Windows and stairs

Our window package arrived last week. As the company we ordered them from are not equipped to deliver the windows, we rented a truck and delivered them ourselves. The doors should arrive in the next week. The stairs were delivered to site last week and installed yesterday.

Mechanical and Plumbing

In the last few weeks we had the basement plumbing roughed in, the mechanical ducting installed and were lucky to avoid winter long enough to pour the garage slab. We also ordered the stairs and plumbing fixtures, and have been obtaining quotes for the cladding and electrical.

Second Floor Framing

Framing is almost complete. The framer missed a window on the front elevation, and the roof sheathing has been added since these photos were taken. Backfilling of the backyard is scheduled for Monday.

View from the loft looking towards the street:

Main Floor Framing

Most of the main floor walls were framed yesterday. The tall walls at the front of the house will be framed after the second floor walls are in place. We also rented a construction fence, as we heard from a neighbour that some people tried to "borrow" some of our lumber in the middle of the night.

Framing

The front yard was backfilled last week. The joist and framing packages were also delivered. We were unable to have the rear of the lot backfilled because the framing package was delivered right smack in the middle of the back yard. One of the challenges of a small lot is construction staging.



The main floor of the house was framed just in time for the weekend:

Drainage Board & Weeping Tile

We decided to go with the Delta MS drainage board for foundation protection instead of the usual dampproofing. It is a dimple sheet that diverts water down to the weeping tile. This is what it looks like:

Foundation

Two photos of the foundation walls after forms have been removed:

Construction Begins

It's been a while since we last updated the blog. Here's a brief summary of what's happened in the last few months. After developing a design that we were satisfied with in the early summer, we began talking to three different home builders and obtained quotes for construction. The quotes were higher than our budget allowed (which was not entirely unexpected), so after a few weeks of crunching numbers and considering our options, we decided to proceed with contracting the construction ourselves. So with the decision made, we booked the excavation and promptly left on vacation.

Construction officially started on September 3rd. The surveyor staked out the lot and the excavators trenched the sanitary line. The following day the excavators returned and dug up a nice big hole for the foundation.

The footings were poured on September 18th and the foundation walls were poured on the 19th. Our joist package is scheduled to be delivered on October 6th. We're currently gathering quotes for waterproofing and weeping tile, as well as the windows.

More Photos

Here's a view of the street looking towards the West:

And a photo of the lot from the alley:

Site Acquired!

This week we purchased a piece of land located just east of downtown. The lot is in The Quarters, a redevelopment area east of downtown and north of the river. It's less than a block from Jasper Ave and the top of the valley, and is a short walk to the centre of downtown. Two aerial photos are shown below.

The lot is narrow at 26' x 122' and is on a street with mostly newer infill houses and one apartment building.