tap my glass

So the subfloor is done, i finished it mostly last weekend. Now to the walls.

Found this electrical nasty in the wall… not cool. I was hoping to resuse wire, but when i found this i realized the whole chunk had to come out. Luckily theres ton’s of junction boxes waiting to be poked in to in the basement so i don’t need to run it back to the main breaker, but its still annoying.

Ate this x2 one night this week, it was large - leftover bbq chicken thigh, mango, sweet n hot mustard, bun, it was delectable:

Thats all for now, back to work!!!

The kitchen reno is underway. As with most kitchen renovations, i’m quite eager to get this overwith. I’ll just post pics for now, discuss later, too tired… quite drained today as works busy and i have many issues to work out.

Heres the snakiness that is the plumbing coming from the floor:

Heres the whole first layer of floor torn off (more to come):

Heres the old rad - before cleaning:

Heres where i pulled the cabinets from… now to fix *this*:

The uppers removed:

Tags: renovations

Thinking of housing recently, combined with the fortuitous position of owning (well the bank owns most of it) property in an urban core, add on to that the fact the structure is not well built nor brick, i’ve been toying with the idea of knocking it down and starting over. Building 2 semi-detached in its place, or convincing one (or more) of my neighbours to do the same and build some kinda modern/oldstyle/eco dwelling structure.

My imagination does wander when i consider the possibilities. 2 properties on my street could easily house a 3 home townhome unit, one where the original owners of their properties might (in theory) be able to pay off a good chunk of their mortgage with the profits from the sale of the extra unit.

Now may seem like the wrong time to be thinking of this considering all the work i’ve put into it. But that type of mentality lacks vision, and i’m very pro-vision. Perhaps not now, but it must always be an option for the future. While it would sadden me to lose some of the charm of these old houses, many things can be rebuilt using old styles (at a price of course), and the practicality gained with new building methods (little drafts, warm walls and floors, cleaner air, better concepts (open anyone??)) certainly outweigh the loss of charm.

Now THAT would be a big project.

If this isn’t a sign of age and responsibility what is. Waking up early (its 6:22am) on a saturday morning, tossed and turned, couldn’t get back to sleep. Mostly because i’m not all that hungover and i’m excited about laying the fresh cedar for my balcony today.

What do people do at 6:22am on a saturday? Is there anything to do? I think i’ll see what the grinders are up to…

I will indeed be posting pics later of the balcony, it should be pretty sweet.

One things for sure, i’m not all that interesting at 6:22am on a saturday.

One additional thing i should mention about Google Sketchup from my previous post, is that i put all the lumber sizes in in their “true” sizes. Otherwise, i wouldn’t know exact distances and size of things!!! Am i not right here?

For instance, a 2×4 is not truely 2 by 4 inches. Its “about” 1.5 by 3.5 inches. How could i put in a piece of lumber that IS 2 by 4 inches into my drawings and expect sketchup to tell me the proper distances?

I understand if you measure everything “on center” you should be ok, but what about if simply want to measure the entire width of the structure?

If someone can clear this up for me i’d appreciate it.

Ever since i’ve owned my house, i’ve known that i’ve needed to have some work done to its rear end. As you can see in the picture, which was taken shortly after i took possession, theres always been a door leading to nowhere. The original owner even nailed a few 2×10’s up there for me to “get started” on an awesome balcony. Thanks!!! Unfortunately after discussion and research, nailing to the side of a non waterproof surface is probably not a good idea for a structurally sound chill pad for apt. #2.

So this year, the main plan was to get er done. I started early on researching and discussing with an experienced friend of mine exactly “how” i was going to do it. I went through a few basic structures and ideas:

In the end, i settled on a no stair, but extended balcony that is NOT supported by the structure underneath. Basically if it was, it would of required engineer’s help to verify the integrity of that structure, and that structure was highly suspect. The previous owner did an “ok” job on everything done, and i just didn’t trust it.

So late last year i realized if i was going to build a balcony up there, i should probably ensure that the roof was good. Because it would really suck to have to tear down the balcony to fix a leaky roof. And the roof was already leaky. So i had the roof replaced. Which was not cheap, but at least i trust it now. Its properly flashed all around, and is in good shape. Earlier this year, i also decided to have eavestrophing installed on the roof above the door. That part of the roof is the lowest point so a lot of water attracted down that wall, and would be onto the roof, causing more water issues. I thought that was a good idea, and i’m happy with the result.

Then came the building permit. From conception and farting around on the city of ottawa’s web site to issuance, it was many months. But i got it in the end.

The problem with the building permit, is the plans. The application itself is nothing, but it must be accompanied by plans of what you’re going to do. Which makes sense. But is not trivial. I do believe you can get home depot and/or rona type stores to do plans for you for “free”, but i kinda wanted to do this all myself. As i said i have a friend who helped conceptualize what the thing would look like, and then i just needed a tool to put it together. In retrospect i would have been MUCH easier to have someone else do it, but i was stubborn and like doing things myself so i understand them.

Enter Google Sketchup. Is there anything google can’t do? I mean this tool is amazing. In a nutshell, its a layman’s CAD tool. You can design pretty much anything in it, and if you really want to, import it into google earth (which apparently has a flight sim built into it, but i haven’t tried it). So if you design a house or a building, you can plop it down in the googleverse and see what it looks like. I have not done this. But what i did do, was design the whole thing in sketchup, as well as site and floor plans where necessary.

The end result is pretty sweet. After quite a few hours i developed a model of the entire balcony including every piece of lumber to be used, proper angles, railing, etc.. I thought this was a much cleaner idea than drawing up some crappy sketches that would no doubt need to be updated during the permit talks. And i was right about that!

