Basement Walls

June 25, 2007 was the best day of the summer so far, weather-wise. And it turned out to be a good day for construction too. Ernest Heighton (Terry's Dad) and his 2 crew members showed up ready to work, and by 3 pm the forms for the walls of the basement were all in place, and we were ready for cement. Brian Wood, the Cumberland County Building Inspector dropped by and authorized to proceed with the next stage. And around 4 pm the gigantic concrete pumper showed up, followed soon after by 2 large cement trucks. The pour went well, until they ran out of cement in the second of the two trucks with only one and a half yards more required. So, they settled in to wait for the first truck to get back to Truro to pick up a bit more cement and bring it back to complete the pouring of the walls. THis was when I left for the day, which was around 5:30 pm. All seemed to be under control. The forms are supposed to stay on for another day and then be stripped off on Wednesday or Thursday. Not sure about backfilling around the foundation, I'll see what happened next time I'm up!

Day One of Many

So day 1 of construction was SUPPOSED to be Monday June 18. However, it rained all day, natch. The excavator did show up and get parked at the lot, however, and the operator and foundation contractor did make an appearance the morning of Tuesday the 19th. Progress was rapid, and poof! there was a big hole in the ground for the basement.




The next day was Wednesday, and I was not able to be there to see the work in progress. However, I did hear from my builder that the foundation contractor, Terry Heighton, was working away and he looked up to see my new neighbour staring him in the eye!! This is a picture I shot of the new neighbour a couple of evenings earlier, across the road from my place. But it seems he may have moved onto my lot!! More on this dilemma later, after I get more information.

The Start Of It All

Well, we are at the starting point of my first home construction project! All preliminary details seems to be lined up, builder is committed, and the schedule has been set. The foundation people are scheduled to start their first part of the project on Monday June 19, 2007.

This project has been a long time in the planning phase, and is now becoming reality! The picture here is a photoshopped image of what the house should like like on completion, from a photo where I bought the plans from. This house has been built before in Maine, and I found the plans on an Internet website, and loved them immediately.

Here is the weather forecast for the next week (first week of construction), so I'm hoping they are right!

Sunday June 17	Monday June 18	Tuesday June 19	Wednesday June 20	Thursday June 21	Friday June 22
High	20°C	15°C	15°C	20°C	20°C	21°C
Low	14°C	12°C	11°C	10°C	13°C	13°C
Condition	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness	Cloudy periods	Cloudy periods	Sunny	Mainly sunny
P.O.P.	20%	20%	10%	30%	0%	10%

So before we get into actual construction, here is where the new house is being built. It's on a 10-acre property on the Wallace River, a salt-water river in Northern Nova Scotia. I have already built the garage on the lot, and had the well drilled, in preparation for the house.


I bought this land a few years ago, and have slowly been working toward the time to build the house. North is to the right. That is a creek on the south edge of my lot, and the creek runs into the Wallace River. There is already a pathway down to the river, running down beside where the house will be located, and I'm able to put my boat in the water right there. I had a dock built last year and it's working out perfectly.


This photo shows the boat parked at my dock in the summer of 2006.