Getting Toasty Now

Today we started opening the bundles of batts of insulation and tucking them between the studs on the walls.  It went pretty easy!  I'd say, the easiest of all the tasks so far.  We went through three bundles (each bundle has 16 batts inside, which conveniently fit perfectly inside the spacing of the suds--just like Rob planned!)) and then called it a day.  The remaining openings are tricky ones....either they have electrical plus ins or lights which Rob has to wire in before the insulation goes in. (we took the day off on Sunday, as Monday is my birthday and Rob threw a surprise dinner party for me on Saturday night...so taking a day off from Monster Garage is a birthday present to me from me!; and it's minus 31 below here, so even though the garage is toasty, it's not THAT toasty.)

We Have a Ceiling!

Yes, it's true!  We finally got the ceiling drywall all up.  We have an enclosed ceiling now.  And with the heater running, it stays a toasty 10 degrees Celsius. We worked about 8 hours on Saturday and on Sunday, finishing at 7 p.m. on Sunday--after two hours in the morning of shovelling the 10-15 cm of snow we got on Saturday.  Rob cranked out the new snowblower--nifty.
We also installed a hatch to the ceiling--a little trap door in reverse.  And earlier in the week, I had cleared up the work bench to become a work bench again, not a clutter pile. And we squeezed in a visit on Saturday night with Kim to Winston's Pub to drink Rebellion Brewing's first keg release in Saskatoon (our friend Jamie is head brewmaster and part owner of it).  Way cool! (I was the DD, and we plowed forth in the raging snow storm for this magic elixir). So all in all, a pretty eventful weekend.

Four boards closer

Well this past weekend, we finally got all the poly up on the ceiling, in preparation for the drywall.  We went out to the garage on Saturday at noon and came back in at 8:00 p.m.  Man it was cold!  We did turn on Mr. Heater, and even with no insulation and drywall, it took the temperature up to 10 degrees C, up from .5 when we started. Then Sunday we went 10-3, only rescued by good friends who invited us over to watch the CFL western semi finals (Riders lost to Edmonton).  But the good news is we got four more sheets of drywall up on the ceiling (2-8', 1-10', 1-12'). Plus doing cut outs around lights, Mr. Heater, and the garage door opener.  That drywall lift is my favourite tool!  The boards slide on, Rob cranks it up, and I stand on the ladder while he manoeuvers it into place.  Plop! I think we are half way there.  Once the ceiling is done, we get to do insulation, and then....Mr. Heater can stay on throughout winter, keeping my car nice and toasty!

It doesn't rain, it pours

So this past weekend, it snowed, temperatures dropped to minus 15 with a windchill of minus 22, we hosted a dinner party for nine people, and we were prepping the house and garage for more work.  Tuesday is the Remembrance Day holiday, so Rob and I took off Monday to do more garage work--he arranged for delivery of drywall sheets for the ceiling, insulation for the ceiling (that we blow in), and insulation for the walls.  He also arranged for the alarm company to come and re-alarm the garage.

So on Sunday, after putting away dishes from the party and general clean up, we spent a very cold afternoon in the garage, installing those cardboard vents in the eves, then poly, then moving the Healey to put up more vents and more poly.  Then Monday morning, we are expecting the drywall and insulation some time in the morning (we estimated after 11 due to loading the trucks, warming up the trucks, driving around etc), and expecting the alarm guy some time between 9 and 11:00.  So we are putzing around in our pyjamas, having coffee, putting away dishes, and Rob is calling the Building Department as they sent him another letter saying he needs to call for a garage inspection (they had sent him a letter a month ago saying the same thing so he called but they said as it was close to being done, don't bother with an inspection until fully done).  So as he's chatting away, I see a big Rona flatbed drive by and park--at 9:15!.  Yikes. 

I throw on my ski pants and parka and go meet the guy.  Nice guy--Gavin.  I'm telling him where we want the stuff put (on one side, so we can still park and work on the other side), then Rob comes out.  Gavin drops off the drywall, and we hand lift it into the parking spot.  Then Gavin drops a pallet of insulation, and he and Rob shimmy it into the spot, and do that with the second load.  Then we stand around having coffee and a nice chat about installation tips, cars, teenagers, cleaning, and clothes.  Only interrupted by a call from the alarm guy--saying he's at the front door!  Yikes.

So we say goodbye to Gavin and let in the alarm guy at 10:00.  He's doing stuff downstairs, upstairs in the kitchen, and at the garage.  He's here for 7 hours but gets all connected. And then we phoned and paid the final installment on our cruise.  Whew

--what a day!

Post for October 26

Slightly delayed with this post, as we were in Toronto last week (Rob had a conference and I had a mini holiday).  So this post is what we did the weekend of October 25/26.
We worked on the east face--did all the grey boards on either side of the big garage door, then finished the Tyvec on the peak, and then prepped for the installation of the white trim boards.  That took awhile and the clock was ticking, because....we had to move the remaining 60 some Hardie plank boards over the side of the garage so I (and the rest of the cars) could park in the garage before winter came.  So we moved the boards in clumps of about 4 or 5--they are very long and very heavy and don't want to snap them. Then we swept out the grit and moved tools around, and finally, voila, we can park in the garage once more!