Foaming the basement

For cost and performance, we are going with a hybrid of foam and conventional batt insulation in the house.  Home insulation was in today installing the foam on the basement walls, basement and 1st floor joist pockets, the garage ceiling, and some select areas (around steel beams) that are hard to insulate and would create a thermal bridge if left alone.

Hear that?

While Kevin had to wait around for his electrical inspector today, we had the boys in doing final clean up in the basement and installing the some soundproofing insulation.

We decided it was only needed around the upstairs laundry room, the kids washroom (it's between their two rooms), the master suite (that's a no brainer!) and some select areas downstairs.  It's amazing what a difference a little insulation makes.  

Now we wait for the foam guys tomorrow, conventional insulation guys on Thursday, then the drywall gets delivered Friday.  Next week, we'll see what the inside of this house looks like :-).

As a footnote, Mario also hooked up the water heater today!

Activity ramps up

With the installation of the stairs on Friday, we've been able to finish up the remaining items.  Today was a busy day - Miguel was in for a few hours in the morning to finish up the rough-in in the basement around the stairs..

...Mario was in doing some last minute basement tie ins...

... and Kevin was in doing the remaining items for his inspection scheduled for tomorrow morning.

A step in the right direction!

After a bit of delay (not too bad, but more than I'm used to), we got our stairs in today.  They look great, though with the protection paper on them, you can't really see the full effect of the open risers on the main floor stair.  Moving on!

We've got... gas!

Hmm... that post title seems a little off.  However, we did get our natural gas line installed today, which is great.  It helps to know the head subcontractor in the area (an annual donation to his Movember campaign doesn't hurt!).  Luis always looks out for me, otherwise we'd be at the mercy of the Enbridge installation process, which currently has new installs booking into December!  Yikes.

Power!

Finally, we are a little more independent.  Toronto Hydro came and installed the power service to the house today, which will make things a tad bit easier for the finishing trades to operate.

Clock Ticking

I always like to have a cooling off period between the rough-ins (electrical, HVAC, plumbing) and the insulation phase.  It's never a nice thing to go back and start making holes in drywall to install something that was missed, so this week long period is a good chance to catch our breaths.

That said, the cool off period has been extended four more days, as the stair company we're using, Stairtech Industries, has experienced manufacturing delays.  I've been assured they are back on track, and we should have the stairs installed on Thursday.

We are still looking at options on the exterior of the house.  Once that's done and the drywall, trim and doors have been delivered, we can pretty much complete the outside of the house.