This week has been one full of chaos. It all started with babysitting, yes, I know babies have nothing to do with DIY renovations however, it has everything to do with life this week. My sister is out of town and so Auntie + Uncle are taking over kid central, complete with 3 boys, 8/6/5, all active and learning to test boundaries. Awesome.

Since Sunday we have not had a complete nights sleep. At least 1 of 3 boys has been up in the night for one reason or another, crawling into our bed and squirming like a little worm for hours. Then there is breakfast, school, lunches, dinners, reading, spelling, homework, skating…oh and our daily lives too…ha! To say the least we are a bit tired. Props to the parents out there, we never thought it was easy but are glad to be done our 0 to 3 (million miles an hour) parental hazing ritual for the month.

Today, Thursday, was our last day in kid central but the first day of extreme house chaos. The footings for our new support beam are going in today so there are construction workers and many noisy gas powered tools making a blue hazed ruckus in our house. Awesome.

The process for beam footings:

The area for the footings first needs to be cut out of the basement floor slab. Then they need to dig out the holes down 10” to 1 foot, then add wood forms and rebar. Before the concrete can be poured the inspector and engineer need to sign off and give the ok on the forms, placement, rebar etc. After than the concrete mixing (by hand, glad its not us) will start and the footings will be ready to cure for 1 week.

So far, 1 hole has been cleared. 2 more to go. Putting my ear protection back on as even upstairs, in my office, the jackhammer is less than ideal for my ear drums. Awesome.

Oh…and its cold. As if having no proper heat wasn’t bad enough, we have windows and doors open so that the blue haze will dissipate into the outdoors instead of into my lungs. Did I mention it is winter…in BC!  Lucky Adam gets to go to his office in Vancouver and sit at a warm, quiet desk while I supervise. Yeah, I brought this renovation on so I will suffer today.

Awesome.

The first hole for our new footings...full of water but apparently that's not an issue.

The first hole for our new footings…full of water but apparently that’s not an issue.