Electricals, Heating, Stairs, Basement Framing

This should have been posted a long time ago. Actually, right before Christmas, but somehow I think I forgot. I suppose it was the stress of hitting that huge road block with the engineer! So here is an update on the house. A new one will be posted soon.

December 20, 2010

The house is moving along slowly. The heating pipes have been completed. That was a big job!

 Stringing Heating Pipes

While my son might not like construction, I have told him how valuable the knowledge is. People in our school system have to have a C+ average to be allowed to go to college working on an apprenticeship, while in grades 11 and 12. They don't get paid; they simply get a couple of years of learning under their belt before they graduate.

Not only that, because they are learning about work ethic it helps them in their future. Work ethic is something that I teach from the moment they are able to help out around the house. And because of it our kids know the meaning of doing a good job. Doesn't mean they always choose to do it, but they do know how to produce. 

An example is Colt. He is at school on the coast and he heard of a roofing guy that needed helpers. He offered Colt $15 an hour to take old roofing off and help put on new roofing. At the end of the first day Colt was given $20 an hour for an 8 hour day. He was that impressed with Colt's work ethics.

 Drilling Holes For Heating Pipes

 Putting in the Electrical Panel

 One of Our Electricians

 This is the view from the media room towards the playroom on the left and the stairs up on the right.

 

 Ray Drawing Out the Stair Cuts

Making Stairs

 These stairs are unique. I love them. When we first began designing our house I said I wanted stairs like in the tv show Seventh Heaven. They had a staircase coming into the kitchen and also into the foyer. I began drawing and soon we had a plan. Then we changed our mind about using our drawn plans (we have drawn the designs for the previous two houses we built), and began looking through plans. I only found about two plans that had the double staircase, and as faith would have it, God provided it in the plans that I loved!

So this house goes up stairs when you enter the house, but you can also go upstairs from the area off the kitchen. 

Ray is building at the foyer entrance. The staircase that goes up to the right goes up to the upper bedrooms. The landing above Ray then also has a smaller set of stairs that go down into the area between the dining room and the kitchen. And under the upper stairs you can see the staircase leading to the basement.

  

This is the view of the staircase from the bottom down by the kitchen (to the left) and dining room (to the right). You can see a landing just up about seven stairs.

 

This is the view of the stairs from the foyer. You can see right through the foyer wall, through the hallway, into the livingroom that looks out over our valley and to the distant lake.

This is the window ledge (not seat) in the diningroom. This is the view from the front deck. Ray figured I could put Christmas decorations on it and I think that sounds wonderful!

 This is the window seat in the schoolroom. It will one day be the master bedroom, but for some years it will be the schoolroom and Austin will also share it as a bedroom of his own. We are planning to customize it as a 'daybed' room that he owns. So when it is done it will look very nice. I am thinking a geography theme.

Austin and I have already begun planning colours and ideas. Given his bed/ daybed will be in the right hand side of the window I have had the electrician put a lamp above his headboard on the wall complete with a switch at his fingertips for when he is done reading at night. The room is large enough that he will feel he has a room of his own, while sharing it with some school looking materials.

 The Upstairs Landing Complete With the Abominable Snowman! Or is it Sasquatch?

 

 These two small rooms are at the end of the media room. The room was quite long, as well as having a carousel in one side (that breakfast nook upstairs continues to the basement), so I had a plan. This house is wonderful but it doesn't have lots of storage. There are rooms, but I have given the storage room to Ray as his plans room, so I needed to come up with some storage ideas.

So I had him carve off a 6' width off this room right across the width of the room. So it is about 6'x15' and then divided in the middle into two rooms of about 6'x7.5'. Just perfect for two small organized storage rooms!

Then it was time for me to decide what kind of cabinets I wanted. We are trying our very best to be as frugal as possible. Just because the frame of the house is large is no excuse for being extravagant and wasteful and we are certainly not being that.

So we found a company that had cabinets we liked that we could put in ourselves. They have very good pricing. I spent three days over the computer designing the kitchen and organizing what I needed. When I took it into the store the woman told me what I had done was her job. lol I showed her my plan - cabinets that were different heights and some different depths. She looked at me oddly.

