Thursday, April 26, 2007

April 25, 2007

We picked up the engineer stamped plans from Fall River today. The engineer made a few minor changes. He switched the 6X12 beams to 8X12 and he required one additonal beam in the basement. Now I need to get those stamped plans to the permit place for approval.

April 23, 2007

We have the septic lined up. As soon as the roads open it will be done.

Ivan was up to look at the piles of top soil in the field because we need something to cover the septic field sand. Ivan says it's still too wet to do it so we're not sure how that will work out.

We haven't heard from the well guy despite him saying he would be out to make a final determination of the location. We're going to contact him tomorrow because we want it done asap. If he's unable to do it very shortly after the roads open then we'll go with the next best choice.

Trent (the digger guy) is also planning to come out soon to do a bit more work. We need to go down another 2 feet to reach the appropriate depth for the foundation and then we'll need drainage and footings dug. Again, we want this underway as soon is possible.

Monday, April 23, 2007

April 19, 2007

I picked up the revised architectural plans today. They are on the big 11X17 paper and look so official.

We're happy with the changes except for a few little things. My name is spelled wrong so hopefully they can change that.

We also heard from the permit people. We need an engineers stamp for the post and beam construction. Fall River Log Homes has someone they use so it should't be a problem.

April 18, 2007

I submitted our application for the building permit today. It was relatively painless except for the $800.00

We should hear within 5 days.

April 17, 2007

Luckily I told Stan in the beginning that I'm picky. I thought the plans were great but I still had a whole page of notes to talk to him about. Most minor but better deal with them now than leave them.

I decided to move my laundry room to the basement. I know it's not ideal but with our plans to finish the main level only we need to have a bedroom and bath on that level. so we need a stand up shower which means stackable washer and dryer and a very small shower. I think Donnie especially will like the downstairs shower so it's a good thing but I didn't want my laundry room to be reduced to a 3X3 foot area of the bathroom with no place for folding or keeping my cleaning supplies. I'll have a large basement laundry room and it should work considering I often carry my folding to the basement to do while Donnie watches TV anyway.

We noticed the roof over the entry way was a peaked roof and we wanted a shed roof. The windows are all off on the plan which appears to be an error and easily fixed. We decided to put a below grade window on the kitchen side. There were some adjustments to be made with construction materials. We're not using gyprock but it was listed. We changed that to T&G pine. The windbracing and sheathing had to be adjusted.

The kitchen is not what I plan but I'm happy with the shape and size. I'll workon that more later.

April 16, 2007






The architect's drawings arrived via email today.

April 13, 2007

We visited a few electric heating stores and were directed to a site: www.convectair.com It's great for calculating the size units needed to heat the airspace in a home. I did the calculations for the house and now have an idea ofhow much is needed for the backup systems.

It looks like it will cost about $2000 for the units then we would need the programmers if we wanted them to work with the heat of the house. We could also go without the programmers and turn the units on when we want them on. Since we want them to come on if we are away and can't fill the fire that wouldn't be ideal.

The units we are looking at work the same as baseboards but I like them a bit better. Here's an example: http://www.convectair.com/ca/en/produit/piece.html?pie=living

April 12, 2007

We attended the Nova Scotia Homebuilders Association seminar in Bridgewater. It was mostly sponsors speaking about what they had to offer but there was a representative speaking about EnerGuide for new homes and R2000 construction. That was really helpful.

A rep from ConserveNS was really good too. He talked about different heating systems and efficiency and insulation, windows etc. He confirmed our decision to use wood to heat the house primarily and electric as a backup. He agreed that a backup shouldn't be something radiant that needed to be on all the time or even something like our current hot water that needed to keep heating up to be available in case we need it. He thought we would be able to heat the new house on as little as 1 cord of wood per year. I find that hard to believe since w eburn about 3 now but we'd be happy if it were true.

March 31, 2007

We went to the Home Show today. Donnie found it depressing because he was thinking of what he wanted for the house originally before we made some financial decisions. I just found it useless.

It's mainly expensive and decorative stuff instead of good information about home building.