May

I spent the month of May oiling mahogany for the exterior trim. Framer worked throughout the month, when it wasn't raining, on the siding.

Hardwood got installed on the main floor. Then when he went to the 3rd floor, he discovered that our "3rd grade" material was actually firewood. Entire bundles were being rejected because the holes were either more than half the width of the board, or were on an edge, and not structurally sound. So it's all been sent back, but it's a few weeks delay to get new stuff. And now the new stuff will be premium grade at the price of the 3rd grade stuff. Too bad the 2nd grade quality stuff has already been installed on the main floor. And fortunately, it hasn't caused an issue with the installer's schedule.

The framing package was delivered for the garage, and we had the porta potty moved to the front yard to make room, They moved it to the sidewalk in front of the NEIGHBOUR's house. How would you like that in their shoes? BIL discovered it and moved it before they noticed. Or at least before they called me about it.

I struggled with paint colours this month. I must have bought 10 different samples of white paint. MrDinks can't see the difference between any of them. The problem is that the brand the painter likes won't do sample pots in off white, because they can't divide the colourant into small enough drops. So I'm either going to have to take a darker colour, or go with a sample from a different brand, and hope the painter's colour match is close enough. I had also planned to just do off-white everywhere, and add accent colours later. But MrDinks has declared that having paid pros to paint our walls, I am not allowed to paint them after we move in. So that's adding pressure to me to pick the right one. And changing the plan I've had for months, and since the painters are eager to get in, I've only got a few days to change the plan. I finally decided to let them colour match. They got the stairs painted and are now lacquering the trim. I'm going to have them stop there so we can get the floors finished upstairs.

While waiting on the floors upstairs, BIL installed the cabinets in the kitchen. Kitchen counters are a new hiccup. I'd always planned to do slate like we have in the old house. But there's only one place in town to get them. And those guys are over charging. So I am now shopping for honed black granite.

We also had pros come in and install the tile on the floors in the bathrooms upstairs. They completely ignored our request that the tile height match the height of the wood in the hall. It's about an 1/8" too low. But otherwise it looks good. MrDinks did the waterproofing in the showers and I will be tiling those.

Trim painting in progress

Stairs and installed unfinished floors

A piece of the first shipment of flooring

Mahogany around front door

Kitchen cabinets installed

Ensuite bathroom floor tile

Slate herringbone on the the hall bath floor

Stair railings drying on the baker's rack

Doors drying in the guest room

April

This month, the garage pad got poured, the painters came in and primed, and we started on siding. We also finished the welding on the stairs, despite a major setback there.

I was away for a week with a girlfriend on a shopping trip in NYC, when MrDinks discovered another break-in at the site. The criminals broke the lockbox off the fence and took it away, then came back later with the key. They stole the welder and welder's toolbox. They also cut the underground cable from the house to the power pole. This is when we learned that our insurance doesn't cover tools left on the site. And the welder hadn't gotten around to listing his new welder on his own policy yet. Annoying and expensive. We're now using the keypad built into the back door for letting trades into the house.

The hardwood arrived while I was away and is acclimatizing on site. The finisher I've booked showed up while BIL was working in the house with the back door open. He panicked that the material is being dried out. So once it's installed, he wants the house locked up for several weeks with the humidifier cranked. And he's now scheduling us for July. I told him that won't work for us. He then phoned me while I was at a funeral and didn't answer. So he sent me an email telling me he's quit. This was the second finisher I'd tried to hire. The first guy kept put off giving me a quote, and every time I spoke to him, his availability date had slipped another month. So now I'm looking for a 3rd finisher.

Our framer has agreed to come back and do the siding, so that started this month, too.

From the office looking up to the loft 

The preparations for the garage pad

Drywall

It has been a long time since my last post. Bad blogger.

The drywall has gone up. MrDinks and I were on site the one weekend dropping off tile, and they were working. I caught them a few minutes before they were about to put drywall over the beam I spent hours sanding and staining. They also hadn't been told about the drywall return windows, and they didn't have the proper edging. So there was some delays while they got that.