I looked at her oddly. lol. I asked her if she had ever been to www.kitchens.com  - Not yet, she said. By the time we had finished talking I had educated her on what I had learned. Everything I did in my kitchen I learned from this wonderful website.

The next thing we had to do was decide on a floor and tile pattern and colour. It was funny how we did it. We brought home some laminate (cheaper than hardwood and better for many children running through!) and put it on the computer and then went to some websites: www.builddirect.com is the best. The prices are remarkable and they have a headoffice in Canada, so when they ship you are dealing with Canadians. The neat thing is that they can ship all of the decking to our house and even with $1400 shipping cost and the US exchange rate, it still comes out cheaper than buying it at a store!!!

In other news,  we have met with a small? crisis. It seems we keep hitting road blocks and this is no exception. When we chose this plan it needed to be okayed by an engineer because it was an American plan. Then the trusses could not be designed, so they got Ray to figure it out. He was able. They agreed it worked. Then there was a problem with the trusses, which they worked out. Then the inspection failed.

In over 20 years of framing, Ray has probably failed two or three times. He is that good at what he does. A level and a square are his friends on a job site. People know this about him, and so he does not have to advertise. Word of mouth does his work for him.

He has been told he needs an engineer to come and look at the roof. It needs to be fixed and stamped by the engineer as approved. I asked Ray about it. He said, It needs to be repairable.  Meaning, There is nothing I can do about it if it is not repairable. Uggh!

In the meantime, we are ready to insulate, but cannot move forward on this until we have the framing inspection cleaned up. The blessing in this happening when it did is that it happened on the 23rd of December (bad for Christmas cheer), and so Ray moved into Christmas holidays at that time. Then after Christmas he was able to go out to work on a small job that needed to be done for a customer. That is good news. A little bit of money. By the time he is done that job the engineer will be back at work after the holidays, so then we can try to book him to come out and see the job. So we are praying that he is available asap!

So please pray if you are so led. So I am going to trust God on this. He has overcome so many obstacles on this job, so far, but this one is just another huge one.


Our house has still not sold, but again, I am trusting God. If it had sold when we first put it on the market we would have been homeless! Right now, we need about four months to finish the house if we work hard and together. So really, selling the house now would be inconvenient.

If it has not sold by the time we are able to move in, then we will be renting it out. But I am sure God has a plan to sell it in the nick of time. Because He is the God of miracles and He *always* comes through - in HIS time, not OURS!

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Winter Where We Live

We truly do live in a beautiful part of the country!! We have four seasons and each of them is celebrated in true colour and beauty.

The Lower Drive to Our House

Across the Fields On The Drive to Our House

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Thank you - Edited

Thank you to all of my friends who prayed or were thinking of us this week as we had to leap with great faith over yet another huge hurdle in this housebuilding project.

God really is a God of Miracles!

My biggest concern was that the roof would have to have a hole torn in it to repair what they wanted changed. Now, that is not saying that my husband stated that would have to be done, but given he doesn't really elaborate on facts very well I had no clue. And honestly, I don't know if he knew to what extent the problem would have to be repaired.

I tried to see the blessings in the problem and there were some: it happened right before Christmas meaning my husband was off for a few days anyway. Then he had a tiny job he could work on to bring in some much needed funds, so that worked out nicely.

We had to have an engineer come in and we were quoted one coming from the Big City. I thought, when I wrote asking for prayer, that we would be looking at $500, and that was too much as far as I was concerned! Naive me! It turned out that the quote we got was for $2500 plus tax for the initial inspection and recommendations, and then we would pay an additional $250 for each other inspection until it passed the final inspection on the framing. Wow!

My husband had found another guy in our town that was a steel engineer, but we found that he had worked with the log builders, so I knew there was  a good chance he would be good enough for us. Ray decided to use him, even though I wasn't 100% certain that we would get the information we needed from him, and might therefore, end up hiring the other guy after all, thus throwing us back even more financially, plus another week or so behind.

But Ray felt it was the thing to do, so we did it. And I am glad that  was what he decided!!

