Week 78: The Lift!

At last! It has been almost 3 months since we moved out and almost a year since we submitted our drawings for the development permit but the day we have been waiting for has arrived. Now things feel like they are really rolling on the project.

The lift itself happened really quickly and to be honest, Sarah and i missed it. We went over first thing and saw them doing a bunch of prep which was interesting. They built up cribbing in the holes and were sliding two huge steel beams through the house. They had a decent sized crew doing all the prep and it was a hive of activity. We snapped a few pictures and went back home to stay out of the way.

Sarah had to head to work about noon so we went over to take a look and see how things were coming along only to discover that they were done and packing up! Good thing our builder had a videographer there recording the whole thing. You would think that the lift part would take longer but we were only gone a couple of hours and Nikel Brothers were half packed up already. The Northline crew (the builders) were taking care of the walls at the bottom of the house and by the end of the day the house was just sitting there up in the air.

We found a few old coins between the walls and the foundation but most interestingly we discovered that the house was not attached to the foundation at all. When we had stopped by in the morning, Dean had asked if i had seen any bolts attaching it but i hadn’t. I just assumed that maybe there were some big nails or something. Nope. It looks like they just set the sill plate in the cement as it was drying! So glad we are doing this because between the thin slab, foundation cracks, and now learning the house was not even attached it is a huge relief to know that our house will be much more secure when this is all done.

With the lift out of the way we had a relaxing weekend and i of course went for a big hike. Next weekend we have a wedding so i only have one more training hike before i head to the Rockies! We are keeping an eye on the weather because the snow melt is late this year and there is lots of snow in the alpine.