Monday, July 30, 2007

We were talking to Jonathan and Evelyn on the weekend and had decided that Monday night we would meet them and take them out to the house, since the last time Evelyn had seen it in person was last year I think, when it was just a field...we met them (including Noah) at our place, and then headed into Lorette to grab a bite to eat and then head out to the house.

Earlier in the day, Ryan had been talking to Lyle and he told them that the drywall was delivered today, but that they had a little bit of a problem getting it inside the house...so to fix this problem...they cut a hole in the house...One in the kitchen, and one in the master bedroom. I couldn't figure out why they couldn't just carry them up the stairs...Ryan asked me if I remembered carrying in drywall at the cabin, and then I remembered how hard it was. And those were just regular sized sheets. The ones that they delivered were 14 foot sheets...

When we got out to the house, the first thing I noticed (I know, I noticed something...go figure) was the porch stairs. I was SOOO EXCITED!! We can actually use our front door now!

The only other thing I can say, is HOLY DRYWALL! I then understood why they didn't want to carry it into the house...there was SOO MUCH of the stuff. They also dropped off the insulation too.

Noah LOVED the drywall in the kitchen. He was crazy crawling (you have to see it, it's so cute!) along it, and was not happy when he wasn't allowed to play with the rip on the back of one of the sheets.

Don the Geothermal Guy (Formerly the Septic Tank/Field Guy - It's done so he's not working on that anymore) was out again today with his crew and they installed the lines for the geothermal, and brought them into the basement. They installed the lines out behind the house, so they had to get rid of some of the oats that were planted there...

Oh, and the hole that they had to cut in the house to get the drywall in? They had already patched it up and the stucco wire guy had put it all back together again, so we didn't get a chance to see it.

Apparently, Noah thought that the trip to the house was pretty boring...that, or crawling all over the drywall was pretty tiring...


Hopefully when we go out on Tuesday I'll have some pictures of drywall to share...WOO HOO!!

Kohen's Birthday Party - Saturday, July 28, 2007

Saturday afternoon we went to Curtis & Crystal's place for Kohen's birthday party. I think we might have seen Kohen once the whole afternoon. He was running around and playing in a playstructure that Curtis had made, and running around playing with the other kids that were there. He must have played a little too hard because he ended up getting sick on the lawn. Poor Crystal...she had to clean herself off as well as Kohen, because after she took him inside he got sick again...on himself and herself.

Here's a picture of Auntie Chelan showing off her babysitting secrets...

And this is a picture that Curtis took...trying to show off his secrets...

Installing the Central Vac - Saturday, July 28, 2007

We didn't get out to the house Friday night, because we went shopping after work, and then went to the drive-in to see The Simpsons Movie with Glen, Kelly, Chad, Michelle, and Ken. The movie was pretty good. None of us stayed for Hairspray...Ryan and I saw it at a sneak preview so we didn't need to see it again...we probably would have fallen asleep during it anyway.

Saturday morning we got up to go to the house and install the central vac. We wanted to leave the house at 7:00 so that we could get to the house and be done the install before it got to be too hot out. We were ready to go at about 7:30, and then Ryan decided that since his brother was dropping Jack off at 8:00, that we would wait for him before we left...I told him that he probably wouldn't be on time, because getting a kid ready to go at a specific time probably isn't the easiest thing to do, but Ryan wanted to wait. So we waited. By 8:20 Ryan decided that we would just go and then wait for Trevor at the house. Just as we got outside to get in the car, Trevor pulled in. We told him that we were heading to the house and that we would meet him there.

When we got to the house, we saw that they had put up the railings on the porch. It looked really good. I was pretty excited about it...I'm not really sure why, but I was. They also put the dormer window in, and that finishes it off.

Oh, and now that we've decided what we're doing for the exterior...Ryan wants to change it. He likes the look of the Typar (the colour, not the actual Typar), so we're going to see how blue we can get the stucco. I think the blue would look good with the stone on the front as well, so we'll see what Lyle says.

When Ryan's brother got there, we started to work on installing the central vac piping. We had everything pretty much figured out during the week, and Saturday was just supposed to be the install. Apparently we hadn't thought everything completely through, and had to make a few changes. But in the end, everything got installed and glued...and all was good until we got home...

...Ryan decided that he didn't like where we put one of the inlets, so he wanted to go back out on Sunday and change the one inlet...

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Well. What an afternoon. We both left work early because we had to drive all of the way out to Steinbach to the hydro office out there so that we could sign an application so that we can have the power hooked up to the house. We had to stop off at Dad's work and pick up a generator and some tools so that we can install the central vac on Saturday (July 28th).


