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.

Our Resident Squirrel

We have a squirrel at Ocean Oasis that likes to take our hazelnuts and hide them in our dogwood tree. The kids thought it would be fun to give him some peanuts too so they climbed up into the tree the other day and hid peanuts all throughout. Lo and behold, the next day when we returned they were all gone!

The squirrel isn't the only one that has been busy at the house. We have more tile (including my foyer which I so desparately wanted to lay with black and white checkerboard tile), more cabinets and a tub finally in place! They have finished the flooring on the main level and are going to get started on the top floor soon. It is hard to get some good pictures as they are covering the floors as soon as they are done to protect them. Great idea, I think!

Our Second Picnic

When we first took possession of Ocean Oasis we celebrated by having a picnic. We headed to the house this morning and had a small picnic for the first time inside the house next to our new island. Phil installed the base of it on Friday so that the countertop people can come on Monday to measure.

John and his Dad spent more time this weekend putting up lights in the house. Ella's is a chandelier that John picked up at the local thrift store and him and his Dad re-wired it. It

looks terrific in her room with the purple. Tom is working hard on our bathroom, and aside from a few minor tile crises it is coming along beautifully.

Countertop and Shower

Yesterday John and I went and picked out our countertop for the island. We had known for awhile that we wanted Vancouver Island Marble but yesterday we actually were able to go to the yard and pick the exact piece we wanted. Isn't it beautiful?

















Our shower is moving along at a quick pace. After I took this picture Tom started working on the floor of the shower. I can hardly wait to check it out tomorrow.






















Here is a great picture of Ella before she stepped in the wet cement. Sigh... Never a dull moment with her! At least it kept her away from the Dogwood tree out front which she loves to climb whenever we aren't looking.

Wow - Thank you!

As we near the end of our house building journey the views on this blog have hit 3000! Wyatt has been anxiously anticipating this event and asking every day how close we were to it. Thank you everyone for continuing to come back and read, even though life has been getting in the way the last few months and my posts haven't been as frequent. I feel like you have all been sharing in our experience and I have really loved having you all involved.

So a huge thanks for making this project so enjoyable just by continuing to come back. I hope you have all enjoyed being a part of our home.

Stone Work and Kitchen Cabinets!

Rob and Ann started putting the actual stones on our home today. The stones are from a quarry on Vancouver Island.

And today Phil came by and put into place the bottoms of our kitchen cabinets! This will make it easier for the flooring in the kitchen to be put down.

There are a lot of pictures of Ella on my blog and I think Wyatt was feeling a little left out. While Ella and I tour the house he is usually outside smashing rocks or cracking hazelnuts open so there isn't a lot of opportunity to take pictures with him in them. He actually wanted his picture taken tonight so here he is modelling some of our bamboo flooring.

Ode to a Father-in-Law

Who has seen my Father-in-Law
with his screwdriver in hand?
For he toils away on ladders
to bring brightness to our land.

You do us so many great favours
those you ask of us are few.
I am so very grateful to have
a Father-in-Law like you.

Thanks Dad!

Busy Weekend

Weekends are usually pretty quiet around Ocean Oasis but this weekend the place was busy. Saturday Rob and Ann started working on the stone on the front of the house. John and his Dad spent part of Saturday putting up lights around our house too.

On Friday more flooring was laid. They are covering the bamboo with paper as they go so it doesn't get damaged. Tom cemented the heat cables into place on our bathroom floor. I don't think we are allowed in there!