This guy came in on my son's 6th birthday and checked the job. Ray came home and told me he had some repairs to do but they were all doable!! So praising God!! And it turned out the repairs were relatively small, and so on Tuesday the inspector came in and gave us the PASSING STAMP!!!! Yeah, back to work on our beautiful home! So very thankful! Just one more HUGE roadblock that we have passed!

Thank you to all who told me they were thinking or praying for us. I love the fact that I have the support of such good friends, many of whom I have not even had the pleasure of meeting!

We are now onto the insulation stage. The boys have the heating finished and the heating guys will be in this week to hook it all up and then Ray will get the huge outside furnace running and soon the house will be toasty warm. At that point, and not before, my little troops and I will head out to do our part: play (them) and insulate (me). If I am lucky, lots will be done before I get there! (smile)

Update: I should just mention that this guy was NOT $2500 plus, plus, plus. He is $75 an hour, so we can expect to save at least half of the money!!

Love, Justine

Prayer Request

I hope I can ask a request of my Christian friends. We have hit an 'impossible' roadblock in our housebuilding. Now I say 'Impossible' but I know that with God, All Things Are Possible, but to my small human mind and anyone else looking at the situation, we have hit something huge.

There is a problem with the plans for our house. The roof is on, the framing is complete, the plumbers have begun, the electrician has finished his rough-in, we are ready for insulating. We called for inspection on December 23rd. It failed.

That has happened, perhaps two or three times, in my husband's 24 years of building houses. He is *the best*. I know it, others know it.

This plan was strange. It is an American plan and our inspectors needed it done a certain way to be sure it conformed to Canadian standards. Fine. Trusses were fabricated and the house was built.

So now we have hit this spot where the inspector has a problem with the roof/trusses. It has to have an engineer come in, inspect it, tell my husband was has to change, and then be reinspected. We have already been on hold for two weeks.

We have been told we will have to bring in an engineer from the Big City, because we don't have what they need around here. This will be more time and quite possibly, lots of money we do not have. 

More importantly, it *has to be fixable*. Whatever their problem is, it has to be able to be fixed.

Please pray, if you are so led:

1) we can get an engineer in quickly.

2) the problem is really quite simple and we can move forward quickly.

I do know that God brought us this far and we have no end of issues that have miraculously be ironed out. This may be just one more. That is what I am going to believe. But in the meantime, I am telling myself to not worry. *smile* Keep the faith. So thank you for praying!

Thank you for your support! I'll let you know how it goes.
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Increasing House Size, Large Families - EDITED - AGAIN with Photos

I would like to address something Tammy said in one of my last posts.

"Wow, Justine...it is going to be amazing! I'm envious of ALL that space (my house is only 1315 sq ft.), although there is only the 3 of us, ha ha. Love the pics!"

Tammy, we are truly blessed. I agree, it is going to be amazing!! I am in disbelief that we have the honour of such a fine home!! But it didn't happen overnight, and as I look back now, I wonder if we are heading in a direction that God had planned for us along...

We began with a tiny 5th wheel travel trailer. We built a small addition of a livingroom and a bedroom for our firstborn.

We moved out of that when he was 9 months old into a two bedroom condo. We lived in that two bedroom place til our second son was 8 months old. He slept in a playpen in our walk-in closet til then. Small beginnings. Never be ashamed to start small! *smile*

We then moved into a 3 bedroom house, which was 1100 sq. ft. We renovated the carport and turned it into a preschool centre, which later became my homeschool/playroom for our boys. When we watched the Horse Whisperer, we saw the gorgeous countryside and we left the theatre thinking. Within 36 hours, we had made a firm decision to take our children to the land. We decided to rent a movie that weekend. We fell across Mountain Family Robinson at the movie store, watched it, giggled and laughed at watching a family do the very thing we were seriously considering: selling all, packing a truck, and heading out of the Big City into the Vast Unknown.  We were giddy! Seriously. 

Within a month of this decision to move, I discovered I was pregnant with number 4. We gave that baby the middle name of "Blue" because "we were heading for the blue skies". And that is where we ended up! 10 months later, we left that house with 8, 6, 2 year old boys, and a newborn baby. We packed a U-Haul trailer (just like in the movie) and headed North. We had spent the last nine months researching properties on the internet; I had done a couple long distance road trips complete with three small children, and wee one nestled inside, and scouted out possible land ideas. We had had a miracle when we approached a bank that was six hours away from where we lived and asked them if they would finance us building a home. They said yes, without even having met us. That was a miracle!

