Marking up

The cleaning crew was in today, getting the place reasonably clean - enough for me to mark the house up with kitchen, bathroom and bed locations.  This is always helpful for both the owners and the trades.  Rough-ins start next week, and HVAC, plumbing and electrical all have to know where things are in order to do their job correctly.

TED Welds

Ted, the welder I usually see two or three times a year, was in to weld all of the structural steel joints together and attach straps to all of the columns.  We are now ready for the big three to start their rough-ins - HVAC, plumbing and electrical.  The first two start Monday!

Sewer and Water Upgrade

The City contractor, Co X Co, was in today upgrading the sewer main and water service line to 1".  This is one of the mandatory service requirements for a new build, and one in my opinion, that most people should do even in a major renovation.  The old style drains were pretty bad, and the default 1/2" water line does not have sufficent water pressure by today's standards.  

It was a messy job today - with the ground water being so high in the neighbourhood, the guys had a hard time.  We had some neighbour unrest as well, which is never an easy situation, but I smoothed it over as best I could (so far my plumber has visited her twice and I have had guys attending to various small requests in order to keep her happy).  Building is a very disruptive thing, so I'm making the best effort possible to keep things neat and orderly - but it's still construction.

Pre-Demolition Day

A busy day!  While the owners continue to pack while juggling work and family, we also had the temporary toilet arrive, the security fence go up, Enbridge come to cut off the gas service and hopefully Toronto Hydro and Water will be in to cut off the electricity and water respectively.  If all goes well today, this house is coming down on Monday!

Permit Issued

The architecture process is not complete, but we have our first building permit issued, so that's positive!  Normally, I prefer to have the final plans as the ones we're submitting for permit.  Some architects prefer to get "a" plan approved, and submit a revision later.  I suspect this has more to do with their billing procedures than the best way to proceed...  However, getting a permit issued does reflect that fact that all major hurdles have been overcome.  Now, we focus on getting the final version of the plans approved and submitted, while we're getting ready for the family to move out and get all the services cut off.

Tree Protection.... check!

While the weather was still good (is it really going to snow tomorrow?), we got the City required tree protection up in the front and back.  We are currently in "wait for the permit" mode!