Brick-a-brac

Today was Day 5 of our tiling adventure. (In our defense, not all of them were full days.) We still have work to do in the shower and on the front of the tub, but it's coming along. John successfully completed the difficult cut around the shower head fixture (you can see it best in the left-hand photo). The rough edges of the cut will be covered with a small chrome cover. It's going to look great. The temperature control piece below it will be a challenge, too. I'm sure we'll figure it out. And by "we" I mean John. The cutting tool he's using is a violent, aggressive thing, and I'm happy to let him wrestle with it.

Treads preview

We dropped by our stairbuilder's workshop this afternoon and got a sneak preview of our beautiful maple stair treads. There are 29 of them in total, and they are gorgeous. They will be stained a medium-toned reddish brown to coordinate with the rest of the woods in the house. The underside of each tread has been cut to exactly match the size of the steel steps (the treads in the photos are upside down so you can see the cuts). There are still a few dirty jobs left to do on the house, so these lovely pieces will not be installed until later in September. We can't wait!

Movin' on up

We put in another seven hours tonight on the bathroom tiles, and made it almost to the very top of the wall. At this rate, it will likely take us another 20 hours to finish the job. Yikes. On the bright side, though, we're pretty happy with how they're turning out so far.

Stairs to the basement!

The interior and exterior stairs to the basement were installed today, and they look great. The interior stairs, in the left photo, lead to the ever-decreasing jam storage area (surely they must be finished pushing out my condiments with mechanical equipment by now). The exterior stairs, in the right photo, lead to the bachelor apartment we hope to rent out sometime in the winter.

Amateur hour

After some encouragement and helpful tips from our builder, John and I started tiling our third-floor bathroom tonight. After going to so much trouble to pick our tiles, we were nervous about ruining them, but Patrick bolstered our spirits.

Phase 1 of our tiling adventure has taught us a few things:

1) Tiling is 20 per cent tile setting, 80 per cent cleaning. I have mortar in places you don't want to imagine.

2) It is extremely time-consuming to clean dried cement off of tiles. We will not allow mortar to dry on tiles in phase 2 of our tiling odyssey.

3) Our marriage will probably survive finishing our bathroom.

Our first three and a half rows turned out pretty well. The tiles actually look like bricks, which was the goal. The next row is a decorative listel, which has a few different colours in it. This listel border will wrap around the tub and shower. We're aiming to put in the listel and finish the rest of the rear wall tomorrow.

Tile on!

Party in the back

When our steel worker bailed on us, the Botan crew stepped up and took on the work to complete the exterior and the roof. They installed the inset panel on the rear of the house today, and we really like how it looks. The white trim you see in the photo will be painted the same brown as the steel.

As the exterior design comes to life, you can see why we call our place the Mullet House. The front is very traditional, while the back is more modern. Business in the front, party in the back!

Taping and mudding

Not all of the drywall boards are up, but the taping and mudding has begun in several areas where they are. We hope that this step will be finished by the end of the week so that the painters can begin next week.

Drywall progress, part 2

The drywall is moving along. The boards were due to all be up by now, but there is still about a day's work to complete it. Still, we were encouraged to see that the stairwell had been done.

Drywall progress

The drywall has started and is coming along. The photo on the left is of the kitchen, and the photo on the right is of the third floor bedroom. The curves are turning out very well, to our relief. The interior windows in the third floor bedroom wall are intended to bring the light in from the skylights over the stairwell. That room will be especially nice when it's done, I think. It's our spare bedroom, also known as my backup office if working in the same room with you-know-who doesn't work out. Shhh.

The drywall is half an inch thick, and the rooms feel (and are) smaller as a result. (If you measure from the exterior walls, that's about 62 square feet of lost floorspace on the second floor, but less on the first and third floors. Sigh.) Every major change adjusts our perception of the house. The finished floors will be another adjustment, and the painted walls another.

Painted walls! I can hardly wait.

Porch begun

Work on the porch roof began this week. In the original design, the porch roofline was extended with a canopy over the garage. Because the front door is higher than it was originally planned to be, the top of the porch is also higher. If we had kept the original design with the canopy, it would have been a lot higher than the garage door. John thought this would look very strange, and after some convincing, I caved and agreed to drop the canopy. The revised design will mirror our immediate neighbours' homes, so that's a plus.