We left Dad's office and headed out to Steinbach, with directions from the guy from Hydro as to how to get to his office. We got into Steinback at about 4:10. "Turn left at the second set of lights and go half a mile and you'll find the office" were the directions I had got from the Hydro guy. I turn left at the second set of lights and it takes me into the Co-op parking lot. So I have to drive out of there, go about a mile and make a u-turn. Then I turn left at the third set of lights, thinking maybe that he missed a set of lights...but this takes us into the residential area, and we were looking for the business division. So I take some back streets and get us onto the main street, which is the actual street he wanted me to turn left onto...Maybe giving me the ACTUAL NAME OF THE STREET WOULD HAVE BEEN HELPFUL! So we drive west up the main street and can't find Hydro. We turn onto #12, and then make a u-turn to go east down the main street. Still can't find Hydro. You can't u-turn on Main Street ANYWHERE, so we had to turn left down one street, turn around in a parking lot, and then turn right back on to Main Street. We drove west on Main Street again, this time crossing #12 and driving a couple of blocks, looking for Hydro. We can't find it, so we u-turn again, and drive east...keep in mind, that by this time, it's about 4:28...and Hydro closes at 4:30...so we pull over and Ryan jumps out of the car and goes into a store to ask if anyone knows where Hydro is. The first place he went into, no one was around, and the second place he went into was a bar, I think. They told him where it was...we should have turned RIGHT off of #12 onto Main Street (west) and it was just past where we u-turned...if we'd have gone further, we would have seen it. So he jumps back in the car and we speed down to Hydro, and get there at about 4:31. We jump out of the cars and try the doors...locked. Ryan starts running around the building, and I stay at the front door because I can still see people moving around in there. I just kept peering in, and finally, this lady comes in between the doors, and says "we're closed.". LOL...No kidding. I told her that we got really bad directions from the Hydro guy, we came all the way from Winnipeg, and that we have to sign ONE piece of paper so that we can get Hydro set up. She kind of sighed, and asked what the name was. She went inside and then came back out and let us in. She also asked if we could see in through those doors, and I said yes, and I didn't leave because I knew someone was still inside. It was very nice of them to let us in "after hours". One of the ladies said that they are told to ignore people when they show up after 4:30...I kept thinking to myself "but it's 4:31-4:32!". I can understand if it was 4:45 or 5:00 or something, but 2 minutes late? Oh well. They let us in and we got the papers signed that we needed to, and that was that.


We headed out to the house on the way back, and found that they were just about done the septic field, and that the well had been piped into the house. Don the Septic guy was actually out there and working as well, which was nice to see. Keeping in mind that he didn't get out there until about 2 weeks after he initially said that they would be working on it, we all went inside the house into the basement to talk about the geothermal system and where it was going to be located. Don had a few questions about where the plumbing was going, and where we wanted the water tank and such set up...and THEN he asked us for money...I thought it was for the septic field/tank, but it was actually for the geothermal unit. He laughed saying that he was going to call a week before that asking for money, but he figured that he'd better not, seeing as how they hadn't yet been out to the house to do any of the work he said he was going to do.


We all know that I'm not the most observant person, and I've got more proof of that. I opened the front door and walked out onto the porch to take pictures of the septic field and the guys working on it, and turned the corner of the porch to look at the septic tank. I stared to walk back in the house, when all of a sudden, I thought "wait a minute...I just walked all around the porch...where I haven't been able to walk before...". I didn't realize until that moment that they had installed the 2x6 decking on the porch. I noticed that the window had been framed, but didn't realize that the things I was walking on was no longer aspenite...

Wednesday Night, July 25, 2007

We went out for dinner at Applebee's and headed out to the house afterwards.

They had completely covered the septic tank after putting another collar on it so that it would stick out of the ground.

The Typar & stucco wire was almost completely around the house at this point as well.

Wednesday Morning, July 25, 2007

The tank was covered up with dirt, and the septic field was covered with sand.

Holy Sh*t...tank! Tuesday, July 24, 2007

That's right! The septic tank was finally installed on Tuesday. It's not as big as I thought it was going to be.

They also worked on the exterior again, adding more Typar and stucco wire.


Here is the pipe that runs from the septic tank into the basement.

The septic field was also started. It's at the front of the house so that the geothermal heating system loops can be run at the back of the house. At first the field didn't look like it was going to be that big...

Apparently when you install septic tanks, before you put them into the ground, you're supposed to attach a hose to the inside of tank, and it's easiest to do that when it's not in the ground, as you can put the tank on its side and just crawl in. Well...

...as you can see, they didn't hook up the hose before they installed the tank, so one of the guys had to climb in and install it from the inside. I bet he filled up our tank with sweat, since it was so hot out that day. That, and the fact that he was inside a septic tank...

Here's the house as it stands now...