Home Under Construction

A few weekends ago I took the weekend to put up some fences on both sides of our back lawn. One is taller and a little more private, the other a little fancier for our neighbours we like a little more.

One of the upcoming projects is to put up a deck outside the back door so we’re not sitting outside on the ugly concrete. However another project was looming which had to come ahead of that one. I needed to get power to the garage. The previous owners had strung extension cables and attached them to the cable and telephone wires which run through our backyard.

So the project was to break the layers and layers of concrete and dig an 18″ ditch between the back of the house and the garage - about 38′ distance.

Two challenging pieces - breaking the concrete and threading the wire in to the conduit (we decided to use an old, broken hose as the conduit as it’s non-shattering and would protect the wire from the frost.

It’s almost done with the ditch dug, and mostly refilled after the wire strung below.

Pictures to follow.

Updated photos are posted. We have recently worked on the master bathroom (shower door, mirror, basins) and just ordered lights for the mirror wall, installed sconces in the master bedroom (oops - I need to add photos of that!), and definitely check out the pumpkin we are saving for Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.

I know everyone has been waiting to see what the house looks like after all the work, so enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Many of you have asked for updates, photos, etc. While we were under construction, we posted much more frequently, and have not shown a lot of the “finished” product. Our plan in the next weeks/months is to do just that. Wonder if we should change the title of the blog now from “Home Under Construction” or keep it?
Some of the topics we want to cover are: our master bathroom shower,  the backyard and garden, and our future plans for every area of the house, inside and out.

It has been over 2 years since we started this undertaking, and both of us love living in the house. We chose a neighborhood that really works for us, and the fact that all around us is development and growth makes us even happier to be here. We are constantly pointing out the renovations on our street, and the new restaurants opening nearby.

You can expect to see some more photos (need to find the camera!) and detailed posts soon, from both of us.

I haven’t posted for a while, but having been convinced today to take a picture of the progress, I figured I’d post the picture up online and write a little update.

Today I finished, or came close to finishing, the master bathroom vanity. We’ve been living without one for just over a year and a half now. We’re almost ready to brush our teeth in a real sink. Exciting.

Here’s what it’s looking like so far:

We should have some shower glass coming in the next few weeks, as well as the mirror for behind the vanity.

So it stopped raining about 1/2 hour later, and then took another hour or so to dry. I went at it again and got the tar paper up by around 6 and then started shingling the roof, starting, of course, on the side that is the hardest to see from the sides of the house or the back and laid the first set of tiles from there.

Below are some pictures from later in the day (bigger this time):

This morning I went to the doctor’s office, then went out an picked up some materials at Roof Mart. I then started installing the eaves drip aluminium around the edges, which involved changing out some of the sheeting. I then started on the underlayment and it’s now raining.

So here’s some pics of what’s done so far today:

It was a long day working on the roof. I was annoyed at Bin There Dump That who arrived at noon and said they had to take the bin away two hours later. I felt like I was working on their schedule and frantically worked to get as much in the bin as possible before they arrived back. They didn’t actually arrive back until about 3, but I’m not sure whether that was good or bad, because i spent a lot of time getting stuff into the bin for their first arrival time. I was once fans of their, but not so much any more.

Otherwise it was a nice day to be working outside. My muscles are aching and I probably drank about 5 litres of water over the day because it was so hot.

Here’s some pictures:

Ya, it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. And lots has happened since then. Work on the 3rd floor, lots of work on trim around the house, and most recently a new front door.

Today I’m roofing the garage at the back. I’ve started collecting some pictures of the job which, hopefully, I’ll post later in the day. It’s a beautiful day to be outside doing this as the sun is out and the temperature is in the mid 20s.

More later today, I hope.

Our wordpress hasn’t been working for about a month or so and I hadn’t had the time to fix it. I finally got to it today and we can now post again. I’m going to also try and get some more pictures up soon.

Lots of action happened before Christmas and I’ll post some of those pics up soon.

So last Friday and Saturday Fred and I tackled the hardwood on the 3rd floor of the house. It actually went very quickly and we now have all of the hardwood laid in the house.

I know I promised pictures, and they are coming soon. We finally found the battery charger for the camera, so we’re ready to take pictures again with the camera. They will be up on the site soon.