Moved in, but work isn't over

Well we have moved in finally. The inspector let us move know without the house being bricked. There is still so much to do but We are slowly getting settled in.

Brick work started yesterday morning.

Fingers and Toes Crossed!!!!

We had our hydro inspection yesterday and we passed!!!

Today we have our building inspection and if everything goes well we might be moving in this weekend! I am so excited but I don't want to get my hopes up too much just in case.

We are actually planning on having our first bbq there tonight - hopefully to celebrate getting our occupancy permit!

Wish us luck!

Granite is in!

Granite came yesterday and it looks great. Feels like We are getting close to moving in but I've said that a time or two.

Hard work paying off

Well it has been about 4 weeks since we've moved in with the in laws. We are all still getting along fine but I am so ready for my own space again.

We are close, and I have been saying this for weeks, but I really feel like it will be move in ready soon.

This weekend the stairs were finished, and finishing stuff like caulking around the trim work and windows, filling in the nail holes in the trim. The trim and doors will all need another coat of paint but that is the least of my concerns right now.
Sunday me and my son spent the day cleaning. And man did the place need it. Dust, Dust and more dust! Our floors are a dark hard wood - distressed at that, so all of that dust sits in all of the crevaces in the floor. Each room got vacuumed twice and mopped at least 6 times, with multiple, multiple water changes.
The bedroom floors looks good, they weren't as dirty as the main floor. The main room is ok but will still need a few more washings before it is really clean. I was busted up by the end of the day. Thank goodness my 11 year old son is so great and helped me.

Finally took the plywood off that was covering the front door. I love it. And that hanging pendant light we got for $18 at Galaxy Lighting in Concord, up by the Vaughn Mills Mall. It was well worth the drive there. We got all of our light there for a third of the cost in the stores.

Stairs are in and done, they look really nice with the wrought iron baulsters.

Stairs in progress



Stairs and Railing done!



Master bedroom, nice and clean! The closet still isn't done though...we ran out of hard wood floor so the insides of all of the bedroom closets still need to be done.



ensuite bathroom, still need shower door



Shower in the master ensuite







 

I've been pricing out the shower door and aye, aye, aye its expensive. We are looking at about 2-2500! I wanted the door in the centre but having the door to the side is actually about 5-600 dollars cheaper. So that is probably the route we'll go. Definitely going with the Shower guard coating to prevent all of that scaling and water spots.

Taking a well deserved rest in the warmth of the sun. We worked hard. But you can tell in this picture that even after about 6 or 7 times over with a good washing wasn't enough.

Now i'm working on getting some pleated shades ordered for the windows at the front of the house and bedrooms, and panels for the windows at the back of the house. So far Home Depot is the best pricing.

Fridge and dishwasher are installed and stove is there ready to go. Granite gets installed on Wednesday morning. Fingers crossed that we'll be given the go ahead to move in soon.

Heart of the Home!

The kitchen is in! It looks great I love it. The colour looks good, I love all of the soft close drawers and cupboard doors. The granite should hopefully be in next week.
Brad from Leggo Kitchens in Woodstock did such a great job. He has been such a pleasure to work with.
Check out their website at www.leggokitchens.ca

The island will be such a great space when it is done. And I am sure once the granite is in the kitchen is going to look different, again.
Although you can't tell with the cardboard on the floor, the kitchen looks really nice with the hardwood floors.

The vanities are in too, but I couldn't get a pic of those yet. Everything is coming together.

I'd hoped we would be able to be in the house this weekend but that won't happen. The stairs are getting started tomorrow, not sure how long it will take to do them. We can only have the inspector come after the stairs, railing and trim is done. Then once we have our occupancy permit we can move in.

I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again. I woke up with a stiff neck this morning- not good! Sleeping on a double mattress on the floor with pillows that aren't the greatest is not fun.

Once we move in there is still going to be so much work to do. The brick work won't get started for another couple of weeks, hopefully the weather will cooperate. This weather has been crazy - warm, raining, now expecting winter storm watch?! It's April! And of course all of the outside work that needs to be done - grading, seeding for grass, landscaping, fence ....the list goes on and on.

Kitchen going in

After a busy weekend of painting trim and doors we are ready for a productive week.
The kitchen was delivered today and install started. It will,let be done tomorrow along with the bathroom vanities.

Leggo Kitchens has really done a great job! Here is what's done so far, can't wait to see the finished product tomorrow

On a roll...

The Easter weekend put us back a bit but we still managed to get a lot done this weekend. The main bath has a working toilet and tub now all we are waiting on is the vanity when it comes in next week.

Here are some more recent pics. There is still some cardboard on the floors to protect them a bit...

The garage doesn't look so big with all of our stuff in it!



View from front door looking in to kitchen/dining area.




View from front door looking into family room area



Part of our ensuite bath. There will be 2 showers installed on either side of the shower.



Entrance from the garage - mudroom




Master bedroom



Main bath - I thought I got a better pic of this that caught the floor but I guess not. The floor is just a neutral tile. This pics makes it look kind of yellowish. It isn't, they are neutral tones..

