Kitchen Installation

Today is a big day for us - we are having the kitchen in the suite installed!! All that's missing is the counter top & appliances....
We got to Mark's bright & early - well, 9:00 am...We woke up to snow on the ground!!! What is up with this weather??? After we cleaned out the truck & put some wood down to protect the cabinets, we drove super-slow back to the house with Mark in the back making sure things didn't bounce around too much.




We then put it all into the suite space - here you can see that we painted the plywood floor. The colour is called Eagle Rock & it looks like a deep moss green/almost camo green.









The we had to make sure that the cabinets were spaced right for the area. Here was the test to see if the stain on the hickory cabinets would tie in with the yellow & the floor 'green'. I was so excited to see that it looks GREAT! We did notice that there is an electrical plug that is in the wrong spot...It's just to the right of the photo - it should be over the counter instead of behind the stove...So we will have to see if the electrician can cut into the drywall & move the plug. If he doesn't want to, we can deal with just covering it up & dealing with it later.

Mark took the rest of the afternoon to hang the cupboards & put in the base cabinets. We found out that our drywall has a nice 'wave' in it - not visible unless you are trying to attach something with a straight edge! But Mark is able to compensate for these minor boo-boo's.



At the end of the day, Mark has just a few things left to do tomorrow. We haven't picked our counter top - I felt it was important to see how the cabinets looked in the space before choosing either a counter too dark to too light. It takes 6 weeks for the counters to come in.....so we will install a temporary counter top make of some super-duper plywood and get it figured out sometime in April. Mark will also return to install the crown moulding.

This is what it looked like this morning - in-between snow showers & rain showers & fits of sunshine. Thankfully the snow is now melted, but it's still rather cold out! What's up with the weather????

Dude showed up today to work on putting in the glass panels for the front face of the decks. His job wasn't made any easier when his 'side-kick' went home early due to 'illness' & the frequent bursts of rain that blew right into the decks....

Glad I haven't started my gardening yet....

Painting Pros! Part 2

I've added real colour to the suite now! After 2 rather long days, things are starting to look more & more like a home...I've now got to accessorize to tie things in....

On Wednesday (after a quick house-cleaning session for a neighbour) I broke open the Serengeti Song - yellow. It took me a long time to edge out the room & the wall with the 2 closets - and I was getting a little concerned that I had ended up picking 'School Bus Yellow' for a main room colour! At the end of the day, with the first coat on & drying, I could see that there were hints of lions in my paint....

Today, I had a large order on my plate. (I've got to work elsewhere on Friday, so I'm missing a whole day of work on the house!). I broke open the Pleasant Lake - blue - for the bathroom. Again, I was rather concerned that I had entered into a colour pallet that was going to be too dark - or just too much.






So, with one coat on, it's not looking too bad. I'll have to wait to see what happens when we put the toilet back together, add the sink unit (still not decided upon) & get the floor painted. I think that putting in some stunning red cedar trim & then using red & black as accents (such as towels & shower curtain) would make this a stunning bathroom.




Now on to the bedroom. This colour is supposed to be Barefoot Beach & with the grey primer underneath, the colour initially looked like poo....Hope this isn't a theme throughout the rest of the house! But after I got the first coat on & it had a chance to dry a bit, it started to look more green than brown. I like the colour, but I really hope that the 2nd coat brings back the brown! The furniture for this room is light wood - maybe a pine & with the dark floor paint, I hope to find some choice bamboo or sisal area mats & bamboo shades to tie it all in.

It's just so hard to see the colours - even with a spot light on the wall - the skies are dark & grey & full of rain. We've run into a cold spell, but I hope the sun starts to shine once again when we start hauling our boxes over!



Almost at the end of the day I decided to put on a 2nd coat of yellow - just to see if it would change the colour any. Can you see the difference? Probably not, it's the lighting....But at least the 2nd coat is on & we can get the kitchen installed (WHEN, MARK??) My goal for the weekend is to mop the floor - that should take all day! Then I can get some floor paint down & can get a truck load of boxes moved over!!

I've somehow got to convince Phil to install a door in-between the suite & the laundry room - this weekend! The drywaller should be back on Monday to finish the upstairs (only 2 more working days?) and I'd REALLY like to keep as much of that drywall dust out of the suite so that neither of us has problems breathing when we move in.

Oh, yes! It seems that we neglected to use blue board around the 'wet' area in the laundry area - specifically around the laundry tub. But I thought it in our best interests to put some bathroom paint around that wall - so it's now a bright blue! Adds a little bit of sparkle to an otherwise very white area! (At the end of yesterday I saw that Phil had poured some ceiling paint & made an attempt to get it done, but had to help the boys with the deck work, so I painted the ceiling like a mad woman - it will need a 2nd coat).

Painting Pros!

