Bring On The Flood

It's about time for a little progress report on the house construction.  

Here's the last photo I shared back in July...

And here's a picture I took this past weekend:

The house has undergone some weather-proofing treatments - fancy construction terms like weather-stripping, tyvek and soffits got thrown around during this process.  All I see is white paper and stripes and new white stuff under the roof over-hangy things.

Ok, I'm not that bad with my construction terminology...

This picture shows off the new pot-lights, soffits and gutters as well as the new vinyl deck.

There seemed to be a lot of "outside" work happening and not enough "inside" work (in my opinion).  But the goal was to get the house weather-proof before the rain started.  And the rains have come.  So, inside work can now get underway!

The inside of the house is insulated and poly'd (the plastic sheets covering the walls) and tomorrow we will finally see the drywall go up!  

Having "real" walls will make this project seem that much closer to completion...

Eviction Notice and a House Update

Unfortunately there's no baby news to report yet.  The ultrasound at 38 weeks showed that our baby girl was a normal size and doing well.  The large fundal height measurement might just be due to the way that I'm carrying this time around and the midwife said we can basically ignore it now that we know baby is fine.  This is a relief as I was starting to get really worried about how big she was going to be.  I even started having dreams that she came out as a 6-month old rather than a newborn...  Either way, she has completely consumed my abdominal space and when she's active I feel as though my entire body has been overtaken by an alien.

Up until the last few days I haven't been too anxious to have this pregnancy over with but I think I am officially "ready" now.  I'm 2 days from my due date and feeling a lot of cramps, contractions and back aches - which can tend to get my hopes up.  But when I looked back at my end-of-pregnancy days with the other kids - specifically Keziah and Silas - I realized that these "false labour" symptoms went on for days and even weeks before they were actually born.  In Keziah's case she had to be induced at 9 days over.  So, I could still incubate this baby for a while yet.  I always said in my mind that having a July baby was not a likely possibility and so I fully expect to see my due date of August 1st come and go... sigh.

(No this is not my belly, but I saw this picture online today and thought it seemed appropriate...)

So with no news on the baby front, I figured it was high time to give an update on the house project.  After the very visible changes that happened during the framing stages, things have felt like they've come to a bit of a standstill.  But a lot of the internal parts have been coming together: plumbing, hvac and electrical - all necessary before the drywalling process can begin.

The roof is now shingled and the windows and doors are in.  Temporary railings have been put up around the deck for some added safety.

Part of the process has been tying the old house into the new house.  We needed to have an indoor connecting point between the 2 living spaces so it meant moving around some walls to create a door and hallway.  Unfortunately I don't have any "before" pictures of this area but it really looks quite different.  The white door in the picture below is Mom & Dad's back door leading into the bottom of their new house.  Keziah is standing in the newly formed hallway, which is in the original house and used to be made up of closets and bathroom space before the walls were moved.  The doorway Keziah is standing beside leads into what will be our downstairs bathroom.  By the end of the the workday today Erik and his dad had put in a new door in this hall to separate old house from new house (or the "wood house" as Silas refers to it).

If you take a few more steps back you can see some new walls that Erik has framed in.  The laundry was previously set up kind of awkwardly with the washer out in the "foyer" and the dryer tucked away in a corner of the bathroom.  Now Erik has started to create an actual laundry room, which we'll be able to close off with a bi-fold door.

And here's the view from the other end of the hallway.  Keziah is stepping inside of a closet and the next door leads into the bathroom.

The next big change will be seeing the drywall go up in the new house.  But hopefully before all that happens we will have some baby news to report.  So stay tuned folks.  She's gotta come out eventually!

Trusses

There is no shortage of free entertainment around here for the kids.  I guess it's not technically "free" but it's definitely entertaining...  This morning the trusses were delivered before school started.  The kids and I watched out our front window while the enormous crane lifted them from the the trailer on the road all the way to the roof of the new house.

By the time the kids came home from school the house was looking much different yet again.

So, once again, here are some pictures of the house progress...

Front of the addition:  Top floor left window is a bedroom and the right side is the living room.  Bottom floor will be another bedroom on the left and the Erik's parents' future master bedroom on the bottom right.

It's always fun to look back to where it all began.  Here's the front & side of the house at the beginning of April.

And a picture taken from a similar angle today:

 The west side of the house before:

The west side of the house now:

Back/side view before:

Back/side view today:

Back view before:

Back view today:

I also snapped a few photos of the inside of the house. Starting on the bottom floor - the inside set of stairs:

A future guest bedroom (a little wet from all the rain we've been having):

This picture is dark but this is the future master bedroom for Erik's parents (looking out to the pasture on the west side of the house).  As I mentioned before, this lower floor will remain unfinished for the time being.  So consider this the floor hockey room...

Now up to the top floor.  This is the living room facing the street:

The bedroom (also facing the street):

Big, big windows from the kitchen/living room area facing out to the west pasture:

The kitchen at the back of the house (facing south):

The view from the kitchen window:

And that's it for today...

One Week

In one week, a lot has happened around here.  Last Saturday we woke up bright and early to watch the concrete slab get poured.

Before breakfast and even before getting dressed for the day...

Erik's aunt and uncle are visiting right now so they got in on the action.

The older Toews brothers watching from the sidelines.

 The kids' favourite part was watching the workers make the concrete perfectly smooth.

Once the concrete was smooth as glass, Erik and Micah started envisioning future floor hockey games...

And by the next afternoon, the hockey action was in full force.  The best part is that this lower floor will remain unfinished for awhile and will be a big space for the kids to play hockey or maybe even ride their bikes during the rainy months.  Can't wait until I can send the kids "to the basement" to get their energy out this coming winter...

On Monday the framing began.

By the end of Day One, the house was starting to take shape.

Then the 2nd floor joists started going in.

Erik pausing for a photo...

Now the plywood is in place on the 2nd floor.  Yesterday, Silas and Uncle Gary golfed balls from the new house into the pasture.

Then, of course, they had to go find them...

Pretty soon everyone got in on the driving-range action.  Me thinks our neighbours are going to find an awful lot of golf balls in their blueberry field this summer...

And here is the house at the end of the week!

Can't wait to see how much more has progressed by next Saturday...