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????

Seeing Green

I figured that it is very appropriate for St. Patrick's Day, that we are in the middle of painting our basement GREEN! The staircase, playroom & craftroom are all 'Nature's Scenery' a mossy olive green and the bathroom and guestroom are a shade darker, called 'Cleveland Green'. The lighting was bad last night, since it was dark but here's how it's looking so far!

I gotta go potty...

Well for lack of a better title... here are some pictures of our bathrooms. I finally located the main bathroom accessories in the storage unit, two days ago, and was so excited to get it all together (the bathroom that is, not me!)

BOYS BATHROOM:

MASTER/ENSUITE BATHROOM:

(the shower is awaiting a door... we're accepting donations!!!)

MAIN FLOOR 1/2 BATH:

PS: this is totally a different topic but our shutters got hung two days ago too - I'm guessing they'll be removed for the stucco, when the time comes, but at least they're here and not getting lost in the shuffle!

Bits & Pieces...

So... it's been a long while since I posted anything! In my last post, I mentioned that we would be getting the movers to deliver our belongings on 'Tuesday' (before Christmas) - whereas in reality our belongings didn't get delivered until Wednesday, January 7th and we actually moved in on Saturday the 10th. Our builder has told us many different dates but they didn't really mean anything...

We went away to see Miles' family for a few days over Christmas but otherwise our new home was the Days Inn. The staff were great, we got a continental breakfast every morning, a newspaper, swimming pool, waterslide, hot tubs etc but it was over the entire Christmas break from school & during a VERY VERY cold snap, in which we really didn't even want to venture out anywhere!

It's great to be in & YES, I assure you that I WILL post some pictures shortly... it's just that there are so many touch-ups still to do & I'm waiting for things to be more settled.

BLINDS: we had a blind consultation shortly after moving in & got blackout blinds for upstairs and an opaque two-way blind for the windows on the main floor. Two-way meaning that they go up/down from the top and bottom of the window. After going for a month and a half with two street lights shining through our bedroom window, it has been soooo nice to sleep in the DARK! I also ordered fabric for side panels on the two living room windows and will also do a matching roman shade for the kitchen window, since it is all one big room. The fabric compliments my 'loud' colourful red chairs, so I'm kind of excited about it!!!

PAINT: the painters are coming back on Friday morning to do touch-ups and do another coat on a couple of the darker walls. Also some stain touch ups...

CABINETS: when the cabinets were being installed, we thankfully caught the fact that the kitchen sink was so not centred under the window, and had the installer cut down another little cabinet before he got too far along & before counters & flooring went in. Fast forward to the kitchen sink - now that floors are in etc, the cabinet is apparently too small for my beloved stainless steel apron sink! Grrr! So we had them cut down the sides & make a couple adjustments (an ok bandaid but whatever) only now with the extra bracing needed to support the granite, the dishwasher no longer fits in it's opening. So the same little cabinet that got cut down before, needs to be shrunk once again! This time they decided that it was cheaper just to reorder the cabinet & so my dishwasher sat out for a good four weeks. This was all rectified on February 4th but they still need to come back with new toe kicks and a few door & drawer fronts are being replaced...

TILE: before we moved in, the site manager was upstairs and ran some water in the jacuzzi tub, only to be hollered at by the granite installers that water was pouring out of the pendant lights above them. Something obviously wasn't hooked up properly, so they had to take two tiles off the front of the tub skirting to fix the problem! This was finally fixed last night. Had the cleaners come when they were supposed to (the night before this incident) we would have been in huge trouble because they fill the tub completely up to clean & then when they drained it, no one would have been downstairs & the kitchen would have been flooded - cabinets, hardwood floors, you name it!

PANTRY DOOR: Still waiting... it's gonna be stained 'in the next two days' for the last five weeks... so the kids love rummaging for food :)

BASEMENT: our friends framed, taped, mudded & sanded the walls before taking off to Texas for a couple months. My hubby & I have started painting now, we've met with the guy who's going to spray the ceiling, we're in the middle of carpet consults and the electrical, plumbing & heating is all roughed in. Looks like we will be rolling right along by about the third week of March! Yay! I cannot wait to have the playroom set up for the kids, not to mention my craft room & the guest room (we have friends from Manitoba coming at the end of the month with their four kidlets, on their way through to BC, so it will be great to have the basement somewhat complete). By the time our friends get back from Texas, we'll be ready to put them to work hanging doors, baseboards & the deck :)

So... we're getting there! It's frustrating to always hear that someone is coming to do a certain task & have them not show time and time again... but like I said, we're getting there! I promise I'll post pictures soon!