First Christmas

Another long time since I posted! The kids and I are actually in BC at my moms and spent Christmas here. Scott stayed in Nova Scotia and hosted his first Christmas Dinner in our new dining room and Kitchen.
He has also been picking away at some stuff, mainly Sami's room and putting in new doors on the 2nd floor where our bedrooms are. He blasted through 2 different walls to give Sami her own door and also in our bedroom to prepare for our walk in closet. He took Sami's carpet up in her room and was going to lay more laminate but the wavy floors wouldn't take it. So after some frustration and thought, a beautiful lino was put down.
Here are some Pictures:

The attempt at laminate....


The Linoleum and the Pooh mural no one wants but doesn't want to paint over.


Another shot of the new flooring


Christmas Village on the dining room window sill


Wall Topper for the retaining wall out front, it's been primed and awaiting black.


All lit up for Christmas!!

Almost there!

Well,it's been a couple of weeks since I have had a chance to post on here. Not a ton is new, another round of waiting. But this weekend we are getting a lot done. The backsplash in the kitchen is being tiled, the floor in the bathroom and the foyer are baing stained. And Scott and Jason stripped the shingles and under lay off our front projection, it was leaking and they are going to put it back together 'properly' this time. When it was first put up it was temporary, more for looks than anything. We have gotten part of the stair rail up and the carpet runner on the stairs. We still need to order a turn for the bannister and pick out a newel post for the bottom step. Scott spent the better part of last weekend picking away at little things. He finished the trim in the kitchen, got most of the kick plate on the bottom of the cabinets. Sanded and repainted some bad spots that had been in the drywall. He also moved the TV again and got his surround sound speakers mounted. Tomorrow, both the tile guy and the concrete staining guy are coming back to finish up. On Monday the plumber is coming back to hook up the dishwasher, tub, sink and toilet. So we are hoping by the end of next week we should be 'officially' done. We have also been picking away upstairs where our bedrooms are, the wall in the stairway up to the third floor needed to be insulated and sured up. The kids rooms are pretty much organized as well. We hope to start working on our closet soon, so we have somewhere to put our stuff ;o)

Brian, the tile guy

Tile before the grout

Bathroom floor stain, not engraved yet

Stencil on the bathroom wall - I've been waiting to get this up there!

Stairs, runner and rail

Picking away....

We (meaning Scott mostly) have been picking away at the little things that need to be done. Duncan has finished all the wiring, he finished up on Saturday, there were a few things that needed tweaking. That included hooking up the hot water heater so we have had hot water the last few days - yay! Now the plumber needs to come back and hook up the dishwasher, tub, toilet and sink. But first the tile guy is going to tile the floor in the bathroom. That should hapapen this week, he is also going to do the backsplash in the kitchen and the tile around the tub too. The stained concrete guy should be coming soon to do the front entrance and the retaining well in front of the house. She has been held up by herniated discs in his back. We were going to have him do the bathroom floor as well, but the waiting for him is getting in the way of getting the bathroom done...so we went ahead and got tile and lined up a guy to do it.
Mike and Scott built the surround for the tub on Monday and on Tues. Scott painted the bathroom. On thursday Matthew from Home Depot returned to put in the tambour storage units, trim out the pantry and a few other little things that were left. He also replaced one of the cupboard doors that was damaged.
The blinds that we ordered also arrived on Thursday after a detour in Mississipi ;o)

Tub surround



Bathroom paint


Kitchen pantry



Blinds

On Tuesday the plumber was able to come and hook us up, so we have water flowing in the kitchen and the new hot water heater is all ready to go. Jason finished sanding the bathroom and got a coat of primer on it. Hopefully today we'll get it painted - I can't wait to see the color I picked out. So other than the bathroom and little picky things we are pretty much done...now we just need to plan a House Warming Party!!


Hooking the plumbing up!


I'm lovin' it!

Backsplash Tile

Here is the tile that we are using on the backsplash in the kitchen, can't wait!



And here is the vanity waiting for the bathroom!


This is the window that is replacing an old door that is/was in the stairway going from our space up to Scott's parents flat. A great improvement and not we have to fix up the stairwell to match that spiffy window!

the Lights are on...

On Tuesday the 9th our power was finally switched over to the new service. So we now have power in the reno part of the house!


The same day, Scott and I got to work on the mantle over the stove in the kitchen and it turned out great. We decided not to stain it as we had originally planned but painted it in the Decorator White that we did all the trim in. I just LOVE it.


I have been given permission by the man in charge to put some of the finished kitchen pics on here now. It is not totally done yet, we need the faucets, backsplash, trim around the pantries and the tambour storage in the corners.

