A summer's work done!

Eighteen weeks ago the first footing forms were nailed together, signalling the beginning of the house project. Since then the house has risen from the excavation and in the last weeks has been transformed into our dream with the addition of the sculpted trees and final finishes on the exterior of the building. Our goal was to finish as much of the exterior of the house as possible before our crew went back to school. We did that and more, thanks in large part to the efforts of our young crew.

Today, the last work day of summer was Peter's the last day to work on the project as he returns to university tomorrow. We sculpted the last few feet of facia board, now all around the house. Phoebe's tree house by the back porch is now sculpted and ready for paint. 

Out front the trees have gotten two of the three glazes. This week promises to stay warm and dry meaning we should be able to finish the painting of the porch area. 

Monday morning the crew from Element Spray Foam start in on the insulation in the ceiling of the house. They will spray the underside of the roof with six inches of two pound foam. The foam also acts as a vapour barrier. The sprayed foam will give us true R40 insulation with no chance of air leakage, unlike conventional batt insulation and plastic vapour barriers. The attic space is unvented and instead treated as interior, conditioned airspace. Heating and cooling air ducts in essence come into the house instead of being outside the insulated space. This means less energy is wasted. The spray foam is one more step in making our house one of the most energy efficient and greenest possible.

-grampa dan

Brando day

We often hear that the young people of today don't care about much, don't have a strong work ethic and don't have heart like in days gone by. I would argue differently and I offer my summer crew as proof. In thirty plus years of employing young people I've found hundreds of young men and women I was proud to call crew and friends too. I believe if we truly expect the very best of people and do our best to help them achieve it they will live up to our expectations. My current crew certainly did all that and more.

For the last three months I've spent forty-plus hours each week with our crew. I've watched as they put heart and soul into everything they did. Most often the tasks they did were just plain hard work, shoveling sand and gravel, carrying heavy lumber, troweling concrete, painting and a hundred other physical jobs. They laboured through heat and rain alike, never complaining, always encouraging each other and always doing their very best. At break times we often had to call them two or three times, and often heard the reply - "in a minute, after I finish this little thing". At the end of the day when it was time to go home I often heard the same argument and checking the time sheet later saw they didn't put in for the extra time they had worked. Our days were filled with laughter and good humor, much teasing and many practical jokes. Our time was also spent working hard.

Today was the last day the entire crew was together, with most heading back to their studies at university. Today was a day of celebration. A few days ago this day was dubbed 'BRANDO DAY'. Brando moved from the Phillipines about a year ago, established a new home here and started buiding a new future. He hasn't been able to visit with his daughter since leaving however and each of the crew decided they would work the day and put their time on his time sheet instead of their own for this special day. The money they earned this day would go to him to help him purchase a plane ticket for her to come to Canada. At lunch we enjoyed a potluck meal. Hailey even made us all T-shirts to mark the occasion. Brando (now an electrician) was our honored guest for his special day.

After lunch we paused to take a group photo...  and all stood on buckets in Brando's honor.

After the official group shot things got a little silly of course... in honor of Brando who doesn't often bump his head on tall objects.

Today was a wonderful day - one in a summer full of wonderful days. Thank you to my awesome crew who did their huge part in building our very special dream house. I hope you have great memories the things you did and the friends you made this summer. I wish you the very best in your future. Thank you!

-grampa dan

Playing in the playhouse

While most of the crew are busy working on the painting of the front porch some of us are busy around the back, still doing the sculpted concrete work. Yesterday I laid the last of the concrete blocks for the retaining wall that will determine the slope of the land from the new house to the original ground towards the back of the property. The new level of the property around the house is about five feet higher than the original ground.

We're also busy applying the fiberglass reinforced concrete to the facia boards. There's only a little more to go before we are done.

We are also working on Phoebe's playhouse by the back porch. Today we began doing the sculpting, starting at the top and working our way down both inside and out.

By tomorrow night the playhouse concrete should be done. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan