In just a little more than a month, we have come so far. Today the east, south and west side walls for the second story went up. It looks so huge! But, you can also see the shape its taking and it looks great.
30 July 2011
Framing - 29 July 2011
In just a little more than a month, we have come so far. Today the east, south and west side walls for the second story went up. It looks so huge! But, you can also see the shape its taking and it looks great.
Framing - 26 to 28 July 2011
Rafters got re-enforced and some plywood was laid for the second story floor before the rain just got to heavy to continue. It rained the next day, too, but Pete Langille was able to come and make some changes to the drain pipe that the building inspector had requested. Finally, on the 28th all of the plywood flooring could go down and the preparations for the second story walls could be finalized.
Framing - 25 July 2011
The rafters for the floor of the second story (or ceiling of the first, if you prefer) went in today.
Framing - 21 July 2011
All four walls of the first floor of the Firehouse are now standing and re-enforced.
Framing the Firehouse - 20 July 2011
Its fascinating to see a building being framed and amazing to realize what goes in to the buildings around us. We are so fortunate to have a small team of highly intelligent, gifted and dedicated heritage carpenters who are putting this building together for us. They work hard, but take the time to think things through and plan out their work. Colin Edwards, Brad Quarrie and Michael Murphy of Edwards and Son Restoration are tops in our books.
First, they connected the sill plate to the frost wall. Then they were able to start building the walls and raising them. By the end of the first day of framing we had our eastern wall.
Sewer and Water - 19 July 2011
Despite weather and radar reports that said we weren't going to get rain, it poured! But the guys from the Town of Lunenburg kept right on going, bless their hearts! They dug up the street to find the water and sewer pipes and then extended them in from the street to our fence. Originally, we had all envisioned that these would come in straight from the street and follow the driveway, but with the insight of the Public Utilities foreman and the engineer, we realized that would be too risky to our beautiful old Linden tree. Although a bit longer and more disruptive to surface plants, it seemed wiser to go between the Linden and the Maple and through a flower bed.
Our wonderful excavation and foundation specialist, Kerry Oickle, came back to dig the trench from the fence to the building. He also made a trench in the gravel and rock, so that both sets of pipes could be run the whole length of the building, inside. Pete Langille, the man with the plumbing skills for the Firehouse, ably assisted by Avery Langille, laid the water and sewer pipes, connected them to the town's versions, and ran the whole thing into the Firehouse. He came back the next day to finish off the job.
Backfilling the Foundation - 6 to 18 July 2011
There was a lot of backfilling to do. In addtion to the
dirt around the outside edges, there was also the centre of the frost walls to fill in. We had trucked away 8 dump truck loads of dirt, but rather than just putting it back in, we decided to go with bread box size rocks, followed by fist size, ending up with class A gravel. Our excavation and foundation guy, Kerry Oickle, is great. He even replaced three fence posts that we had removed to enable the frost walls to be placed and replanted several shrubs and plants. His dexterity with a small bulldozer is amazing!
Foundation - 5 July 2011
The walls were still drying, but we could start filling in the centre of the foundation.
Foundation - 28 June 2011
The forms can come off the frost walls after only a day, but the walls have to cure for several days. Inside the walls there is insulation foam. On the outside they were painted with a black, goopy material called "parging". It keeps the walls dry.
Foundation - 27 June 2011
After the concrete footings dried and the frost wall forms were placed, the concrete was poured for
the frost walls. The concrete boom was so long that the driver had to back it down the street, turn it around, open the boom and then come into the driveway so that he could avoid power lines. Good idea. With this boom truck everyone seemed more safety conscious. So I dragged out my helmet, too. Some of the guys seemed a bit surprised to see their female general contractor had a helmet.
28 July 2011
July Flowers
Its getting warmer, although not overly hot, and there are lots of flowers coming out. Roses, Peonies, Lupines, Dusty Miller, Hosta, Coreopsis, Delphinium and several different Daylilies are all looking good.
Day 1 - 22 June 2011
Foundation Work - Day 1 - 22 June 2011
We started work on the foundation on 22 June 2011. The ground had to be cleared, the space measured and then digging done so that footings could be created on which the frost walls would be built and then filled with concrete.
June Flowers - More
Irises (purple, white and yellow), Geum and Iceland Poppies also came out in June.
June Flowers
Sometimes I am not even sure what the plants are, so I have hosted a couple of get-togethers for Garden Detectives. With the help of lots of great gardeners I have been able to identify most of the plants. This month a lot of time was also spent in moving the plants in the 1000 square feet of space on which the Firehouse will be built. I was determined that no plants would be lost to the building of the Firehouse. Again with the help of many fine gardeners and especially the young people from the Lunenburg 4H Club, we were able to move all the plants. They have moved to other parts of the garden or to new homes.
The Ferns, Daylilies, Bleeding Hearts, Roses and Japanese Anemones are all out now.
May Flowers
We had so many days with rain in May that its surprising I was even able to get out to the garden to take photos. I was bound and determined that I would garden regardless of the weather. Its surprising how much you can accomplish with high rain boots, rain pants, waterproof coat and water resistant gloves. The flowers didn't mind the rain, in fact they seemed to thrive on it, so why should I shy away from the garden in the rain? Lots was popping up, so I made sure to take photos of them.
You can see the Hosta, Daffodils, Spanish Bluebells, Blue Carpet, and Crabapple tree are all doing very well.
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