This is a shot of Casa Roa at the beginning and end of Week #8.
As expected, work began indoors. The plumbing rough-ins were completed.
On Friday, Paul and I did a walk-thru of the house to review everything electrical. We went through every room in the house to check placement and type of electrical component. Good thing! We made only a few but important changes. Without them, we would have had those annoying light switches in places that make no sense. Okay, it was only one but a great save nonetheless. :) All set for the electrican(s) to come in and wire the house up.
The basement...we aren't doing a great deal of development in the basement. In the short term, its primary use will be a fitness area. Joey is in charge of getting this set up. In the meantime, we are having the walls framed and we will take care of the rest, with the help of our brother in-law Sean and others. This is what the basement is looking like right now. There is a big engineered wall offering some support to the main floor. Apparently it is overbuilt, like much of the original foundation, but its better to be safe than sorry.
So, Joey and I often speak about the lack of insulation in the old house. Demolition revealed how energy inefficient this house truly was. The following picture shows how much more efficient the new house already is! Not sure how this piece of insulation found its way into the house but I appreciate the humour in finding it all by its lonesome. A sign of things being on track...
One of the items that Joey and I had on our wish list for the project was the use of recycling for the construction materials. At the time we initated the project, Paul was exploring construction recycling options only to tell us this was not something that was readily available but would continue to check it out. Since this time, Paul has found a recycling solution and I/we are thrilled. In our backyard are two bins - a white bin for waste and a blue bin for recyclables (new construction material only (cardboard, plastic, etc.), not demolition waste). Signs are posted throughout the house that detail which materials are waste and which ones can be recycled. The recyclables are trucked to Okotoks to be sorted. Waste goes to the dump. The company that is responsible for this set-up will track the ratio of recycled material to waste and provide us with a report of this breakdown at the completion of the project. Why is this significant? Other than making us feel good about the amount of material we're not putting in the landfill, this reporting mechanism will be used for future construction projects where homebuilders can recoup portions of an anticipated waste levy that will eventually be paid to the City during the permitting process. We did not pay a levy but apparently its just around the corner. Nonetheless, we're happy that our builder was able to implement a recycling program. Thanks Jameswood!!
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