Concrete steps...

Finally some action in the backyard. I am going to show some pictures before so you can see how bad it is, or was. We now have a final drawing after multiple false starts, and I am quite upbeat regarding our ability to use this backyard next summer.

Final pictures before we move in...

With less than 48 hours before we move we are exited and tired... The house is very pleasant and we actually look forward to think about something else because it's been a long time already. So let's enjoy a few pictures of the inside as it is just before we move in... thanks for reading and sharing our fun (and labor)!

Lights camera action...

The final inspection from the city is scheduled sometime this week and the clean-up and final fixes have begun. There is  still quite a bit of dust everywhere and we still find a bunch of things that require "detailing" as it is called. Most of the electricity is done now and the number of switches is quite scary, I assume it is going to take some getting used to...

First a few pictures of the lights, and you can see the final wall colors as the paint (second coat) is done as well.

update on the outside

We have now fixed our move-in date to the 28th of July. Now the count down has started I guess and there is still quite a few things to fix/finish.

Now we finally have the exterior painted which is a relief based on how difficult it has been for us to choose the colors:

And we also have a front door - the lock is not in yet but here is how it looks:

And finally I forgot to show the new driveway last time so here it is:

The last straight line appears too long...

It seems to never end even when we see progress, I'm so glad we did not go for doing the backyard at the same time...we'd be under so many more questions and discussions...
Still I have (finally) a lot of updates.


First and foremost the floors are done (well almost - we still expect some additional trim pieces that were not planned) but the bulk of it is done and it's great:

In order for the floor to flow under the kitchen island side, we had to have the ceasarstone re-cut to fit exactly under the floor. We were not too sure whether it was a good idea to touch something that looked nice but we could not find a nice option without getting a molding piece. Here it is...

Floor vents are nice we'll see how long they last. Glad we don't have too many relatives with high heals...that would be a problem I suppose.

Now looking at the kitchen, some detailing work here with the hood getting nice and ready.

Some pendants also showed up in the kitchen. I had to take the picture very close because there are not big at all.. We actually saw them in a store before buying but still they look a little small in the room...

And proof that everything comes with patience, the fridge is now installed and with his panels. It is great, almost underwhelming because there is really nothing to see, I know it was the point but still I might have expected more of an effect.

Let's switch gear now with some additional finish details we got:

 Cabinets with doors, shelves and drawers, yeh!

The fireplace is now set - but don't get too excited we can't burn wood, it's gas only.

 We also got shower doors and mirrors and other towel bars and futile but very annoying gizmos including:

 I knew you were looking for this... Ah!

All those items are very frustrating because we don't have them in any budget, they add-up quickly. Sales people never know when/if they are available and the entire experience is not satisfactory at all...

Wait and see...

We've just suffered our most painful delay as it required 3 weeks to get the hardwood floor to 1.5 % of humidity level compared to the sub floor. They started with an amazing 6% difference and now we are ready to see the progress but it's been a little hard. In the meantime some things moved, but not as much as we'd wanted. Our goals to get back in the house in June appears harder and harder to keep.

Also we've been working with hardwood floor installer to find a solution to nicely finish the part of the floor that goes underneath the sheet-rock and this is what he came up with. Not exactly what we wanted but a nice compromise that should last a long time.

Also a few more pictures of things that are moving:

 The cooktop looks terrific. We did not know really what a yellow-ish top would do but it turned out awesome...

And to finish some exterior work (actually done some time ago) with a garage door....

Stairs and Colors...

Finally we have some colors - white is done and walls got one coat of paint for now.

Also the hardwood floor work is starting with the stairs in order to get the hand rail installed.