Outpouring of funds and issues continues

Turns out that we should have had an official survey done of our property lines before we started work, as our office extension will be right up to the line of the eight feet set back required by the building code. Luckily we haven't poured any foundations yet - all we have is a dug trench - so we have secured the services of a surveyor and he will be coming over tomorrow or Friday. Meanwhile, the foundations work continues unabated on the other side of the house, where the building is well outside the eight feet setback and there is no issue.


Yesterday was Return of the Bob Cat Day. It was very windy. While the guys were excavating the crawl space, the dust and dirt was flying around in great clouds, mixed with the green pollen dust that cascades from our central cedar tree at the slightest provocation. It was a day to stay inside the house, so I did. It's windy again today, but the excavations have finished and they are now building the wooden retaining walls for pouring/shaping the concrete.

The large cedar stump pictured in an earlier post is now thoroughly gone - it is where the foundation guys are working right now - but the pine stump in the back is still with us. The Arborist spent three hours grinding it yesterday and will be back tomorrow to finish up. (We know he means it because he left his equipment here, and if he leaves it too long he won't be able to get it out again.)


Not much happening inside the house this week. Azmir pulled up some of our kitchen floor tiles yesterday - Very Noisy - and managed to salvage two out of four. (The Architect is hoping the salvage operation won't work, so we'll have to change the floor out, but we hope the opposite.) He was cutting a hole in the floor for the gas guy to use in running a pipe for our tumble drier from the kitchen into the garage, where it will be living for the duration of the remodel. The door on the washer-drier closet is also gone, and I can now see that the vent hose from the drier has a big tear in it, which is no doubt why the kitchen fills up with steam when you use it.

What else? A Corian rep was over yesterday too, measuring up and assessing whether we can reuse the countertops. He thought we could, but left us many leaflets with many alternative options to look at. Hubby is resistant, commenting that our kitchen will soon be like George Washington's axe.

I ordered two new wine cellars on Monday. Hubby had better stock up on something to make them worthwhile. Ca-ching! We are also replacing our main furnace, and just decided on the high energy model which costs $3,000 more. Ca-ching!

In fact the whole remodel is - ca-ching!