Originally posted on 2018-11-09
Is basically all we did this week.
By that I mean we dug. We dug a lot. Last week I mentioned that we started digging for the water line. This week we continued that digging, and almost completed it. We got the new water line in under the foundation and pulled in enough that we will be able to hook it up in the plumbing closet really soon. As you can see by the picture, we started to bury it again a little as well, but then decided that it made more sense to finishing the digging the trench before filling in the part that we dug.
But before moving on we started putting some insulation down into the ditch. The plan, of course, is that with the insulation over the water line the water will be safe from freezing without us having to use the heater that was stopping the water line just below the surface from freezing. Having a passive system instead of an active one will not only save us a bunch of money on hydro, we won’t need to worry if the power goes out, which we have been told may be a common occurrence where we are.
The other fun thing that we got to do this week was move the two skids of shingles out of the way so we could get some propane tanks installed. Since the ditch needed to be dug, my husband kept doing that as I moved the shingles. Not sure which was more tiring, especially considering the amount of large rocks that needed to pulled out of the ground. It feels really great to have them out of the way, considering we’re not using them again until spring.
As I just mentioned, the reason we needed to move the shingles was to get them out of the way was to have our propane finally delivered. Know what that means? WE HAVE HEAT! The contractors came the same day that these were delivered and made sure that all the radiators were properly hooked up and they installed the three thermostats for our three zones. Finally, after a couple of hic-ups, we were able to cross this off our to-do before winter list.
We have decided to split up the house into three zones. Zone One covers the two upstairs bedrooms, which will become our primary bedrooms once we have finished renovating the western extension. Zone Two covers the downstairs of the addition where we will be putting the kitchen & dining room. Zone Three covers the remainder of the house, which is the bathroom, the current laundry room, downstairs bedroom, and the room with the fireplace. This amount of control will allow us to heat only the parts of the house we are actively using at any time.
Unfortunately, we had many cold / rainy days this week where it was impossible to spend the entire day working on trenching out for the water line. During those times, we started to insulate the garage that will become a shop where we plan to build the cupboards for the new kitchen. The one propane wall heater that came with the house will be moved over here, giving us a heated work space so we can build through the winter. The eastern garage will be cleaned out enough for us to park our car there through the winter. We’ve had some snow already, so winter will soon be upon us, and for the first time I feel that we might just be ready for it when it comes.
Huron The Lake 