Now It's Starting To Look Like Something...........

The brick layers were hard at it since 7am this morning,let me tell you I would not want to do their job.Lifting and placing bricks just doesn't look like fun at all.Of course what I do is not much fun either,but that is a whole other story! Anyway on with the pictures...

This would be the wall that we have been waiting for!Looking at this now it seems like we are getting somewhere but I still don't think we will be done on time.Unless our contractor spends all his time on this job for the next few weeks  instead of bouncing around from job to job,I don't think everything will be ready for the end of August.

Here is a view from the back.You can see the space where the two windows are going to go.

I was standing on the two boards you see there and was going to go into the sort of basement and take a picture.But the boards kind of slipped and I didn't feel like falling into the hole between the bricks,so I didn't go in there.If I didn't have to go back to work I might have tried it.

That concludes another day on the construction front and I think that the cement needs a day or so to dry so I don't what else the brick layers need to do.They did leave their stuff here so I am assuming they are coming back tomorrow,but I could be wrong!

A 1954 Whiskey Bottle History Lesson!

This post has nothing to do with the home renovations we are going through right now.I guess that is not really true since the post is about a whiskey bottle my brother found while in the crawl hole running some wires through the house.

 That would be the hole my brother had to crawl into and where he found the whiskey bottle.I don't know how he did it either?     

      Here is the first picture of the whiskey bottle.It was made by the Gooderham and Worts Distillery Company,which at the time that this was made was owned by Harry C Hatch who purchased the company in 1923.In 1927 Hatch purchased the company Hiram Walker and Sons Ltd and combined the two companies to form the Hiram Walker-Gooderham and Worts Ltd.Try saying that 5 times fast!

As you can see the whiskey was made in 1954.Unfortunately there was no whiskey in the bottle if there was it would have been nicely aged.I think it is safe to say that this belonged to my grandfather and probably threw it in the hole to get rid of the evidence not wanting my grandmother to found out about his secret love for whiskey.Although to be honest I think she kind of had an idea.What other secrets does the crawl hole have?? I don't know, but I can tell you I am not crawling in there to find out!

The company Gooderham and Worts was originally founded by James Worts who came to Toronto(York at the time) in 1831 from Suffolk, England where he owned a flour mill.He built a windmill at the mouth of the Don River the next year and then was joined by his brother in law William Gooderham.Their business prospered processing grains and then shipping out then grain until Worts wife Elizabeth died during childbirth. James Worts would commit suicide two weeks later by jumping into the windmill's well and drowning.Gooderham would manage the company solo until he made Worts oldest son James Gooderham Worts co manager.With a surplus of wheat in 1837 the company got into the business of distilling and then it really prospered until of course prohibition! They did build a new distillery complex in 1859 and this building was used up until it was closed in 1990.The building still stands in what is now called the Distillery District in Toronto which is located on Trinity street.

There you go your history lesson for the day, but if you do want to read up more on Gooderham and Worts Ltd just click the link it will take you where you need to go.

Update

So I got the scoop as to why the brick layer left and didn't come back.

I was just talking with my dad and he was talking to a friend of the family who is a retired contractor and he said that it is too hot to lay bricks today.Apparently that if it is too hot out they can't lay the bricks for the foundation or the cement will dry too fast and end up cracking the foundation.Of course we don't want that, so I guess it was a good thing they decided not to do it today.This is probably why they were waiting around to see how hot it was going to be,thus deciding it was too hot(good choice) and left.

I didn't check the weather for tomorrow so we will just have to wait and see what happens with the weather.If it's not one thing it's another!

MidDay Post

I thought I would do a lunch time post since I can almost bet that nothing is going to happen the rest of today.

The day did not start out like this though,no,no there was hope in the air.There was hope of a foundation being built today when the brick layer showed up here a 7:30am.The situation was looking really good.

They(brick layer and helper) got in the hole,moved some bricks around so the had some space to work.They set up the cement mixing machine,asked me to turn on the water and.................

That was it!!!!

