1st full week of framing

Framer has now been on site for a full week. And although he's still waiting on materials, he got started on the 2nd floor this week. He then took a couple of days off to wait for the rest of it to show up. So this is basically what we've looked like since Thursday afternoon.

The electric company arrived on Wednesday, so we have our temp power. He may have just been in the area, but I like to believe that my polite phone calls convinced them to move me up in the schedule. 

For the missing fireplace, the joist company wants us to sister in some joists for support. Framer doesn't want to do it, but his quote for the extra work is low enough that I think we'll do it. And we can use the joists that have already been sent to us by accident. 

The engineer has given us the go ahead and repair the footings in the basement. We're now waiting on the cribbers to decide if their repair recommendations are worth doing, or if they'll just pour a new pad. 

We also got a drawing for a garage foundation. Not OUR garage foundation, but A garage foundation. The engineering company farmed out this job to someone else, and didn't pass on the message that we want the cheapest possible option. So they gave us a stock drawing of a garage with a 4' deep frost wall. It doesn't even match our dimensions. I sent it back to our engineer telling them this isn't what we're looking for. He simply replied that we've got a big garage, so this is what they recommend. Uh, yeah, we have a big garage. That's why we need it engineered. That doesn't mean it needs a foundation that matches the house. MrDinks has sent out some emails to some other companies to find out our options. 

I am also looking into options to replace a post on our main floor. This post. 

I knew from the joist layout that it was a "stacked wood" post. I assumed that meant it would match the wooden beam. But it's 5 2x6s nailed together. And it's really ugly. It was intended to be left exposed, or potentially clad in something prettier. But 2x6s look temporary, at best. And they're so big that once I clad them, they're just going to be too large for the space. So I'm looking for something to replace them with. 

Option 1 is a wood post. The problem here is that it'll probably end up prettier than the wooden beam above it. 

Option 2 is a metal telescopic post that matches the one in the basement. The problem with that is that it's also kind of ugly. It looks more "basement" than "industrial loft." But it's an improvement over the 2x6s and we can at least wrap something around it and it won't end up being 10" across. 

I also looked into getting a metal i-beam or square post cut to size. But it's not going to be as simple as just buying what we need. So I've got a list of metal workers to call and get it done. If this works out, I may end up hiring the same guy to do the stairs. At least the railings. 

MrDinks has expressed concern about waiting too long to get this post replaced. But Framer isn't worried about jacking it up for a few minutes to replace it even once the upstairs walls are on. I'd still like to get it done sooner rather than later. We'll also want to do the same thing with the post that will be visible on the second floor. 

The other piece of frustration came from the company I was going to order the doors from. When I was talking to them about doors, they mentioned that they do roofing and siding, too. So I sent the plans and asked for a quote. After 3 weeks of stringing me along, they have informed me that they are currently booking jobs for next spring, so they aren't going to even quote on my house. Ugh. I am not too comfortable ordering doors from them at this point. But I'll have to order them from someone this week. 

The mistakes keep coming.

First thing Monday morning, I called the joist company to find my joist that was missing for the second time. They insist they sent it, and maybe I just didn't see it? You think we all missed a 17' joist? No. So instead of waiting all day again to find it, I sent BIL out with the big truck to pick one up. When he arrived, they told him they'd found our joist in the back, and it never made it on the truck on Friday. So he brought it to the site. He got there 20 minutes after the truck dropped off the first one. So it turns out we have 2? No. They actually sent 2 wrong joists last week. One was the wrong joist, but the right length. So Framer used it. The other one was the wrong type AND wrong length. Framer replaced the one he used and now we have 2 joists to return.

I then solved the mystery of joist company #2's tall wall quote. They misread a measurement, and quoted on a 30' wall instead of a 20' wall. Once that was straightened out, they were able to revise the quote and came in at half company #1. Except they've now missed a whole bunch of stuff. But it's inexpensive stuff, so they'll probably still be a few thousand cheaper.

