As of September 30th...

September has been a very busy month.

September has also been a very good month.

September is now over.

September saw many advances at the house with the renovations.

September was largely a month of finishing the skeleton of this reno in preparation to start putting skin on!

In one month we will be back in our house.  October will be the month we finish; the month we see the fruit of many peoples' hard work come to a celebratory end.  And it will be another busy month to say the least!

But for today, there's a few things that happened at the house that are quite exciting...

HVAC completed the installation.  Now they need the dust to settle before balancing the system...they want the paint finished and the house nice and clean before sucking all of that into the system!  They did fire it up for a minute or two just to feel the air at the registers...it was amazing!

I picked up our sub flooring for the vinyl sheets to go on.  We will have vinyl flooring in the Kitchen, Mudroom, Bathroom and Laundry Closet.

The Painters got a few coats on around the house.  Here's the kitchen with one coat of the "Brown Bag" on it.

We had some incredible customer service from the local Dulux paint store in Duncan as they were able to create a custom stain colour in an attempt to match our existing walls.  Below are a few pics showing the wood that we planed and sanded before applying the new stain.  Tomorrow I'll be applying the first layer of Satin clear coat!  This wood is simply beautiful and I'm so glad we were able to re-purpose it in the same house it came out of (even though it was hidden behind the drywall, painted and stained and many were full of nail holes).  Needless to say, we love the wood look and I think the final product will be warm and beautiful.

As of September 29th...

Painters showed up and did a bunch of ceilings, the last of the priming and some small stuff to prepare for tomorrows big day of color on the walls!

HVAC showed up and within a couple hours one of the workers got an injury and was off to the hospital for a couple stitches in his finger.  One guy remained and the big boss showed up and put on the tools for the rest of the day to help out.  They say the system should be up and running by tomorrow.  Pictures show the Mechanical Room where the Air Handling Unit sits with a total of 4 filters and a UV light for making sure the air is as clean as possible in our home.  In fact, the unit they installed was the first time they've ever installed this specific unit as it's a brand new top of the line air quality system!

This is the new thermostat...I have no idea.

This is looking into the Mechanical Room from the Living Room.  There is a 1" filter on the left side where the duct work meets the Air Handler.  This is where the big stuff is caught and we will likely be replacing this filter often.

This is looking into the Mechanical Room from the Mudroom.  Pretty tight quarters, but the purpose was to have enough space for the Air Handler, the HWT and hopefully a vacuum and broom.  All of the above will be accomplished!

On the bottom left is the new system for the HVAC that is super high end.  It has four filters in it:

Up to 99.97% efficient at removing particles down to 0.3 micron Carbon Pre-filter protects the HEPA filter while removing odors, lint, hair and larger particles Up to 99.97% HEPA Media Filter removes particles 0.3 micron (1/84,000 of an inch) and larger Two UVC Germicidal Lights enclosed in an anodized UV reflector to intensify UV rays The UVC light and CinQuartz® Photo-Catalytic Oxidation (PCO) filter decompose organic materials Carbon/Potassium Permanganate Final Filter for removal of organic compounds and light gases

The new window for the boys bathroom was installed.

The flooring in the Toy Room was completed too!

As of September 27th...

Yesterday I got a call in the morning from a Board member who has a small excavator.  We had planned to dig out the front flower gardens at the house because the skirting was all rotten and the likely cause was the dirt acting like a big sponge against the skirting.

So...we dug them up.  The pics are somewhat difficult to see, but approximately 14 yards of dirt was taken away!  Now we can install new skirting and then the plan is to fill the trenches with river rocks so the water goes through to the earth and doesn't just sit against the skirting.

My Father In Law got about halfway done the flooring in the toy room too.

And the new Kitchen and Bathroom windows arrived, but we haven't had time (or weather) to install them yet.

As of September 26th...

HVAC was a no show today, so hopefully that gets wrapped up early next week.  It's almost as if people don't enjoy crawling around in confined spaces with insulation and dirt all around them...pfff.