It was like God was preparing our hearts for a bigger home, and better environment for our children, before he blessed us with the next one. He kept preparing our nest before sending more children!

From that little 1100 sq ft home we moved to the country, because we could not afford to live in the city anymore. It was never an option for me to go to work; raising our children was a fulltime privilege that I was not willing to share with anyone else. We also wanted our children to grow up knowing what it felt like to run free and wild, which is why the land of Montana in the Horse Whisperer spoke to my soul. The cost of living was way less and our mortgage dropped by half, and there on a 10 acre parcel of land surrounded by thousands of acres of the Queen's crown land (free range forest) that we paid $33,000 for, we built our first home. It truly was our Little House in the Big Woods!

From the Big City to a Small Town

It was a tiny box of 28 ft x 28 ft. There was a main floor of 800 sq ft:

My Kitchen and Livingroom

The livingroom became a great room when we built on the addition, which became the new livingroom.

We also had a tiny 532 sq ft upstairs with 3 tiny bedrooms:

Master Bedroom

Landing to Three Tiny Rooms

 I used every available inch: the landing was built a little bigger to make it a Library. The landing had a 5' foot wide closet that I used as a sewing room. Not an inch was wasted.

And then we had a full unheated basement. This was hard to use in winter, but the kid dressed warmly and romped around this space anyway. We eventually added on 400 sq ft to the main floor. This was the life!

The View From Our Deck

Wood For the Winter

Country Boys Are Born

Freedom to Run

 Note the Outhouse, Minus a Door!

We even added on an addition going from our bedroom over the great room loft area. This was to be a small office, but little did we know that months later I would find out our unexpected 6th blessing was on the way. It was remarkable to us to see that we had built our baby a bedroom before we had even known we were expecting him!! This tiny room became his bedroom. It was wee tiny, but we decorated it up with childish prints and he was just off our bedroom, so it was nice. The other five children shared two other bedrooms of 9 x 9 each. Two in one, three in another.

Notice the 3rd Bed on the Floor on the Left

  As there was no room for playing we decided to built beds into the closets. These worked wonderfully.

I never thought we would move again.  I was determined that my grandchildren would grow up in the country. But God knew different. He planted a seed in my head when my husband was away in Toronto. Thirteen short months later, we had completed our second house build and moved in time for Christmas. This time it was 2800 sq ft. A virtual mansion! lol

Then we added two more unexpected children and our teens increased in number! More body, more testosterone = less room!

We still had no plans to move. But once again, God had other plans. We were inspired to move back to the country. Too many children for a town lot. They needed that freedom to be and explore again. The perfect property came up at a killer price, and it was next door to town. Everything fell into place.

And then God opened our hearts again...

So perhaps he has moved us because he has plans for 'our' children:

God gives security.

He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge. Proverbs 14:26

You know, I was writing my post and this verse crossed my mind as being the perfect one to add to the blog. Why? Because about a month ago, when we had an unexpected adoption situation cross our path, this verse was given to me. So writing this blog post made me think of that verse. I walked across the livingroom to get my Bible. I picked it up, cracked it open, and it fell to the very verse I wanted. My husband saw this happen, which is so cool, because he always hears me tell that this happens to me when it is important. Well, for the first time he saw it happen!!

This verse speaks to me. I sometimes wonder if God has given us this wonderful large house because he has further plans to increase us?

Each time, before God sent more children, He prepared our home for the addition. And then he prepared our hearts for more children, because you see, we were not going to have eight children; we were going to have *four*. Once all was ready - *then* He sent the children, and we could look back and see His hand over it all.

So open your hearts to children if that's what you want, and also to what God might have in store for you, and God will help you prepare the nest. He will make it all work. Trust.

In another post I would like to talk about being able to accept the blessings of children when you think you can't afford it. Or perhaps I should say: When the world tells you that you can't afford it. If I forget to write this post, please someone, email me or comment to remind me. This is one I have a passion for, but I might forget in the busyness of life!

