A potpourri of construction

Well, it was a mixed bag of tasks this week.  I met the City Building Inspector at the garage on Monday morning.  She looked everything over, and noted a few defiencies that needed to be corrected before we could close it up with drywall and insulation.  We can certainly fix those, but I had to make sure that we could still get it shingled before we had them back to review.  Yes, she said.  Whew--what a relief as we had our shingler on hold ready to deliver and install the shingles, as time was ticking before snow came. (speaking of snow, it has been very cold these past two weekends, so cold that I had to wear a ski jacket and ski pants while we worked outside for 12 horus a day!).

Therefore, let me give a big shout out to our shingler Terry. The shingles got delivered on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, we had a shingled roof.  Ta dah!

And because we liked Terry and his work (and because winter was just around the corner, we hired him to do the soffit and fascia).  So he worked on it, and finished it on Sunday.  Great timing as we had snow on Monday!

On Thursday, our friend Doug and I went to pick up the window for the garage.  We had special ordered it from Home Depot, and had to pick it up at some distribution centre way up in the north end.  Doug drove the truck, and we brought the window back.  The fun never ends.

On Saturday, we went to get gravel from a garden supply place (taking two trips in the truck), and made a new driveway leading into the garage. We laid down one truck load of gravel, then drove on it, over and over to compact it, and then did that again with the second load.  We can now drive in!

Then in the afternoon, we fixed the deficiencies noted in the building inspection on Monday.  That included putting blocking pieces (2 x 4s) along the roof peak in between the trusses.  So Rob put down some wood up in the trusses, and sat up in the rafters, measuring the area.  I got to use the chop saw, cut the pieces, and then send them up to Rob by rope.  We did that for 19 pieces of wood!

That pretty much took care of Saturday.  Sunday brought us doing more deficiency touch ups (blocking on the roof plywood, and gable end pieces).  Then it was time to get some wood to frame in the garage door opening.  Off to Rona we went.  We were about to get some wood cut, when Rob asked the fellow if he had any other pieces.  Well, off they went.  I sat down on the cart.  At the end of the aisle, I saw Rob and guy walk by.  Then they walked by in the other direciton.  Then they walked by again, this time with another employee.  And finally, they walked by a fourth time.  It was quite hilarious watching this back and forthing.  But we ended up with some great wood that won't need painting.  But it needed cutting. at home.  So that meant bringing out a new tool:  the fancy and very big "sliding dual bevelling compund mitre saw". That's it real name.  It adjusts, so it angles sideways (hence the bevelling), but to me, it looks like the Tilt a Whirl at the Ex!

But wait, there's more.  It also has a laser beam that lines up your cut on the wood.  Way cool!

So by 7:00 p.m. on Sunday night, we called it a day.  And Rob and his car got to park inside.

It snowed Monday afternoon, and Monday night.  I parked inside after work on Monday, and on Tuesday morning, after more snow, it was a DELIGHT not to have to brush my car off in a snow storm!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have never had a garage in my life. Sweet!

This what it looked like on Wednesday.

And here is our building permit approval, because we fixed all the deficiencies! Yay!

So this weekend, we will wrap the garge in Tyvek, install the window, and install the door.  It will be nice to have it enclosed, as the snow sort of blows in through the openings, but still nice to park under cover.  And now that we have passed the next stage of building inspection, we can put up some drywall around the big garage door, which is prep work for when it gets installed on Halloween.  What a week we've had and what a week to come!