Counter!

No need for a whole lot of commentary on these photos. The counter has been installed, and it looks great!









Here is the wine rack that we purchased in lieu of Rob's earlier Wine Rack Fail.



Lets take a closer look at the sink, shall we? It is not hooked up, and the faucet has not yet been installed, but I still think it looks fantastic.







Patrick is pretty happy about the counter situation.



Here you can see the dining room lamp with its light bulb covers installed. It is still not at the correct height. It will be adjusted when we get a table.



The gas stove has been hooked up.



Rob installed a new light and mirror in the "ensuite powder room".


The floors in the room that used to have underpad fused to the floor really do look perfect.



But, lets face it. The floors just look perfect, in general. Exactly what we wanted.



Tomorrow is a final packing blitz on the old house, and painting the entryway and master bedroom before move-in day. Wish us luck.

Oooh. Ahhh.

Lets just take a moment to "Ooh" and "Aaah" over our now fully refinished floors, shall we?

First, lets remember what they looked like before:







And now, here they are, in all their refinished glory. Once we get new baseboards in, these floors will be too nice to walk on so don't even bother coming over, hah:





And fear not, we'll be painting over the stain that got on the risers!







The floor guys might have negatively impacted our schedule, but they did great work.

And, the "temporary upgrade" of the master ensuite bathroom is well underway.

Before:





In progress:





And, now. It still needs new baseboards, a new door, and a new toilet paper hanger, but I think you will agree that this is a huge improvement. To put it mildly. It has become a bathroom I would consider using, as opposed to one that I would... not. Heh.





Today we have a lot going on. The pool people are coming to give an estimate on fixing the leak, the gas company is coming to hook up the gas stove, install a gas BBQ hook up on the deck, and de-gassify the gas fireplace, and last, but never, ever least, the counter people are coming to install the counter!!! Lots and lots and lots of counter pictures tomorrow, you can be sure of that.

Slight change in plans

We've had to make a slight change to our plans for one of the bedrooms. It looks like this room won't be a guest room anymore.



Instead, if all continues to go well, it will end up as a room for this little one.



We are pretty psyched... but, unfortunately, our guests will have to live with a smaller guest room. Something tells me they won't mind.

In other news:

First, I'm told that the floors look fantastic. Will try to get photos tonight, tomorrow at the latest.

Second: Tomorrow is COUNTER DAY. Big day.

At last... behind schedule

We knew it was bound to happen. After three weeks of sticking to the plan, the schedule has finally spun out of control. I'm just grateful that it took this long for things to go off the rails.

The floor refinishing people were very late arriving on Monday. This meant that they essentially began a day behind schedule, meaning it was going to take one extra day to get the final coat of varnish on the floor. A one day loss in the schedule is inconvenient, but manageable. They would arrive on Friday morning to apply the last coat, Rob's Dad would do outdoor work on Friday, and the real work could begin on Saturday.

And then they didn't show up on Friday. After numerous phone calls, they admitted their mistake and said they would be arriving on Monday to apply the final coat to the floor. This means we can't enter the house Monday or Tuesday, and we move in on Friday. Things have now become very tight. Baseboards won't be installed when we move in. We won't be finished painting. None of the doors will have been replaced. We had to reschedule the granite people, who have a very busy schedule, which means that (it hurts me just to type these next words)... we might not have a kitchen sink when we move in. If you have a mental picture of me shaking my fist at the sky right now, you'd be about right.

All because of the floor people. Augh.

Anyway. On to what went well this week.

While work is going on at the new house, we still have our old place to get packed up and moved. We are slightly behind the eight-ball on this, but I have Thursday booked off work for a final packing blitz. We have boxes everywhere which, Patrick has discovered, are really perfect for fort-building.





Rob's Dad was a big help in getting the kitchen cabinet handles on... at least the ones that we have. Our remaining handles are back ordered at Lee Valley Tools, and won't arrive until mid-June.









Close up:



We are really happy with how the floors look, even missing that final coat of varnish. Once we get the new baseboards installed, they are going to look fantastic.





The view from the top of the stairs.



Here is the room that used to have disgusting underpad fused to the floor. Ignore the dust on the floor. No sign of ickyness anywhere!



So, the floor guys might have wrecked our schedule, but we are very happy with their work. They installed a perfect-looking threshold to tie the hardwood into the tile.



When we told Patrick that we would be moving to a new house and he would be getting a new bedroom, the first thing he asked was if it could be decorated like space. So, I bought these wall stickers.



Then we painted his room, with three walls light blue, and one wall dark blue. The wall stickers will go on the dark wall. You can see that he is very happy with his Space Room in progress.





The pink "ensuite powder room" is no more. The pink vanity and toilet are gone, as are the ancient mirror and medecine cabinet. The walls are blue now.



The icky floor tile has to be ripped up before the new vanity and toilet can be installed.





Our "short term" vanity is waiting to be installed. Short term because in a few years, this whole thing will be gutted, expanded, and completely re-done. This vanity will do, in the meantime.





We installed a new lamp for the dining room. Well, partially installed - there are covers over the light bulbs, once light bulbs are in place. Once we buy a new table we'll be able to adjust it to the proper height.



Rob did a wonderful job installing the microwave over the stove. It vents to the outside, so invoved bashing a hole through to the outside.



He did a fantastic job with the new vent - no doubt he'll do as great a job closing up the old vent.



Patrick helped Rob check the temperature of the pool - 65!! Not long till we meet the magic number 67 when we can start swimming!







In not-so-great pool related news, the water level has been dropping too quickly, which likely means a leak. Thankfully the pool is under warranty from the previous owner, since we couldn't have it inspected in the dead of winter. The pool dudes are coming to give an estimate this week, and hopefully there won't be too much work involved in sorting it out. Regardless, the water doesn't drop super-low, so will not affect our ability to swim. Phew!

And now begins the final week of work before we move in, and we have a lot to get done. Wish us luck.