Taking a Break

This will be a short week at the house as Thursday is Canada Day and the workers are taking Friday off in order to have a long weekend. The month of June was a crazy month for us so I have decided to take some time off myself to enjoy the start of summer vacation with Ella and Wyatt.

Happy Canada Day and summer vacation everyone!

I will be back next week.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR BEING SO UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE BREAK! LIFE IS A LITTLE LESS CRAZY NOW (KIND OF!).

Siding and the Exterior

While some work has been going on inside there has also been some work going on outside. The guys are tar papering the outside of the house in preparation for the siding to be added. The top level of the house is going to be a dark grey and the bottom floors a lighter grey. Here is some of the siding, with one topcoat, ready to be added.

The floor pouring has been postponed while we wait for some electrical work to be done.

Inside Work - Plumbing, Window Seat

Some of the work that has been going on inside the house includes the bench in the window seat being started, the tub deck being built and the torch-on deckwork being done both on our bedroom patio deck and the flat part of the roof.

Celebration Day

Today was a tour day at the house. All the students came and gave tours of the house - the house was packed. On hand were many of the staff from the high school, including our Mayor, School Trustees and newspeople, as well as Foreman Dave and other people who made this project possible. It was a great day to celebrate the project and everyone had a good time seeing the work that was done on the house. Afterwards the high school put on a huge lunch for everyone in celebration of the project completion.

I will have a few pictures tomorrow but not much happened today. Some more roofing was done (it looks like only one more day of roofing) and a tub surround was built, and the inside was cleaned up quite a bit. Most of the guys were working on another project today. There is going to be a luncheon put on by the high school tomorrow with most of the people involved in the project, and some of the school trustees. I should have some good pictures tomorrow of this.

Floor pouring will most likely be done on Friday now.

Bench Seat Area is Enclosed!

The area where our bench seat is going is enclosed and the window put in. You can see it right in the middle at the back of the house where the gaping hole has been for the last little while. We envision Ella spending a lot of time on that seat reading her books.

The plumbing for the washer and dryer are also in, as is most of the plumbing in the house.

They are also starting to get the house ready for the siding. The outside walls are being worked on in the basement. They will be pouring the floor sometime this week.

Have I mentioned we no longer have to 'break in' to our house? We were given the key last week so now we only have to 'break in' when I forget it, as I did tonight.

Plumbing and Bathtubs

First of all a big welcome to Brian's guys who are now working on the house, and to all the tradespeople who are now involved. Some of them have been working on the house since the beginning of June and because of everyone now involved there will be work done on Fridays. So thanks to these guys I should have some updates on Fridays (depending on what we have going on). These pictures are from Friday.

Some bathtubs have arrived! The bath and shower surround for the kids' bathroom and the bathtub for our bathroom are now in place.

Part of the plumbing for the kitchen island sink is now in place too. It is funny to see the pipe sticking out of the floor in the middle of the room.

The balcony off our bedroom is really taking shape now too. John and I envision spending a lot of time there.

Lock-Up is Complete

And we are actually locked out! Here is a picture of Wyatt and Ella 'breaking in' to our home. Ella is a bit of a monkey and can climb anything and not fall so she climbed inside the house and then opened the front door for me.

The stairs are done inside too! No more ladders for us thankfully.

Goodbye and Good Luck Students

Today is a two post day as there was a monumental change in the house building process today. Yesterday was the last school day at Ocean Oasis for the students.

I will be able to say a proper goodbye at a lunch next week but for now I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you for all your work on our beautiful house and I hope you learned some useful skills and had a great time.

A special thanks goes out to their teacher Brad who took on a giant project and put in a ton of extra work in order to make it successful. And to Principal Dave who did a lot of work behind the scenes to make this project possible.

Another special thank you goes out to Brian and Foreman Dave who are very community minded and were happy to participate in this new program.

Without the support of many people this would not have been possible and John and I were thrilled to be a part of it.

THANK YOU!

Stairs, Roof and a Major Surprise

Do you notice anything different about the front of the house today? That's right - we have a door!! Eventually it will be painted black to match the house which will really make the glasswork and lead stand out.

As many of you know Ella is loathe to move. She loves the new house but wants to keep both houses. We are trying to make building the house a positive experience as much as possible. So guess who was the first member of our family to get to walk through the door? Ella; and she loved it.

We also were pretty excited when we walked in and saw that the stairs had been started. Sometimes it is fun to know what is going to be worked on next, but sometimes it is fun to get surprised, as was the case tonight.

And to top it all off the shingles were started on the roof. They were able to get a lot of the back of the house done already.

Roofing Materials Have Arrived

All of the shingles for the roof arrived today. They will get started on the roof tomorrow.

Also more windows were added today. It is funny to look at the house with the windows open. My first instinct is to close them all when we leave but I guess it doesn't matter if they are open or not.

The deck on the main level has also been expanded.

Windows Installed!!

Windows have been installed! As you can see Ella was thrilled to be able to open the window in her bedroom tonight.

The doors have arrived and should also be installed soon. They have started working on the main deck out from the kitchen and some of the plumbing has been started. They have also finished most of the interior walls, including Wyatt's bedroom and the kid's bathroom.

Finally we have some good weather and it should hold until the finishing of the roof is started this week.

BBQ, Windows and More

Today we had a BBQ (thanks to Don for his help getting it there - and back maybe please??) for everyone at Ocean Oasis to thank them for everything they have done. The rain held off just long enough for us to set up and eat.

Ella and Wyatt wanted to come so they played hookey from school for the afternoon. They were supposed to help out with serving but they became involved in their own building project instead.

The windows arrived today, the posts for the front porch were started and the bargeboards were added to the front.

What Smells so Good??

What is this? A BBQ arriving? It is!

John has taken the day off tomorrow, Ella and Wyatt are joining us, and we are going to cook lunch for everyone to thank them for everything. Feel free to drop by for some hot dogs if you like. If you do, please be sure to mention how good Ella's new haircut looks.

Today there was more work on the roof (it is almost done) and the footings were poured for the covered porch at the front door. Tomorrow the windows and doors are supposed to be delivered too! Things are moving fast and we are almost at lock-up.

Tonight you could see a beautiful rainbow from the house. If you look closely at the last picture you can see the entire rainbow, from end to end.

Many Changes

A lot of exciting things happened at Ocean Oasis today. The roof is coming along beautifully and you can see exactly what it is going to look like now. They also started working on the balcony that is going to be on the top floor and will have an incredible view. The holes were dug for the posts for the front porch by the front door and all the dirt was levelled on our lot, meaning that holes are filled in, the cistern is covered up, the ground is mostly level and the huge dirt piles in the backyard are now gone! It's a good thing Wyatt and Ella didn't come tonight - they loved those dirt piles.

Soon they will start installing the windows.

Roof

More work was done on the roof today. The inside of the house is getting drier and drier!

Getting Ready for Windows

Today our house changed again with more roof trusses and plywood on the roof. There has also been some work done around the windows in preparation for having them put in.

The other good news is that the weather has gotten a bit better. There are sunny breaks now in between the rain showers! Hopefully next week we will just get the sun.