We got our trim, doors and wood for the stairs delivered last night. We have a lot of priming, painting and staining to do.  We got a really good deal, better than if we'd gone through big box store for trim/doors. And these are all wood, no mdf. The guy who did it for us is out of Delhi. We got a shaker style trim because I didn't want anything fancy or too curvy looking. And the interior doors mimic the front door.

Next Monday the kitchen and vanities get installed! We are getting closer - as long as we can get the guy to come back and install the stairs soon.

Getting closer...

After calling and emailing just about every flooring store and distributor from here to what feels like the ends of the Earth I have found the hardwood floors need in Guelph. We have to pick it up on Tuesday. So that is a relief. 

Other than that the floors are in, grouting done, tile work in bathrooms are done.

We went to a place in Concord, up by Vaughan Mills area to buy lighting. Well worth the drive! It's called Galaxy Lighting, open to public Mon to Fri from 9-3. Prices were amazing. We got a pendant lantern for outside our front door, a matching light for back patio, fixtures for foyer, dining room, our bedroom and 2 vanity lights for 360$ no tax, cash only. I would recommend it if you are replacing some lighting. We've already hung the lighting and it looks great.

We also got everything done for the granite counter top. Went and picked out our slabs and mapped out how we want them cut. 

Went to pick out brick and stone for the house. Went with a brown brick called Ashford and a stone called French Country. 

We closed on our house yesterday. It was a bit emotional for me. I'm glad the house is going to be going to a nice family. 

Tomorrow I will go over to give the floors a good cleaning to avoid any damage to the hardwood. The trim and wood for the stairs should be in soon and we will be busy with priming, painting and staining. 

Keep on movin'

Well despite the fact that we've run out of hardwood floor, work continues. They've started laying the tiles and that should be done by end of day tomorrow. Ready for grouting on Monday. As for the hardwood floors, I give up. I have emailed and called about 50 different flooring stores and no one carries the same wood. I went to the house today and there is about 2 rows of flooring left to do in my daughters room, the inside of her closet and the inside of my sons closet. I need about 4 boxes of the hardwood floor to finish it. Looks like we are going to have to wait the 2 months before it comes in. What a disappointment. But it could have been worse I suppose.
I wish I had taken some pictures but most of the floor was covered with cardboard to protect it.

Ceramic floors are done in the main bath and ensuite. they just need grout. The ensuite floor tiles look great with the Wythe Blue walls.

The mini pendant lights for above the island are in and I'd almost forgotten what they looked like. They almost look like a leopard print...they're fun!

Garage doors are in too. Nothing fancy, they are a light taupe colour.

We are going to be doing our final move this weekend and shack up with the in laws for a few weeks while the house is getting done. Our closing date is March 28th but that is Easter weekend and I really don't want to be moving or unpacking anything that weekend.

I'll have to try getting a few pics this weekend at the house.

Freaking out!

We've run out of hardwood floor!!! We are short about 6 boxes. He wasn't able to get the rest of my daughter's room done and none of the closets. The place we bought it from says they can't get anymore for 2 months! What??!!

So now I'm spending my evening surfing the net trying to find a supplier out there that will be able to get us the floor.

Painted! Ready for Floors

I have to say that I am so impressed with the guys we hired to do the work over the last 2 weeks at the house. Glenn Staats out of Oshweeken did an amazing job for us. He did the insulating, drywall, taping, mudding, priming, and painted all the entire house - including the garage lol!

I used 2 colours in the main great room of the house. 2 walls have a darker colour and then a lighter colour on the opposite walls. These are the windows looking out from both the dining room and living area.

This is the wall where the kitchen cabinets will go and on the far right the dining table area

The 2 contrasting colours

She loves her "Lavender Sparkle" room

He is liking his "Shadow Play" room

Our Master bedroom -Wythe Blue on one wall and Brushwood on the other 3 walls. We also used the Wythe Blue in the ensuite bath.

 Tomorrow we have someone going in to start on the hardwood floors. I can't wait to see it in.
Kitchen gets installed in 3 weeks,  We'll be at the inlaws as of this weekend so we'll have a few weeks before we can move into our house. It won't be too bad. Hopefully the time goes by quickly.

We've been busy!!!

Oh my gosh, it has been a busy week. So hard to believe but in one week the entire house has been drywalled and mudded  and we'll be ready for priming on Tues/Wed. The house actually looks more and more like a house with all of the walls up.

This is a view of the garage

Standing in the dining area looking at front door, thats a closet  and the hallway to the bedrooms.

Our master bedroom, walk in closet and ensuite to the left

Hallway, main bath to the left the kids bedrooms are to the right, linen closet in front and our master to far left

I also ended up making changes to the kitchen - AGAIN lol!  Poor Brad from Leggo kitchens has been so great. He met with me again this past week and the place where they manufacture the kitchen so that I could get a better look at the cabinet colour that I had chosen. I am so glad I did. I had chosen a colour that had a mocha glaze over top, which looks amazing on a door that has more detail, edges etc. because the glaze has more edges to sit in. The door panels that I chose are fairly simple and there would only have been glaze around the outer edge. So, I ended up changing it completely. I ended up changing from maple to oak cabinets and going from mocha glaze colour to Truffle.  I kept the kitchen vanities in a colour called Chocolate - it sounds darker than it is. It is actually similar to the cabinet colour I picked before, just without the glaze.

