Huge Progress on Plumbing, Wiring and Heating

The last few days have seen lots of sub-trade activity.  

Jim Skeritt, our Electrician Extrordinaire came last Saturday morning and worked the full three days of the Labour Day weekend (two of them until 10 at night!) and got a pile of wiring done so we now have lights in the workshop along with power to the major machines.  It's been great getting used to that!  

I really must get going on the doors to get the shop lockable and sealed from the elements.  The door jamb and sills are getting there but there always seems to be some other job to attend to, or buying trip to go on.  Karen and I put a coat of varnish on the doors one evening but even with good lighting there were quite a few "holidays" so only daytime finishing for the final coats! 

The plumbers, George and Brent have now got us a working flush toilet and hot water tank which is hooked to an outdoor tap!

The in-floor heat folks were also here today and began installing all of the boiler bits as well as hooking up the tubes that were cast into the shop and garage floor.

Settling in post-Move

The last week has seen us madly re-arranging the shop-garage building following the rapid unloading that came with the move.  We are renting a 20 foot storage container which is now housing most of the shop accessories.  I also took a few minutes the other day to build a boardwalk in front of the 5th wheel and try to keep the mud tracking to a minimum, somewhat like a 1860's frontier town!

Back to Work with New Plumbing and Electrical

With the move from Victoria to Cobble Hill complete we have resumed work on the project.  

Karen has been busy organizing some of our household goods in the cabin so the garage won't be so crowded when it comes time for wiring, plumbing and drywall.

Our plumber, George has begun on the rough-in work in the garage so soon we hope to have hot/cold running indoor water and a flush toilet!   We have also had the temporary power pole disconnected and the permanent electrical panels hooked up; one in the house and one in the shop-garage.  

Perhaps best of all, we have signed up with Shaw so we now have internet, TV and a land-line phone.  The best part of the 5th wheel so far is being able to surf the internet while watching baseball on TV with a 10 degree turn of the head!

Moving and Home Sweet Home

This past weekend saw a complete abandonment of any building work as we concentrated on moving all of our possessions from Victoria to Cobble Hill.  Our U-Haul truck (nicknamed "Humungous Fungus" because of the graphics on the side) made two FULL loads along with numerous trips in our own two vehicles and another large truck full of the heavy woodworking equipment.  Huge thanks to Karen's sister Jan, her Mum and Dad, our friends Steve and Sam and Ken and Patti for all of the help and support! 

So, now we are all but moved into our rented 5th Wheel trailer and with a bit of money in the bank will hope to be resuming on the building project by late this week.  The blog will be a bit dead for a few weeks until our internet gets hooked up again.

Windows In Shop-Garage

While Dave and Dean were busy on the curved roof, Corey and I completed the rainscreen details on the window openings and Daryl arrived just in time to install of the white vinyl windows in the shop and garage

Curved Roof Transition

So now the next challenge was to create the curved transition which blends the arched roof into the main roof slope.  Using their vast carpentry know-how, Dean and Dave plugged away for an afternoon and completed a beautiful parabolic shape which is all ready for Pat to cover with his metal.

Curved Arches Made, Shipped and Installed

The one remaining piece of the roof that needed to be made before Pat can install the metal roofing was the curved arches above the Master Bedroom balcony.  So, the 6 arches were laminated on our shop floor, planed, delivered to the site, sanded and trimmed then installed on the post and beam structure by Daryl, Dean and Dave.