So Grateful for so Much

I want to take a few moments to reflect on the kindness of others that has been so present in the last few months.  We feel fortunate to have so many great people in our lives.  Thank you for being AWESOME!

My Gratitude List (without naming specific names - As you read you'll know who you are)

• Family
• Friends
• Advice from Loved Ones - ALL THE TIME!
• Recommendations  
• Lending us Tools & Supplies
• Helpful Inspectors
• Finding a Great Foundation Company
• Answers to Questions
• Patience
• All Those Who've Lent an Ear
• Building the Path
• Garden Help
• Weed Lessons
• Moving Plants 
• Planting New Plants
• Picking Cherries
• Making Delicious Cherry Creations
• Zucchini
• All Those Who've Gone the Extra Mile
• Exceptional Plumbing Help
• Design Advice and Suggestions
• YouTube
• Google
• To Do Lists 
• Pinterest Ideas (post to come...)
• Free Gutters
• Weeding Volunteers
• Digging Volunteers
• Volunteers to Lift Heavy Stuff
• Kind Neighbors
• Visitors Checking out the Progress
• Cheap Stuff on Kijiji 
• Free Mulch
• Hauling Dirt
• Free Shingles
• Help with Framing
• Blog Views & Comments
• Asking and Listening to Updates on the Project
• Reminding us that it's Worth It
• AMAZING FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Concrete Milestone

These guys can get concrete anywhere!

It's been pretty exciting around here with the anticipation of 2 things... to have a mud free home and to have hot water! We've had mud (dirt + plumbing work) for about 3 weeks and cold water for about 2 weeks so this concrete was kind of a big deal around here!




The new foundation (frost wall construction) was poured  under the addition. 

Waiting for the concrete to cure...

New concrete foundation!

Close up of the forms

 
 The makings of a concrete floor complete with rough ins for the plumbing...

3 weeks ago...

Last week...

New Concrete!

Oh yes... and then I wrote our initials in the basement floor (I've wanted to write in concrete since I was a kid) but I didn't plan out where I would put my graffiti and as it turns out it was right where we ended up putting the hot water tank and since we were so excited about hot water I forgot to take a pic before we installed it so here's my best attempt at a good shot...

 

I will miss attempting to go to Millcreek pool every second day but we're grateful for the return of hot water!

One Step Forward Two Steps Back!

Isn't that the way most DIY projects go?  We spent a lot of time in the beginning of June moving around plants.  Our goal was mostly to move all the plants that were close to the house away from the house so that they would be safely out of harms way when the weeping tile was installed.  There was a patch in the front that we just loved!  I thought the new arrangement was gorgeous and it made me smile every time I walked to the front door.  When we decided to replace our water line on our property as part of the Epcor Lead Pipe Replacement Program we needed access to the water supply line which is located right in the center of the flower patch that had become our favorite patch in the front yard.  Although really when we weighed the pros and cons it was a given that we were digging up the yard - Drink lead water or spend a day redoing the garden? So in came the bobcat and out came the garden.

The garden after a little help.

The garden during the replacement

They spent about 4 hours coring the line, installing a new water line and a new sewer pipe. Fortunately, I had help getting the front back together!  With a little bit of help from Pinterest I found some great ideas to give New Life to Old Concrete and we created a short path using the concrete from our old basement floor.  Thank you to m & d, R and B for coming over to help us with the garden and removing heavy items from the basement.  In the pic to the right you can probably see the furnace that has been covered in orange poly on our front step... We're sure our neighbors love that! :)

Falling in Love with our Garden!

Digger's favorite spot in the yard... On the lettuce.

Plants + Weeds = Happiness

One of the things we were excited about when we first bought this house was the garden.  Craig loves plants and trees of all kinds and I love fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers.  We are fortunate the we bought a home that came with tons of plants.  Our first priority in the spring was to build a few more planter boxes for our vegetable garden.  Luckily we've had a lot of help in the garden - Thank you mom, dad, C, B, and N.  The gardening "lessons" often went like this, "That's a weed...  Oh that's a weed too...  You need to pull those - they're weeds!" It was quite humorous when C came over because she would say all the same things but she would tell Craig to do it!  HAHA!  The garden has been a fun adventure this year - each week it looks completely different as different flowers are always blooming and new fruits and veggies are ready all the time.  Our main goal this year was to make the yard more manageable-  which is a work in progress.  In the meantime we've decided to embrace and love the weeds as we can't keep up anyway!

First zucchini

Cherry bucket # 7

Enjoying the fruits of our (and my mom's) labor... I'm pretty proud of my first zucchini - I made Zucchini Lasagne which I highly recommend! It's simple, healthy and tasty.  We've also been enjoying the cherries - I made Paleo Dark Chocolate Cherry Brownies with N that ended up tasting like cheesecake... not sure how but it was good! Buying groceries is much easier when you take the following off your list - lettuce, strawberries, herbs, tomatoes, cherries, and zucchini.  The anticipation of more fruit and veggies is exciting - Gardening is good.

