Inspection season is here

We had our first inspection yesterday, for framing. It was fairly uneventful, the guy showed up at 11am and spent around 4 minutes in the basement. Everything is good except for the vapour barrier that we had put up behind the framed walls. For some reason it doesn't need to be there...the concrete needs to 'breathe'. So we were told to remove it. Hmmmm...says I. What stops the mold from growing on the insulation then? We had a hard time wrapping our heads around that one, but if they say it has to go, well then it's going to go. (But we'll hold them to it in case someone changes their mind...or mold starts to grow in a year...)

The plastic was all removed last night, in about half an hour. A lot easier to take down than put up, isn't that always the case? We're not ticked off about having to take it out (even though it's a waste of money) -- if it gets us the signature on the dotted line we're happy!

Up next is the electrical inspection tomorrow (and the 2nd framing inspection). I hope these guys come early in the day, I have so much going on at work at the moment it's a little hairy. Here I am trying to move, work on ongoing projects, taking on new ones, schmoozing a new client (with a meeting downtown on Thursday to boot) -- all while everything at home is a disaster.

Busy? Neverrr....

Even though it's Zellers, I love this ad!

(But it still won't make me go there to buy anything!)

Insulation, no thanks

I worked on insulation last night in the basement (or fire stop, which is still insulation, just a fancy type that takes a while to burn), and man, is that stuff ITCHY. You start to sweat and the little bits stick to you, which makes you want to scratch, and scratch, and scratch. The worst part for me was my face. Ugh. I have to finish a bit more of it tonight, and then it will be on to the big fluffy pink stuff once the framing inspection gets approved.

Speaking of inspections, the Langley Township office neglected to tell us that they don't do electrical inspections anymore. So we had to panic and go find out who does. Well, it goes through the province now, and we were lucky that they give out permits on the same day you go in. But it still costs $208. Another $208! *sigh* I can begin to understand why people don't bother to get permits and just do their reno's on the sly. If we were putting in a suite downstairs there would be even more hoops to jump through. At least at the end of the day we will be all registered and on the books for our reno's.

At the end of the day yesterday:

Moving in...gradually

Well, Lulu has started to make herself at home on the round red chair that used to be in the (other) office. She will be my new coworker I think. lol

Here's the update on the basement: We're getting two inspections this week, one for framing and the other for electrical. We were at Home Depot (AGAIN) last night to pick up some fire stop (insulation) and spent the rest of the night getting itchy and sweaty (well, that was Trevor's department) while shoving it in the walls. The fire stop has to be put in --according to Langley building codes-- around the outside tops of the framing, so that in the case of a fire it will provide a bit of a block before the fire spreads to another floor of the house. Essentially, it gives anyone in the house another 10-15 minutes to get out.

And the other big plans in the works: The bedroom that is in the basement has now been upgraded to a media room. Meaning: super duper sound system is going in (insert manly grunt of technology here), and a new tv somewhere down the line as well (purchasing at poorhouse electronics I'm guessing). There's also a PANEL. Yes, a manly PANEL of TECHNOLOGY as well. To the average eye it looks like a box in the wall with a door (almost a glorified locker really), but no, this houses the TECHNOLOGY and all things HIGH TECH. It will hold all of the internet thingies, the phone thingies, the tv thingies and probably other thingies as well. It is the hub of the house now (wait, I thought that was the kitchen). Or it will be.

I can't wait until it's drywall time!!! That's hopefully happening around the 23rd. *Excitement!*

Kermit was in my backyard!

Over the weekend I was watering the garden and I saw this little thing twitch on a pot I was watering! It was a frog! I was very excited (but still thought, if this thing jumps on me I will crap my pants), so I ran inside and grabbed the camera.

Now that I have your attention...

I thought I'd be smart and post a picture of moving boxes, but when I googled it, this came up and won over the boring cardboard type. Apparently it's supposed to look like it's moving...somehow.

Back to the task at hand! Moving is still coming along at a hit and miss pace. Sometimes I get up the energy to blow through 8 boxes, and other times it's like *sigh* boxes. I'll be packing up more today.

The weekend was pretty fun. Well, the end half of it, not so much the beginning. We took Friday off to get more of a head start on some basement stuff (Trevor mostly) and I started a mega spot cleaning through the house, so we could at least live in something that resembles one. Saturday was more of the same, but we had dinner made for us by some friends out in Abbotsford. Sunday started on a crappy note, with me snapping my neck out of alignment and getting a funny crick for the rest of the weekend (and it's still here today). But we had Mike and Cynthia come over and spend the day doing electrical fun things (Mike) and the girls went out shopping (of course!). We had dim sum for lunch (next time, Pink Pearl!...or other!) and Mike and Trevor shared some 'beef tenders' (aka - 'gross slimey things'). The jury is still out on what these are. I've looked them up on google and wikipedia and have come up with nothing. I'll look it up in my dim sum book tonight.

We also went and saw the Bourne movie that's out. Same old, same old. Smash, smash, who am I?, honk, beep, smash, run run run, the end. But we did get to have the extra bonus of seeing the movie at a shady theatre in Guildford (Surrey). And an even better bonus of witnessing Mike's 'rapping' talents to Run DMC. Tricky, tricky, tricky, tricky, ungh!

On Monday we had the Merrimans back again, Mike to tackle electrical stuff again, and Cynthia, to tackle the Ikea with moi. I was a bit disappointed that Ikea didn't have more of their new stuff in yet (especially since I got the new 2008 catalogue on Friday!!!). Oh darn, I guess that's another trip!

And today, well I'd like to press the rewind button and go back to Thursday when I could have avoided having milk leak out of the small office fridge and proceed to harden/get sticky/stink like a cow bum in here this morning. It was nasty and took me an hour of cleaning and scrubbing to get it all under control. And I still have a strawberry candle burning over on a table to try and mask the smell a bit. Yuck. I'm sure I'll find a few more surprises where I've missed and it still stinks.