greenspree.ca at The Sietch

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated the status of our house project, one of the reasons being that we have been very busy!

As of Tuesday, we have our septic system and well installed, temporary power installed and foundation formed/poured c/w air circulation ducts and coloured hardener.

Some communication and weather issues have left us about a week or two behind, but we are hoping that won’t affect the straw bale raising date. The weekend I was to start forming the slab on grade, I went paintballing with my wife’s younger brother and severely sprained my ankle. The ER doctors the next day suspected a torn ligement or ruptured tendon and it was nearly a full two weeks before I could walk again or spend any time on my feet.

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Last night my wife and I spent three hours trimming the interlocking teeth of the ICF’s that will make up the perimeter form of our slab on grade. This task was supposed to have been completed on the weekend along with a major chuck of the slab forwaork itself however fate has decided to throw us another curve ball!

Saturday afternoon the family was together for a gam of paintball at a local field for my brother-in-law’s birthday and within the first 5 minutes of the first match I twisted my ankle in some mud bad enough to tear a ligament or two! Ouch. It left me immobilized that day and medicating with some beer at my father-in-law’s cottage. I had hoped that the sprain would feel better enough for me to get some work done on Sunday, alas it only felt worse. So after feebly attempting to do some work on the site, I relented into letting my wife take me to the ER. 4 hours later (wait times are an issue here!) I had clean x-rays and advice to take it easy, walk on it a little every day to strengthen the ligaments, and that it should be better in a couple weeks.

So I am suddenly behoven to ask friends and family for more help than I wanted to burden them with. Last nights chore of trimming the ICF’s was an easy chore with very little walking and no heavy lifting on a level smooth floor, it still left my ankle swollen and throbing by the end of the night and me exhausted!

We are still hoping to pour some concrete within a week or so, I’ll be posting photos when we get some more progress done.

Some photos of the pad, new power poles and layout of the septic field.  This weekend the formwork will begun and (hopefully) finished, with underslab plumbing, temporary power and concrete pouring happening next week!

This view is from the Shire Lane, the private road off of which our lot is located. The Shire Lane itself is on a quiet country dirt road called the Peters Road and surrounded by farm and woodlots. You can see our driveway branch off to the left and then head west as the Shire Lane curves right. In the foreground is our new puppy Rosie and in the mid ground my in-laws dog Caleb!

This view of our building pad is from the small parking area at the end of our driveway, in the background (south southwest) you can see the high tension power lines that skirt our property. They are a bit obtrusive but not too overwhelming and certainly carry a lot less power than most high tension lines entering big cities.

This view looking back at the house lot from the other side and pointing east northeast towards the neighbouring horse field. In the background you can see our little 12’x14′ deck we made last year before our wedding. you can clearly see the stakes and building lines that are set up on the pad.

This view looks back almost 180 degrees from the first shot and shows our new power pole on the left close to the trees. The power lines will enter underground from this point to minimize the amount of visible wires on the site. It also shows our view to the east where the sun rises over the spruce woods on the other side of the Peters Road and the acre and a half horse field between our lot and it.

This final shot of the house site is taken from the deck mentioned before. The hedgerow to the north of the building site will protect the house from cold north winds in the winter time. To the left of this photo, not visible is our 20’x20′ vegetable garden which is just starting to take off. We have had fresh salads which buttercrunch lettuce, radishes, spinach and lambs quarters all week long and can’t keep ahead of the lettuce!

This is where our septic field will be at the crest of a gully on the south east corner of our hectare lot. This is stitched from three photos so the perspective is a little off, but you can see where the high tension power line tower pointed out in the previous photo is. 2 feet of premium fill will be placed between the stakes to provide adeqaute filtration as we are sitting on a shelf of brick clay on our site.