Updates

Garrison Creek has pushed hard in Q3 /Q4 to get the house completed for us. Drywall started to go up in late August after the electricians, plumbers and tilers did their rough installations. Paint and trim soon followed as well as the kitchen and bathroom cabinet installations.

All of it came together on December 23, 2020 when we received our occupancy permit (Merry Christmas to us!).

Thanks to Kyle and Fraser at Garrison and the many tradespeople who help us get to this point, despite a crazy year due to COVID-19.

What’s Ahead

We move in!

Garrison Creek has pushed hard in Q3 to get the house completed for us. Drywall started to go up in late August after the electricians, plumbers and tilers did their rough installations. Paint and trim soon followed as well as the kitchen and bathroom cabinet installations.

What’s Ahead

Hopefully we’ll take occupancy in the next few weeks and move in.

Work on the house was progressing well up until March 2020 when the various construction site restrictions due to the COVID-19 outbreak kicked in. A skeleton crew continued to work over this period but progress slowed considerably.

Several big items did get finished: the pouring and finishing the concrete floor throughout the house, the rough plumbing, the garage door and the elevator. Externally, the majority of the siding was installed.

What’s Ahead

We are hoping with restrictions easing in Ontario that the house can be completed so we can take occupancy in September. Electrical and HVAC rough-ins need to be completed before the interior finishing (drywall, painting, kitchen and bathroom installations) can start.

Getting the house sealed up so the inside work could start was the big activity for Q4. Firstly, the roof and windows were installed. Then the ground floor concrete slab was poured. Finally a temporary front door was installed and a portable propane heater was used to bring the inside temperature up to a comfortable level.

What’s Ahead

Getting the plans together for the HVAC systems is the main focus for early Q1 2020.

Lots of activity on the house in Q3. The most obvious from the photo above is the application of the insulating foam both inside and on the outside of the house. There has also been a lot of work in running the water and electrical services from the front of the property to the house. Although not shown in the photo, we’ve also had the septic system installed on the southeast corner of the house.

What’s Ahead

Garrison Creek is moving quickly to complete the outside of the house so that work can continue inside. Roofing, siding and window installation are all coming up soon.

We have a lot more progress to show at the end of June 2019.

Challenges

The soil remained our biggest hurdle to progress. Firstly, we needed to reinforce the driveway to allow the heavy concrete trucks to access the building site. Secondly, we needed to find a good solution for backfilling the foundation as our geotechnical engineer indicated that reusing the original clay soil would likely cause problems down the road. Some thirty trucks of gravel later we were back in business. Unfortunately this all took time.

Rapid Progress

June 11 marked the first day of work on building the steel structure. Since then, things have been going at great speed. The photo above was taken on June 19 and shows a good deal of the steel framing completed in just one week. As of today, the steel structure is complete.

What’s Ahead

The next major step is to install the structural insulation panels (SIP’s) on the roof and exterior walls.

On-site work on our new house started on January 25, 2019. It has been quite a process getting to this point, but we’re happy to see things moving. A big shout-out to our builders, Garrison Creek Construction, who have been moving things forward despite the challenges on winter in southwestern Ontario.

Challenges

The biggest challenge at the start of the build was the weather. Our area got wrapped up in the Polar Vortex that hit in late January, meaning the crew were clearing the ground and excavating in -20 degree C weather. Then things warmed up and all the ice and snow turned into water, flooding the excavation. Water management became the focus for several weeks.

Once the water was under control, the forms for the footings were placed and a ground heater brought in to remove any remaining frost from around the footings.

Finally, concrete for the footings were poured on March 25.

What’s Ahead

With the footings poured and set, the next step is the foundation. Garrison Creek will be using insulated concrete forms which make for reduced energy losses out through the foundation.

2018 represented our first full year of gardening at White Tree Farm. Robin did most of the work on it, from planning to seeding to harvesting. All in all, it was a good first year.

Successes

As you probably could determine from the lead photograph, pumpkins and squash did very well this year. We gave a lot away and still had lots for soup and pie. All the varieties we planted did well.

Hot chili peppers did well.

Zucchinis matched our consumption and we were able to dry quite a bit for use over the winter.

Challenges

Robin planted a lot of tomatoes and the results were mixed. The smaller varieties did well while the larger ones suffered a number of setbacks.

We planted too many cucumbers for the rate at which we eat or preserve them.

We should have planted more beans; the ones we harvested were good; we just eat more than we harvested.

Green peppers and watermelons did OK, but not great.