Here are some more pictures of our painting adventure.

On Monday I opened the wall primer paint. It's tinted grey so that the darker shades - basically all my colours - will not need 3 to 5 coats. I'm hoping that this works as painting the same wall a multitude of times is exhausting!
This is the kitchen area in the suite.


The bathroom is all primed & ready for bathroom paint.

We've noticed how LARGE our bathrooms are - we will need to come up with a creative way to install storage to 'fill' the space.

Have you noticed that the grey has turned a rather nice shade of blue? In other lights, it looks a bit purple! This better not mess with the yellows I am using in the main room!

Today I got the laundry area walls all primed. I used the Navajo White primer & hopefully Phil will be able to do the ceiling tomorrow.



Mark, who is making our kitchen cabinets, said that I need to get primer & 1 coat of wall paint on the walls & a coat of floor paint under where the cabinets go before he can install the kitchen. So, I got down on my hands & knees & cleaned up that plywood in preparation for the floor paint. I'm going to need a bucket brigade & a handful of mops to clean up all the floors when the time comes to paint them! The floor is FILTHY! Plus, we need to go around & fill in all the holes.....

The floor under the stairs was also readied so that the hot water tank can be installed & moved out of the way. We still haven't figured out a door for this area - it's probably one of those custom jobbies we so dearly detest.






Now comes the scarey part - will the floor colour be the right one?! I brought in the paint chip to the paint department - things get a little complicated when you fall in love with a paint from another supplier....

We also had to switch floor paint because the colour I wanted would have come out very glossy. Not a good thing for stocking feet in regards to slippage.

Welcome to Eagle Rock floor paint.

Yes, it looks like poo......






Well, it looks MUCH better on the floor, but this is still a bit wet, so we shall see what it looks like tomorrow.










This is the kitchen area with the floor paint. I really wish the sun would shine so that the colours would show up better.

I forgot to take pictures of the stairs that have been going in....they look fabulous & just need some railings & some concrete blocks under the supports.

The glass panels for the deck have been found & delivered! I'm hoping that they also get put in sometime this week to finish up the decks!


Tomorrow I start with the wall colours.....

Drywall Done Hung

Today is a good day. The sun came out this afternoon!

Also, the drywall is all done & hung. Well, except for the one last half wall that will go on the outside of the stairs up to the loft - but that isn't going to be installed until after the stairs are put in. Which will be when....???

This shot shows the half wall up in the loft & is also looking into the bathroom (door with 2 glass blocks on top) & the 'pantry' closet on the right. Back entrance is to the left of the bathroom door.


This shot shows the other half wall of the loft - with a cool & interesting hole cut.....too bad - you'll have to wait to see what goes there!!!

It also shows the ceiling above the kitchen & the hallway going back to the bathroom & entrance. Plus our awesome cedar posts going up to the peak.



This shot is at the top of the stairs in the loft looking to the west wall (the bathroom is underneath this side of the loft). Phil left 2 access holes for storage & we will get our cabinet maker to make pull-out drawers for our clothes. In the little tiny space to the left of the window we will also design some closets for hanging items. There will be one for each window & will hopefully not stick out too far into the room. We have just enough room for a future king size bed & end tables too.

This is looking to the east side of the loft. The kitchen is under this side & you can see that cool & interesting hole in the wall looking out over the dining room. This wall also has 2 access holes & will have pull-out drawers. There are pot lights already in the pine that will shine downwards so when we open the drawers, we have light.

This is the window wall. There is a cool design feature that is hidden by the scaffolding. Can't wait til that stuff is out of the house!! Will show us a bit more light & room & will make moving around easier. But, have to wait til the mudding is finished....

This shot is from the back wall of the loft - I should have kneeled down so that you'd get the view that we will have from the bed. Just enough to let us know what's going on down the harbour & not enough for the harbour to know about us..... ;)





The eagles around here have been acting pretty silly these last few days. Spring is in the air & they are swooping & swooshing around - jumping from tree to tree - making all sorts of noise & then they just sit there. Right outside the house. This picture is zooming right in, so it might not be all that clear, but it's almost dark now & they are still sitting there. There might be as many as a dozen 'couples' flying around town, so it gets pretty noisy. I hope that they will find a tree that we can see from the deck of the new house. I would rather miss sitting at the table & being able to see these birds....

Pine Ceiling Complete!

Well, I'm a few days behind, but the pine ceiling is FINISHED!! And just in time, Dave - the man who came in at the beginning of January to help us fix our roof, was working on the ceiling & he finished the ceiling on Wednesday which was his last day with us. We are sad to see him leave, but he had his life to attend to & we are actually close enough now, that we don't need to have 3 workers. [well, it's really only Phil & Steve because Colin seems to be having issues with coming into work....]