They commented on the quality of our windows. Apparently it's standard practice not to bother getting the code for the lock box. They just break in through a window. But in this case, they had to actually call the foreman because our windows couldn't be pried open. Yikes.

The mudding and taping is taking forever. It's been over 3 weeks since the drywall was up. And they still aren't finished the first coat of mud. A few corners still need bead, and about half the screw heads are still exposed. BIL said taping/mudding usually takes a week.

They are using our stairs as an excuse. We hired the welder husband of my coworker and he's doing an awesome job. The stringers are in, the railings are almost framed, and he's going to start working on the mesh for the railings next week.

Over a few days, he was taking the temp stairs away to fit in the new stringers. The mudder stopped coming. Fair enough. But they haven't really been back now that the stairs are fully in place. They show up for a few hours here and there, but never a full day.

They aren't the only ones apparently on spring break. Over 4 days, I had 3 trades decide not to show up to give me a quote. The finish carpenter BIL recommended, the flooring installer the floor finisher recommended, and the siding guy I met at the siding store. 2 had excuses after the fact, the 3rd never answered his phone or called me back. So much for there being a slow down in the construction industry, freeing up trades.

I did finally get the kitchen cabinets ordered, along with the bathroom and mudroom. And at the rate everything else is moving, I don't think we're going to be waiting on them for long at all. Here's the designer's drawing of the kitchen.

And some other progress pictures...

Insulation is going in.

We got our inspection passed early last week. It involved getting drawings for how exterior insulation is supposed to be installed. Because seeing it in person wasn't good enough. That was supplied by our environmental consultant for $250. Another unnecessary expense thanks to the city.

 With the inspection passed, they started insulation. Over the weekend, MrDinks and I were on site working on a few things, and the insulation guys were there working on the loft ceiling. They didn't realize that we had the lights hooked up. And MrDinks didn't realize they'd tucked a lightbulb up under the plastic vapour barrier. He turned on the light, and a few minutes later the insulators started freaking out. The bulb was heating up and had already started to melt some insulation. Fortunately they cut it out before it became a major incident.

On Tuesday night, I came to the house and walked up the stairs and discovered that they'd insulated all around the ensuite bathroom. MrDinks had wanted the wall between the shower and bedroom insulated because there was supposed to be plumbing in that wall. The plumbing got moved, but he left the insulation request in. And somehow they misunderstood and insulated the whole bathroom. It makes me laugh every time I walk up the stairs.

The kitchen still isn't ordered. But the design is finalized. I am just waiting now on sample doors of my custom colour, and final pricing. I am also waiting on the pricing of the bathroom, mudroom and window seat cabinets.

I have ordered tile for one of the bathrooms. It should be in in a couple of weeks.

We are also working on stair details. I have requested a new quote from the original stair company. Their first quote of $125,000 doesn't seem unreasonable now that the framing is done and we realize that Ryan had designed them to have floating landings. We've built the landings, and attached them to the walls, so the rest of the stairs should be much cheaper now. Plus, we bought a Direct Buy membership to save money on the kitchen cabinets, and the stair company offers a Direct Buy discount. So that should bring the price down to reasonable.

Also, one of the women I am working with has a husband that's a welder. His work building oil rigs has slowed down, so he is interested in building the stairs for us. I've also gotten quotes for the steel material, and unless the stair company comes in with really good price, having the welder build them on site looks like the best option.

We've gone through the building code with a fine tooth comb, and come to the decision that aircraft cable that's parallel to the stringers is completely acceptable. The stair companies won't build it, but welder guy will. The code specifically says the railings can't "encourage climbing." When I told Welder that, he suggested that if we electrify the railing, it won't encourage climbing. He and MrDinks may become very good friends.

If welder guy builds the stairs, we'll need to source the stair treads elsewhere. I've had that quoted by our 2 potential hardwood flooring guys. The first one wants $350 per stair. We have 46 stairs, so that's over $16k. Um, no. The other guy wants $110 for the wood, reclaimed fir, plus $100 to have him finish them. So that I can do myself and save close to $5k. But we're looking into other sources for the wood. I've discovered we can get a planer for ~$500. I've wanted a planer for a long time. And buying raw wood from various lumber sources comes in around $35 per tread. So, just need to decide on what material I want to use. And that's going to depend on what we decide for the rest of the flooring. 