The electric company was supposed to come yesterday to hook up our temporary power. They didn't show. Several phone calls and a day later, I find out that when the electric company says "scheduled for Monday", they mean "send it to be scheduled on Monday." Why on Earth would I want them to wait 3 days just to get in the queue? I thought I was waiting 3 days to ensure I was 100% ready. I'm now waiting another 2 weeks for them to actually do the work. But at least I'm in the list.

I woke up in the middle of the night with the realization that Framer didn't make a hole for our fireplace. When we pointed it out to him (this morning, I didn't call him at 2am!), he said he didn't realize there was a fireplace because the joist plan didn't have joists to support the fireplace. He thought the markings on Ryan's drawings were indicating something on the 2nd floor. The joist company missed this, and Ryan missed that they missed it. So now we need the engineers to determine how to support the fireplace. Do we cantilever more joists out the side? A bracket screwed on the outside?

Framer missed the mudroom door. This was discovered by BIL. I guess that's why he kept calling it a closet.

BIL was then teasing me about our giant hole for our staircase, which seems to take up half the house. So we measured it, and we realized that Ryan has left a 6 inch gap around the staircase. So our landings are floating in mid air. Perhaps this is why our stair case quotes are so expensive? Because they're spec'ing a force field to keep the stairs suspended? I think MrDinks would happily pay for that. So I guess our landings are going to be 6" deeper. But otherwise, it's a normal sized staircase.

I spoke to the engineer about a fix for the pads in the basement, and he asked me to take some measurements. So I climbed the ladder into my basement for the first time since the floor went on. The big one is 54" square. According to the engineer, they should have been 60" square. So, another Oops.

Framer started on the interior walls on the first floor, and commented that the double wall between the kitchen and mudroom seemed weird. I explained that it's a utility channel. He pointed out that it's sitting on top of a joist, so we can't drill up through that.

The joist company was supposed to deliver the 2nd floor joists today. Another truck didn't arrive.

The garbage bin was dropped off, and they put it in the wrong spot.

I think I need to increase the wine budget.

MrDinks and I picked up a bathtub from Kijiji last night. I had looked at it months ago. It's in worse shape than I thought, so I'll need to have it refinished. On the upside, I can take it directly to the site and not worry about trades dropping bags of nails into it. 

Stumbling along...

Monday started busily with the excavator at the site finishing the backfill. We managed to get it filled before the neighbour's air conditioner fell into our hole. BIL pulled the last of the shoring wall out just before the dirt got dumped in. There are basement windows in front of the air conditioner, and until we get window wells, they can't fully fill in there. So the backhoe dumped about 5 feet of dirt in below the windows, and BIL put the shoring back in for the 5' up to finished grade.

Back in May, I sent our plans to a second joist company for a quote on the joists and trusses. It took them so long to respond, that by the time they did, I completely forgot I'd emailed them. And in addition to the joist & trust quote, they sent me a materials list for the framing. So I missed the joist quote. In July, I realized they actually quoted on the joists and were MUCH cheaper than the first company. So much cheaper that it was worth paying a $500 deposit to get floor and roof layouts drawn up. So I paid, and they told me it would be 7-10 business days to get them back, and we had to wait until then to order our joists. By that point, we were already digging the foundation, so the sales guy promised to put a rush on it. After 12 days, I had to call them and tell them to send me the drawings immediately or I would be ordering the joists from the first company. I figured we could keep moving, and then order the upper floors from the cheaper company. The 2nd company finally got me the drawings on day 13, and they made the same mistake with the post I already had the first company fix. Now on Monday afternoon, they have informed me that since I went ahead and bought the first floor joist from the first company, they won't supply any joists or trusses, and they're keeping the deposit. So that ended Monday on a grumpy note. I spoke to company #1 and let them know that we got a much cheaper quote, so hopefully we can get our costs down. But there's still an issue of our deposit with company #2.

Now that our giant pile of dirt is gone, either dumped in the hole, or hauled away, we were able to check on our time lapse camera. We filled the memory card, so we missed most of the backfilling. The good news is that we only lost a day of filming. The bad news is that the file is 4GB, too big to post here. More bad news is that most of it is just staring at dirt. So, I'll need to find an editor so I can post it here, and people would actually want to watch it.

