Short and Sweet!

This afternoon I am going to try and get another posting done. It will have to be short and sweet, seeing as there is only a few days left before the weekend and the kids come for Christmas. My "to do list" for those days is L-O-N-G. So - enjoy the pictures at least!



North Lease Space - Heating Ducts!

Southern Most Lease Space! Painted Walls!



Our Mechanical Room. Our furnace ready to go in!



My office looking towards Peter's!



Peter's office looking towards mine!

The heating distribution system is well underway. The T-Bar ceiling grid is being installed downstairs today and tomorrow. One coat of paint is on the downstairs walls in the common area and in the two lease spaces. The North space is being taken care of by the tenant and we are hired to take care of the south leased space. We are also taking care of our space and the common areas - painting and finishing! Brave souls! Delicious colors have been picked for most of the building developed areas. Dijon upstairs - Wild Mushroom in the south space downstairs! It's amazing how many food names show up on paint chip samples from Benjamin Moore. We have used Creekside Green on the common area walls to go along with the River Rock for the doors etc. Picnic names! We are in the process of ordering our finishing packages. Exciting days these are!

Speaking of being busy - this pic shows one thing we will have to learn to live with being on the opposite side of the tracks! Appointments, errands etc. all wait no matter how busy it is when the train passes by!

CP Christmas Comes to Lacombe

Yesterday the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train came to Lacombe. The train visits communities along the line with entertainment from Santa Claus, Cornelius the Beaver (CP mascot) and local singing artists. The show is performed from a specially designed boxcar complete with stage, lights and speakers. I'm sure you could hear the entertainment all the way across town! The most important reason the train comes to these towns is to gather people together and have each community take in donations (cash and non-perishable food goods) for their own local food bank!

Since they came to Lacombe in the late afternoon the sun was still shining. The lights on the train were not quite as visable as they would be in the early evening. SO, off to the next whistle stop (Ponoka) we raced to catch a glimpse of the train in the dark.







When all was said and done we went out for supper with two other couples (one with young kids) and had a super time together! What a wonderful diversion!

More Changes

Things are still changing at the station - even if I am tardy in posting those changes. When our children start saying "when's there going to be another blog?" then I know it's more than time to take care of updating our site!

The biggest changes that bring the biggest sense of satisfaction to us probably are the changes in utilities. We have the main power service pulled into the building now. No more running electrical cords into the building from the panel box out by the street!! Yah - yippee! Also we are heating the building now with two out of four furnaces and some improvised and temporary systems of moving that heat around. No more propane heater!! Yah - yippee!



See the posts cut off where the temp. power was?



Ta Da! One meter - for now! BIG box is the main disconnect!



Propane tank on track side. Hauled out Saturday!
Sorry, no picture of the "fiery beastie" inside!

Drywall is done - most of the taping is finished. Some of the electrical is done. BUT it won't be until the new year when Epcor will create the remaining accounts for the other electrical meters. We only have a "house meter" right now. The house meter records the power for the electrical room and the outdoor lighting only. We have roughed in plugs etc. but no actual power 'til the new year! Epcor sets up the accounts for the meters for the suites, Fortis goes in and installs the meters and then either the electrician or Epcor or Fortis - or maybe all three stand there and "flick the switch"! Who knows! Peter does I'm sure - but he is on the phone and I won't ask anymore silly questions! And the whole process seems so silly! The joys of privitization I guess! The same sort of hoopla happened to get the gas meters functioning as well. Only we dealt with Direct Energy, Atco and the plumber. What's going to happen with the water and sewer! Haven't even thought that far. And Telus won't pull the telephone line into the building until a month from now. Then individual tenants have to call to have their own service to their own suite switched over. Some of the little (?) frustrations with utilities! But hey - we're making progress as you can see by the pics! Yah Yippee!

Just a Movin' Along.

UPSTAIRS



DOWNSTAIRS

Slowly - bit by bit - we are seeing some progress. When so many trades are working in the building, and some of them are doing the work "piece work", we have the building open each day for someone. Tomorrow morning the drywall boarders want to come into the building to work. Seeing as tomorrow is Saturday, we are somewhat surprised, especially considering the hours they usually seem to be working. I'm beginning to find out when some people do "piece work" they do enough to keep peace! So this surprises us somewhat - but hey! if someone wants to come work on Saturday we won't stop them. Last week we opened up the building at 7 am Saturday morning for the insulators. They only worked until noon - but they worked! Besides, that gave a big jump start on our weekend plans. It's amazing how much you can get done when your day starts at seven in the morning!

So where are we at you ask? Upstairs in our suite the drywall tapers are busy doing their thing. Downstairs the insulator is finishing up (unless he is done already now today) and the drywall boarders are working away (hopefully) at the "lid" as they call it so we can blow the in the south side of the building. All that means is getting the drywall installed on the ceiling so the blown in insulation in the roof space (lid as I am hearing it called) stays in place. We are not blowing anything up!

Speaking of "blowing up"! No - we are not blowing up the building! But - we do have a publication from 1967 that has some pictures in it from the October 11, 1911 explosion that happened to the Lacombe CP station. By looking at the pictures and some others from the "downtown area" we have made a really interesting discovery! Sorry, no pictures, but we are in the process of contacting the Lacombe Globe for copies of the pictures used in this centennial publication. Our discovery? Read on!

A bit more history of Lacombe stations will help you understand the pieces we are putting together and our discovery! Originally the Lacombe station was a boxcar. Many small towns had these converted rolling stock for their first stations, seing as they were readily available and on quick notice for a rapidly growing rail line. (Rolling stock is the proper terminology for railway cars. We have our sons to thank for their persistant prodding to use the correct name for these things. And the actual wheel assemblies on the rolling stock? Those are "trucks". Thank my boys for that one too! But back to the history!) After the boxcar station, Lacombe had a style of building for their station that resembled a two story house on one end and an attached freight shed beside this two story structure. They called it a Type 2 style station. While it was still in use, the CPR was building the station that many of the townfolk in Lacombe remember - the station we are presently replicating- further south on the trackline. This gabled structure being built didn't sustain any notable damage in the explosion that occured in the Type 2 station still in use. Three men were injured though and one man died from his injuries received on that horrible evening in October. The apparent cause was from photographer's flash powder being transported in a trunk sitting in the freight room.

This building (Type 2) was located straight across the tracks from our present site! Imagine that! We are closer to the first site of the first real building than we realized! How cool to stumble upon this information while reading this centennial booklet. If we can get our hands on some pictures - or some digital reprints of these pictures - we will certainly post them!