As you can see in the second photo, the underside of the porch roof is finished in cedar, like the soffits. I think it will be nice to have wood above our heads as we come and go from the house.

Garage and basement poured

The cement floors in the garage and basement were poured today. That giant truck is the cement mixer; the photo on the right is of the finished garage. A few bits to be sanded, but overall it looks pretty good.

The drywallers, however, didn't show today. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see.

The week ahead

If all goes as planned, this will be a very busy and productive week chez Boucher-Thurston.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the drywallers are coming in tomorrow. They estimate that it will take them four days to board the entire house, followed by five days of finishing (mudding and sanding). Having the drywall done will be wonderful for many reasons, not the least of which is getting the drywall up off of the floor so that everyone can move around the house without having to do triple sow-cows. We're looking forward (a little anxiously) to seeing how the curved walls turn out.

The concrete floors will be poured in the basement and in the garage tomorrow. This is wonderful, because once that's done, our talented stair builders can come in and build us a way to the basement and into the house from the garage. Once the stairs are built, work can begin on our bedroom balcony, rooftop patio and front porch. We can hardly wait!

The shower in the third-floor bathroom will be completed this week so that John and I can start tiling it next week. We've placed the order for the tiles, and expect them to be delivered to the house next Monday. Between now and then we'll figure out how to tile a bathroom and screw up the courage to do it.

There are a few other things on the go this week, but let's not count our chickens. We'll keep you posted as we move along...

Drywall prep

After a few delays, the drywallers are scheduled to finally begin the drywalling in earnest tomorrow. In preparation for their work, the Botan crew installed some strapping (thin pieces of wood) in the ceilings throughout the house. Although not strictly required, the idea is that this will prevent nails in the drywall from popping as the house settles over time.

Garage drywalled

The garage has been drywalled, and the cement floor is due to be poured tomorrow. More gravel will be added to raise the level of the floor, then the cement will go in. Once that is done, we will be able to put in some stairs to the house from the garage, and have the garage door installed. This is great news, because then the house will be secure.

Kitchen wall up

The half wall between the kitchen and the stairs is now in place. This will be helpful in keeping us from plunging to our deaths after a few drinks out of the beautiful cooler Shawna and Chris got for us for our wedding. Sadly, the half wall covers our pigeon footprints, but we know they're still there.

Swing in waiting

I grew up with my wonderful godfather's handmade swings all around me: at my grandfather's farm, at my godparents' home, and at their cottage. My uncle Jim's swings held me, my sister and my cousins all of our lives. We loved them. When I was young, my Uncle Jim said he would build me a swing as a wedding present. That was a long time ago, and I was sure my uncle didn't remember it. When John proposed last year, my mother told me that my godparents wanted to give me something special. Since I was marrying so much later than I'm sure my godparents expected, I didn't feel I could really ask for the swing. I wasn't sure my uncle even made them anymore, and they certainly take some work. My mother made the suggestion to my uncle, and to my complete delight, he agreed to make one. It turns out he is still very active in the swing-making business.

Our swing is now ready, and we love it! The photo on the left shows our disassembled swing, which will be transported from Bryson to Ottawa in pieces. The photo on the right is of my godparents' swing, to give you an idea of how it will look when it's put together in our backyard. At our request, my uncle didn't paint our swing. It will stay natural cedar, to match our back deck and balcony. It will age to a greyish silver just like our cedar decks. The cedar comes from my Uncle Allen's farm, which was previously my grandfather's. It means a lot to me that this very special piece of my past will be a part of our future.

Our littlest helper

Shawna and Chris were visiting from Barrie and brought the girls to visit our house today. Wee Sylvie was very helpful in cleaning up the site. After we're settled in, she's hired to keep the place spic and span.

Beyond cute: After supper and some playtime at the park, we said our goodbyes until the next visit. "Will you call me in the morning when your house is done?" Sylvie asked.

I'll call you when it's done, little buddy, but something tells me it won't be tomorrow morning.

Railings, part 2

After a weekend camping in Crotch Lake, we returned to find that the rest of the railings had been installed. This is a great relief to us, since it's one of the things between us and an occupancy permit. They look great, and will look even better with handrails and stair treads.

More to come soon...