Full Steam Ahead

It's amazing how things have been progressing since the last post just three weeks ago! The roughed in plumbing is complete, covered by gravel, styrofoam insulation, steel mesh and finally the piping for the heated floor has all been laid overtop (and culminates in some fancy plumbing work on the wall that will be the mechanical room). We're a little concerned that the height of the ceiling is not going to be quite what we were expecting, but JF assures us that things are on track and the concrete will be the correct depth. The big plastic bin for the sump pump is not flush with the floor and JF was annoyed about this, but it seems this is not such an issue, the waste flows well and the bin will be hidden inside a cupboard.


Gravel laid with troughs for plumbing visible


After the plumbing has been laid, covered by styrofoam and steel mesh


Close up of the same

The concrete floor could be poured as early as tomorrow! The English courtyard was framed and had the supporting walls poured today. Things are moving...


Digging the English Courtyard

While all this has been going on, the brickwork on the front is STILL delayed. The latest on this had it starting tomorrow, but I don't believe that for a second. It seems the mason has been tied up on the previous job. Fortunately getting the brickwork done has ended up being a very independent task, so not too much of a problem yet. Originally we thought it had to be done before the roof should be done, but after reviewing with the contractor, roofer and mason, it seems there are no dependencies. Phew!

Then there's the inside of the house on our existing ground floor. Well, it's not so existing anymore! Marc and I demolished the kids bedroom a couple of weeks ago. Last week, work commenced on the office/living room. This is almost complete, but it got to the point where we will need to move out of our bedroom before it can really be finished. The current goal is to get the main floor bathroom framed and installed, but half of the bathroom is in our existing bedroom closet.

We're taking a new approach. Rather than trying to live in the construction zone, we're going to move into Marc's parents RV (caravan). It's actually quite luxurious, having a kitchen, shower and toilet, although I think we'll try to make use of the house ones for as long as possible. This is a great idea in principle, but in practice, we have to park it somewhere, which in the middle of a city on a narrow one-way street isn't ideal. At night we should have enough room in the back garden (assuming we can get it down the back alley and turn it into our lot). But we'll likely need to move it during the day as the various contractors typically need to have wide access to the basement. So we're still figuring out where we'll park it...

The windows for the basement and kitchen have been ordered! (From Alcora) They'll be installed around December 1st (plywood until then - nice).

Finally, there's the planning of the interior itself. We've purchased the shower, toilet and sink for the ground floor. The bathrooms in the basement are planned (mainly Ikea and Bain Depot, although I think we'll use Plomberie Mascouche too) but we'll need to wait and see real room dimensions until we can order the baths, things are tight. The dining room table has been purchased (at a discount since we had to take the floor model - that works for me!) and the kitchen has been fully planned using Ikea, which has a 15% discount back in gift cards running until Oct 31 - we'll use this to buy the bathroom :) I'm not convinced on the Ikea sink and countertops at present (I like these ideas. Although the cost may win me over in the end. I don't expect we'll have more than plywood counters before Christmas.

Hmmmmm, so I think that's about all for now, phew! (but still soooo much to do)
The fun stuff is starting for me with picking out the interior:


The sink we've purchased


And the shower