Modern fire alarm systems seem to be designed to spare you a fiery death by killing you quickly with a heart attack (brought on by the 300dB screeching pulses coming simultaneously from every alarm in the house).

Or perhaps my (in hindsight extreme) reaction to the alarm was just that it was my first as a Dad. (In university days, false alarms barely roused me from sleep.)

Well as long as I’m never sleeping again, I guess it’s a good time to start reading up on why fire alarms might go off for no apparent reason and see what can be done to fix it.

I don’t think it would have been a CO alarm, unless a vent line in our furnace has a leak. (The system is entirely sealed to the outside.)

An errant bit of plaster dust flying about the basement, perhaps?

Since all the alarms are linked (by building code), we really have no idea which alarm actually triggered the event.

Well, we aren’t getting in for the end of the month. We’ve talked to our current landlord and since he (fortunately for us) hasn’t rented the place, we’re going to take it for 10 more days.

There is a lot of activity at the house right now with the electrician, plumber, finish carpenter, etc. all trying to complete their pieces. The siding has a long way to go.

If all goes well, the drywall will be complete by Tuesday so we can start cleaning the air and moving things in.

Just a quick note about securing a site.

Orange plastic fencing is only appropriate when there is still a structure in place, or it can be positioned at least 4′ away from the hole. Otherwise you’ll want to source 6′ high metal fencing that you’ve probably seen around most construction sites.

We got ours from Fast Fence and we found them to be a really great company to work with from beginning to end. Their sales staff were really helpful on the phone working out just what we needed. The delivery guys were polite, and well mannered, and got everything unloaded quickly. Looking at our setup they left behind a couple of extra stands just to make sure we’d have enough. “Concientious” is the word, I think.

Our bill for renting fencing for the month was about $400. Most of that is delivery, which is understandable considering the size of the fence sections.

So Premier Construction failed to provide the correct safety fencing for our site (and put neighbouring children at risk) so they could save themselves $400. That’s just sad.

Welcome to the construction industry.

So much as happened but there has just been no time.

Our permits are ready for pickup. The budget is in. (Ouch.) We have rented a house to move to during construction. Demolition company quotes have been tendered. Etc.

I hope to add more posts to fill in the missing time soon but wanted to at least up to date on the latest news.

Today Lumahai Zephyr Iseman Foster (Zeph) was born at home (about where the dining room table will be) at 6:31pm.

Yes that’s right: We’re building and have a newborn to take care of. Apparently we like a challenge.