick out our plumbing fixtures. You would never think there are so many options for toilets and faucets until you walk into that store..haha. We picked out everything we had to in order to get a quote. We will likely need to go ahead and confirm our choices. The most important purchases were the bath and the shower fixtures because those need to be installed before we can drywall. Pictures to come at a later date.

Fireplace: The fireplace was delivered and installed. Dad is currently framing a box around it so we can insulate it properly. Our fireplace is pretty darn big so we first framed a 2x6 platform so it's raised from the floor. There will be a 2 foot hearth in the front to protect the pine floors.