Who doesn't like a montage?

Here is a picture storyboard of our project as it evolved over 6+ months... it's 10 minutes so settle in. You've been warned. 

(There is sound, you have to turn it on inside the player...)

http://web.photodex.com/view/8x2d92x4

We're done!!!

And by done I mean that we successful passed our final building inspection!!

Along with getting the siding done, we had to finish the installation of our hand rails. Both on the stairs to the basement that I have talked about before but also on our 100 year stairs from the main floor to the second floor. 

As required, here is the railing I installed on said stairs. Fancy eh?!

After noting the high quality of the railings I installed, the building inspector inquired "you are keeping these right?". "Of course" I replied... below are the pictures of Penny helping me take the basement railing down the following day.

 And this is the fire that I made using the wood from the railings...

And finally, the ceremonial burning of the building permits. After 262 days of construction, it was a very satisfying activity to be sure!

One last post to come, an overview of the project, then my blogging days are over :)

Siding, it's done, finally.

Well to be fair it was done on Dec 17th, I'm just getting around to writing about it. It took far longer to install than I, or the installers, thought it would. But we are happy with the outcome. Actually, I'd be happy with pink ceramic tiles instead of Typar at this point...

Siding!

I can hardly believe I writing these words but there is siding going up on the house! It's been a long painful journey but progress is finally happening. Here are some in progress pics, should be done this week. (should be)

November update

It's been a while, a few bits and pieces to report on. 

The shower is finally complete. The old cracked tiles were removed, the wall was re-enforced with 2x4s, new tiles were installed and the shower door was reinstalled. 3 weeks and we're finally in business. It was worth the wait. 

And the glass in the light well cut-out, finally conversations can't be heard between the bedroom and the basement. 

Looking up through the light well at the window being installed

The backsplash is up. Big white tiles with a cross hatched pattern. 

The couch is in!

Finally, we worked with Dee and got our travel pictures up on the wall in the living room. Wasn't sure what we were going to do with the space but she worked her magic and we think this turned out great. 

Next time, the stove saga may have reached a conclusion, I will recap the whole story.

Day 199 - Glass!

Our glass arrived today. I'd love to tell you it all went well but that would would be untrue unfortunately. 

It did go well in the basement - the glass and the mirror went just fine and looks good. 

Upstairs went less well. First the glass for the window into the cut out in the light well was the wrong size and they didn't have the tool with them to adjust it on the spot. So they have to come back. 

Then it got really fun. After complaining that the wall onto which the door hinge was not strong enough to support it, they called me upstairs to show me where the tiles cracked under the weight. 

So that will need to be fixed. How exactly I'm not sure. At the very least, remove the cracked tiles and if possible put something stronger in behind like plywood before re-tiling. I don't know if we have any more of those tiles or when that work can be done we are not starting to use our new shower tomorrow like I had hoped :(

Stay tuned. 

The finished product, looks nice from a distance!

See the semi-circle crack running up on either side of the hinge

In other news, our roof still leaks and the siding guy didn't show up Thursday when he said he was going to and has been unavailable via phone for the past week. Super thrilled about that since it is now November. 

Sigh.

Day 194 - minor news

There hasn't been much to report over the last couple weeks. We continue to SLOWLY unpack and get settled in. 

We will be getting our shower doors this weekend and got our siding this morning which will be installed over the next couple of weeks. All 1500 lbs of it!! Thank goodness the neighbours had some delivered at the same time so we could store it in their driveway, not sure where the 30 foot long pieces would have gone otherwise. 

The sliding doors for our bedroom finally came and look pretty darn good.