One of the things we are learning is that everything takes more time than you expect. I had it in my head that the excavation would take a week. Turns out that there there is more to work out than we thought.
First thing we have realized is that there is not enough grade for the exterior drainage from the basement entrance patio at the back of the place. We had a quick meeting at the site and have decided to raise the floor level 6″ which will give us enough slope. We had planned on a 9′ basement ceiling but will end up at 8’6″ which is fine. The excavation is actually a lot more technical than i had imagined. Lots of surveying and planning. It also is going slower than planned because of the two machines and how much dirt we have to haul away. There is not a lot of room to store it all on site so we are paying to have it hauled away, and we will have to pay for it to be hauled back. Fun!
The drainage issue is a bit of a hassle. We had a survey done ages ago before we started on the plans and you would think that the city could have a system where we could look up the height of the sewer in the road before we started on the plans. We might have made different choices. We can’t change the height of the city sewer. We can’t keep our 9′ and just raise the house 6 inches even though we have the room in our envelope because we have already lifted the house a certain amount. We aren’t going to bring Nickel Brothers back to raise it another 6″. If we leave it where we had planned, we would need a sump pump and all of the extra wiring and backup systems that would entail. Frustrating.
We did a last check on the place Thursday night and then left town for Madeline and Colin’s wedding in Kamloops. This was fantastic. They got legally married in the morning and asked me to officiate the ceremony at the ski hill where they were having their reception. As an introvert that was a little overwhelming but i think i pulled it off. I really wish Mary and Dawn had managed to have a wedding so i could have gotten a few pointers from their officiant… I got good reviews though. Maddy is like a daughter to us. She and Don are the reason i got back into hiking and my life is better because i know them. Colin is fantastic as well. Really kind and energetic enough to keep up with Maddy and a calm personality that balances and anchors hers. So happy for both of them and honoured to be a small part of it.
The reception was a blast. There is such a great energy at weddings. We met all the extended family who were awesome. It is great to meet your peoples people. We have known the Fergs for decades and have seen family photos and heard stories and i have crossed paths with the extended family before, but to see them all at a celebration have the time to connect was a real treat. So grateful to have these people in our lives.
Sarah returned home on Monday and i worked from Kamloops for a day since we were leaving on Tuesday to start the trail Wednesday. Monday Colin tested positive for COVID and Madeline decided it wasn’t worth the risk to go when in all likelihood she was about to get sick as well. Don and I both felt pretty safe having just had COVID and being triple vaxed. Another wrench in our plans is that someone posted to the GDT facebook group on Sunday that the 2nd last river on section E was not crossable. It was up to their waist so they bailed and had to hike back and take an exit off the trail then hitchhike to their car. Lots of the other alpine and back country areas are still closed too so we officially switched to section D. As it’s shorter we decided to put it off for a day and leave Wednesday. I got out for a hike with Robyn, Dorothy and Ian’s daughter who is coming with us, and my high school friend Paul. We did a trail we hiked a lot when we lived in Kamloops and got absolutely eaten alive by bugs.
Don, Robyn, and I headed to Field on Friday, got a campsite then drove up the icefields parkway to leave Robyn’s car at the end of the trail. We started on Thursday and it was amazing. Really hard and a much different experience than my hike last year. I might write it all up later but for now i’ll just leave a few pictures.
Sarah had been planning to come to Kamloops to pick me up but we got done early because it was a shorter section so i just bussed home. I spent a day unpacking and since she had booked the weekend off, we got to spend a weekend together with no plans. It was nice to be in a real bed. Spent a great afternoon with friends out in Squamish looking at mountains from a comfy deck chair.
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