railings

So for Cole's 2nd birthday, we got him some railings on the deck! Not planned but that's the day they came... long overdue but lookin' good, I think! Also had them take the plywood off the top part of the stairs, so I think it looks better...

With the cold spell we have encountered, it is looking doubtful if we can get the rest of our driveway poured now but... if next week proves to be as warm as they're claiming, there might be hope yet! Otherwise, a load of gravel it is, until spring!

helper of the week...

And the helper of the week award goes to Liam!!! Here he is taking the door knobs down to the basement for "Uncle John". J&D were here working on the finishing touches of our basement the last couple weeks, so we now have doors, baseboards, casings, window boxes, closet organizers etc. It's all coming together... Liam was our handy dandy helper and even added a few extras to his job description that had to be 'UNDONE' after the fact, like adding some additional screws in the wall! Hmmm...

STUCCO :)

September 15 & 16 so far has been a 'colourful' couple days for us! Whoohoo! I thought that the tinted scratch coat that they started putting on yesterday might take a week to dry/cure before they could come back but apparently not...

We went with acrylic stucco in the end, for quality reasons and the bonus of that was being able to go back to our original colour scheme of OLIVE GREEN! We had picked out a 'slate' colour but since changing our plans, four houses in a row, across the street from us, have slate stucco... so we're happy not to conform! The shutters are black, the railings will be black and the garage doors have yet to be painted (probably the same 'sable' colour as the soffits - we are accepting opinions though)

PS: we got front stairs too but we're probably going to switch them up a bit - not 100% happy with the workmanship!

pavin' the road...

It's September 2nd (not the 'beginning of July' as originally quoted) and we're finally getting the roads paved! Now that they've done the three side/smaller roads, they will start on the main road, which will probably be at least another three weeks... if they're lucky, they'll get it in before it starts snowing!

driveway delight...

Whoohoo! It is sooo exciting to report the amazing news that we now have phase one of our driveway! Phase two will be completed as soon as the roads are in! Our little 'bay' is being worked on at this very moment - the second grade has been done, as well as the layer of gravel! From what we understand, the next step is pavement! Bring it on!! Our driveway was started August 20th and was poured yesterday, the 21st... I'm sure the guys thought I was the 'paparazzi' with the photo shoot & they probably don't have loonie housewives & kids watching them every day :)

The cement truck arrives :)

Team work...

Getting it all level

Note: this picture is of the LONG pole used to smooth out the surface, not the buff tan young worker in front (just wanted to clarify)

pretty impressive really... all that is involved...

OF COURSE!!! If you were 4 yrs old, wouldn't you head outside to find the water hose & mud, in your mother's brand new flip flops too?

Smooth like buttah...

The guys are back to hose it down (the rest of the crew is just up the road framing another driveway)

TA-DA... here's what we've got so far

The front (our steps will go all the way across to the first pillar)

Side profile & a peek at the crews working on the road!

The flowers' perspective :)

Exposed Aggregate - obviously the most beautiful I have ever seen!

buildin' a road...

Late yesterday afternoon-evening (like 4-7pm) our little bay looked like an episode from 'Mighty Machines'. They finally started the process of paving the roads, although from what we understand, this is just the rough grade, which will be followed by another grade, gravel and then pavement! All this will take us into next week sometime! The rough grade on it's own was quite the process... a dump of dirt, grading it, picking up the excess, measurments written on the markers (something surveyor-ish), shovels, bobcat, more grading, rolling, repeat... The main road will be used as the acess to all the smaller 'crescents, bays, places' etc and won't be done for at least another three weeks! Anyhoo - I'm off to see why my driveway guy hasn't returned...

hoovering up the excess

the parade of equipment

the grader...

cabinet craziness

Friday, August 14th was the big cabinet 'raising' day, so Thursday night Miles & I emptied all the uppers. The original plan was to raise everything but when I found out that the microwave didn't have to be raised, I decided to leave it be so that the corner cabinet could stay put, being that they need to be the same height...

