Man’s Work

We eventually did get our doors with the hinges on the appropriate side. But they were not ready to be installed as there wasn't anywhere to install the door hardware – intentionally as Chris wanted to do this work himself. It is precise enough and finicky enough that to hire it out costs a considerable amount and if the work is done not well, our door is a write-off. Or so I was told when Chris informed me that he was going to install our mortise locking system on the two doors.

So he setup a workspace on the main floor (this was before we ripped out the existing flooring and subfloor to install the radiant heating system) and proceeded to review the requirements of the locking mechanism.

Measure way more than once and then cut once, or rather drill the holes, in the two doors.

Until finally the door is prepped for the installation of the lock system and we have a finished door.

I still don't understand why this work had to be done by Chris versus hiring out, but he had fun and I have two pretty doors so this man's work was greatly appreciated!

The long and winding road

We are going to play a little game of pretend. Let's pretend that I didn't drop the ball on this entire blog thing and this update was actually uploaded in early February (even before the Olympics came to town) – aka only a month after the last update rather than four. Needless to say there will be several moments of pretend as I get back on track.


For the first time in several years, I went shopping on Boxing Day. But after a long hiatus, I didn't do something normal like show up at the mall at 6am for the early bird deals on flat screen TVs. Instead, Chris and I drove to two different big-box stores, compared the deals available and then purchased appliances for our eventually-to-be completed home (less the wall oven and washer/dryer set that were purchased during a Christmas Eve Blowout Sale). I'm still not sure why we couldn't have gotten the Best Prices of the Year in early December or even late March given that we were buying 8 large appliances, but according to all the stores Now Is the Time to Buy.

At this point a valid question arises in some people's minds: why was I worrying about appliances in December when I didn't yet have interior walls? Well, in order to know where interior walls and things like water and gas connections need to be, one needs to know where rooms begin and end. In order to know how big various rooms need to be, one needs to know the layout of spaces with large appliances/fixtures like laundry, bathrooms and kitchens. And in order to know how a kitchen will be laid out, one needs to figure out what appliances will be purchased. And when various appliances result in significantly different room layouts, the appliances have to be finalized much sooner than later. In fact, it was in late November that we discovered, with our designer, that our refrigerator (which is nowhere near a countertop) needs to counter depth or we had to forgo a powder bathroom on the main floor. It's a long story, just trust me. For anyone looking for a quick and easy way to design a kitchen, check out the design tool on Ikea's website. We did get our designer to vet the design, but the bulk of the work was done with their nifty tool. We might buy our cabinets from them yet!

Admittedly, some of the appliances could have been deferred, such as dishwashers and microwaves, as they mostly are standard sizes. But we were working on the assumption that a larger order would get us a better deal. I don't know if that was true in the end, but we bought stuff we liked for not super-crazy prices, so I guess that's that. Our goal was to purchase good quality appliances with very good energy/water consumption ratings for non-expensive prices. For those interested, I'll note the brands and models of what we bought at the bottom of this update. We didn't end up buying a wine fridge – officially mostly because "we" aren't entirely sure we would make good use of it. Unofficially, I think that if we buy it, we will fill it.

Similarly, we went shopping for bathroom appliances and fixtures before Christmas, but this was not as critical since a 14" wide sink versus a 17" wide sink doesn't change where the water connection needs to be. What was deemed critical path was to ensure we purchased and had on-hand any fixture that needed to be installed by a plumber per our permit. Thus, all shower fixtures, the fixtures for the bathtub, the bathtub itself and any wall-mounted faucet had to be finalized and on-hand once the plumbing crew was on-site. Luckily the folks at Save More Plumbing (http://www.savemoreplumbing.com/) remembered us from our last house and were able to set us up quickly. My comment about that experience is that as a non-bath person, it was incredibly difficult to pick out a tub and, as a shower-person, challenging to limit the number of body sprays to be installed!

It was over the Christmas holidays, i.e. when we couldn't call the city to confirm, that we were told that we (aka Chris) would not be able to do the electrical work on the house. In early January, Chris found out that while the city does allow home owners to do several trades' work themselves and then have a city inspector come look at the work for compliance to code and to sign off on the permit, this applies only if just the homeowner and immediate family lives in the residence (i.e. a single-family dwelling). Since the city knows that we are going to have a rental suite, we are indeed not allowed to do that work ourselves. It seems that in Vancouver, you're free to kill your own family with your shoddy wiring, but you aren't allowed to take anyone else out with you - or something like that. Suddenly we were in the market for an electrician, plus we needed to finalize a plumbing company who could take care of both water and gas fitting requirements – looks like the budget went up... again.

In the New Year, Admiral Electric came on board to coordinate our electrical service upgrade (from 100 amps to 200 amp service) plus install the interior "high voltage" electrical wiring, while Chris installed the "low voltage" wiring. For those like me who have no idea what the difference is, high voltage wiring is normal power wiring, while low voltage wiring is internet wires, telephone wires and alarm wires. The electrical service upgrade was deemed necessary so I could have adequate outlets and lighting in my bathroom – I'm sure there were other reasons, but that was the one that brought me on board. Given his expertise in the area, Chris coordinated everything to do with the electrical stuff so any specific questions anyone might have should be directed to him.

It was at this point that we had our first (but certainly not last) timing conflict. The electrical rough-in (installation of wires) couldn't be started until all the interior framing was complete, but the main floor framing couldn't be completed until we decided upon our heating system, and thus installed the necessary ducts or pipes or tubing (depending on the system), and a decision on system couldn't be finalized until we finalized a plumbing company, and by early January we hadn't yet figured out who to hire. Argh! The construction crew was, thankfully, able to get most of the upstairs framing completed, and install the skylights, while we ran around making decisions.

In short order, we hired a plumbing company, decided upon hydronic (hot water) in-floor radiant heat for the house, and had the construction crew rip out the original fir flooring plus plank subfloor on the main level so the plumbing crew could install the radiant hot water tubing. A layer of new insulation went in below the radiant tubing to keep the heat flowing up into our living space. The radiant tubing for the second floor had to wait for the new subfloor on the main floor to be completed, and was then simply installed from below – or rather it was supposed to be simple, but that is a story for later.

We finished off the month with a bit of digging. Specifically an excavator was brought on site to move dirt around in the front yard so that concrete could be poured for supports for the front stairs, and a floor for the storage space under the front porch. Sadly, Chris was not permitted to operate the digger, but to our surprise it took no time at all for the new concrete to be signed off by one of our four-legged neighbours!

Appliance List
From Future Shop

• Washer – Samsung WF229ANG (Titanium grey)
• Dryer – Samsung DV229AEG (also Titanium grey)
• Wall oven – LG LWS3081ST

From Trail Appliances

• Gas cooktop – LG LCG3691ST
• Refrigerator – Bosch B20CS51SNS (had to get counter-depth model for power room off laundry room)
• Dishwasher – Asko D5122XXLSS
• Microwave – Panasonic 2.2 cft + 30" trim kit NNSD997S
• Hoodfan – Fisher & Paykel HC36DXB1