The Plumber stopped by and installed the Hot Water Tank today as well.  Good 'ol John Wood 60 Gallon with 8yr warranty.  She's a Beaut!

I also stopped by a local door manufacturer (Wescan Doors) and asked about a few doors we are needing.  The wonderful lady at the front counter showed me down to their selection of doors where I picked out the three I needed.  We then went upstairs where she informed me that I would only be paying for the pre-hanging portion and the rest was no charge.  So, basically got $1200 in doors for $300.  They are Fir grade doors that we will stain.  We wanted to be able to install doors that would fit in with the existing wood doors and the rich heritage of the building itself.  Pretty stoked to be honest.  They will look very similar to these, only stained.

With the drywall completed and sanded out, the painter (Geoff Holland Painting) came in today and essentially primed the entire house, sanded and top coated one layer on the living room ceiling.  It's really beginning to come together!  These two characters were amazing!

As of September 25th...

Drywall completed.  Pictures don't really do it justice, but just know that a lot of sanding was performed and the result was a beautifully smooth surface for the painter to cover!

As of September 24th...

Last coat of drywall mud on today.  Tomorrow he (hopefully) sands everything and is done!  We are sooooooo glad we hired a professional for the drywall!  Almost 3300 sq/ft of board and he made it look easy.


More HVAC in the house today.  Placed and installed the exterior Heat Pump and the interior Air Handling Unit.  They are still hoping to be complete by weeks end.

Rach's dad has been planing and milling the old vertical Fir planks that were behind the drywall that we removed during demolition stage.  Many boards had two or three layers of paint/stain on them and looked terrible.  But they didn't have a chance when run through a planer!  Here's the result.  They will get a stain on them and be used as the baseboard and trim around the house...repurposed beautiful wood!

As of September 23rd...

HVAC guys have been here a couple days this week.  They plan to be completed by weeks end. These are the "trunk" lines going out from the Air Handling Unit inside the house.  The Heat Pump itself will be outside and both will be installed this week.  From the Trunk Lines there are 6" Insulated flex lines which run to each register in the rooms.

The guy building each of these custom trunk lines is apparently their best guy.  He actually wasn't originally going to do our job as he is their "high end" fabricator, but the first guy that showed up went into the crawlspace for one day and decided he didn't want to return.  So we got this guy by "accident" but I told the installer that this was no accident as it's not so much the hot or cold air I care about as much as it is how clean the air is and I was glad to have someone who takes pride in their work.  He's not the fastest, but he's thorough and old school, and sometimes (not always) that's not a bad thing.

When I told him to help himself to the fridge where there are cookies and pop he perked up even more and seemed quite at home to helping himself ;-)  Whatever keeps a guy who's crawling around in our confined space happy, I'll do my best to accommodate.

The Drywaller is doing a superb job and might even be completed by tomorrow, but said Thursday just in case.

As of September 22nd...

Rachel's Dad had the idea of turning the bulkhead above the breakfast bar into a display cabinet as well...she liked that idea.  So we removed the two middle 2x4's, restructured the inside and made it into a display cabinet too!

Rachel's Dad also removed the window that could be seen from the outside of the house, but not the inside!  The window had been burried behind our bathroom medicine cabinet wall, so we thought it was time to make it permanently disappear.  We are planning to repaint the entire front of the house at least, but some of the wood needed a first coat for now.

The Boys' Room getting it's new flooring.

Almost complete.  Just a strip along the edge to rip on the table saw tomorrow and it's done.

Every day is accounted for in this last month and I am resolved to see my family back home by Nov 1st at the latest.

Drywall...Week One

It's beginning to look a lot like...AWESOME!

All board is hung.

All seams are taped.

All corners are beaded.

All screws are covered...although I have no pics of that yet as the drywaller did that after I snapped these shots.

The next week will be taking it from AWESOME to AMAZINGLY AWESOME as he adds layers and sands it to perfection for the paint to go on.

Seriously people...it's really happening...it's...really...happening.