Anyway - here's the ceiling & yes, it's not had a coat of wood protector applied. We don't have the money to do it right now & the windows are supposed to help protect the inside of the house.

It's a project for a winter when we feel that we need to do it. Besides, we are about ready to start the mudding of the drywall & when all that dust gets going in the air, I'd be concerned that it would start to stick to the ceiling (which it will anyway) but knowing how this project is going - the ceiling would still be tacky & the dust would ruin it.....

In other words, we don't want to do it right now.

Phil is upstairs today working on the knee walls in the loft. He's making the openings we need for access to the storage space there. I can hear him hammering from the other house! Once the holes are cut, we'll be able to put in the drywall & then later on we'll get our cabinet maker to help us design the pull-out drawers that will also be installed in the wall.

We are now in the tough part of the job. The finishing work. Phil thought he had some tough decisions to make before, well, there are about 10 times more coming up!!

Here's another detail that was just added. We had 2 glass blocks left over from the window so I thought that Phil would like to see them used. We installed them just above the bathroom door. It should look pretty cool when the light shines through them....

Taking a shot of the office is tough, can't get a wide enough angle. So I just stood in the far corner & got Phil at the end of the day.



I'm so used to seeing everything open that when they put the drywall up in the kitchen area, I finally got a real feeling about the house. This is the kitchen area. We do have an island going in - but I'm holding off on the final design of that until the cabinets are installed. The original size was 3 by 5 - which I have the feeling will be too big. So once all the equipement is moved out of the way & the area is cleaned up a bit, I will be able to get in there & start taking measurements of our kitchen table & where the island might come out.

This shot is of the rest of the kitchen/dining room area. Phil is also working on putting plastic on the south wall before the drywall goes up. It's tricky because it's mostly window & the plastic needs to be sealed down - either with red tuck tape or black sticky goo.

We've sent in our papers for the insurance claim on the roof & the windows. Hopefully we should hear back from them by the middle of March - cross your fingers for a good refund. We need that money to finish the house!!

Laundry Area Drywalled

Today was a wonderfully sunny day! There was quite a bit of ice around here again & once the sun started to warm things up, it was DRIP, DRIP, DRIP....We need to get our drain pipes re-attached to the gutters & I hope the convince the guys to do it tomorrow while it is still sunny.

Phil & I went over to the house today to work like mad people. I hauled out the wet/dry vac & went to town on THE WHOLE house. I'm exhausted right now, but the house looks fabulous... for all of 24 hours til someone comes into work tomorrow.

The first floor is DONE for drywall - well, except for a small spot in the ceiling & the bathroom, which Phil was working on today.

Here are the laundry area shots:
Yup - that's my shadow. I'm standing in the added on door on the west wall & I'm looking east where there is a hall way & the east back door. The space here is laundry/mud room/work space & off on the right is the entrance to the suite (can't see it) & the stairs going up to our space.



This shot is taken from the suite doorway. On the right is the west wall door with all that glorious sun shining in. There is a light switch on the far right - beside that is the stairs going up. We will have a freezer underneath the electrical panel, under the window will be the laundry tub & on the wall beside that will be the washer & dryer.



I decided to take this one right outside the house. This is the east back door looking down the hallway to the window where the laundry tub will be.

This is such a cool effect - looking at the pine ceiling & then looking out the windows, the pine just continues through!

We will worry about putting a finish on the inside pine once the house is all done - so, probably not until the fall or winter when we have a bit more time (& maybe some money again). We shall see what the summer will do for the ceiling, but the windows are low-UV - meaning, they block a lot of UV already. I really don't want to have to worry about getting up to the top of the ceiling every few years to deal with applying a finish because the ceiling is fading or becoming discoloured in patches........

This is it for today - am too tired to add other photos. Will continue outside tomorrow - hopefully - & get the yard under control (again)

Drywall in the Lower Suite

Here are some preliminary shots of the drywalling that was done this week. I'll probably have more by the end of today as they moved into the laundry area late yesterday afternoon.

This is the lower suite, standing in the back corner (might actually be inside the bathroom doorway). With the bright white drywall up it looks much brighter than it did for most of the winter. It's got a warm, cosy feeling even though it's shrunk!




This is looking back from the opposite corner to where the kitchen will be. We need to get this done quickly as the carpenter really wants to 'empty' his work space of the first kitchen so he can get working on the second kitchen. I'm concerned that we are trying to squeeze too much into a small space. Now I'm going to have to research 'small space decorating'!



This wall holds the closet (which won't have doors because it's behind the entrance door & would be too awkward). The next opening is the entertainment cubby - an add-on to the design when we realized we had room to do it. The 3rd opening is the bedroom doorway & the 4th opening is a storage space under the stairs. I have a hinged door for that which I'm going to unbury today to see what condition it's in. I think it's mahogany....