They stood around after that waiting for who knows what?? They decided to leave around 8:40am and  I have not seen them since.

I thought maybe they might be back later this morning only because a truck from Cambrian Metal showed up about 10 minutes after they left.

I figured ahhh......that's what they were waiting for.

It wasn't!

All he was doing was dropping off a support beam for the addition.Fat chance of them using that anytime soon!!Our contractor did show up to help the driver unload the beam and then he also took off and I haven't seen him again either.Probably went to work on his other job.

This concludes yet another frustrating day on the home construction front.Unless they come back this afternoon, which I seriously doubt,today to me looks like another write off.

I look outside and find it hard to believe that this whole construction started almost a month ago.To me it looks like it started last week.We have baby coming in 5 weeks and I need to get the inside of the house done before my wife returns with our two sons near the end of August.I really just do not see this happening.I would hate to have them come back to a mess with the inside of the house not ready, but it looks like this may be the case.

The floors need to be done in all the bedrooms,bathrooms and the kitchen.The inside needs to be painted.New drywall needs to be put in the existing living room.The doors need to be changed on the existing bedrooms and bathroom.Not to mention all the little things that I can't think of right now.All this needs to be done and ready for the end of August.So with these guys only spending about 2 days a week here there is absolutely no way this is getting done when we need it to get done. 

My only hope right now is that maybe they can somehow prove me wrong!

Bricks Almost In Their Final Resting Place!

The bricks have made it from the driveway to the hole and are now ready to be turned into a foundation.Even in the 36 degree heat the workers tossed the bricks in the hole and then piled them all nice for the brick layer, so he can come in a just place the bricks where they need to go.Also the fact they probably don't want to piss of the brick layer as I said before he is known to have a temper.

Let's look at the bricks all nicely piled................

Looking at them in the hole it doesn't look like a lot.When they were taking up the whole driveway there looked like a lot more.Also 3 bricks were smashed in the making of this pile which is unfortunate.I was told that the foundation should be done by the end of the day tomorrow,but I won't hold my breath. 





With the weather calling for much of the same hot,humid conditions for tomorrow it should be a really nice hot day for the guys working.Of course that is provided they even show up.We will see!

DriveWay Still Full Of Bricks!

You might have guessed from the title of the post that the bricks are still in the driveway,which should not surprise me at this point the way things go around here.We have a few days with some activity and then it is usually followed up by 2 or 3 days of non activity.

Of course, in all fairness the humidity was REALLY bad today and I know if it was me I would prefer not to be outside laying bricks on a day like this.But that's just me and I could hazard guess that is how are brick guy felt as well because he wasn't here! I just assumed and from now on will not assume anymore, that because the bricks were dropped off Friday that something was going to happen today.Also throw in the fact that my parents said the brick layer showed up yesterday to take a look at things,of course we were not home at the time so we couldn't ask him when he intended to lay the bricks.

My parents also said he was a bigger guy and I heard from my brother who worked with the guy a few times that he does have a bit of a temper.Maybe it was best not to put this guy to work in the extreme heat.All I could think about was this guy in that hole and maybe a few bricks decide not to co-operate with him,then add the humidity on top of that and I had visions of a few bricks laying on our kitchen floor.

That brings you all up to date on the non activity that took place here today but with the angry brick layer and extreme humidity that was probably a good thing!

The Bricks Arrive!

With yesterday being a holiday,we did not figure on anything getting done today......

And we were right!

Okay, I shouldn't put it like that because they did deliver the bricks(10 skids) today for the foundation.I guess that means something was done,and we were not even expecting that.We figured with the holiday on the Thursday that we wouldn't see any kind of activity around here until Monday assuming they would take today off.Hopefully this means Monday morning they will be ready to lay some bricks.

  

Speaking of bricks, here is a picture of them all lined up ready for action.

There you have it.All that went on here today.With the bricks ready, hopefully Monday morning they will be put where they belong!On that note this concludes another week on the construction front,we will see what next week brings.