Oh Mr. Power guy???!

Well, it's not looking like we're going to get our hook up this week, and with it being a long weekend, it will be a LONG weekend for us. We passed inspection on Wednesday for all our electrical but I guess, we didn't make the list for the linemen :o( Oh well. We were hoping to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving, dunno what we'll do now...Scott's mom and dads oven is not working either! Sami is pretty ticked - she lives for turkey dinners.
We did get the granite installed on thursday and it looks fantastic. If you need a good granite installer lemme know and I will give you his digits. You CANNOT see the seams, unless you know they're there.
Scott's going to try to pick away at the little but time consuming jobs over the weekend, I get to work backshift all weekend. Jason put a new window in the back of the house to replace a door that we wanted to take out, it looks good. But now we'll have to work on the old staircase that you can see when you look in!
The fun never ends.

The granite coming off the truck

One peek at the kitchen while they are putting it in place

and we wait...

Baseboards - don't mind the dust!

Trim around bathroom door.

Trim around the front door.

Pellet stove all ready to go!

Scott finishing up the built in trim.

No power yet but we do have a date - Oct. 3rd. - this wednesday they are supposed to be coming to inspect and then hook us up if all goes well. Mike and Jason got all of the baseboards in as well as the door trims. They really pull everything together. Enough that we moved some of the furniture down for inspiration.
The pellet stove dude and his son came today and hooked up the stove and showed us how to use it. What a dandy little rig that is! Can't wait to be down there all cozy and warm reading by the fire!
Scott trimmed out one of the two built in shelves and it looks fantastic! The other one will have a set of glass doors as well.
We are hoping that the countertops for the kitchen will some this week as well, it was expected to be at the installers on Friday and he will call us to set up a time.
Still waiting on the drywall in the bathroom, it needs one more coat. Not sure what is going on there, seems like everyone has forgotten what's behind that door ;o( But we will get to it in time I guess.

This weekend was taken up by the electrician, Duncan. He finished all the plugs, the door bell and the fixtures. He also has the new breaker box all wired up and ready for NSP to come and hook us up (we are rewiring the whole house and upgrading to a 220 service). That should hopefully happen this week depending on their ability to get here. This would mean that we can use the kitchen, its pretty much ready to go except for countertops and a bit of trim work.
We didn't get any work done on the trim as Mike was sick with the flu all week. Scott did get the jack post cover stained and it looks awesome, it matches the floors perfectly. He also stained the two pieces of T-bar that had to go into the flooring. The stairs got their coat of paint too, we did the steps in a dark brown and the risers in white but I think I may talk Scott into redoing them in the color of all our trim. Other than that they look good.
I tried my hand at frosting the glass in the cabinets in the kitchen and I am not sure about it....might have to just break down and buy some. I spent most of Thursday cleaning up after the floor installation, there was sawdust every where and it was an all day affair.
Friday we made a Q&D (quick and dirty) trip to Halifax to go to the Home Depot, we had to discuss some work that still needs to be done to the kitchen and return a few things. Scotty got himself a dandy leaf blower...the kids love it and the dog and I don't.

Light Fixture in the stairway

Light fixture in front entrance

Jack post cover

Doorbell and Sign

No rain...

Well it didn't rain today so we didn't see Mike and Billy. But Robbie was done a job early and landed here at the house just after lunch to get going on the floor again and I am SO glad to say that it is *DONE*! It looks sooooo great. Now we can put the appliances in and leave them there, no more having to move them from room to room!
I'll show you some pics but there is a lot of dust fyling around from cutting the flooring so their not the best. We'll get some better ones tomorrow. Jason got a second coat of mud on the walls in the bathroom, so that is coming along as well.

Dining Room

The boys had the installation down to an art! Thank God for the Tub Box

The last piece going in!

Let it rain!

We were lucky enough to have Michael and his brother in law Billy in today. They are working on a roof, but since it was raining this afternoon, they came down to start the trim. But before they get to the trin they cut the pocket doors to the right height and then on their tracks and they look great - even with the plastic still on them. They also finished the trim on the jack post cover, now we need to figure out whether to stain or paint...and if it is still raining tomorrow (which it is supposed to) they said they will be back to do the mouldings.
And with Mary Anne and Robbie coming down tonight to do more of the floor we should have the dining room ready for trim as well!
Pocket Doors open...

Pocket Doors Closed

Jack Post Cover

Floor me!

Here are some pics of the flooring that went down today, Robbie sure does know what he's doing. He is hoping to be able to come back tomorrow night to keep it going.
Vapor Barrier and Underlay down

Flooring going down! We've come a long way from the dirt floor!