Mission Complete, Yet Also Just Beginning...

It is with a sense of sadness (as evidenced by the fact that this post is more than two years after we have moved in), but also with satifaction, that I write the last post in this blog.  Sadness because this project, which was so much fun to do and to share it with all of you, has come to an end.  But we are also very excited because a new chapter of our lives has started.  Even though our mission of building our home is complete, the journey in this home has really just begun. 

In finishing this blog I am including photos of my two favourite rooms - our ensuite bathroom (which has an amazing view of the mountains and ocean that I savour every day) and our kitchen (which has become the heart of our home).  Also included is an outside shot of the back of the house where we have already spent many, many happy hours together by ourselves and with friends and family.  If you want to see the rest of the house just drop us a line.  We would love to have any of you, our friends, come and see it in person instead of on a computer screen. 

This last picture is a view from our house of the sun setting on our very first full day living in our new house.  I found it a fitting picture to end this blog.  Thank you everyone who participated in this adventure with us - it was truly a community that helped to build our home. 

Moving Day! and Thanks

Moving day finally arrived and look what we ended up with. It started at about 6 the night before and continued all night.

















The only thing worse than having to shovel your driveway the morning of a move is having to shovel two of them! It was hard to be too mad though - it was so beautiful.



















I would love to post a ton of pictures right now; however, I feel a bit like that would be cheating and skipping over a huge part of the building process. I wasn't able to post much in November as it was a little bit crazy so my blog suffered immensely. So I am going to take time this month to post pictures of the house development in November that I missed. When that is all complete I will post pictures of the house in its finished state.

I want to take a minute to thank all our friends and family who helped us out through this entire process and most especially the move. The day could have been a complete disaster and because of you all we finally made it into our home. There has been no transition at all adjusting to this house - it feels so comfortable already (even though it is piled with boxes and debris) and it finally feels like we are truly 'home'. Thank you so much.

Random House Pictures

I introduce to you our beautiful finished fireplace. Wyatt is really admiring it and he spent a lot of time figuring out which piece of metal will finish it off perfectly. There is a space right in the middle of the fireplace surround that we can either put a circular piece of metal or a rectangular one. I think the consensus was the circular one to break up the straight lines a bit. We are in love with our fireplace and know we will spend many nights curled up on the couch by it.

Ella also put the first finishing touch to her room - a poster she purchased. We tucked it in her closet so that our painter won't get mad at us!

Our window bench is also complete and today Ella was the first one of us to curl up on it with a blanket and read her book.

The tiles are also up in the kitchen and some of the moulding has been added. This week our island countertop will arrive.

Fireplace

I am the first to admit that I am getting a bit tired right now. You may have guessed so by the lack of posts this month. Between school and extra-curricular activities, packing and last minute house decisions I am ready to move on. Except that our last move was pretty horrific so I am not exactly looking forward to the moving part. For the most part I would be content just to stay in our current house and visit our new house every once and awhile to admire it!

And then something exciting happens at Ocean Oasis and I feel re-energized and really excited about moving on. That something exciting is our fireplace. Like many of our light fixtures, our fireplace is something really special and personal to us. As John's Dad was involved in our lighting my Dad is involved in our fireplace. He made us this absolutely beautiful mantle out of yew wood and it has finally gone up. It weighs about 2 tonnes (well, it feels like it does) and is almost 8 feet long. They built two pillars to help hold it up and Rob and Anne are going to cover them with the same rock work that is on the front of the house. It is something very special and something we will be able to look at and enjoy every day. Thanks Dad!

For My Birthday I Received...

A driveway, new kitchen cabinets, a kitchen sink, and deck railings!

Now before you all inform me that one of my gifts is defective, with a gaping hole in the middle let me explain. We were super worried that the large driveway would take up the entire front yard and just look like one big hunk of concrete. John is also worried about drainage. When I mentioned this to Foreman Dave he came up with a brilliant idea. He suggested that they make an extra form (or more if we wanted) and put them throughout our driveway. This way they wouldn't put concrete in those forms and we could fill the empty spots with something else to break it up. John and I aren't totally sure what we are going to do with the diamond in the centre of our driveway. I would love grass but it would probably get pretty trashed. We thought maybe some more of the K2 stone, or even crushed gravel. We are open to suggestions if you have them. So my gift isn't really defective, it is just a little unique.

Tile Work and Kitchen Cabinets

The tile work is almost completed. Almost all that remains are the tile countertops in the kitchen and the backsplash.

The exciting part right now is watching the kitchen cabinetry come together. We showed up today as they were putting the fronts on the cabinets and they are perfect! They are exactly what we wanted and they look so great.

Tomorrow they will probably be pouring our driveway. I took the last action shot as Cam, Sonny and Peter were just finishing up building the forms. They have finished almost all the flooring inside. The only parts that need to be completed are the stairs and our closet.

Can you tell Ella has started decorating our new house for Halloween? Bonus points to whomever can spot it.

The Art of Rock

I want to do a special post in honour of the rock work that Rob and Anne have done over the past few weeks. They have worked tirelessly on this part of the house and it has turned out beautifully. Apparently at one point Rob was up on the roof at 3 am with a flashlight looking at the work that had been done and determining how to move ahead and not replicate a pattern.

I think he is proud of the front of the house and we are thrilled to have a very unique piece of art work. Thanks Rob and Anne!

The rock itself is from a company called K2. We used Tofino Sky Fieldstone and Black Pearl Ledgestone. In most applications the rocks are just placed horizontally but Rob bucked the trend and has them vertically and horizontally. All the rock is from a quarry here on Vancouver Island.