Getting the building permit was quite an ordeal. Once the drawings were done and i had filled out the application, here’s a summary of how it went down:

1) Show up at city hall on a friday morning.

2) No lineup, ask to submit an application for a building permit.

3) The lady looks it over, tells me it’ll be 80 odd dollars, and calls the dude from the back.

4) The dude spends a few minutes looking it over, and takes issue with a few points. My footings were not deep enough (originally i had 4 foot holes, they needed to be 6 feet), and i needed to properly quote building code sections for the blocking and railing, or have a proper diagrams that showed screws and specifics.

5) I asked where i can see the building code

6) He said it was for sale “over there”.

7) I said gee thanks.

I then thought about it, and decided to go to the library. They did not have the 2006 building code, but they had the 1997 + amendments.

9) I spent some serious time going through all the different schematics coming up with a now different railing plan. The lady at the library was very nice as i didn’t have my card, but let me borrow one of their photocopy cards, and i just payed what i spent when i left. How trusting!!!

10) I choose a model i liked, made photo copies of all the appropriate sections, and went home.

11) I then updated my model with the footing adjustments and changes to the blocking and railing, printed it off again, and went back.

12) They accepted the application!!! Yay!!! I paid the 80 odd dollars.

13) About 6 business days later, i get an email from someone at the city that was assigned to my application. It contained a pdf of issues, which included, among a few other things, that the photocopies from the old building code needed to be from the 2006 building code. Arg!!!

14) I bought the damn 2006 building code. 150$. Now i’ll have it forever. Or at least until 2012 when a new one comes out and this one becomes useless reference material.

15) I made photocopies of the newly revised sections, which looked to be identical to me, and now proceeded to communicate with this nice lady via faxes and emails.

16) We sorted out the remainder of the issues over the next week and a half, mostly to do with floor plans, and “is it a fire exit”, etc..

17) Roughly a month after the initial application, i was back at city hall signing the real permit. I got my original plans and faxes stamped, and a sheet to put up on my window saying i’m a wicked permit holder.

All in all it wasn’t a horrible experience, and i understand why the back and forths occurred, and i understand why you need to quote from the new building code, but they really should make the building codes available for perusal at city hall. That part is ridiculous.

Once i had the permit i was assigned an inspector. I discussed with him what inspections i need. I needed an excavation, framing, and final inspection. I have had the excavation inspection, and it went very smoothly - he didn’t even measure the awesome 6 foot depth. I dug 2 perfectly deep 6 feet by 2″ diameter holes and he didn’t measure them!!! O well, at least i know they’re the real deal.

There will be more boring assed balcony discussion to come, you can bet your bottom beam on that.

I’ve bought some sonotube’s lately. Not branded “sonotube”, likely cheap rip offs, i got 8″ versions from both rona and home depot. The ones from rona are actually smaller than 8″’s, would probably make a 7.5″ concrete form. The ones from home depot are a little bigger than 8″, likely to make and exactly 8″ concrete form. Am i the only one bringing a tape measure to these places to pick stuff out cause whatever dimensions are printed on whatever are not to be trusted??

While not the most exciting thing to happen to me lately, i thought it was worth mentioning. Its been a great summer, but now its time to build!!! I’m building a balcony in my backyard, i’m all permit ready, and now i have to dig 6 feet into the ground in 2 places. This isn’t going to be pretty.

Been out a few times recently. Saw the hold steady at zaphods:

Then last weekend saw his brood ness elliott brood at barrymore’s:

They were both incredibly large shows. Massive in fact.

In other news, my renovation obsession is almost done. As i last updated you, the drywall is done. Unfortunately, it looks like shit, i did a pretty crap job, but the job is done. It has since been painted, and the floors are in. Now its to the moldings, frames, paint those, and then ly on the floor and bask. Then its nothing but computer games and for a few months. Ay…. well, we’ll see about all that. But definitely some chillout time is in order.

After what feels like forever, the drywall in the back room and a little bit of the corridor, is done. I just finished the final sanding run after the 3rd (or millionth) coat of mud. Phew. Doing your own drywall is REALLY time consuming. It just takes SOOOO long to mud corners, sand em down, fix skrew holes, etc.. But it is done now. I don’t care if it looks like shit, but its done. I actually think its a pretty decent job, the ceiling corners aren’t perfect, but most of the rest of it should be ok. Next is painting… and then finally, FINALLY, i can put the frickin floors down that have been sitting amidst the dust for months. O, and i can clean my house now, now, i have no excuse, there will be no more massive dust generation. Ahh, clean house.

I’m about to go out to a friends going away party now. He’s joining the army, takes off for basic training next monday. I’m not sure what i think about it. Obviously i wish him the best. Perhaps if i hadn’t of inhaled so much dust over the past 4 hours… well actually i was wearing a ventilator.

I really try to find excuses all the time don’t eye? I’m tired… ahh, but soon i won’t be, as this massive weight will soon be off my shoulders, and i can safely sleep in on the weekend, stay in bed, play video games, poker, etc., without a massive project looming. There i go, talking about myself again, totally self obsessed. I promise to reach outwards once my abode is under control, promise.

The bathroom, and my week off, are almost done. Today i finished the shower tiling, cleaned up the tub, installed the light fixture, turned the power back on. Damn 13w energy saving lights the girl convinced me to get aren’t frickin bright enough!!! They were expensive too. O well.

Its been a long week, i haven’t really stopped doing work since it began, and really only have about half of what i wanted to get done, done. I may not even finish tomorrow, that epoxy grout is tuff shit, and i still don’t have a sink solution. Should hopefully figure that one out tomorrow. Might just use my old cabinet, cause i know it fits, and get a “vessel” and new funky faucet for the top. We’ll see.