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June 20th
Time for a new page and before we get going I thought I'd share something nice.
Below is a picture of one Ian Baker's wonderful "Mystic Standing Stones". Real rocks flattened on one side and holes drilled on the to for either a candle holder, mini vase or tea-light holder. They are simple, elegant, beautiful and affordable. I took a few shots for him and was so entranced I thought I'd share. |
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| Commercials are over, now on to some construction. I got to drill a bunch of holes into solid rock today so Doug could epoxy in these rebar roads to tie the upcoming second floor slab into the cliff. |
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| After much thought and discussion the gable end detail has be worked out. |
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| We started filling in the backside of the lower level with torpedo stone today. It arrived slightly wet and the slinger sprayed a muddy slurry along with the stone. Here's the pattern Ian noticed it created on the drain pipe - a variation on Happy Dots. (ask me sometime if you don't know the reference) |
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July 3
Sorry for the gap in updates. Canada day weekend is a good excuse. Here's the lower level all framed. |
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| Today some of the finicky details around the entry to the lower suite got worked out. Still deciding on fascia details and shingle colour. For anyone keeping track, we'll leave the shingles on the back side as they are and re-do the whole north side of the house, you can never see both at the same time unless you're standing on our roof. |
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I missed a bunch of updates but the second level is all back-filled (five slinger loads of torpedo) and all the piping is in for the in-floor heating, just waiting on concrete (maybe tomorrow!). Exterior walls are pretty much framed. |
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July 8th
The Second Level Floor Is Poured! |
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| It looks like a mess here but these guys did a great job! |
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| Ian keeping and eye on things from the little studio window. He was forming up the steps on the other side of the wall to replace the old "Goat Path". |
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| The finished studio floor. We plan on having it acid stained. |
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| A view from above looking down into Mum's suite. |
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July 17th
What a great sunset from the deck (which we're going to call the Courtyard). |
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| Just for the ladies - when did you ever see so many studs in one room? |
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| On the weekend I set up a painting station in the suite. Our assistant Annie's husband Ken has been onsite putting the finish on the window interiors. There are 32 to do with three coats each. He's already got a good portion done but it will take a while. |
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July 19th
The third floor deck is nearly complete. It's been amazing to watch how the whole thing is framed with a slight slope to the central drain. Today I smashed off the old stucco from most of the old wall and the dumpster was taken away in time for Mike to return with his big digger. Here's the start of the framing of the new living room extension. |
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July 23
Chairs on the front deck |
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Another picture of nails (I guess I just like 'em) |
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Framing the top floor.
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July 29
Well the rain stopped finally and things are progressing. Here's the west dormer framed. |
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| Ian and Doug have the little hip roof the runs around the deck nearly complete. They had the triangular trusses made up by Pacific Truss. |
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| I've been helping out with what I can. Demolition of the old stucco wall and removal of the siding was right in my skill set. Even though lots of our house was built with old packing crates and scrap lumber (see below) I'm amazed at some of the other wood. The old soffit was a single 22 foot long dimensional 1 x 12! Remember when wood was actually the size stated? |
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| The old siding was actually installed with square-cut nails. |
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| The sill of the existing living room window. Good thing this is all being replaced. |
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| Explanation below, |
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While demolishing the living room wall I found some old newspaper dated from 1954 stuffed in a gap. I love uncovering little details that fill in the gaps of the story of our home. We're pretty set on the fact that it was 1954 when the lot was sub-divided, the house was stuccoed and many of the "modernizing" changes were made. Lots of the ads in the paper tout stucco as a desirable feature in 1954. In those days you could get a builders lot with a view in our area for $475. In comparison a new chest freezer was $399, and a new Austin convertible was only $2,100 ($1475 if you could live without the rag top). |
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| Here's one of the ads for the movie "Man Crazy". Ian got a kick out of the slogan and wrote on the wall (as seen above). I doubt it will answer any questions for whoever discovers it years in the future. |
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August 7
We're nearly done framing. Just the roof over the bedroom "bump-out" (gotta find a better name for it). Here's a view from up the road. |
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| I've been learning the correct way to prep windows with tar paper and blueskin. got them all done this weekend. Ken is still finishing the window painting in the suite. Should be done this week and we'll get the rest installed. |
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