First inspection

We had our first major inspection on Friday. So far, the city has inspected our foundation, our "groundworks" and the temporary power pole. This is the first time they've inspected the house itself, namely framing, mechanical, electrical and plumbing. We failed for some of the most ridiculous stuff ever.

Number 1, we don't have the fireplace installed yet. I assumed we needed drywall in first. But no, they want it done before drywall. So of course, I hadn't ordered it in time. I actually had yet another conversation with the city checking on the approval status of a potential installer. This time, the company in question has applied, but doesn't have a master gasfitter on staff, so they aren't approved. I also got a lecture about putting a company on my building permit application without already having a fireplace installer under contract. We needed the house framed before they could come out to give us a quote, but we need to have them under contract before we're allowed to break ground? Well, we shouldn't have had a fireplace on the plans if we hadn't decided who we were buying it from. We should have deleted it from the plans and added it later? So, I've bought the fireplace from the company that told me to leave their store. But it's coming this week. It wasn't in when the inspector came.

Number 2, he refused to go up to the second floor because we only had a railing on one side of the stairs. He claimed it was a safety risk.

Number 3, despite the engineered drawings showing how the house is built, the inspector wants extra framing in the corners, preventing us from having insulation in the corners.

Number 4, we didn't have the stamped drawings from the city on site. They were in my car, but I was in Toronto, so MrDinks couldn't find them. He had given BIL the garage drawings instead.

Number 5, we need documentation from the Canadian Association of Building Materials about some composite decking. Apparently Ryan put on the drawings that our green roof will have composite decking on it. It's called a green roof because the city won't allow us to have a deck up there. I suspect that the reference to the composite decking was on there because Ryan copied and pasted something from a different project. And because of that, the city wants us to provide some documentation. In order to get this document, we have to have a subscription to some government database. The city has access to it, and could easily look up whatever they need. But they won't. And we can't get it unless we're a big developer. Or pay a big developer to get it for us. So we have to have the drawings changed to show that we're not putting a deck on the surface we're not allowed to use as a deck anyway.

Number 6, we need resilient channels in our bedroom walls. WTF? It turns out we're in the AVPA (Airport Vicinity Protection Area). An apparently top secret zone the city has declared that basically means we're under the flight path. Someone did a contour map showing the areas that would be the loudest. And then someone else drew lines on the city streets surrounding the contours. We're outside the contour area. and inside the city street lines. That means that we are legally required to have soundproofing in the exterior walls where someone might be sleeping. And the city inspectors, for their own convenience, have decided that means resilient channels. MrDinks called the city and asked if we still need them given that we have the rigid foam insulation on the outside, which provides more sound deadening than the channels. Sure, we just need to provide a report from an acoustical engineer certifying that our walls are at least as sound proof as they would be if we had resilient channels. Nevermind, the channels are cheaper and faster than hiring an engineer.

However, they need to go on after the insulation and vapour barrier, just before drywall. But the inspector wants to see them on before we're allowed to insulate and vapour barrier. So, we essentially need to install them, pass inspection, and then remove them to finish the house.

In further ridiculousness, apparently nobody at the city noticed that we were planning to put exterior insulation around the house. And now that MrDinks has mentioned it to the inspection department, they have asked for an engineer's calculation of the thermal properties of our insulation system. When he told me this, I assumed they thought we were doing the exterior insulation INSTEAD of the usual insulation, not in addition to. But apparently there's some concern about the exterior insulation being more than 30% of the thickness of the interior insulation. So MrDinks did the math himself and sent it in. We're waiting to hear back on whether we still need an engineer to stamp that math, or if it's simple enough for even a city employee to understand it. Regardless, in the research on this, MrDinks has realized that all the stucco houses that the city planning department loves are completely breaking this regulation, because they have foam outside, and don't have the proper ratio of interior to exterior insulation.  

Roofing Underlayment

The roofers have come and put the shingles on the sloped sections of the roof.