This is a bad shot of the bedroom. It's an odd angle right in the doorway & I was amazed at how SMALL it seems...but we have a bunch of insulation stashed in here & drywall too. The accoustics are great! I'll have to get someone to stomp on the floor above to see how the sound proofing is working.

This is Dave working on the knotty pine ceiling. This is looking amazing & because we are pushed for time, we've not been able to put anything on the pine - it's raw. Hopefully, we'll be able to put a varnish or some sort of UV protection on it.

Back to Work

Alright! Thank you for being so patient - or for being kind in your reminders of me needing to update the blog. It's been a strange week, well, they all are, but I'm just now getting excited about the house.......WE ARE SO CLOSE!!

Today I went over to straighten up the green house - it sustained some minor damage this winter & I had pots that needed emptying & bulbs that needed to be potted & once I saw that the crocus & daffodils were starting to send up shoots I felt the urge to get my hands dirty! It's a bit premature for a full scale garden attack - the ground is still a bit frozen & very cold (my hands are aching right now) so I will just have to take it slow.....better to get prepared with detailed plans & focus on one thing at a time.
My white garden is looking fabulous. Phil noticed that I will need a retaining wall to hold some of the dirt back, so maybe in the fall we can find some way to incorporate that. The white lilacs that I planted 2 springs ago look like they will survive. There are shoots on them already! I've room for a few more items - maybe a white hydrangea & a white rhododendron along the slope edge.....And I will need to dig out the ditch if I want to put a bench there for people to sit on....The walk up the hill to our place is only half way & many people get discouraged when they see the rest of the hill to climb if they want to make it to the gallery at the top....Plus, it's a nice view of the harbour (for another few years til the trees grow) & if I get a bit of a gallery going, they can rest for a bit.

The first thing that I found to be DONE was the glass block window. Finally - it has been one thing that we spent a bit more money on, but since it's virtually the only window on the west wall, I thought that it should be a bit more spectacular. Just after it was finished (took 2 months!) the building inspector calmly tells us that we could have bought a window made of glass blocks already installed in the frame & we'd just need to 'slip it in place'.....Thanks Don....I think the name of the blocks is 'seascape' or something like that - it's got all these little bubbles that are so fun! Once it's framed on the inside it won't look so institutional.
The best news - so far - is that the roof is finally REPAIRED! That means no flap-flappy of the blue tarp in the middle of the night & people across the harbour won't think we've put on a blue metal roof. The boys had very bad weather for the west side repairs, but luckily the west side of the roof wasn't as badly damaged as the east side - which they finished the day that we left for Alberta. They also put on an edge cap - just on the south side of the house - which I feel finishes up the look of the roof. If we had pockets full of money, I'd have them do the north side of the roof (back of the house) as well as the covered porch on the west side. As you can see from the photos we still have scaffolding up on the deck. They are finishing up the south wall with window trim & siding - it's taken a lot longer than anyone thought - weather factors plus the final replacement window didn't arrive til after we left - end of the first week of January. Once that wall is finished - today maybe - I'll take a close-up photo so you can see how finicky the siding installation was - lots of small pieces & angle pieces....Whatever. I'll be glad once the scaffolding is down & out of the way. The boys are also working on the deck framing today - it wasn't built all the way around to the door underneath the covered porch & they've had to come up with an imaginative way of completing it.

I must say - it's been nice to have them come in to work on Saturday & Sunday. I think the main factor is that Ken (Dude) isn't here. The boys want to work & he seems to hold them up. So, Phil goes out & picks them up in his boat & spends all day working with them. It's been good.

Phil & Steve (another fellow who wants to work) installed a central vac system yesterday & I'm hoping that Steve wants to help install the drywall. We can't wait for another 'friend' of Dude's to say he'll come in - we are on a very tight time frame now - they have until the middle of February to get the suite & as much of the rest of the house into a liveable state so that Phil & I can start moving our stuff over. We are going to Cancun the last week of February & I don't think we have enough money to pay them after that. We'll be able to do most of the finishing work ourselves, but it would be nice to be able to relax 100% while down on the beach.....

The soffits are also all finished. I think Phil has a few pieces in the front that he needs to stain, which he will do while the scaffolding is up for the siding. But the pine is such a nice touch & Dude did have a great idea for how it should be done. We put in brown venting instead of white & I like it quite a bit.




Before we left, the yellow cedar posts for the inside had been planed & were ready for installation. As you can see, they replaced the 2x4's that went up to the ceiling. They've been repaired a bit with wood filler - we got the house so dry that the wood started to check - which means it started to split, so we had to quickly deal with that or else it would continue to split. So the wood filler went in - can't hardly see it & then it was clear coated with varithane. They look absolutely wonderful!