The cabinet building begins!

Robert and Brandy came by tonight to help build the few pieces of IKEA cupboard boxes and bathroom vanities I bought.  And they built it all in a couple hours! Brandy is a pro, having built mamy, many IKEA products before.  I credit her Industrial Design training, Now only if the rest of the IKEA order shows up!

Delivery disappointments.

Tight squeeze!

Apparently today was not a good day to get deliveries.

The IKEA delivery didn't show up at all, for our scheduled 5 to 9pm slot.

And the Sears appliance delivery was messed up.  One set of washer and dryers went to the wrong address. Again.

And the induction range arrived with a broken glass top. Doh!

And then the delivery guys decided not to walk on the cardboard laid on the floor in front of them.

* Sigh. *

We did, however, receive the fridge, dishwasher, fume hood and one set of washer/dryer.

Progress. Peel and sticking. With Help!

Tiffany & Levi looking busy.

Yay! Canopy is peel & sticked!

I re-did the peel and stick around the large
windows, as I found a leak in the heavy rains.

Tiffany and Levi dropped by today to help!  We accomplished a good deal of peel and stick fixes.

First, we tackled the chimney flue enclosure, which has leaked in strong wind and driving rain. I poked my head in the chimney stack, and it appeared water was finding its way in between the fascia of the roof and the top of the OSB sheathing of the stack.  The tyvek and red sticky tape didn't work to keep this water out.

Also, we peel and sticked the top of the large west facing windows.

And finally, we peel and sticked the top of the front door canopy.

And finally, it was a hot, dry day. I've had quite enough rain already!

Sunsets, rainbows, and refinery flares.

July 20, 2011

Brightest rainbow I'd ever seen!

We've now been building this for
one full year!

Suncor refinery lighting up the sky.

Hardieplanks going up!

Yay! Hardie-planks are being installed!
Thanks Chris W. for recommending Allan
from Citadel Exteriors. He's awesome.

We're using monteray taupe with evening blue
and timber bark accents.

 

The pattern spells out "Shafraaz, Serena & Adar"
in morse code.*


*Just kidding.

A World in Colour with Eco Spec Paint

Our home interior is now coated in Benjamin Moore Eco Spec Paint!

This low odour, zero VOC paint is truly amazing. It looks gorgeous and doesn't noticeably off-gas. In fact, I can't believe it is interior house paint! I have allergies and am very sensitive to smells; I don't handle perfumes, colognes, or floral scents of any kind and paint fumes make me ill. However, I'm happy to report that I haven't noticed any discomfort or lingering scents in the air at all during house visits to view what the painters had completed each day.

It's amazing to watch these lifeless walls become so animated by the paint. Even the white primer had me all excited  ;-)  At last, our house is slowly becoming a home... now it just needs some guts and clothes!

Work bee!

We had a very successful work bee today! I had lots of help with putting up strapping on the outside, peel and stickin' the last two windows and chipping mortar off the old brick. Chris, Robert, Zoie, Doug and Philip all came by to help!  And they all braved the muck and rain and mosquitos. Troopers! Thank you for helping out!

Doug & Zoie working away! They didn't even take a break!

Robert & Philip strapping the wall.
I wish we did this months ago.

Philip peeling and sticking!

A nice stack of brick for behind our fireplace.

Many hands make quick work.

Wonderful, hovering bird!

On Saturday, this bird [a brown hawk I believe]
just hovering over the river valley. The wind was quite
strong, so it just seemed to hang there. Waiting. Wow.

Minor earthworks to avoid major water ponding.

Another ridiculous rain storm Friday and Saturday had me create some more minor earthworks.

This time, I created a small swale/stream to drain water away from the large pond created by the roof deck rain water draining down near the basement door. 

I also covered up the window well as per Jim's suggestion with a tyvek shed.

Tyvek shed covering basement window well.

Small stream [on the left] created to the drain away the water.

Mystery hole that appeared
when I created a swale to take away
water. The water just drained into this hole.
Is it an old coal mining exploration hole?
A natural occurrence? Or something made by
an animal?