What a View

The Main Floor living space is framed in. The back wall of the existing house is still in place but the rest of the space is taking shape and the Second Floor layout is 50% complete. The bedroom cantilever is shown in the image below - it is a 5'-0" overhang.

This is the view from the Spare bedroom looking West. The Gambrel roof of the garage will block most if not all of the street but this really indicates how high above the street level this is.

This is from the washroom looking North. The reality howeveris that the window in this washroom is at the 7'-0" height so this view will never be seen. The four posts of the Pergola look small when one is looking down at them.

This will be the view from the two bedrooms on the East.

Way off in the distance one can actually see the traffic on Fermor. This will be the only site line from the Roof Top Patio. Additional designs for the flooring in this are was planned today so ity will be interesting to see what actually is built!!

Garage Grade Beam

The saga of the concrete work is almost complete. The Garage grade beams have been poured and the garage framing should be able be to start soon. The garage pad will not get poured until the Spring so yet another winter with the van onthe driveway. It looks like we will be getting command start installed for sure this year.

Main Floor Walls

After all of the delays of the summer, between the Concrete issues and the City of Winnipeg delays, we can finally really start to get going. The main floor exterior walls shouldn't take too long to be built and then the mass of the building will really take shape.


Here the image shows where the new kitchen will go. The two windows are above the lower cabinets. The opening on the East Wall (or the one one the left of the image) will be above the sink. The opening on the North Wall (the other smaller opening) will be the drive thru pass through window. If the kids want something but mom and dad want them to stay outside...



As soon as the walls were framed the exterior sheathing is added so that there is added stability but more importantly it slows the weather penetration. It still is getting cold nonetheless.



The large yellow beam sticking past the exterior wall is not a mistake. This is how far (5'-0") the second storey room will cantilever over the main storey. The beam is actually 32'-0" long and will support the entire north side of the second floor.

This area will be in the garage and will be the new main entrance for us inside the garage. No more worries about falling down the stairs when someone else comes in the door.

Tree Damage

An unfortunate result of the excavation and front mud pile is that the Excavator and the tree came into too close of a proximity. The upper arm extension hit the main branches a few times, and with enough force that it cracked two of the main branches on the front American Elm tree.


The image below is a close up of the damage that was done at the crux of the branches.

The removal of the mud pile also scraped the top protective earth and bark from the main tree roots. Hopefully the damage isn't severe enough to shock the tree and that it had already started going into hibernation for the winter. We quickly covered the exposed roots with topsoil and then thankfully the snow came the next day which should mitigate some of the damage.

The two branches that had been cracked need to be removed back to the trunk. Hopefully this will not unbalance the canopy and will allow the tree to recover over the next few monthes. The arborist from ASAP Tree Services is concerened - the tree has a 50 / 50 survival rate. We will need to ensure that the roots are protected in the Spring and that no further damage is done.

Winnipeg in November

It was inevitable. This is Winnipeg in November and as such we knew that snow could be imminent. Yesterday started with rain and wind. The afternoon brought colder temperatures and that turned the rain into sleet or snow pellets This morning we awoke to find 2 centimeters of snow!!!

Yesterday's work included shutting off the power to the house and relocating the hydro meter to a new temporary location. The image below shows four posts that will eventually turn into the pergola from a previous post.

While the dusting of snow has hidden the ugly mud it does make things more difficult to work on site. The negative temperatures aren't ideal working conditions but the house must be built. Hopefully this is a hic-cup and not a large delay.

There is a house there...

...behind all of that mud. With all of the earth that they excavated, there was only one truckload that didn't fit back in the hole. The drive way is pretty much a mess until the spring but at least we will be able to use it again soon.

Its a few days late but Happy Halloween.

Foundations are in!!!

With the Foundation finally being poured we were able to back fill the site and get rid of the piles of mud from the front and back yards. Again the big machinery had to come out and get things going but it sure made quick work of things.


Once the big piles were gone, the smaller skid steer leveled off the yard. All of the TLC to the grass ovetr the years was erased in one fell swoop but this way we will be able to start fresh in the Spring.

Foundation

With the issues that we had with the 1st Concrete Contractor, having to scramble to find another, then the weather really not co-operating and the rain not subsiding I was beginning to doubt that this day would ever come. A picture is worth a 1000 words so below is the basement foundation for the addition.



To put the scale of the basement into perspective, here is Art Peters and his son Stephen of MGS Concrete pouring the concrete into the forms. The pumper truck is on the street and unfortunately blocked things off for a few hours but at least it is done.

This image was taken from our old garage door looking straight down. The blocks are really just like LEGO and make the forms stage that much easier. They also eliminate a few steps as these pieces now are part of my basement and insulation.

This last picture is a close up of the forms looking through the old basement window. The rebar gets threaded through the blocks.