On Tuesday, the joists and beams for the first floor got delivered, and I ordered the studs and sheathing for the first floor. I ended up having to change suppliers at the last minute. I had contacted the first choice on Monday, and they weren't going to be able to deliver until Friday. Also, we decided to upgrade from OSB subfloors and sheathing to plywood for more stability, and so it doesn't swell if it gets wet before we can get siding on it.

On Wednesday, the framer arrived with his helper. My first thought was that he'd brought his girlfriend. She was a tiny little thing, with perfect makeup. I felt really bad for that assumption, as I have been the girl in a "man's job" myself. And it's horrible for people to look at me the way I looked at her. But they didn't bring a generator, and we don't have temporary power yet. So they did some minor prep and left.

The excavators dug up the ground plate that MrDinks buried last fall for our temporary pole. He was cranky about the fact that he already buried it once. So I did it the second time.

Thursday was a hive of activity. Framer came back without his assistant, but with the generator, and got to work. The city inspector came to check out our temporary pole so the utility company can come hook it up next week. And our toilet got delivered. We have plumbing!

I had to be at the site for the afternoon to wait for the inspector. The toilet was supposed to be delivered in the morning, so I didn't ensure I went to the bathroom before I got to the site. The toilet was late. By the time it arrived, I was afraid I was going to have to use it before they even got it off the truck. But I managed to hold it until the delivery guy left.

MrDinks and I spent the evening at the home show, collecting contact info for more trades. A lot of siding and mechanical guys.

On Friday morning, I found out that Framer is missing a joist. Either the joist company sent the wrong one, or Framer cut it too short and isn't admitting it. The joist company offered to send one out right away, but I had to pay $150 for it. Fine, send it and I'll worry about how it happened later. Unfortunately, the new joist never arrived. I'm particularly upset about this, since I could have found a way to pick it up if they weren't going to bother actually delivering it. Framer made impressive progress on Thursday, but he was handicapped by this missing joist on Friday. This photo shows what the house looked like on Thursday afternoon. By Thursday evening, all the rest of the joists (except one) and posts were in place, and a couple of sheets of subfloor installed. Did you catch where the dude's assistant didn't show up? One guy did this. By himself.

Framer also discovered that the foundation guys made a mistake on the placement of our footings. There are 3 pads in the basement, upon which the posts holding up the first floor sit. They're supposed to sit on the middle of the pad, and they are sitting near the edge. Oops. So that'll need to be fixed.

Also on Friday, we had a first floor survey, which the city requires to ensure the foundation isn't too high. A high foundation means a higher final house. The survey shows we're 2cm lower than planned. I want my 2cm back!

At some point this week, the subject of fire rated sheathing came up. BIL said the whole wall facing the neighbour needed pink treated sheathing. The plans only show that for the bump outs on the second floor. Code says it's only necessary if you're less than 4' from the property line. And we decided to go for plywood instead of OSB, but nobody in town sells pink plywood, since all the builders go for OSB. I checked with Ryan that his spec of fire treated sheathing only on the bump outs was intentional. He confirmed that it was, but he still thinks it's a good idea to put it on the whole wall. But why? The siding will be fiber cement, so isn't that enough fire protection? Framer cleared it up, and the pink sheathing is required DURING construction. So MrDinks and I went and picked it up on Saturday morning.

Dropping it off on site, we found that Framer had finished the first wall, and was waiting on the pink OSB before putting it up. MrDinks noticed that he built it to 16" on center. Our plans specify 24" OC to allow for super insulation. So I had to call Framer, and he promised to fix it.

Framer has said a couple of times that he works 7 days a week. I've been feeling bad that because of the lack of joist, he doesn't have enough to keep him busy. But it turns out he took the weekend off. Or at least worked somewhere else. And no progress has been made since we dropped off the OSB on Saturday morning. I sure hope he's coming back on Monday.

Here's the progress by the end of Friday.

