The painter finally was able to come by and finish up the trim painting. He had a perfect day and was able to complete it.

The road people have also been by and have done some prep on our parking area. Hopefully that means they will be paving the road and our parking area soon.

After sending a picture of the newly installed railing and then asking about the state of our occupancy permit, I was told by the building inspector that there were no more outstanding issues and the permit would be granted. Later we received it in the mail.

Now we need to fix the dock and retaining walls before we can start landscaping – so we are not done yet.

The section of railing that was preventing the granting of our occupancy permit was installed recently. The installer didn’t take any pictures or inform us that it was done: Here is the railing now done:

These pictures were sent to the building inspector but unfortunately, she is on vacation until the beginning of March.

Here is a 3 minute time lapse video of the construction of our place.

A higher quality version can be found here

We are still waiting for our last piece of railing to be installed.

Our contractor believes that he has met the terms of his contract. The electrician finished up his work last week and today the contractor addressed a few deficiencies identified during the final inspection. He says the only outstanding item needed for occupancy permit is the railing on the south side of the stairs going from the deck to the boathouse roof which he says is our responsibility so he wants to be paid in full. He says that RDOS won’t require a another visit, the inspector will be OK if we send her a picture of the railing that was missing. We just need to get our railing supplier to find an installer so we can it it done.

The painter was able to get one last day in before the weather will prevent exterior painting. He was able to do the exterior doors, casings and jambs. He also did some of the belly band and front entry corbels.

When we were at our place on the weekend we met with our railing supplier to discuss how we could put a railing on the south side of the stairs leading from the deck to the boathouse roof. We have decided to put fascia mounted railing on the bottom stairs but there will be a couple of stairs at the top that will need something between the stairs and the bottom of the deck. Once the railing is installed we will get our builder to fill in the gap.

Our builder has not been able to get the electrician to come and finish the little bit he has to do. Apparently, a lot of people need electrical work done. However, we can’t get our occupancy permit until the final electrical inspection has passed.

Before leaving on Sunday, we drained all the water, set the thermostats to about 7 degrees and put the heat pump into freeze protection mode which should keep the second floor at almost 8 deg. We have remote temperature monitoring at four location in the house to let us know if it is getting too cold inside.

RDOS has started the final inspection process in preparation for granting our occupancy permit. Paperwork (Schedule C) is needed from both the Geotechnical Engineer and the Structural Engineer. An on-site inspection revealed a few issues. Some screws were missing in some doors and the backfill needs to be sloped away from the house. The stairs from the upper deck to the garage rooftop need a railing on the south side of the stairs (we knew this might be an issue). As well, the electrical work needs to be completed and the final electrical inspection called. Hopefully this can be completed soon.

The railing installation is complete and the supplier came by to check them and ensured that we were satisfied – which we were.

We met with our contractor and went over some things that he needs to address. It is hoped that he can get the few things done soon so we can have our final inspection to find out what else need to be fixed.

On Friday, with the help of two of our friends (Jim Gerbrandt and Ted Staunton) concrete slabs were put under the stair that lead from the deck to the south yard. The railing installer then spent Saturday installing the railings on the stairs.

On Sunday, he completed the rest of the railings.

The railings will be complete after the glass panels have been inserted into the railing frames around the upper deck which is planned to happen this week. The only things that we know we need to do before the final inspection are a little bit of electrical work and do a walk through with our builder and have him address a the things that we have noticed.

The installer worked today on putting the railings around the house deck. Where there will be glass railings, it is currently just the metal frames, the glass will be cut and installed later. The plan is for the installation of all the exterior railings to be completed next weekend.