More progress

Again, it's 4 weeks since my last update, but there's lots of news.  Seems that a blog is a lot of work!  Either I have photos ready or I have text to share, but to get both ready...well, that has caused a lot of delays.  A week ago I started on the text for this post, and since this time yesterday I've tried 4 times to upload the photos that are finally ready to illustrate what I want to say.  No success with the upload.  Maybe I'll post pics without words another day.

We've had a successful shopping trips for doorknobs, heat vent covers, a small piece of linoleum, ceramic tile, a vanity, 4 more light fixtures and towel bars.

There's visible progress everywhere these days!  I'm getting nervous about how poorly I'm prepared to actually MOVE.

About a week ago we had our first look at the dining / living room areas without scaffold.  That experience added greatly to the feeling that it's a home. Also a week ago, we commemerated the first anniversary of Frame Raising.  The journey's felt long, but in some ways, it's only a year that we've been building on the house.

Except for the door & trim, the upstairs bathroom is finished!  Vanity, fixtures, towel bars, lights, and linoleum.

All the light fixtures are up.  The laminate flooring in the rest of the upstairs is finished.  The last of the masking tape is taken off walls & beams.  Granite tile is awaiting grout in the ensuite bath.  The 20 sq ft of ceramic tile is laid in the main entrance.  This evening Dennis reached the 2/3 point of the main floor laminate, which worked out exactly right.  The end of the hallway just past the kitchen was the 2/3 mark, and we got the phone call (also this evening) that the kitchen cabinets will be delivered tomorrow, at the short extreme of the estimated 4-5 weeks since they were ordered!  Amazing timing!

There is still 110 sq ft of ceramic tile to go, and all the grouting.  We continue to look for an antique cabinet to re-purpose as a vanity for the ensuite.  And the over-ambitious "countdown to moving" will switch to single digits tomorrow morning.

Last wall, last stair

Prior to starting our "Days Until Moving" countdown, we had made plans for some vacation time.  Obviously, ten days away from the project would set the odds further against us achieving the moving date goal.  We all really needed the break and had some dear people we were long past due to spend time with.  We went ahead with the planned road trip.  It was a very good break.  

Before I stop talking about vacation, here's a little something I picked up at our niece's beautiful scrapbooking & gift shop in Sylvan Lake, AB. It's wrought iron and measures about 30". How we squeezed it into our small car's trunk --along with all the luggage and two quilts my Auntie H had made for our girls-- is another story for another time. It is just right for the dining room, so it had to come home.

Now that we're home and back to work, we're making great progress again.  If I asked him, Dennis would report crafting the missing stringer and bottom tread for the living room side of the staircase, and building the pony wall that separates the basement stairs from the living room.  He has also made a lot of progress with finishing the electrical.  Wherever the paint is finished, there are lights, plug-ins, switches and cover plates.  The furnace and HRV have run for 10 and 20 minutes each to verify that they are wired up and working properly.

As a follow-up to my last post, here's another view of the stairs, this one before the pony wall went up.  For now, every tread is wrapped with corrugated cardboard to protect the varnish until we're done wearing work boots and tracking drywall dust around.

Shortly before we went away, we celebrated a milestone that will seem odd:  one functioning bathroom.   Complete with light, lightswitch and door, it's both conventient, and promise that we will actually live in this huge "arts & crafts" project one day.  Just a couple days ago I was marvelling at how every tiny bit of progress at this stage makes the structure feel more cozy, slowly tipping the balance from PROJECT to HOME.

Setting a target moving date has been helpful. We all find ourselves pushing a little harder, finding thing to do, or stopping our work an hour later.

 

Yesterday was a great day for the painting department.  The last peak of the south wall is done, the last of the walls are primed, we've (finally) settled on colors for the two upstairs bedrooms & bathroom and started painting them.  That leaves only the loft, one closet and two dormers in the vaulted ceiling areas untouched with color.

A slight tarnish in midst of all the good news & progress since we got home is the realization that our target occupancy date is likely to pass us by with no excitement. The kitchen cabinet order has had a few hiccoughs, the major ones being a bumpy staff change at the vendor during in the design process and us putting it on hold while we were on our vacation. Since getting home, we've finalized the design for the kitchen and decided on a few cabinets for the laundry. They are all ordered, but ETA is only 2-9 days before we had hoped to move. The vendor's preference is for contertops to be ordered after the cabinets are installed and can be physically measured for a proper fit on the first try. We'll trust their experienceAdding lead time for countertop could put us counting up "Days Late to Move".  Still, though, it's exciting to be saying "next we start flooring".

Stairs - a quick preview

So, this past weekend we assembled the stairs, hoisted them into place.  They are functional, but still need the lowest tread on the living room side of the T..  Railing will come after the paint is done. (I need the area open right now for easiest/safest ladder access.) 

We have a 2' section of railing that's already installed on the balcony edge;  just enough to know we made a good choice in materials.  We have every reason to hope that the "fresh" pine will age to color-match the pine that's been installed for a year.