Garden + Love = Delicious Summer Lunches!

Keep Calm and Dig Another Trench!

The old pipes

The new pipes

I have a lot of respect for designers as I struggle with ensuring all of my measurements are 100%.  When I design things I often try to "eyeball it" and then figure it out after.  Which is a slight problem when the work is as extensive as the work we intend to do in our basement.  I normally do a lot of moving around the space and squatting to imagine the actual size of a toilet, etc ... Being fully aware that if I took out a tape measure I would know for sure if these things would fit but I continue to do my thing.  Unfortunately, I was unable to use my "procedure" for a lot of the basement stuff because I had the plans done before we gutted the basement.  The process to develop a basement suite begins with submitting a site plan showing parking, the proposed floor plan for the suite, a floor plan of the main floor of the house, pictures of all sides of the house, a drawing of all the plumbing, heating and electrical changes and the location of the carbon monoxide and smoke detectors.  I completed my application and received my permit in March and filed the plans away while we transitioned to foundation mode.  So, last Friday evening I got out the plans as we started prepping for the basement rough ins.  As I wandered around the space trying to place all of the plumbing I realized I had made a bit of an error.  The shape of the furnace/ laundry room would not allow me to move a washing machine in or out of the space without first removing the furnace.  Practical?  Not at all.  So after hours of working through how we could regain functionality and practicality while staying as close to the original plan as possible we went to bed.  I recently saw the saying, "Keep calm and take a nap" on pinterest and I do believe this is often the best solution.  Luckily we were right and in the morning (with the help of N and my dad) we maneuvered one wall and voila!  Functionality had been regained.  One full day of digging trenches + gluing ABS + 3 trips to Home Depot + help from great people and the rough ins in the basement were finished and ready for inspection. 

Before

After

The inspector came on Tuesday...  Tuesday is also the day I realized how susceptible I am to other people's feedback.  We had installed a mainline backwater valve - I had spent time convincing people who questioned this that the guy at the permit office had explicitly told me to do this.  However, we were not supposed to put in a mainline backwater valve, we were supposed to put in separate backwater valves for the basement plumbing.  When he first said this I told him that the only reason we had done this was because the man at the permit office had told me I needed to install one.  The inspector was really kind and helped me come up with a solution as to how we could remedy this issue without having access panels in the middle of our future bathroom.  We came up with a plan, I took a deep breath and then started digging a new trench.  As I reflected on the day and on how the guy at the permit office told me one thing and the inspector told me another I started to piece this turn of events together.  I would like to label it telephone.  The guy at the permit office had explained the need for backwater valves in the basement to me and he showed me a few pictures in a period of about 1 minute.  I processed what he said and then I talked to a few people about it and as I explained it someone started talking about a main line backwater valve.  I pieced all the information from the day together and transformed the original message into something slightly different.  WOW!  Anyway, this was my mistake and I was feeling terrible that I had blamed it on someone else.  I had N come over to help me and in a few hours we had the basement plumbing completely roughed in and up to the correct standards.  Wednesday, the inspector came back and gave us the florescent green sticker and I cleared up the accusation I had made the previous day.  It feels good to fess up to mistakes and accept responsibility when needed.  Now I need to get these pipes to the Eco Station...

Solid Foundation

This Lego image seemed very fitting! (image from tsbmag.com)

Prior to purchasing our home we had a home inspector and a structural engineer examine our home.  It was found that from what could be seen the only major "foundation" issue was the rear addition on the back of the house.  You could see large, visible cracks in the foundation.  So before purchasing the home we got a few quotes on how much it would cost to fix and then we negotiated the purchase price of the home accordingly. 

Cracks on the back corner of the addition

As soon as we moved in we started gutting the basement with hopes of developing a basement suite to help off set the mortgage.  Also, we may be addicted to income property... Does anyone reading this know Scott McGillvray?

Anyway, once we had the basement demoed we discovered a bit of water on the interior, some large cracks in the walls, and numerous cuts in the floor joists.  So, we went to the City of Edmonton's "This Old House" seminar that focused on foundations of old  homes in Edmonton to get some more info.  We spent a great deal of time consulting our friend Google and then we ended up hiring another structural engineer to give us some recommendations.  After hearing his recommendations and getting quotes from 4 different foundation repair companies we were feeling pretty overwhelmed and confused.  All 5 individuals had varying opinions and recommendations and although there was a degree of overlap between some of them there were many differences.  This process along with us wrapping our heads around all the opinions took us a few months to sort through.  We asked a million questions, talked it over with ALL of our friends and family (thanks for all the input), and finally made some expensive decisions!  Which leads us to where we are now... 

Maybe we should cancel the weeping tile and replace with a moat?

Temporary support beams while the footings set

I wonder what lives in the straw...

Temporary support beam under the addition...
That beam is holding up my bathroom!

The company I chose is installing a weeping tile system and sump, pouring new footings and replacing the teleposts in the basement, and installing a frost wall under the addition.  They started about 10 days ago and have been working hard.  I'm relieved that this process has finally begun.