It has been rather quiet on the site these past 3 weeks.  We are all waiting for the mechanical guys to come back and finish their work.  Once they are done, the framers can finish the back framing, the plumber can finish the rough in, and the electrician can wire the house.  Hopefully, the ducting will be done this week.  We had another big snowfall yesterday, and it is snowing again today (we have already exceeded the monthly average snowfall for February in the first 2 days!).  I believe this is now the snowiest winter on record here in Kelowna.  It looks beautiful, but it really slows things done.  I have done a few things at the house – building stairs to the top floor, insulating, poly and plywood in the mechanical room, beginning to rough in the central vac, installing the skylights in the shop, and figuring out were I want the 220 and 110 in the shop.

As we wait for contractors, we have been finalizing the plumbing choices – taps, showers, bath, sinks – and should be able to order them this week.  We met 2 weeks ago with a lighting specialist and will be meeting her on site later this week to go over the plan and be ready for the electrician.  I have been interviewing contractors for soffits, fascia and gutters, as well as insulators and the bids are coming in.

We have also been going back and forth on whether to go with stucco or with 4′ x 10′ cement fibre panels and on colours for the outside.  We are leaning towards more colour than less – I believe life is too short for beige or taupe.  Some photos are below which indicate what we are considering.

So, over the next 3 weeks I hope to have the mechanical done, the back-framing, and the rough in plumbing.  I hope also to decide on the soffits, fascia and gutters and get them installed this month.  Once we decide on either stucco or CFB, we can either paper and wire or wrap the house in tyvek.  When this is done, and after we get the framing, plumbing and electrical inspection, we can insulate (will need to get a bit of pre-insulation done before the back framing so will need to decide on an insulator sooner rather than later).

Lots of fun, lots of work.

These are the framers – we are having a (almost) lock up party on Friday afternoon after installing the doors that arrived.  Jeff and his crew did a great job and were great to work with – I highly recommend them if you are looking for a framer.  They will be back to do the back-framing in 2 to 3 weeks.

Three months to the day we started work on the foundation footings, we have all the windows in, the roof shingled, the mechanical work started (ducts) and the rough-in plumbing underway. We are about 3 weeks behind my original guesstimate as we had to wait 2 weeks for roof trusses and had about a week of weather delays (with more snow forecast for tonight.  The snow does slow down the work, e.g., the roofers had to shovel off the roof before putting down ice and water shield over the entire roof, and then shingles. The doors arrive tomorrow morning from Vancouver (weather permitting) although two of them will now not arrive until March! Got this news earlier this week. Not a show stopper, but does slow things down a bit again.

We are now busy deciding on plumbing fixtures, insulation, siding, flooring, etc etc.

The windows are high-performance and we have put blue-skin membranes on the sides and a red membrane on the sill – these membranes close over nail holes and seal tight to the wall (when it warms up).

View of the heating/cooling ducts that will be under the floor in the living/dining/kitchen area. The ducts and joist sit on the slab (which is insulated underneath and isolated from the foundation walls). The sub-floor should go on in a few weeks after we run some electrical and pipes for the central vac.

This is the double wall chimney pipe for the wood stove that will go in the basement. The chimney will run through a closed chase through the guest bedroom and the upper floor – should be a great draft.

Kelowna gets an average of 60cm of snow per year. It usually falls a few centimetres a time, and melts within a few days. The past 2 days we got 40 cm. Dry powder snow. The most they have had here since the 1930s. That was 80 years ago. It is beautiful, but does cause problems when you are building. I spent 5 hours plowing the driveway yesterday, and another 2 today.

This is a snow covered tree outside our window. Looks like a cartoon character.

Thankfully, we had the roof on before it snowed. But there is snow everywhere. The roofer had to shovel off the roof before he could continue working.

Photo of garage and shop framed with trusses on. Might be awhile before I get the floor poured and am able to use the shop.

The Okanagan is Canada’s main source of fruits. Best know for apples, grapes and wine. You can buy apples at the apple cooperative year round – they currently have about 15 varieties for sale.

They also have pears, cherries, nectarines, etc, etc.

Some very nice sunsets from the mountain. This was December 29th.

Dec 31 – Trusses for the garage and shop came up first thing this morning, but the truck and gooseneck trailer slid off the road. We had an “Arctic air mass” visit us and the temperature dropped. The road up the us was quite icy and the truck lost traction and slid back into the ditch. Thankfully, the truck bringing the roofing material came right after and after putting chains on, pulled him out.  This is a view of the second truck loading the shingles onto the upper roof.  -8 today.

The framers finished the wall and roof sheeting today! They are back on the 2nd to frame the garage and shop and then do the interior and back framing. The entry (behind the tree) is temporarily braced as I will do a post and beam in the spring.

Photo of the “tall wall” which required engineering and LVL beams and posts. The soffits are 3′ on the front and back and 18″ on the sides.

After 10 weeks of building, the walls are up and the roof is sheathed. The roofers have ice and water shield membrane on the upper two roofs, and are back on Jan 1 to shingle and finish the lower roof. All is looking good. Happy New Year to you from Mizuho and I.

Dec 23 – All I want for Christmas is my roof put on. The crane putting the trusses on the roof.

Went quickly. Machines are great.

View of Entry

Front Wall is up, trusses are up, roof mostly sheathed today. Will finish by tomorrow and roofers come on the 29th.

December 22 – After waiting for 2 weeks, the roof trusses for the house finally arrived this morning.  We have had two weeks of warm weather (the snow is pretty much all gone) but haven’t been able to do much without the trusses. Christmas comes early!

The tall wall also went up today – we had been waiting for the engineered wood for the uprights. Looks good.

This is the view through the living room wall (where the window will be in early January).  There will be a second clerestory window above to provide light in the winter and views of the sky.

Dec 13 – Almost 2 months from beginning construction. Progress has slowed as the weather got warmer and sunnier. Still waiting for roof trusses. View of guest bedroom from living room. Mizuho’s den is on the far side.

View of basement, main and upper floor – main floor awaits some engineered wood for the tall wall. It arrived last week – now all we need are the framers back to put it up.

View of lower side of house and entry. Pat is inspecting.

Before the warm weather and sun.

View of main entry

View of garage and shop backfilled. Base of fractured rock taken from excavation topped with about 8″ of sand. Still needs to be compacted. Outside of garage and shop also backfilled part way. Bobcat worked well for this work. Most of the driveway was in good shape but parts got really muddy due to snow, freezing rain and frozen ground.

Nov 13 – Laying out garage and shop with brother-in-law Steve. Decided to place at about 15 degree angle to facilitate access from driveway.  Footings made on Nov 17th – needed stepped footings as grade was uneven.

Dropping a rock into the backfill area (before it fell of its own accord).

Nov 21 – Pouring footings for garage and shop (and upper slab and pads for porch and entry).  Not a lot of room for the cement trucks (3).  Temp above zero but put insulated tarps on the slab for 3 days and left the forms on the garage/shop for a few days.  We were delayed 2 days because cement guys bumped us for a large pour at Big White.  You just don’t get any respect if you are only building one house.

Nov 24 – Forms stripped.

Nov 27 – Warmer, +6 degrees and sunny in the afternoon.  Foundation walls ready for cement.  You only need 2′ of depth for frost here as per code, but with the weather we have been having….

Nov 27 – We poured the slab for the main floor at the same time.  Six weeks and one day into the construction (not counting the site prep work done before we got back to Canada).