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Radiant Heat, Basement Floors and Elves?

Ray decided that since we live where there is snow and cold he wanted to put in radiant heat. For those that don't know what this is, it is where there are pipes running through the house with hot water coursing through them. We will have a large wood burner outside and with this we will burn firewood, which will in turn heat the water that runs under the floor. This way the heat is more central.

Up until now we have always used a woodstove. I refuse to give up my stove, so Ray had to work both into the plans. Sorry, but once you have experienced the dry warmth of wood heat you will never go back. Not unless, of course, you are the husband that has to climb the chimney to clean said fireplace twice a year. I did remind Ray that once he gets too old to climb the roof and then up the 9 foot chimney we can always hire a chimney sweep, or employ our loyal sons when they come to visit!

My woodstove will be at the end of the kitchen. The kitchen is like an L shape. Sort of. The kitchen is at the top. The hearthroom is at the bottom. The eating nook is at the right side end of the foot of the L. So you can see how cozy it will be to snuggle up with a book and a cup of mocha in the kitchen!

This is a picture of the stove I had in my old house. I loved it so much that I am getting it again!

The boys and Ray had to lay down insulating styrofoam on the sand first. Then they put down plastic and then covered this with a mesh. Finally, they put down the plastic tie straps to tie down the pipes to the mesh.

 

Games Room Leading to Storage Room on Right

After the pipes were all secured, they had to pour the concrete for the basement floor. Now, can you imagine what fun my children will have?! When we had our tiny basement of 400 square feet when Colt and Dane were growing up they used the braces on the joists above their heads as monkey bars. They hung rope swings and rope ladders from them. They put old mattresses down there and had a ball. We even got rollerblades and they rollerbladed around that small playroom for hours in the long, cold winters.

So, you can imagine, in this basement of 2400 sq feet, minus the rooms that they can't get into, what fun they will have!! We love the plasma cars and those are *fun* on concrete. Plus, they have a few scooters. I can see how wonderful it is going to be next winter!! Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I think that that house that is going up is going to be *ours*!!! It is such a blessing. It would not be possible if my husband were not a housebuilder, and if we had to pay for all the trades!!!! So far we have saved on: foundation, framing, roofing, basement floor prep and pouring, radiant heat installation. There is still more to be saved on.

We have a family member that paid $800,000 to have their house built! Can you imagine!? I can tell you that is hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds more than it is costing us!

Pouring the Floor

Nicely Poured Floor

An Elf in My Basement?!

Boys Bringing in Propane Heater to Warm the Floor

Cassidy Setting Up Lights For Evening Work

Some Windows Are Installed in Breakfast Nook

Boys' room window is near chimney. Left large window is our bedroom in future; Presently being used as schoolroom. Bottom left is big boys' bedroom. Bottom middle is playroom. Upper middle is livingroom.

Breakfast Nook, Kitchen Window and Deck

You know, my boys don't want to be housebuilders, but only our oldest son realizes what a blessing he has been given by being raised up in the business. I was just telling my eleven year old son today that the money his dad has saved on the trades that we have not paid yet: foundation, framing, roofing, floor, heating - alone, are enough to pay a year or more salary for a decent job!

That is worth learning. Imagine if each of our children learned the trades involved in building a house, minus perhaps, electrical (which even I have done!) and plumbing and carpet laying - well, that is a huge chunk of money that is not being put in someone else's pocket. Now imagine taking that savings that you put out in *your labour* - which is *free* if you don't take time off work to do it - and then you realize that that is mortgage money *NOT PAID*!!

That is what our children will walk away with having been taught to build houses from when they are knee high to a grasshopper!

I know that one of my sons really does not like (mild form of the word) building houses, and he is determined to buy a ready-made house. We shall see. When he sits down with the numbers and pays attention to what he can get with the same amount of money as our young adults will get that also put in free labour - he will be shocked. He may think again about building his house!

The next pictures will be a while in coming, as we are waiting for Ray to frame in the basement walls. I have less ambition this time around to be at the jobsite, due to the cold, cold weather, so I have not been there for about three weeks!
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