BEFORE:

EMPTY:

AFTER:

The electricians will have to come back to fix the wiring, which is now too long but you can see when you look at the microwave that the undermount moldings are now higher up & SHOULD hopefully meet the gas inspection requirements... we also have wall touch ups to do as well since the walls were painted after the cabinets were installed - lotsa fun!

and the saga continues....

The gas inspector was by the other day and discovered that our undermount kitchen cabinet moldings are too close to the gas range and need to be cut back 6-8"... this will look absolutely retarded and I am sooo unimpressed that the cabinet shop didn't pick up on this. I guess the inspector got to them before I did and 'Amanda' left a message on my answering machine stating that she was aware of this change and that she had gone through my entire file and nowhere was it noted that we had a gas range, otherwise 'this could have been prevented' - REALLY... guess that answers that question! I am still ticked with the original person I met with though (he left & then we ended up with Amanda 1/2 way through) because I went in there on 'day one' with all the info needed and even as time went on, I took in measurements and specs of EVERYTHING, not to mention magazine photos etc. I knew what I wanted from the get-go and have been so disappointed with this corporation. Anyways, Amanda informed me that option number two was to raise all the uppers two inches and that should be the clearance we need to make the inspector happy. We also needed a bigger gas metre to accomodate everything that is in our house....

I've lined up a bunch of appt's for August 4th and 5th, so that should be a busy day in our household, with a constant revolving door...

Met a lady when we were camping, who is a contractor in Alberta and talk about knowledgeable! She knows her stuff and has convinced us to go with the acrylic stucco (not concrete), so hopefully we can contact our builder and make that change ASAP because we should be up on the 'stucco assembly line' pretty quick... might be able to get our dark olive green colour after all :)

railings yet to come...

'Phase Two' of our deck project is now completed!!! Just in time for a couple weekend BBQ's :) Many heads have turned as they drive by, being that it is a decent size and someone even stopped yesterday & asked John if he'd build a deck for him!

Ethan on the second level - there are three boards past the pillar and then it steps down to the next level (don't think you can see the difference from the photo)

The deck to date... there will be a phase three which will consist of a smaller level and stairs going down into the yard (we need to wait for the yard to be graded though and at least seven loads of 'dirt')

Abuela Darlene helping the boys make swords :) Uncle John helped them make airplanes the other day out of scrap lumber...

John finishing the edges

buildin' a deck

Our handy man/woman team has been here this week working on our deck. The wrap around porch was only completed on the front and side by the builder, so John & Darlene have framed in the back portion now and have started laying boards. It's starting to look like something and will be so nice to be able to place a BBQ back there, along with patio furniture etc. We are also doing a second level off of the covered porch, so it will be a nice functional deck when it's finished :) Stay tuned for the completed project!

a doorsy kinda week

Last week, we FINALLY got all the doors we've been waiting for:

Uppers, above the fridge - my original plan was to have a decorative shelf (open) and the inside was even stained the same colour as the exterior of the cabinets but all they did was a box & it looked blah... I had shown a magazine picture and described a molding etc to fancy it up a bit (before ordering) but it didn't happen - the joys of being passed on to a new sales person when your original person switches jobs! So - I just opted for doors in the end... looks better than before but frustrating that my original plan didn't pan out!

A PANTRY door - five months and one day after moving in! The colour isn't perfect & there's a couple flaws but enough is enough & I'm keeping it!

The office door - the original one they put in was solid, so this is the glass one we are supposed to have!

Master ensuite shower doors - we held off on these thinking that we had to pay for them but then found out the builder covered these ones! BONUS! My hubby had wanted something different originally but we found out that the studs needed to do it that way, were NOT there and without the proper bracing, everything would rip out - doors, tiles and all! Plus with having additional jets, we needed doors that wouldn't leak... works for me!

