Color Test

I did'nt get much done on the shack in the last couple days (as usuall). Had other important things going on. Thinking, permit people, more researching, getting ready to do my taxes from 2009 (oops), picking up supplies etc. I've got all kinds of things going on in my mind like "heating" and all kinds of other things. I have alway had a general idea as to what I am going to do for a heating system, but the time is getting real near to purchasing and installing something, so of course I have been doing some major research on this subject lately. My plan, which could easily get changed, is to have a propane space heater in the basement (about 30,000-50,000 btu). This will keep things thawed in the basement and should keep the chill off up stairs while I am away. Then I am also planning on a woodstove up on the main floor. I know, mabe it should be in the basement, but then maybe not. I do plan on taking hot air off the peak of the ceiling and shooting it down to the basement while I am at home running the wood stove. Soon, I hope I will come up with the actual plan. There could possibly be some hydronic type heating in the future, but I will start with something like this for now and experiment as I go.
It is minus 4 Celcius here at 12:46 am. Kinda feels like winter sneaking up on me all ready. Some surrounding areas that are not too far away have had some snow already. I'm not sure how much, but it is there I heard. It's pretty dry here so far.
I did manage to get a couple more windows in on the south side of the house. I have a lot of trouble sometimes trying to make decisions, such as what color to make the trim, facia, and soffits on my house. I purchased a piece of facia and slid it up there on the edge of the overhang. I know this is kinda different, but then it would'nt be normal for me not to be different. If ya know what I mean. The color of that length of facia is called tile red and it matches up pretty close to the color of my corners and window trims etc, which are labeled as rustic red. The color of the siding itself is sand. Does anyone out there object to these colors? I am definately not a color specialist. I like to be different, as long as my house dos'nt end up looking totally stupid. I think it'll look alright though. I hope.

North Side Windows Installed.

I have still been pretty busy at work off and on, but I did manage to get little bit done on the house. Two windows are in permanently. The main floor window looks alot smaller than I thought it would, but it will definately do the job. Usually when I see a house, the basement windows are usually smaller than the main windows. lol. Nope, not on my house. Simple man with a different plan.

Started to Wrap the House

I finally had a full day off from work, where it was'nt raining out. I hav'nt done very much on the house since my last post, a little here and there, but not much. Maybe I wont be in it before winter. lol. It was a pretty good run at work for awhile there and I did enjoy doing it, but I am truly getting the urge to do some serious building again.
Today I finally cut the main door out to it's correct size. It probably makes the house look smaller. A 36" left outswing door will go in that spot. I did a bunch of other smaller things to get ready for some wrap. Sealed all the gaps between the basement top plate and the main floor system. Had to do some adjustments on the door rough opening size and finish sheathing the strip around the house where the main floor is. One last look at this side of the house before the housewrap goes on. This is the north side, and there is one basement window and one main floor window in the living area at the foot of the stairs that go up to the loft. I did'nt want a whole bunch of larger sized windows. When I am not at home, I am going to rely on a propane space heater in the basement to heat the whole house. This is the plan for now anyway. Our winters are sometimes pretty cold and long, and too many windows could result in more heat loss than I really want. There are more and one that is a bit larger on the south side.

I just started experimenting with the housewrap. I need to cut out another door and some windows, then I can finish wrapping it up. I really hope they can live without me at work tomorrow.

I am still trying to decide exactly what to do up here in the loft. Window or door. I know I probably have the technology to frame a door in there, but it's not quite that simple. That gable wall is a part of my manufactored trusses, and for me to just start wacking a hole in there for a door could cause some grief for me with with the permit guys. I may have to draw my plans up and get someone who is qualified to ok it for me. I guess that would be an engineer or maybe the truss manufactorer. I just hope it is not a complicated drawn out and expensive ordeal. It would be nice to have a door going out to the balcony though. This end of the house probably wont get completely wrapped right away. I am going to try and draw up a door framing plan soon. Any suggestions? The top part studs are at 2 foot on center and the bottom part is at 16".

Anyway, thats it for now. I will try and post a little bit more often, as I THINK things may be slowing down a tad at work. Hopefully.

Finally Backfilled.

That little white thing with all those wheels is what I have been up to mostly lately. We started a new road job awhile ago and it is about 150 kms away, so that kinda keeps me truckin. The moneys good, but the poor old house has been at a bit of standstill. I have been parking the truck at my place alot lately, which is pretty handy at times.

I did manage to put the second 3 foot manhole ext on my septic tank and cover it in.

I also found a little time to get started on my foundation backfilling. I phoned the permit people for an inspection on my foundation so that I can backfill it, and I ended up also passing the framing inpection while he was here. lol.

Anyway, I lined the outside of the foundation walls with filter cloth.

Then I did half the backfill height with tile rock. Alot of people usually put in just enough tile rock to just cover their weeping tile, but I put in alot of rock, just to be different, if nothing else.

Once the rock was in, I covered it all with more filter cloth to keep the dirt and rock seperated before finishing it all up with dirt.

And there is the finished product. This picture was taken tonight at 11 pm (Sunday night). I had the gravel in a few days ago then got called to go to work, so it sat for a few days like that. Then we got rained out at work, so I did'nt hesitate to get going on this again, even though things were a bit wet here also. After slippin and sliding around for awhile in the hot sun with the backhoe, things started to dry up and I eventually got it done. I would like to see a good rain storm now, just to see where all the water is going to go or sit. I have a pretty good slope all the way around the house, but it will be interesting to see how much water comes into the sump now.

