The excavation started at 8:00 am this morning. However, it was soon interrupted by the geo-tech determining that the footing was going to be below the water table. A quick discussion involving the structural engineer determined that the bottom of the footing would need to be raised by 18″. Fortunately the structural engineer found a way to raise the footing by the required amount but only raise the floor level by 6″. This now requires the drawings to be updated which will be done while the builder continues with construction.

Today’s work appears to be primarily focused on placing Lock-Blocks along the edge of the road so that the road will remain open while construction continues.

The RDOS confirmed that they are OK with the new site plan and the rest of the drawings as they are, so we can proceed with construction. Our builder is also OK with this. He has arranged for the surveyor to mark the house location on Wednesday and the excavator to come and dig the hole on Thursday. (Is it really going to happen this time?)

The biggest challenge will be digging the hole and providing support for the road so that it can remain open while the foundations are being built. Our builder is working with our geo-technical engineer to come up with the most effective solution.

The engineering firm who did all the permit drawings revised the site plan to move the house back on the property and removed the garage. A person in the RDOS planning department looked at the new site plan and thought it looked OK. However, it needs to be discussed with the Building Official who will be doing the inspections. Unfortunately, the Building Official was out of the office all day doing inspections. Hopefully he will be able to look at the new site plan soon and decide what other drawings need to be updated.

Last Friday we were told by our surveyor that the survey that they did in 2013 did not have the correct lake side property line. If we proceeded with building the house where it was shown on the site plan, we would be encroaching on crown land. The only quick solution is to move the house back on the property. However, this means that there will not be sufficient room for the garage. Given the choice between stopping everything and redesigning (including being in breach of our contract with our builder) or going ahead with a very compromised redevelopment, we have decided to proceed with having our structural engineer move the house on the site plan so that it will not be encroaching on crown land according to the new property boundary definition.

The irony is that today we were granted our RDOS building permit. We should be celebrating, but due to this latest glitch, the celebration is postponed once again!

To prepare for starting to build, we went up to the property and installed the orange safety fence.

Excavator is leaving

Ready to start rebuilding.

Looks like the Demolition Company has completed the demolition and debris removal. Only a large excavator to remove.

Sept 7 is Demolition Day

As of 9:00 the trailer is gone!

Thanks to Sandra Broughton for picture

By 10:00, the garage is also gone.

Thanks to Sandra Broughton for picture

Webcam Picture at 10:35

All that is left of the trailer is the frame

Thanks to Angela Evans for Picture