I'm also trying to get the materials ordered for the tall walls. These are the walls that span more than the typical height of a floor. We have 4 of them. 2 around the staircase which span 3 stories, and on the second floor in the office and master bedroom. They are so tall, they need to be specially designed by an engineer, and need special material. I managed to pull the quote for this material out of joist company 1 on Friday morning. I sent the list to joist company 2 and asked to have a quote that day. They assured me they would. At 4:57 on Friday, they sent me a quote. It's 40% higher than company 1, and I'm not sure they're quoting on the same structure. So I need to get that straightened out. I also need to get the roof trusses ordered. But I'm waiting for company #1 to update their pricing, and/or company #2 to agree to sell us the roof trusses. Dealing with the 2 of them is a huge pain, but in the end, we'll have hopefully saved a few thousand dollars. 

Weather delays

Last week, the second week of September, we got about 3 feet of snow. This is what the site looked like after day 1:

The snow continued for 2 more days. Before it started snowing, we were going to be backfilling on Tuesday. By Wednesday, we decided that we were going to need several days to let it all melt, and then dry up. We had puddles of water just outside the footings, so we didn't want to dump wet dirt on top of that. So the plan was to call the excavators back on Monday.

On Thursday, I stopped by the site to see how it was melting, and I found this:

The dirt pile in the middle of the photo used to be in the neighbour's yard. The black thing hanging under the fence is their landscaping cloth and mulch from their flower bed. And I'm pretty sure that concrete support for the fence post used to be surrounded by dirt. 

It turns out with the massive amounts of snow we got, and the quick melting, along with the fact that we had removed the shoring in the corners in preparation for backfilling, caused the dirt to give way. BIL doesn't think the shoring would have held it here. But a few hours later, another pile of dirt appeared at the other end of the hole. 

But because the excavator didn't want to backfill the whole side until our subfloor was on, the middle section of shoring was left up. And that's the silver lining here, because if the dirt had fallen in the middle, it would have taken their air conditioner down with it. So the shoring appears to have worked very well. 

So, the excavator came back on Friday afternoon. And they realize that because of the collapsing wall of dirt, we can't wait until the subfloor is on. But they weren't able to get to the side because they didn't have the right equipment. So, fingers crossed all weekend that it didn't get worse. 

In other news, we got the building permit for the house on Friday. But there's now a delay on the garage. Remember when the guy at the city told me a week ago that the garage was good to go as soon as we got the house designs completed? Apparently he hadn't noticed that our garage was a tad bit bigger than average. So now we need to have the concrete pad of the garage engineered. So now we wait on that. 

 Also on Friday, the inspector from the new home warranty program came by and gave us mostly thumbsup. There were comments about how they were "unable to inspect before the concrete was poured." Well, we barely caught it pre-pour, and we're there every day. They weren't planning to come by until the end of September, at which point they were planning to inspect framing, too. So, they're lucky to see it pre-backfill. 

Ready for backfill

Our building permit is still on hold. It turns out that the joist company decided that instead of a cantilever, we'd have a post on the outside of the house. But they forgot to mention it, other than a tiny little number in the spot where the post would be. Ryan missed this (along with everyone else). So when the city caught it, they wanted to know why none of our other plans indicated the location of this post. Even if he had seen it, Ryan wouldn't have designed in this post. Not only does it not fit the design of the house, but it would require putting the post into our lot setback. We can do an overhang, but we can't have footings in the setback. I called the joist company to get them working on a redesign. Their response was that they designed it that way because it was cheaper. Well, now the foundation is done, and there's no support for this post. Calling back the excavator to dig the hole bigger, and calling back the concrete guys to pour another footing is going to eat up any savings that the post would have given us. Not to mention that moving the entire foundation back a few feet to make room for the post would be rather expensive. So they're redesigning it.

On Tuesday, we got a hole cut for the sewer pipe to come into the basement. Our basement is deeper than the main sewer for the street, so the pipe doesn't come in under the footings. And we'll need a lift station to get the "stuff" into the sewer from the basement.

Waterproofing, weeping tile and gravel went in on Wednesday, apparently by ninjas. Nobody had started by the end of the day Tuesday. But the waterproof spray was done before BIL went to visit the site at 8:30am. Weeping tile and gravel appeared a couple of hours later.