I have a pretty good feeling that I am going to be kinda busy at work for awhile yet. So I probably won't be getting a whole lot accomplished on the house right away. I don't mind though, if we're busy, we're busy, might as well take advantage of that while it is there I guess. I'm just real happy that this baby in finally backfilled. I have my windows, but I did'nt even order my doors yet. I know, I know ???????????????????????????. Still deciding. lol. I purchased my siding, but need to order the corners and trims etc, as they will be in a different color that needs to be ordered. I have been there a couple times with intentions of ordering this stuff, and for some reason or other, I got diverted. Ordering some goodies is my next mission in life, other than working.

Busy Days Lately

I have been a pretty busy man lately with the the shack building and at work. I did manage to get somethings accomplished on the house project. My sewage system passed the inspection with flying colors and I backfilled it all in, except for my last man hole ext on the septic tank. I'm just letting things brew in my head for a bit before I cover that totally in, as once it is, it would be pretty hard to get inside that thing and get back out again. It is ready to go, but you just never know, I might decide to make a slight change on things in there yet.

We started to get the blueskin on. "We" meaning mom and I. I'm getting to be quite a mommas boy lately. lol. This stuff does go alot better with an extra set of hands around. Sometimes we get under each others skin a bit also, but I guess thats just the way it goes sometimes. lol
First we put on some primer.

Then the blueskin. 3 sides are blueskinned. The front needs to be closed in yet and done.

Shortly after my last post, I woke up one morning and my computer did not want to work correctly. I could no longer get on line, and there are a bunch of other things not working right. I suspect that it is all them automatic windows vista updates that always go on. I could'nt even go back to a different restore point. Nor could I get online to try and diagnose the problem. So I squeezed in enough time to go and buy a new computer. I was a couple days after that before I even found time to take that out of the box. I'm running windows 7 now. Man I hate getting things all set up again. And this keyboard is just a little different, like the enter key and the shift keys for some reason I am always missing. They are just a bit smaller or something.

I got called to go to work at about supper time last night and did'nt get done until about 5 this morning. The days are sure long right about now. It was still partially daylight at close to midnight, and at about 4:30 am it was starting to get light again. I seen alot of wildlife last night and there was hardly any truck traffic out in the bushes except for me and the odd guy. I've seen moose, elk and deer. I did'nt see any bears last night, which kinda surprises me. I guess it could be a bit early for them to be out full force yet, I don't know. There are alot of bears around here and where I usually do alot of my trucking. Both black bears and grizzlies. I heard on the news recently that there are only about 700 grizzly bears in Alberta, not counting all the ones in the national parks, but I disagree with their calculations, because I have seen so many of them myself over the years in just the areas that I travel. There has just got to be more than that. Well there you have it, all my thoughts for the day.

The Septic Tank is in the Ground.

I had to work yesterday, but today (Thursday) I finally had for me. I finally got my septic tank delivered. The tank was $1600, trucking was $450, and another $480 for the two manhole extensions and two tar strips to keep the ground water out. $2530 plus some taxes for all. Ouch.

It is a 750 gallon septic tank, which is no longer allowed around here anymore. The minimum size is 1000 now. I bought my sewage permit before the change, so I was allowed to use the 750. Others have to have some other kind of different system that I heard costs around $30,000.00. I'm not sure why I did'nt need that. (Maybe I do, I don't know). lol.

The sewage permit guy is probably going to come out tomorrow (actually today, I guess, as it is after midnight). I want to get him to look at things so I can get it all covered.

Raw sewage in.

Effluent out to the sewage treatment mound.

Well it's nice to finally have this thing in the ground.

Working on the Sewage System

This snow happend to us on the May long weekend two years in a row now. Our long weekend in Canada happend on the 22, 23, and 24 of May. Victoria Day was one week ahead of the United States Memorial Day. It rained and snowed for the whole weekend and then some. It actually came at a real good time though as I just got my roof on, and it was real dry with alot of different forest fires in the region. It sure did make a mess of things though.

I got some stairs started in the basement, then got distracted with other things, like work. I have been kinda busy at work lately, which is good in away. I've been spending alot of money lately. I hate seeing the old bank account go in reverse to hard. lol.

I decided that it is time to get the sewer system all installed and out of the way, whenever I find the time. I worked on it all day today. Just a little bit of fine tuning and then I will be ready to get my septic tank delivered out. I could have hauled it myself, but I don't think the old John Deere would be able to lift it anyway. So when I get things ready, they will bring it out and set it right in the hole for me. I need to get this all out of the way before I can back fill the basement.

It gets kinda interesting when it comes time to join the trench. I was operating pretty gently in hopes that the trench would'nt cave in on me while I was straddling the it with the backhoe.

This is the main raw sewage line that will dump into the septic tank. It is 4 inch ABS pipe. At first, my plan was to have the septic tank right close to the house, but I changed my mind. It is now going to be about 30 feet away. The new location will make it alot easier for my backfilling and landscaping. It just made more sense.

Well it has been awhile since my last post, and I hav'nt had much extra time for leaving commments to all my favorite blogger friends lately. It takes a guy like me too much time to come up anything half intelligent to say sometimes, but I have been checking some blogs out occasionally. We have daylight here until about 11 pm and I have been utilizing that quite abit it lately.