Floor To Ceiling

Jim was hard at work on Thursday getting the vinyl flooring down in the back entrance/laundry room, front entrance and ensuite bathroom. Meanwhile, I had been out shopping for light fixtures and, after weeks of searching for fixtures in any kind of reasonable price range, I hit on a store with a big SALE...my favourite 4-letter word! My trusty, workaholic husband installed the one in the kitchen and the same one will go in the front entrance. A larger hanging version will light the stairwell up in the loft area and, finally, a huge hanging version will go in the diningroom. As you may remember from an earlier blog, the rest of the house is lit with Home Depot Cheapo...hey, they do the job and helped keep our interior lighting bill to only $1000.

I have also included another picture of the kitchen as it's just too lovely.

There's Bean Counters And Then There's Kitchen Counters

It is September 16 and it must be the hottest day of the year as our thermostat read +32C out here in the cow pasture. Of course 4 months from now it will likely be -32C, but that's then and this is now and we'll take it. Unfortunately, it was incredibly windy again and Jim was forced to work inside as the soffit and fascia require calm winds to manipulate. He managed to get the second coat of paint on a bedroom, a closet and two coats of paint on the laundry room.

Meanwhile, the kitchen countertop installer was back installing all but the counter over the peninsula. He measured wrong the first time he was out and made that section of counter too short. Better luck next time. Now that the kitchen sink can be installed, Jim can run the water lines to it. He was holding off until he knew exactly where to drill up through the floor.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Lovely Satelite

Here it is September 15 and the weather is unseasonably warm. We are about +27C today and will be even warmer tomorrow and for the rest of the week. Most of last week and on the weekend we were skating in and around the +30C mark, which is about 10 degrees warmer than it should be. Maybe Jim is right as he believes that the seasons are one month late in arriving. Harvest is either finished or well under way for those farmers that didn't plow their crops under and the leaves have started to turn colour on the trees so fall seems to be edging its way in.

The west side of the house is now all sided with Jim now working on the soffit and fascia before he removes the scaffold. Ian came to help again over the weekend and the garage wiring, furnace hook-up, and some more sheathing over the styrofoam basement walls was completed. We can't thank our children enough for all their help. This is Mom and Dads project and they come to help us with it minus complaints. I'm sure they have both thought that the old folks might be getting just a little loose in the upper stories and maybe it's pity that drives them. Regardless, hugs and kisses, boys. We also have a neighbour who deserves "thanks" as he came over with his skid steer and leveled off the dirt in the garage. We're now ready for gravel to go down or the scaffold to go up depending on which Jim wants to do first, board the garage or get the floor ready for winter. We cannot move into the house until the garage is drywalled and taped...drat that building code.

Yesterday was another banner day as satellite TV was installed. We have managed for 2 1/2 months with no TV and it was getting very old. For those of you who feel that we missed nothing as there isn't anything worth watching anyway...remember, you had TV all that time. Mostly we missed the news and the weather channel...BUT...Desperate Housewives was about to begin another season and yours truly wasn't about to be left out of the loop!!

Jim Saw Fit To Install Soffit

OK... now that all the dust has cleared from the last week and a half of intense work, we took a day off to go and get more supplies. I didn't think we would ever run out of nails but the unthinkable did happen. So a-shopping we did go. When we returned, Jim had a supply of soffit in the trailer. Nothing would do but he had to create a jig (thank you to Habitat For Humanity for the inspiration) to cut the soffit into appropriate lengths and then begin installing it. The siding continues but as he gets high and closer to the eaves, he can now install the soffit at the same time he's up there installing siding. OK...it means a few more trips up and down the ladder but think of the muscle tone in those old legs.

Labourious Labour Day Weekend Part 2

One might normally think of Sunday as pot roast day but not us! No, No... instead it's pot light day. As Ian was cleaning up a bunch of the left over electrical stuff, he managed to install the pot lights at the front of the house, over the garage and at the back of the house. When he wasn't busy doing that he wired the garage. Meanwhile, Coreen and Jim were slogging away at the siding, again. Coreen took over Allan's job of covering the basement styrofoam walls with plywood so that Jim will be able to attach the siding.

Once he's finished with the west side, Jim can now move on to the south side...good luck with the rake wall!! I imagine I'm in for a bit of ladder holding.

Labourious Labour Day Weekend part 1

Jim had more little helpers show up on Friday September 4, as Ian and Coreen came for the weekend to help construct. They managed to get the upper cupboards on the fridge side of the kitchen in place on Friday and the remainder of the upper cupboards (on the stove side) on Saturday.

The bathroom is nearly all in place as the bathroom sink is installed (but not hooked up) and the mirror medicine cabinet was installed.

West Side Story

Jim and Allan were able to finish the siding on the front of the house by Sunday night. On Tuesday, David came to help out and he and Jim managed to get quite a bit of the west side done. We had to have the electric company come out and disconnect the power to the house out at the pole so that Jim could disconnect the meter, put the siding up behind it and then reconnect it to the house. Kudo's to all the outside workers as the temperature has hovered around 30C all week and the west side of the house is scorching in the afternoon sun.

We have new neighbours, too. Both lots directly across from us have been sold to families with school aged children and building is scheduled to commence any day. By the spring we will be the only old farts surrounded by about 15 kids and assorted dogs and cats. At least it won't be boring.

We Have A Throne!

Allan came for the weekend and he and Jim put the flooring down in both the kitchen and bathroom. Then they moved the lower cupboards into place in the kitchen, installed the toilet in the bathroom and placed the bathroom vanity in its spot. Then guess what? Back to siding.

You have no idea how exciting it is to have a proper, functioning toilet. The bathroom in the trailer has certainly been appreciated but it still has to be "dumped" every so often and it's a very confined space. Oh...to add to the excitement, the toilet seat just needs the softest of touches and it will close itself. Hooray for modern technology!

Rotten, Rotten Plough Winds

The prairie plough wind is an uncommon event in parkland areas and Jim and I have been surprised by them twice, now. They are very brief, strong and destructive. This one twisted our scaffolding and took a piece of plywood and threw it over the roof. On the way over, however, it managed to take a chunk out of the ridge. We found the remains of the plywood over in the lot next to us. For interests' sake, the entire event took less than 10 seconds.

Jim straightened the scaffold in the dead calm of early morning and continued on with the siding. We have yet to hear from the roofing company regarding the roof repair.

We Have Seen The Light

The road that lies between our property and the next one to the east is being constructed along with the road to the next part of the subdivision that is behind us. If it weren't so dry it wouldn't be so dusty and the construction workers insist on starting very, very early each day. So much for sleeping in. In the evening, after Jim has retired from siding, he putters about doing odd jobs. This week he's been installing lights in the bedrooms and loft. I must admit that it is a huge improvement on the hanging, bare lightbulbs.