This posed 2 possible problems. First, MrDinks expected the weeping tile to be wrapped in fabric to keep out debris. But he didn't specify that, and it's not commonly done around here. So it wasn't done. Second, they brought in an extra truckload of gravel to support our sewer pipe. But now it's piled up in front of where we need to put the foam insulation (which the foundation guys refused to do).

So after further research and discussion, we decided to leave the fabric off the weeping tile, and just dig out the sewer pipe, then replace the gravel once the foam insulation is installed.

Foundation inspection was done on Thursday afternoon, and he found no issues. However, MrDinks noticed on Friday evening that he didn't sign off our paperwork next to the sewer pipe connection. I'll have to call the city on Monday to find out if this is just an oversight we can quickly resolve, because the city's paperwork shows it's acceptable. Or was there another guy who was supposed to come on Thursday that I didn't know about, and therefore, this wasn't inspected?

BIL suggested doing the insulation after the inspection to avoid any complaints. Although the extra insulation outside the basement walls is apparently code now in Ontario, it's unheard of here. So we didn't want to have to fight yet another person about it.

BIL and Intern spent Friday doing the majority of the insulation. MrDinks and I finished it off today, adding an extra 12" to the bottom all the way around. While there we also went inside the basement and picked up all the loose concrete around the footings. We also dug up all the concrete that was dumped out of the pumper, right into where we planned to put a future basement bathroom. Running the plumbing rough in pipes in the concrete isn't going to be easy. In the process, I dropped a large piece of concrete on my foot. The only time I've gone into the hole without steel toe boots since the footings were poured. Because, as MrDinks said, "What's going to happen? Are we going to drop foam on our feet?" Ouch.

MrDinks also discovered that the weeping tile that is under the window wells was not tied into the weeping tile around the footings. Instead, it was dumping out ON TOP of the footings. BIL stopped by and explained that they usually only bring the pipe down and stop a few inches above the gravel, above the footings. The fact that they'd left us a few extra feet to direct the water away is an improvement. So MrDinks moved it out a few inches, so it's now at least on top of the base weeping tile.

Window well weeping tile before MrDinks inspection

All foamed up

After working ourselves to exhaustion, we rode our bikes from the site to a craft festival on the downtown waterfront. Getting there was pretty easy. And nice to be so close. Getting home, unfortunately, not so easy. Have I mentioned we have great views, due to being on top of a hill? I'm either going to be in great shape living there, or I will bike even less than I do now. I guess it's a good thing we live on top of the hill, instead of the bottom. I'd probably be less inclined (haha!) to get out the bike if I have to start off going up hill.

Next steps, I'm trying to get the excavator back on Tuesday to back fill. Assuming we don't need to do another inspection. BIL and Intern need to pull out the wood retaining wall on Monday. Joists for the main floor are due to arrive on Wednesday. Then, hopefully, on Thursday, the framer can start closing in the basement.

But then, we're stopped until the permits come in.

I came up with the plan to start on the garage next. Surely, since we're only waiting on the design of floor joists on house, there's no reason not to start the garage, right?

Ryan said no. The garage and house are part of the same building permit. And since we don't have that permit yet, we can't build the garage.

Building inspector looked at our paperwork and said the garage is NOT part of the house building permit. In theory, we could start that, except we're going to need to actually apply for a separate permit.

But one of the comments made on our BP application was that we needed to have the garage door headers engineered. So, if the inspector is right, why did they ask that? If Ryan's right, why isn't there a mention of a garage on our paperwork?

So I called the city. It turns out the garage IS a separate permit, and we applied for it at the same time. But it's also on hold, along with the house permit. So I asked if we can get that, and start the garage. No, they won't issue a garage BP on a property zoned residential unless there's already a house, or at least an active house BP. They don't want people only building a garage, storing their cars or using it as a workshop, but not actually living there. But, there's a foundation for a house! Surely this is a lot of trouble to go through to just build a garage? They suggested I email the guy reviewing our application. He phoned me back and said no, process is process, and they "can't" release the garage permit until they release the house permit. But, he's reviewed everything, and as soon as we get the new joist design, it should be "really quick." I guess we'll get to see what that means in city language.