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!