No Days off Now

This week, we will be up to our back sides with work. The interior walls are all up now with a just a small area where the vaulted ceiling meets up with the standard 8 foot ceilings to be completed. On Sunday, Aug 11, Barb and I ‘putter’ around by wiring in the dryer outlet and repaired our newly purchased lawn umbrella. Terri & Mark were coming over to help us install the 2x6x13 foot ceiling joists in the bedroom. Barb and I had already figured out the roof slope that the 2x6 had to be cut on to fit and we built a jig and pre-cut one end of the 2x6. Once Terri & Mark arrived, we made a more accurate measure, Barb & Terri made the cuts and Mark & I manoeuvred each one into place to maximise the amount of the 2x6 to sit on the top plate. Once we got the first few under our belt, it moved along quickly, Barb & Terri cutting and passing the joists up to Mark & I, we would nail them in place and Barb & Terri would hand us another, and so on. We finished early so since we had a couple of strong backs, Mark & I move the washer & dryer into the back room and hooked them up. After all this, it was dinner time and where did we go? Correct, our favourite patio.




Monday starts out with Barb & I putting the final touches to the dryer by installing a dryer vent and then doing a load of laundry in our ‘new’ machines. What a treat this is, after 14 years of using a coin laundry! After lunch, we continued our construction with some of the little jobs – closets etc. Barb was excited about seeing the completion and while she was nailing a stud wall section together, nailed the wall section to the floor! Oppssss, the nailing guns get heavy after awhile and sometimes if you don’t get the angle right… well, it wasn’t much to un-nail it and get it upright and in place.
Tuesday was an active day, now that we have the ceiling joists up in the bedroom, we needed to complete the drain venting for inspection. It was a little easier than the actual drains, air can flow uphill. Now with the venting in, we can continue with the walls that a few of the vents go through. The wall separating the bathroom and the furnace was built and the drywall put on before we lifted it into place. There is no room left in the furnace room to hang the drywall so it had to go on before. Gooping and painting is another story though. Once this was all done, we called our building inspector for another visit so they could sign off on the total plumbing and interior framing work.






Wednesday, the wiring of the house begins. It doesn’t seem to matter how much planning and thought you do, there is always something you forget. We had our design drawings that showed how everything connects, so we thought it should be easily completed by the weekend. Drilling holes and pulling wire is not a daunting task but for us oldies, the hands, arms and backs were very sore by the end of the day. We bought new spade bit drills so we didn’t have to fight the drilling but you had better have a good grip of the drill when the bit gets to the other side of the stud or it catches and tries to spin out of your hand. Now that hurts after awhile!







Thursday was our building inspection day and again, we passed. Another milestone for us and we do not see them again until we are insulated. A lot is going to happen before then though so back to wiring. It’s not a big house but I’m glad I bought a condensed code book to help me through some of the code requirements. When we built our house in 1983, my dad helped me with the wiring then but this time, we’re on  our own and sometimes, trying to figure out the switches was a little confusing. We did not think we would use the amount of wire we did and if I had been neater in laying it in the attic, we would have used more! Enough said about that neatness thing.

On Friday, we wired the kitchen. Now, here we used lots of wire. It has more circuits to it than the rest of the house. There has to be separate counter outlets on different circuits, same for the fridge, nuke and dishwasher. Barb was instrumental help with all of this – drilling, wiring outlets, helping pull wire, holding the ladder when I am up in the vaulted ceiling and the ole ‘honey get this and get that’! By the end of the day, we were done and only had the back mudroom and hall to wire.
Saturday we did some small wiring jobs that we missed but it was Barb’s birthday and Terri & Mark were coming in to help – actually, Terri knew her mom was a hurt’n construction gal and was coming in to take Barb to a spa for a massage and a petie. Mark & I tested a new beer he brought then poured some concrete.
When the ladies returned, the cement was almost done and then dinner and a few games of fast track before turning in. It was a nice day, even though I had forgotten that it was Barb’s birthday until I turned on my computer and it told me what day it was but by then, it was too late!
That is it for this week and we hope all is good where you are.