Blood, Sweat and Tears

Since my last posting there has been much blood and sweat and, metaphorically, a few tears as well. Not that there is much to show for it photographically. Once the concrete had set in the polystyrene blocks all the scaffolding and wood work was removed from the cabin foundations and work started on building the garage foundation walls, this time from 6" wide ICF blocks (as opposed to 8" blocks for the main house).

Garage foundation walls half done, this time blocks only three high. 

This went well and stablilsation forms were put in place to keep it all together during the pour. Care was taken to tie it all into the foundations of the house in order to ensure there are no gaps in the insulation between the two.  They were also tied together with steel (and concrete) for mutual support and added strength. Steel bars were used inside the blocks in exactly the same way as with the 8" blocks. I did want to put an inspection pit into the garage to make it easier to do a bit of maintenance on the jeep (thought it was about time I put to use the skills I learned on my Driver and Maintenance (D&M) course in Bovington in 1976) but, sadly, I was informed that inspection pits are not allowed without full ventilation systems and other safety measures. Health and Safety gone bonkers again. Small loss and life and work goes on.

The garage foundation walls ready for pouring.

Next up was to level and impact the ground in the basement and to put in place a steel framework ready for the concrete sub-floor. The levelling had to be done by hand as the basement is not walk-out and therefore there is no access for mechanical equipment. This work was left to the younger members of the work team.  This, of course, included me and the many years of practice digging trenches and shell scrapes in the far corners of the world were put to good use.

New members of the team.  Mark (left in green T shirt) does the work of two men - talks for both as well.  Kyle, Kevin's son, (right no shirt) is the baby of the team - bears the jibes and jokes well.  Kevin (centre), who you've already met, is the master builder and foreman.  Trust me - these guys are tough.

Now I've dug harder ground, sweated and bled more but I was still glad when the job was done. In reality most of the work involved bringing more material into the basement to raise the low areas and there were only (thanks to Dennis's good work with the digger) a few areas that needed lowering. The impacting was done by machine, which we manhandled in through a window and if we had put pockets in the corners we could have had a game of billiards on the finished surface. Last was the steel framing, wired to form 4ft squares and raised off the ground about and inch and half.

I am still trying to decide how to divide the basement up. The footings in the centre are for the supporting pillars that will hold the cabin up.

The pouring was delayed a day because we had to wait for a leveling expert and his team to ensure the best possible result for the basement floor. On the day (Wednesday) it all went remarkably smoothly. Work started on the basement floor at 0830 hours.

Trusty Dan on the pump gun again.  Floor depth 4".

It took nearly three loads of concrete to get the job done but it went down very quickly.

John finishing off the initial laying.

Final polishing was done by machine and took most of the afternoon to complete to perfection.

Finally finished polishing at 1730 hours

and you really could play billiards on this surface.

Meanwhile the garage walls were poured without mishap and final checks were done to make sure everything was straight and vertical.

The home team on the garage foundation walls.

For light entertainment this week you will all be amused to learn that I managed to poison myself last week and spent two nights evacuating my system from both ends until they were both raw and I was exhausted. I'm still not entirely sure what caused it but the chief suspects were: eggs (that I have been eating raw for a couple of weeks); tinned fish (which is renowned for being responsible for the occasional upset tummy; Thai chicken wings (had a warning from them earlier in the week), and; the fountain of my water container which, I have to admit, was not as clean as it should have been.  Anyway, got rid of the Thai wings, cleaned the fountain of the water container and have accepted the risk with the eggs and fish.  So far so good - haven't tried the eggs yet.

To help my recovery I took the afternoon off on Saturday and drove a few miles north to the hot springs at Fairmont.  Just driving there was a joy and reminded me just how much there is to explore here.  I spent a few hours bathing in the sun and hot springs and felt much better for it for the drive home.  On the way back I stopped off at the Bull River Inn and indulged myself in a blue steak which Eddy cooked beautifully.  At that point I thought life doesn't get much better and came home, went to bed and at about three o'clock in the morning threw it all up.  No regrets - it was still a great steak.  Anyway, I think I am over it now.

Well, the dulcet tones of the Sull Aria are wooing me to bed, so I'll sign off for now and post again in a few days. Yours aye.

Slowly, Slowly Catchy Monkey

Apologies for the delay in getting this posting out but, I suppose unsurprisingly, we were hit by a few delays last week getting the next pouring done. I think I must have upset the gods, particularly Woden, because on Wednesday (named after him) it poured with rain and the Canadians, not being used to the rain as we are in the UK, stopped work for the day. Work resumed on Thursday but we couldn't make up enough of the lost time to be ready to pour the concrete before the weekend and as Monday was a bank holiday another day was lost. So this week we finished the last preparations for the footings for the garage and eventually poured concrete for the basement walls and the garage footings on Wednesday.  All said and done the small delays last week will not delay the project as there is going to be a pause anyway once the ground work is finished until the logs arrive and there is always plenty of 'yard work' for me to be getting on with.


Before all that however, and more or less in chronological order, the events since the last posting went like this. On Monday of last week a truck load of approximately 300 polystyrene blocks arrived together with about 100 steel rods and a load of plastic sheets and forms. These were all parts for the "Insulating Concrete Forming System". About 4ft long, 13 ins wide and 16 ins tall each polystyrene block has plastic ties bridging the 8 ins across the hollow centre. They fit together a bit like giant lego bricks and we spent Tuesday, Thursday and Friday building the basement walls on top of the footings. A few blocks had to be cut to measure because not all the house dimensions matched the block lengths and the prow/bay angles and basement windows required bespoke fitting, which was time consuming.

