Backfilling

Once we've completed this beautiful foundation - what's next? Well you bury it of course!
The foundation will carry and distribute the weight of the house and was built to raise the house two feet above the road so that in the event that the Nile overflowed its banks - our house would not be the lowest point on the lot. The slab which will be our floor must also be raised two feet which is where the backfill comes in. Below: our nice foundation and the arrival of the backfill.


Truckload after truckload arrive and the excavator sets to filling the walls with engineered dirt.
A ramp of dirt allows a Bobcat access to the rooms the excavator can't reach. In the middle of it all is Roy with the tamping machine again packing it all down to form a good solid base.



Once the foundation is all filled, levelled and tamped down - what's next? Why, you dig it up again of course! The electrician and plumber rough the services in, the mains for water and power are laid in using the knock-outs previously placed in the concrete forms. Drainage pipes for run-off from the roof have also been placed and buried. The trades we are using have been great - everyone arriving and getting their jobs done on time.



The time is fast approaching when I will be called to walk across all this packed dirt, point to a spot and say "OK, that's where the sink goes, and over there - that's where the toilet goes and this spot here, this is where my cook-top will be." And am I worried? You bet!
When the wires and pipes are placed and the concrete is poured - that's it, so it better be right.
Once the wiring and plumbing are set, a sheet of 6 mil poly goes down, then 3" of rigid insulation, then 6" wire mesh which will secure the pex pipe for the radiant heat and finally the slab will be poured. All of this to take place next week, so stay tuned...

Patterns and Textures - Land

By now you've seen the vistas, the sweeping land and seascapes. Time to slow the pace, get in a little closer, notice the things on the ground. Get down on your knees and crawl around...some of the small stuff underfoot is just as grand as the mountains, the forests and the ocean. These are some shots of things I thought were interesting for their color shape, texture, contrast.
Enoy!

Patterns and Textures - Sea

By now you've seen the vistas, the sweeping land and seascapes. Time to slow the pace, get in a little closer, notice the things on the ground. Get down on your knees and crawl around...some of the small stuff underfoot is just as grand as the mountains, the forests and the ocean. These are some shots of things I thought were interesting for their color shape, texture, contrast.
Enoy!

Close Encounters

For the denizens (man and animal) of Charlton Drive and the Nile Creek, life right now is all about the pink salmon. The creek is full of them and the age-old ritual of perpetuation, of death and re-birth is in full swing. This is a season of bounty for the predators, ravens, gulls and eagles, otters and bear and they are making the most of it. Signs of the bears are everywhere, piles of scat (poop), half eaten fish, huge paw prints in the sand and teeth marks in the lid of the brand new garbage can we left on site for construction garbage. Pics below: salmon victims, a (blurry) sea otter, new Roughneck full of holes and half eaten fish (yuck!!). I spared you pictures of bear scat :-)



I'm still out of my element here, more saavy at Bay and Queen than on the stream and in the woods. I was standing on the bank watching the fish this morning and so intent on the activity that I didn't see the black bear until he was right across the bank from me, maybe 30 feet away. He had to know I was there, but didn't seem too concerned and as I slowly backed away up the bank he carried on down the stream, scouting for fish. I didn't have the camera with me and I'm not sure if I would have had the presence of mind to take pictures anyway. It is more than a little intimidating to be so up-close and personal with a black bear. Lesson learned: I need to be much more aware of my surroundings and not only see the signs, but heed them as well.
I have made numerous attempts at photographing the salmon as they force their way upstream, but it is beyond my timing and skill, like trying to shoot a bolt of lightening. Two attempts (below) at least show some fish. So, still doesn't work - here are my first amateurish attempts at video. Remember, it's about the fish...

Pouring the Foundation

It's been a busy few weeks. The crew came and built the forms for the footings and by mid week the cement trucks and the big pumper came and poured the cement. The crew came back on Tuesday with the forms for the foundation walls and spent a couple of days putting them up, reinforcing with re-bar. Then we called all the trades to do their knock-outs, so electrical, septic and plumbing spacers were placed in the forms to leave "holes" in the cement for those services to pass through at a later date.


Top and above left: the footings being poured and the final product. Above right and below: the foundation walls, the pumper truck and the foundation walls with forms removed.


The cement footings and walls will need to cure for a week now, so we will have time to do some other jobs; paint our fascia boards (before they go up) and paint foundation coating on the walls, so we're hoping for some nice dry, sunny weather. Next steps will be back filling and tamping more engineered dirt into and around the foundation. Not exciting, but it is progress at last.

Deep Bay

Roy and I visited Deep Bay one very still evening back in July. The sun was setting and the water was so still it was like a mirror. I started taking pictures of the pier and boats using the reflections as the subject, so some of these shots appear to be upside down.
Deep Bay is a "working" harbor with a gov't pier and heavy equipment for loading and unloading, and in the harsh light of day it's really not all that pretty. Amazing what a still night and the light of the setting sun can do.

Starting the Foundation

Finally, we have started to build and of course every building starts with a good foundation.
There are 3 types of foundations: Full basement, crawl space and slab foundation. We have decided to go with a slab, which is as it sounds; no space beneath, the house rests on a solid bed of concrete. It made the most sense to us as we both agreed that we wouldn't use a 3' crawlspace and didn't want the maintenance required (heat and ventilation) and the possibility of flooding.
A slab will provide a good solid base for in-floor radiant heat and the polished concrete will be our final floor. A wood burning fireplace will provide back-up heat. Remember that winters here are not as long or severe as in Ontario, wet snow does fall but rarely stays for long.


Above, Peter Mason, surveys and stakes the corners of the house and workshop/carport as a rough guide for Steve and his excavator to dig down a couple of feet. We know that the soil is sandy down to about 9' where you hit water. Once the shallow hole is dug, the trucks start to arrive hauling a mixture of fine gravel and sand called "pit run". This mixture is dumped, spread and compacted, layer by layer building up a solid base for the footing and walls that will be the slab. Below, Steve digging and the trucks dumping the pit run.


Roy rented a machine and took on the 3 day job of compacting the layers - below left. Lots of shakin' going on and Roy is exhausted at the end of each day. Below, right - the end of day 3 - we have what looks very like the beginnings of a parking lot. Peter the surveyor came back near the end of the day and again marked the corners of the house. Tomorrow the crew arrives to start building the forms that will hold the concrete footings.