We went Thursday to Aallstone in Brantford to pick out our granite and chose one called Blanco Antique. It is really pretty. The slab we saw had these big chunks or brownish coloured crystals in it, looks cool. They need to order a couple of slabs in for us and then we get to go in and decide how we want to use the granite. So basically we get to look at the slabs and decide which area they will use for the island etc.

This is the cabinet colour with the granite we picked in behind. Photos don't do it justice, it looks so nice.
 

Today I bought a new duvet cover for my room, it is a dark brown, taupe and an icy blue colour. So in our bedroom I am doing one wall in the icy blue, and the rest of the walls in a taupy colour. Then carrying the icy blue onto the walls of the ensuite. I'm excited about changing up my bedroom. We've always had taupes and reds in our room. This will be a nice little switch. Im having my sister who is a talented artist do some artwork for the room as well.

Today we went shopping for tiles and flooring. For the ensuite I chose a 12x24 tile for the floor, it has a lot of variation in it, brown, grey, blue, taupe...chose a chocolate brown tile for the interior of the shower. The shower floor will be 2x2's of the same tile as the washroom floor and we chose a mosaic tile for accent in the shower that also has matching tiles from the floor. It is going to look nice I think.

It's hard to really see the colour in the tiles but the icy blue that we are putting on the walls is in the tiles

 We also picked out the tile for the main bath, more neutral for this room.

The 5x8 beige tile is what is going in the bath surround, and the mosaic tile is the accents for in the surround.

We changed our minds on the hardwood as well. We went from maple to oak, since we are now having oak kitchen cabinets. It is fairly dark but there is a lot of natural light in that room and I think it will look good. Because the granite has a white background we also went with a white tile with a swirl of brown in it.

Not the best picture, it doesn't really show the colours well

 

Last but not least was the backsplash for the kitchen. We went with a natural stone, subway tile in neutral tones. It will also go in behind the stainless steel hood fan all the way up to the ceiling.

 

 

We were going to go with carpet in the bedrooms but they gave us such a good deal on the hardwood that we figured by the time we bought a decent carpet, underpad and pay for installation we'd be better off with the hardwood. I've always liked the feeling of carpet on my feet when I get out of bed, but both kids and Glen have allergies so hardwood might actually be the best way to go.

 

This is the colour for the kitchen/dining room far left wall and the wall on the far right - its called Hale Village

 

 And this colour for the wall with the windows that you face when you walk in to the house, as well as the wall at the front entrance, this will go down the hall as well and mudroom. It's called Desert Castle.

 

 

 We also moved a ton of packed boxes to the house already. There is a big storage/cold cellar and we've moved them all in there for now. We have to be out of our house by March 28th, but we want to be out before then because that is actually Easter weekend.

 

What a productive week!  Hopefully we keep this up!

Insullation in...getting warmer...

From one day to the next the basement and main floor are now fully insullated. They work fast!

We also met with Brad from Leggo Kitchens who we have hired to do our kitchen and bathroom vanities. Of all of the kitchen suppliers that we went to for quotes Brad was the absolute easiest to deal with, not to mention he gave us the most reasonable price. So far we are very pleased with his work. I can't wait to see the final product. We picked out colours today for the kitchen cabinets and vanities. We went with a medium tone with a darker glaze on it, its called Mocha Glaze. At first I was leaning towards the darker browns but I worried about whether 5-6 years down the road would it still be something I loved? I guess we played it safe but I do like it and I think it will look nice. I'm a bit worried about what it will look like with our dining room set (which I am not crazy about). The dining room set has a reddish undertone to it and it is pretty dark. But I didn't want to design the kitchen around the dining room set, which can be easily replaced. The kitchen is pretty perminent. The picture below is the colour for all of the cabinets including bathroom vanities. The colour swatch on top is the pick for the bathroom vanities. We still have to go pick out the granite for the kitchen...but I have seen one that I like called Sienna Bordeaux.

 

Above is the granit I had picked out before. Brad is going to get us a piece of maple stained and glazed the way we want it so that we can take it with us when we go to pick out the granite. I also need to go get a sample piece of the ceramic tile and hardwood floors we picked out.

We had already gone out and had a look at flooring and picked these out, but this was before we picked out cabinets so this might change.Its a maple 8" planks, hand scraped and distressed hardwood, and the tiels are 18x18 ceramics.

The next couple of weeks are going to get busy!

Electrical Passed!

I couldn't be prouder of my hubby! We had our electrical inspection today and we passed with flying colours. They didn't even need to go down to the basement and check out the electrical panel. They saw that he had done such a nice job on the main level he didn't feel like he needed to go downstairs.
Tomorrow the dry wall guys start first thing in the morning to start installing insullation and drywall.

Oscar is watching the kids out the window...Guard Dog!

Ready for insullation and drywall tomorrow