Wood delivery

Semi trailer arrived from Wisconsin on January 7 pulling a 43 foot flat bed trailer.

The road leading to the cottage site was too narrow for such a long trailer so the load was dropped about one kilometer away at a wide bend.

Tarps pulled back and the first sight of the lumber.

15 flats of assorted timbers, decking and siding.

A skid steer with a fork lift removed all of the wood from the flat bed.  The skid steer ferried 10 of the flats to the bulding site where they were hand bombed into storage.  The timbers were too long for the narrow road so a few at a time, the timbers were transported using a pick up truck. 

Each pine timber weighs around 400 pounds but with sufficient leverage and the help of good friends, they were managed.

Load balanced and secured for the trip down hill to the cottage.

Piled at the building site.

The last timber of the day.

On the left is interior roof decking and in the corner is a pile of outdoor decking.

Backfilled

View from where the guest bedroom window will be.  Water is easily visible when the leaves have fallen.

 

On November 3 the excavation was filled in all around both buildings and the piers.  Hyrdo line is installed below grade, seen looped over the wall in the middle of the main cottage. 

The lot slopes gradually around the building and drops off faster as you approach the shore line.  The two large boulders flank the entrance to the path down to the water's edge.

The workshop portion of the guest cabin is partially built.  The side walls and roof are temporary for the purpose of storing materials required for the framing. 

The front yard is a blank slate for landscaping.

This pier, now buried to the hilt, is almost five feet tall.

This enormous boulder is a main feature in the front yard.  Better learn to like it because it's not going anywhere soon. 

Guest bedroom and workshop foundation walls

Footing is plated and crawlspace floor is insulated in readiness for the foundation walls.

Walls nearly completed.  Made of PWF, a pressure treated wood suitable for below grade building. 

Blue skin applied, footing backfilled and plenty of frostshield installed all around.

Guest bedroom frost shield overlaps the frost shield under the deck.

All of the piers are wraped to prevent them from being lifted by frozen ground.  This heavy black plastic is re-purposed packaging material from the insulated concrete forms.  It will all be buried soon by the back fill.

Before the floors go on

Covered the floor of the guest building crawspace with insulation.  This building will not be heated in winter so the frost shield is applied everywhere to keep the ground beneath the footing from freezing.

Installed an 8'x24' floor in the main building crawlspace.  Constructed of left over bracing, forms, and sheathing used in the concrete construction.  A floor over the sand will make the space more useful for storage.   Finished bolting on the sill plate.  Finished installing 6 mil poly with a generous flap to cover the floor joist rim board, go under the wall and overlap the outside wall vapour barrier.

Starting construction with wood

Installed 6 mil vapour barrier in the crawlspace, graded down to the sump.

Covered the vapour barrier with 4 inches of sand.

Compacted the sand with a Red River jig.

Pressure treated plate bolted to the top of the wall, ready to receive floor joists.

Pressure treated plate bolted to the footing, ready to receive walls.

Water management

Saturday, September 17 in the afternoon:  With the bracing removed from the concrete forms, it's now time to complete the crawlspace with fill and vapour barrier.

Started filling with sand and noticed the sump is already full of water: 
the weeping tile outside of the foundation is doing its job.

Sloped grade to the sump.  Now when it rains a pump will be required to keep the crawlspace from flooding.

To prevent flooding, trenched an overflow pipe running from the sump for 60 feet down hill towards the lake.

The overflow pipe connects to the weeping tile at the base of the footing.

The last 30 feet of the overflow pipe runs into the bush and is made of perforated pipe allowing water to leach into the ground. 

More foundation work

Socked weeping tile being covered in stone.  ICF walls are waterproofed from top to bottom and over the footing to divert water to the weeping tile.

Weeping tile covered with stone.

Footing and weeping tile partially back filled and covered with 4 feet of R15 rigid insulation sloped away from the wall.

This is the area below the screen porch covered with the R15 frost shield.  Partially back filled on left side.

Interior bracing removed and piled.  4 inch pipe roughed in to carry flow from weeping tile to the sump.  Tile enters below footing in four places, once under each wall.

Area under the frost shield prepared by back filling to the top of the footing and the top of the pads on which the piers sit.  This is the area under the deck between the main cottage and the guest cottage.  Eventually, the entire excavated area will be covered with the frost shield which will be covered with fill to the top of the piers.

Waterproofing and frost shield of main cottage completed.

Building site was visited by either a bear or the building inspector.