A big week on the mountain. Finished the flashing around the foundation – took longer that planned as the insulation was neither plumb nor level in many places due to some less than stellar work by the contractor. I had to add some additional foam and some nailer strips. Richard and I did the slab prep for the garage and shop on Mon/Tues – final grading and compacting, closing off the openings, laying poly and drilling the foundation to place the rebar 2′ apart and tying the bar together. Poured both slabs on Thursday with the help of Hubert a neighbour wheeling wheelbarrows and Richard’s 70 plus year old father and one other guy. Hubert also licensed his GMC van for the day (it has 540,000 kms) and we put 50 pieces of 20′ rebar on the roof rack. Started pouring 11 metres cubed at 8am (2 trucks) and we had about 4 barrows left over out of about 144 – sign of a good estimate and well prepared base. Finished the power troweling by about 6pm and tarped all the openings until Monday. Hime now has two paw prints on the floor. Pretty excited about soon having a garage and shop that will be covered, insulated, powered and with a floor – we just missed being able to pour the floor before it got cold in December.
Two drywallers came up to measure and give me a quote for boarding and taping. I checked prices with a few suppliers around town – not a lot of price competition on drywall in Kelowna. Got three quotes for garage doors. Will go with side motors and track that follows the vaulted ceiling. Fireplace guys finished the install but did not have the two blower fans so will need to come back. Electricians finished the rough in on Tuesday. Soffit/fascia guys worked well and fast all week. Looking good. They ran out of fascia so will bring more next week. They also put on house wrap for the part that will have siding. Good guys. I put up some backing and they installed the cedar supports I had made for the two eyebrow roofs. Plumber finished his rough-in (except for one shower pan). He cut 2 holes in my brand new roof that will need to be flashed.
The building inspector (good guy) did his thing on Wednesday and passed the framing and mechanical subject to a few details (another smoke alarm, some firestops, a AAV valve for the downstairs sink, and some baffles for the cold air return.
Ended up the week by cleaning the house with Mizuho, taping the joints on the ducting, and with a visit to the regional district to discuss a zoning variance (I need one for the separate suite) and had to go to Canada Customs to amend our import declaration – a long and incredibly bureaucratic story. Really good weather – part sun and cloud, highs about +6 to +9, lows about -1. Stucco guy began to bring over his stuff as well as he will start next week. Ripped 3 sheets of plywood into nailing strips for the window trim, completed all the fire stops, and picked up up some supplies, including an extension ladder, on the weekend.