After they finished the east side and had started the west side, MrDinks noticed that they hadn't put the underlayment under the shingles. I contacted the boss, and he claimed it wasn't necessary on that side because the slope is so high. He then sent out his guys to finish extra fast so we couldn't complain before they got it finished. They were supposed to have been waiting on replacement for the drip edge, but they showed up as soon as I complained about the lack of underlayment, and were done in a couple of hours. 

The drip edge for the west was bent to the wrong angle, a lower slope than our roof, so we had to get more. Order number 3. This one should have been on their dime, but they "lost" the original drawings. And I am in Toronto on business for a few weeks, so I can't access my copy at home, so I can't prove they didn't make it to my specs. Then MrDinks picked up order #3, and it's even worse than order #2 was. He got it fixed by hand bending a piece, and then taking it back, going to the back door of the shop and getting it rebent. 

And then the roofers left the stuff for the front of the house sitting out, and it's gone missing again. There has definitely been theives coming around. They also cut out speaker wire that MrDinks had run. We put locks on the doors, and they cut the extension cord running from the power pole into the house. They also dug up the grounding wire on the house. We got photos on the site camera. They were wearing ski masks.

So the roofers weren't able to put all the front drip edge on, but they were in a hurry to do a cut rate job, so we now have to pull shingles off to fix it. 

So the first I found out about the shortage of the front edging is when the boss emailed me asking for their money. I told him I wouldn't pay until I got my underlayment. And he threatened to call his lawyer. 

We've also determined that the flashing was most definitely stolen. They also cut all the stereo wire the MrDinks had installed, cut BIL's extension cord that ran from the temporary power pole to the door, and dug up the grounding plate and stole that, too. We got a photo from the camera. Walking into the sight in broad daylight wearing a ski mask. 

Fired siding guys and lost materials

Activity slowed a little over Christmas. BIL and Intern built a few interior walls in preparation for electrical while MrDinks and I installed the pipes for a central vacuum.

The siding guys never came back. On the Friday after New Years, the boss emailed me an explanation that his guys said they had less than a day's worth of work to do. So he put the final payment on the card, assuming it would be done that day, and then went on Christmas vacation. BS. He had obviously  been checking his voicemail while he was away, since it was full one day and clear the next. He could have replied sooner. 

Plus, they have a LOT more than a day's worth of work left. The house wrap isn't taped and is coming off. And the strapping is mostly in the wrong spot, so not screwed into studs. He assured me the guys would be out over the weekend to finish up. I asked him to let me know exactly when they were coming so I could have someone meet them and show them the outstanding issues. And I have not heard from him again.

I sent one more email asking him to refund the final payment until the work was done. Crickets. So MrDinks has filed a claim with Visa. And now he and Intern are going to finish the taping and strapping.

On Sunday, I went to the site to shovel the walks after a big snowfall. MrDinks asked me to pick up some of the waterproofing material so that siding guys wouldn't show up and install it wrongly. I walked into the house, and found plastic wrap laying on the floor. My first thought was that it was from the waterproofing membrane, so I looked at the label on it. It was from the metal flashing we had made for the edge of the roof. So, where's the flashing? Missing. This was custom sized for the look we are after. There was other stuff laying around for around the windows that's not custom, that's still there. Only the custom stuff is missing. I checked with the roofers to see if they'd moved it. Nope, they haven't been around. It's so weird that someone would bother to unwrap what they were going to steal.

The fireplace still has not been ordered. I tried to do it just after Christmas. But then they tell me they can't take my order until they come and check the site. Because I might be lying about the location of the fireplace and the fact that gas is already going to be installed? Can you go waste my time looking at the site in the next couple of days? Oh, no. Everyone's on holidays. I tried to tell them that in the dozens of times I had been in there with various questions, someone should have mentioned that they NEED to visit the site. But they wouldn't let me finish a sentence, and told me they didn't want my business. They have since phoned me and apologized and offered me a potential deal. But I haven't taken them up on it yet.

And now, due to the theft, the house is locked up. So nobody can just go check it out. Someone has to meet them. And I am off to Toronto for a few weeks of work and visting my nephews. So MrDinks can take care of it. Or it can wait.