Drywall deployed

Well, it looks like the construction bit is nearing the end and we're heading into the finishing bit! The drywall is in! The drywall is in!




The powder room is very powdery.


The front door project (replacing ugly double doors with nice single door, moving doorway out 3', adding gable roof) looks to be about done. The last bit was the concrete step, which they poured on Friday.


We've selected the colours too. The main colour is called Water Cracker, which is a soft, chalky beige. The trim is Simply White, a, um, fairly simple white. The powder room is a deep chocolate taupe called Estate, and the front door will be Galaxy, a rich aubergine which I think will look nice against all the beige that is the front of my house.

The gardening is coming along too. I have put solar lights (thanks, Rose!) to mark the preferred lie that the dogs should strive to take upon exiting onto the yard. Lou's chosen path is in red, Wick's in blue (good girl!) and Rex's in yellow. Le sigh. The boys like to kick out, while Wick is a straight-up-the-middle kind of girl.


One of my favourite rituals is the too-early-planting of the tomato plants. Introducing the doomed-to-die class of 2010!


Us city folks is too dumb to realize that we is planting our tomatoes upside-down.


The strawberries are almost ready for the crows to eat them.


And the mint is segregated in its own container (thanks, Lisa, for the tip!). Hopefully this will cut down on mojito costs this summer.

Not much to update

Well, the main floor still looks about the same. All of the electrical will be done by the end of this week, and hopefully they will start on the drywall. The cabinets have been made and are just waiting for the house to be ready. :-)

The front door work is almost done. Some siding, a bit of paint, and some stairs and we'll be good to go. Oh, and lights. I get to buy lights.


The siding is almost back on the house. Outdoor lighting has been roughed in. I might even be able to use my patio by summer!


Since I have done absolutely nothing myself to date, I have decided that I am going to do the landscape design. I have no game plan. I have a feeling that, by fall, I will have the whole thing ripped out and re-done by someone who has a clue. Until then, I'm having a good time making weekly trips to the local gardening centers.

Wick, you weren't going to dig in my new garden, were you?


Good girl.


Wick thinks we're going to have to buy a lot more plants to fill the small garden.


I found out that dogs like bone meal. Even a perfect, split-faced dog can be lured to the dark side by bone meal. Here are the boys pretending that they didn't just dig up my newly-planted rose bush.

The green, green grass of home

The lawn is in! My giant sandbox/beach volleyball court/kitty litter box is no longer! Hurrah!

When I bought the house, the lawn looked like this:


Then it got worse.


And then just weird.


But now, it's quite gorgeous.


My soon-to-be-vegetable garden is one of my fave things.


The irrigation system is fully functional now.


Good thing it's programmed to come on at 4:30 a.m. because at least one of my dogs is rather obsessed with sprinklers.








The windows in the front room are in. It's going to be very nice to have all that natural light in the house.


At the front of the house, the new door has been installed. By moving the front door out about 3', the foyer is a lot more open now. I think I'm going to paint the door either a deep burgundy or perhaps an aubergine. It's definitely going to be a bright door, whatever colour I choose!


For reference, it used to look like this:


On the inside, the demo is pretty much done.


The big change is the removal of the wall that separated the kitchen from the dining room. Now the whole area will flow as my giant, gorgeous, perfect kitchen. :-)


What it used to look like:


The dining room area will be moved to the back of the house, where the fireplace is.

Quick update

The stairs are done. I really like them - in fact, I really am loving my patio.


There will be a couple of flower beds surrounding the patio. Hank the Rock was joined by a new friend: Mr. Inukshuk. I want to buy a podium from the 2010 Olympics (so I literally can own the podium) but I think they will be pretty spendy. So as a consolation, my awesome landscapers made me the inukshuk from leftover cedar post bits. :-)


At the far end of the yard, where the bamboo used to be, I now have three small garden planter things. I am going to plant veggies, though I do not actually eat veg. But I didn't know what else to do with this odd little space so I opted for these planter box things.


It's been kinda rainy lately.


This week, the turf will go in. NO MORE SAND - yay!! On the inside, the demolition will begin in earnest. The interior walls between the kitchen and dining room, and between the dining room and living room will be removed, as will the floors (including the super-slippery tile.). The front door should be replaced in the next week or so, which should change dramatically the look of my weird little house. After that - new dark floors, cabinets, appliances, to-die-for countertops ... so excited!

All I need are some patio lanterns

Except for a little bit of work to finish the stairs, the patio is done. I think it looks great and will look even nicer once there's some grass and flower beds, and of course, Hank has been moved into position.



Leaky condo!!! Oh wait. I don't live in a condo anymore. :-(


The front of the house is getting a face-lift. Sort of like botox for houses.

An appliance change

After thinking it through over the weekend, I decided that a two-drawer dishwasher, while hopelessly stylin', wasn't really what I wanted. Thus, I've ordered the GE Cafe dishwasher, based largely on the fact that you can load it up with an entire bottle of dishwashing detergent and it will dispense the right amount each time.

Another very productive day

Well, I finally got to do something in which I have demonstrated proficiency: shopping! Specifically, appliance shopping. Even more specifically, sleek, stainless, gorgeous, make-you-drool appliance shopping.

Accompanied by deal guy extraordinaire, Chad, it was off to Midland Appliances in Richmond. After drooling over Viking, Sub-Zero, Wolf, et. al., we decided on appliances that would not exceed the appraised value of the house.

To whit, I present to you ... the appliances.

First off, the duel-fuel range, a GE Cafe 4 burner with a griddle in the centre, and a lower baking oven.


The fridge is also a GE Cafe. French doors, bottom-mount freezer, lots of bells and whistles.


The dishwasher is a Fisher&Paykel double dishwasher tall tub. Can you marry an appliance? Cause if you can, I might marry this dishwasher.


I also ordered a Broan hood fan that should be powerful enough for even my grilling, which can tend towards, um, smoky. What else? A shiny microwave and a garburator that can hide any evidence of aforementioned smoky grilling refuse.

So that concludes appliance porn.

Back to the yard!

The patio pavers are looking very nice.




Lou thinks that he would like a job in the landscaping industry.



Wick prefers excavation.


She is quite keen on Hank.


Oh look, it's Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum Lou and Rex.

Unlike Hank, Stumpy is not staying. Although it *is* kind of a cool old stumpy thing.