Final Push

The final push before we move in! 

There was a LOT of discussion, measuring and marking up paper for how to do the stair runner.  A plaid like we have is more difficult than a solid color or other patterns.

We had our final blower door test. The overall result was disappointing. More on that later. Below is measuring the exhaust hood for the range. He said that it’s rare for any residential hood to measure any more than half its rated CFM and most are closer to about 1/3. Our blower is 1400 CFM on max so 992 CFM is quite good (and was the highest he’d ever seen and the quietest he’d ever heard). HOWEVER, we’ll rarely need that much and most of the time we’ll likely run it at maybe half or about 500 CFM.

Don measuring the exhaust in our master bath. This should have been well over 200 CFM but is actually only about 127 CFM which is disappointing. The primary purpose of such a high volume is to remove fumes from hair spray. This is about the same as our former house which only did a moderate job of removing hair spray fumes.

Steve and Bob leave a lot of good notes for various people working on the house.

Shawn testing some of the monitoring systems.

A Covid Summer with Sid!  One of the good things about Covid is that restaurants have had to create a lot more outdoor seating like this in a parking lot. It’d be nice if they’d keep it like this in future years.

José and José planting Royal Raindrops crabapple trees along the walkway to the studio.

Curt putting the rail on the balcony.

Watching ‘A Man Called Ove’ in our little apartment that’s home for a couple of months between moving from our old house and in to our new one. BTW, great movie!

The TV cabinet for our living room arrived! 

José making brick art in the conservatory.

There was some miscommunication on the fireplaces. These are wood burning fireplaces that we’d wanted gas starters in. Unlike gas logs the gas starters require a Danté valve to be installed nearby to shut off the gas. So, Bob did some rework to get the valve in.

Our dock has been having problems. I discovered the other day that the sway braces weren’t put on when the dock was put in this spring which is likely why this happened. I found them in the lake and under some pipes so hopefully once I get them on it will be more stable.

Curt and Ben brought the shutters and window boxes that they made and painted. We’re excited to see how these look and my sweetie is very anxious to begin planting in them.

Most of stair runner is done. The bottom three sections are temporary trial pieces to see how they do. With measurements from these they’ll make new ones that line up better.

Colby and Shawn installing AV and security stuff.

The finished floor in the conservatory. I’m really glad we did the edge strip around it.

Oops. We had a bit of a downpour that caused a lot of mud from our front yard to wash in to the back, then clog the drains for the sunken patio resulting in a bit of a lake. The water level was about 8” high on the doors.

We were quite thankful that this is all the damage that there was. After seeing how high the water level was against the doors we expected a good portion of the lower level to be flooded and damaged.  Our Loewen doors did quite well keeping out the water.

Debbie getting the draperies done.

The living room of our apartment. It actually wasn’t too bad of a place to spend a few weeks.

“It seems like we’ve installed this floor before!”

Sid carrying out his routine inspection. 

Hammerheart Brewery is only a couple of miles from here and true to their Scandinavian roots and with a nod towards Scandinavian’s favorite activity they’ve a beer called Löyly.  

Friday nights are pizza night. I can’t wait to try making these in our new pellet grill.

Scott (Landscape Architect in blue jumper) and Ceasar discussing things. Two people we’re very glad to have working on our project both for their talent and for just being good people.

Getting closer to ready for grilling pizza!

Ben with Coldstone Shorelines building a new line of rip rap along our shore. He started by using his excavator to place large rocks down in the lakebed to create a work place for himself and then began building the rip rap. Ben is a civil engineer and does a great job making sure that the shorelines he does will remain stable for many many years (and decades!).  Rip rap has become much more important than in years past. Boats that produce large wakes can cause a very considerable amount of damage to shorelines and rip rap has to be done well to withstand the large and periodically even waves.

Ben has an amazing sense for what he can do with his excavator (and nerves of steel I think).  He was on the edge of tipping over a few times.