Exterior Excitement

If you look back a couple posts, you will see that we got our rock work done, in front of the garage & across the front window area. Miles always talked about wanting to do the side of the garage too (and join both areas together) because we have a corner lot & it would just look nice as far as curb appeal goes. We kept tossing around the idea but eventually opted not to do it because of the added expense. But then... there is a new crew in the area, doing some scratch coating & mostly rock masonary type work and we've talked to them a couple times. Miles asked for a quote and they gave us an amazing deal so... three days later they were here and continued our rock from the garage and up to the front door. Uniquely enough (if you can see it that way) they were here during Liam's 'construction' birthday party, so it was quite fitting! The party attendees had to meander their way through the garage and in through the back door!

My amazing landscaping and grass! Just kidding! Well - it is there, just not something I planted :)

Close to two weeks ago, our house got scratch coated and is now ready for stucco. In this picture you can still see the TYPAR plastic & wire at the top - I so don't miss that 'look' :)

Liam 'watching TV' as the boys jokingly called it - they loved watching the work crew! It wasn't long until Jackson pulled up a chair beside him!

Nuttin' New

Sorry for the lack of excitement... don't have a whole lot to report.

- Someone was by this week & measured up for the shower door in the ensuite bathroom. We were holding off because it was going to be pretty pricy but turns out that the standard slider is quite nice and better yet, the builder is paying for it!
- My pantry door also arrived this week but of course it was "too good to be true" and I sent it back... they used birch wood this time, instead of maple, and the colours were so different! Didn't even look like the same stain - it was but both woods just absorb it differently. The trim is a dark espresso and the door they delivered looked more like a watered down weak coffee, if that makes sense!? Someday...
- Still some other interior trim work to be fixed up as well...
- The neighbourhood is slowly getting scratch coated (the step before stucco) but the houses that aren't sold yet or have just been lived in for two weeks are first on the list... makes the most sense right? Argh! Not to mention it is holding up getting railings around the porch and building the back deck, since the pillars need to be stucco'd before that can happen.
- We do appreciate our site manager, Jack - if it weren't for him we probably wouldn't even have drywall or paint yet... seriously!!! He's just as frustrated as us but is limited in what he can get accomplished in a day & the owner dictates a lot of what goes on even though he's clueless...

So that pretty much sums up what's going on... or not going on....

Mud

Here is a peek at the mud that we encountered early this spring when the snow started to melt! Thankfully the boys & I headed out to BC for two weeks and by the time we got home, the snow was gone and the mud had dried up! It did snow again on April 28th though, however it disappeared ASAP!!!

Rock Update

Here is the completed rock & I'm loving it! Very happy with the outcome:

Time continues to stand still for all the crazy things I'm waiting for! Finally got ahold of the site manager the other day, only to be told that he ordered a new pantry door for us with the glass insert already in it! Brilliant! For some reason our builder gets the solid doors and has someone insert the glass and then someone else has to stain it and so forth... by the time I got it back, it was so banged up and the trim around the glass was warped and it was a mess!

We found out that our roads are being paved in July and they recommend that we wait until after that to pour our driveway, since there's no sidewalks... they are also allowing us to put in a side driveway to connect with the main driveway (in front of the garage). We also requested an access into the very back of the yard for a trailer pad but we'll see if they permit that one!

"Rock On"

Our progress of the week involves our exterior rock work! We went with the Teton Shadow Rock in the end and I'm really liking how it looks so far. It's nice that the weather has warmed up enough that exterior projects can get started, although they have just been putting in partial days, due to the nights cooling off.... if they work too late, then the grout won't get dry enough before the temperature drops! So, we continue to plug away, one day at a time!

I still don't have a pantry door....

The owner of the company we built with took away my site managers cell phone & gave him a company phone of sorts - now I have to phone the office to get ahold of dear Jack... & needless to say I haven't heard back from him yet, so no clue when the interior will be worked on again????