All the streets in this little subdivision end as blind streets (Cul de sacs). Then we sent for a reverse image of this set of plans. We needed 5 sets of plans with the garge on the right:
This is now the third time we've picked designs from American magazines and the second time we've selected one from this particular designer. We highly recommend that designer--all the plans we've ordered from them have been very complete and passed building codes both in cities and rural municipalities. Some adapation is necessary from American to Canadian, but they've been very minor.
We formerly built two houses on lakes...the first was a 3-story A-frame overlooking a small lake within driving distance of London. That one we subbed out the basement, the services and the framing.
The second was a two-story English-Tudor style on Lake Huron. Haydn lived in the motorhome while he was building the house while I was teaching in London. Use to go there on weekends and help him with the construction, but he did the majority of the work. The location of the house didn't suit us. It was a retirement community and we were too young to enjoy living in that kind of environment.
Sold it and built our next house in London. It was a more modern style Tudor, split level on a fantastic site. It was just up the street from a golf course with many of the holes adjacent to the Thames River. It was a five minute drive to the centre of the City of London. This time we subcontracted out bringing in the services, basement, and the framing. We would have done more, but urban restrictions about what individuals can do is much tighter than rural communities where we have built before. It's not the intent of cities is punish capable people, it's to control builder-type people from living in basements because they run out of money or the energy to finish construction of their houses.
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The building permit to erect our final retirement home from Collective Designs was approved in late September. Haydn then rushed about trying to line subcontractors up to dig the basement and lay the septic system. We had great difficulty finding subcontractors in this rural community that weren't already committed to other projects. We did manage to find someone in late November, who promised to install the septic system, but the weather closed in and we decided to not start until Spring 2001. We asked the municipality for an extension and delay to the start--that too was approved.
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Commencement of construction:
The septic system was installed and the hole dug for the basement. Got our approval from the plumbing inspection office for the drainage system.
We had put our house up for sale in London in April, and it sold in less than 24 hours with very little bickering about our asking price. I had spent the entire winter stripping off all wallpaper and painting everything 'Bleached Cotton', with the exception of one wall in the living room that was painted pale, olive green. We got within two thousand dollars of what we needed for our budget to build our final retirement home.
Perhaps we should have considered our age at the time? Haydn would turn 65 in November, 2001 and I was no spring chicken at 59.
In June, 2001 we moved to an apartment in Exeter. Now, we were compelled to build the house as fast as possible so we could get out of it. We parked our motorhome at the building site.
The summer we built it, there was of course, a heat wave. In the peak of that very hot summer what were we doing? The gentleman who dug the hole didn't make it large enough. I'm not very big physically -- the cement blocks weight 50 pounds each. As I recall, there were lots and lots and lots of piles of those blocks that had to be carried and laid.
That was the first time we speculated whether we were too old to be building this house with subcontractors playing such a small role in its construction. The only other person we hired to do anything for us was a guy to dig the trenches for the services. Haydn had called him several times and each time he said he'd be there...he didn't show up on three separate occasions. So Haydn went out and bought all the materials to do it himself. The day he was going to rent a backhoe to start it, the guy showed up...charged us $500 bucks and he used the materials Haydn had bought. His estimate to us had included them! Pay the piper and just don't hire another bandit from this little village to do one more thing for us!!!
We persevered, because we had no other option. "Great planning huh?" :)
I don't think I'll ever forget the final thing we had to do that first summer. We managed to get all the cement block walls erected for the basement. The final thing was to put the tar on to seal the blocks. Guess what the temperature was the day we could no longer put it off? Yeah right...it was cool at 0500 in the morning at 85 degrees and the day just got hotter as it progressed. Oh and don't forget that the hole wasn't big enough and the material surrounding the basement was comparable to very fine beach sand.
Let me explain the procedure for putting tar on cement blocks. You need to have the footings at the bottom of the foundations where the blocks meet the footings clear of any dirt or sand to begin. The race was now on ... get a broom, sweep off the footings, fight the minute-by-minute erosion of the beach sand above us. Too bad we didn't have a camera...it was a Laurel & Hardy moment in our lives! The thirst and the sweat from working in such high heat with a desert that fills in almost as quickly as it's swept and broomed with tar on the walls!
It was my job to fight with the desert while Haydn manned the broom with the hot tar. Two more 'busy' people who didn't exchange a word while they were doing it would be impossible to find! We kept a case of cold brewskies very close at hand and shuffled it along as we worked.
Haydn at times had less than 6" between the block walls and the sand that threatened to engulf him. How he managed to do that job in such a confined space was nothing short of a miracle. The heat from the sun, the walls and the tar was close to being unbearable.
It took an entire weekend to complete that task. Jeez, I wonder where my daughter, her hubby and all our friends are??? Not a sole came to help us ... we were completely on our own. The three nights we did it, we collapsed into our beds in the motorhome and had the sleep only lackeys have who built the Canadian railway. Made us appreciate how very hard they must have worked! But at least they got 10 cents an hour ... for our efforts we could expect nothing.
Surprising enough, we did not lose our tempers at each other...just plugged along 'til we got it done! I did have to go to the beer store to replenish our stock to satisfy our thirst that weekend.
Next chapter I'll elaborate on a couple of other 'little' snags that we possibly shouldn't have tried ourselves.