Owen sorting out one of the corners during the process of building the basement walls

Each of the six polystyrene block layers had its own steel rod layer and when the final layer was finished vertical rods were wired in place every 3 - 4 feet around the whole wall.

This close up shows you the horizontal (on each layer) and vertical steel rods that will give the basement wall its real strength once the concrete is poured into the centre.   The polystyrene, either side of the concrete centre, is for insulation and makes for a really warm house  - apparently (I'll let you know after the winter).  Dry walling can be screwed directly onto it on the inside tying into the plastic bridges and a heavy duty plastic waterproof barrier is applied to the outside below ground level before backfilling.  Above ground level there are several options. I will probably use simple rendering where it is hidden by the decking and something more presentable where it can be seen.  Obviously, more on that at a later date.

Special scaffolding was put in place to provide both a working platform and support to the blocks while the concrete is poured into the central cavity.  It probably all sounds very tedious but actually is was enormous fun putting it all together and I leaned a great deal.

The main house basement walls ready for concrete to be poured into the hollow polystyrene blocks.  Note the windows facing the lake.  They will be the only source of natural light for the basement.  There won't be enough room above ground level for similar windows on the other sides of the house.

From the lake side.  The prow angles required hand crafting the polystyrene blocks and therefore it was not as stable as the other walls and had to have additional support and stabilisation, which is all the woodwork you can see here, to make sure it didn't move or collapse when the concrete was poured.

The forms for the garage footings in place ready for the concrete.

On Wednesday at noon the pump and four truckloads of cement arrived and the pouring started.  Here's yours truly doing the easy work.  The rest of the team were busy checking for leaks (watching). 

By mid afternoon twas all done bar the shouting.  It all went remarkably well with only a couple of minor gliches that the team very quickly contained.  The last thing to do was to check the walls were vertical and to tweak the scaffolding where necessary.  The final result was a strong structure which when fully set will be ready to take the beams for the sub-floor.

I think I must have upset Thor and Frya was well because Thursday and Friday of last week were cold and there was no hot water for a shower at the end of the working day. So I had a taste of things to come and this inspired me to get on with construction as quickly as possible and on Saturday I spent a couple of hours with the wood burning heater people looking at my requirements and options. It warmed me up just looking at the burners and I quite liked the look of one that has a hot plate on the top for keeping a pot or two warm on. The warm weather has thankfully returned, if a degree or two lower than in August, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Over the long week end I went back to yard work and started to clear and shape a small shaded patch near the escarpment that I hope and expect will turn into one of the special niches of this small piece of land.  I have also started some other stacks of wood, having grown tired of carrying or dragging logs and twigs from one end of the property to the other.  The main wood pile, which is now quite famous within the community and a little envied if the truth be known, continues to grow with wood from that end, as does the rotten wood pile, which I think will end being the largest pile of the lot.

The main wood pile (on the left) tidied up a little.

The hunting season started on 1 September and I was expecting to be woken by a volley of fire at first light, as one is in France. Unlike the French however, who will shoot anything from a sparrow to a bear and even sometimes each other, the Canadians are more selective. The sound of gun fire however can be heard occasionally but in all honesty most of the serious hunting is taking place out of hearing range in the remoter mountains and valleys. There are still a lot of deer around here but they seem to be left alone, the hunters seemingly after bigger game elsewhere.


I'm slowly getting to know my neighbours and very nice they all seem to be. Breaking the ice has been easy, swapping stories about building our houses and complaining about the builders, which is always easy, if sometimes a little on the cheap side. I have no doubt that builders have just as much fun with stories about home owners.


Two deaths recently have shocked the local community. The first was a young girl of 17 who was killed on Highway 3 in a head on collision.  The road was closed for about six hours afterwards. I learned on Saturday that she was the daughter of the couple who run the wood burner shop in Cranbrook. Highway 3, despite being a very good road is very dangerous between Wardner and Cranbrook partly because of the number of wild animals that plague it and it is a nightmare at night. There have been three serious accidents on it since I have been here but, I don't think an animal was involved in this one. The second death was of the 38 year old partner in the Bull River Inn, who scratched himself in his yard in Cranbrook and died within 24 hours from a very fast acting flesh wasting disease (necrotizing fasciitis/myositis). He left a young wife and (I think) two children. All very sad. Needless to say I have now become paranoid every time I cut or scratch myself, which is about twice a day.


On a lighter note to finish on.....

Look, its never easy taking a self portrait and (as you all know very well) I am really a lot better looking than this - somewhere between Robert Redford and Brad Pitt I am told (I thought Brad Pitt was coal mine in Yorkshire).  The trouble is these cheep iphone cameras lie like NAAFI watches.  And yes, for those Down Under that's a real Slouch Hat issued to me by HM The Queen of Australia back in 1988.  Actually, I am thinking of making it the official head dress of the British Columbia Combined AAC/RTR Reserve, otherwise known as Walch's Light Horse.  I think a nice green ostrich feather would make it very presentable, if not rather fetching, on parade and for the most auspicious occasions (Royal visits etc), in the hottest climes, there would be the option of ........

..... a Pith Helment, AAC or RTR band depending on background/preference.  Drill nights are on Friday evenings in the Bull River Inn - chosen for its central location you understand.  Regimental strength currently one but still recruiting and open to all.

Will post again when there is something more to show you - next step is to put the base flooring in. Pip, Pip.

PS. Thought 'Arwen' (The Evenstar) might be a nice name for the cabin. Comes from Lord of the Rings, but you knew that. According to some, she was the most beautiful thing in Middle Earth. Probably better see how the cabin turns out first or I might be doing her a grave disservice.