It was with great delight that I laid the last block on the Under Hill suite garden wall. Concrete blocks are heavy and rough - my hands and back are really going to like taking a break from masonry work!

With the garden walls now clearly defined we can get a good sense of the space of the garden. The extensive theme work and lushly landscaped garden will be the perfect size for a couple to enjoy some private time together.

The front curved wall of the North Star suite is also now in place. This wall defines the pathway which circles around the front of the Hazelnut Inn’s property and leads to a raised garden.

Next week our contractor will be on site to begin forming the inn’s many concrete walls. We are very excited to see more progress!

Each day, the worksite of the Hazelnut Inn changes a little bit. The wooden forms for the footings are now removed and neatly stacked for reuse. Hundreds of cubic yards of sand fills the inside of the footings of the buildings and two of the three gardens. The most visual change is the concrete block walls for the gardens and raised paths which are quickly becoming more vertical each working hour. The site does not make much sense to our regular sidewalk superintendents yet, but we can already see the inn clearly in our mind's eye. 

In conjunction with the backfilling we are doing prior to building from for the inn's walls, we have started laying blocks for the Under Hill's garden wall. It won't be long until the inn starts looking like a real building!

With the concrete footings poured, it is time to strip the forms. As we remove the wooden forms, we are filling the foundation in with sand to the top of the footings and packing it firmly in place. All of the work we have accomplished so far on the site is now effectively buried. Electrical and data conduits, water supplies and drain pipes are now all hidden from view. There is a whole lot of "gold" buried on this site and you can bet there is a carefully drawn map so we can find everything again if need be!

We are pouring concrete at the best little boutique hotel in Canada!

It was HOT today — 32° celsius hot!

But now that we have our building permit in hand there is no time to waste.

Luckily, our building inspector swung by this morning and approved our footings.

The concrete pumper arrived as he was pulling out of the drive and we were off to the races.

After a long hot day the footings are finished and it feels great to finally be underway!

The best little boutique hotel in the world is officially under construction! We have been planning this day for more than fourteen months and it is wonderful to be officially under way!  Many thanks to everyone down at city hall that helped us get our bright orange card! We will start pouring concrete as soon as our first set of inspections are complete - it is getting VERY exciting around here!