Week #23 - The Finishing Details - Part Three

(June 21-27, 2010)

Before I start on rehashing the week's developments at Casa Roa, I'd like to point out the new 'look' of the blog. When I should've been busy writing my post, I became distracted by the new design options for the blog layout. This is a vast improvement over previous design and layout options (very limited) and I spent some time exploring this new tool. I hope you like it. I thought the paint cans were appropriate for the finishing phase.

The weekly (or near weekly) curbside view of Casa Roa hasn't changed much in the past few weeks. We still have a piece of plywood up acting as the retaining wall. This stays in place while we wait for the contracted company to finish replacing the water and sewer lines and reconnect our water. I haven't explored the reason why this didn't happen this week but if I was to bet on a reason, it would have something do with delays in getting permits (from the City) to dig up the road. I will reveal this reason when I find out.

Tile and paint continued to be the predominant trades in the house this week. I've included shots of various rooms in the house to show their progress. I don't think the my photography skills adequately capture the colours but you get a general sense of what's going on. Included in these photos are are fireplace mantels that were installed this week. Paint and tile are still needed to finish them off but I think they look great in their raw appearance. Also of note is that the Casa Roa Tour Guide did not make an appearance this week. She's feeling under the weather so she didn't feel she could perform her duties with the same flourish and flare as in previous weeks. :)

(pics: front entry; Kitchen; Great Room fireplace)

(pics: Master bedroom fireplace; Master Ensuite)

Move-in update...isn't going to happen on July 9th. It'll be a week or two after that date.

Week #22 - The Finishing Details - Part Deux

(June 14-20, 2010)

I'm little light on photos this week. Despite my lack of time behind the camera as well as the ongoing rain, there was some good progress on the house this week.

A quick recap...

• Paint - work continues on painting (spraying) trim and painting walls
• Countertops - arrived and were installed. Wow! They are gorgeous. One hitch...There was some miscommunciation (or perhaps a lack of) that resulted in 3 holes being drilled in the upstairs bathroom countertops rather than one. H'mm...costly mistake. I had purchased the taps for the main and ensuite bathrooms (one hole required). So, after some time, my stomach migrated back down from my throat, I regrouped and purchased some different taps which are an adequate alternative. Hopefully this is the only complication that we run into during the finishing phase.
• Tile installer and crew arrived to start installing the slate floor in the mudroom, down the back stairs and in the front entry.
• Back deck was started before the rain started back up.
• The sidewalk that ran down the side of the house to the garage was jackhammered out.

That's all to report this week. Next week is chalked full of painting, tiling, water line replacement, and other finishing details.

Weeks #19-21 - The Finishing Details

(May 23 - June 13, 2010)

Well, I did it again...another 3 week stretch between posts. The good news is that progress on the house continues even when my blog updates are temporarily suspended. :)

The previous sequence of pictures are exterior shots - the first one being the house at the end of week #19, the back of the house remains unchanged through the 3 weeks and finally the front of the house at the end of week #21. Read more to see what happened inside and out.

Let me introduce you to your tour guide for this particular post. Kieran quickly added the word 'house' to her vocabularly. She enjoys going to the house so much that when I do a drive-by only, she starts to fuss and cry about not stopping to see the house (or is it pick rocks outside?). She is easily occupied picking up the small bits of trim waste off the floor, stacking it just so. She also finds the occasional used ear plug. I think I'd rather she collected rocks or played in the mud (see below)!

The largest chunk of work undertaken during the past 3 weeks has been installing trim - window casings, door casings and jams, baseboards, crown moulding and the like. Your guide would like to turn your attention to the leftover materials in the Great Room. Its amazing how much the look of the rooms is improved with some unpainted mdf and some painstaking attention to cuts, corners and straightlines. Your guide presents some other shots of the trim below.

Most recently, the stairway railings were installed. They look fantastic. The painter will take care of staining the railings to match the floors. I think Kieran is mildly thrilled about the railings - she just can't seem to reach yet - but thinks the craftsmanship is up to snuff!

Some important milestones came to pass during this time period. We finally have some of our services turned back on. There is a story behind that 'finally' but I spare the details and mention only that its important that the call centre for your utility provider of choice reinstates service to the proper site. We clearly didn't get our money's worth on the hook-up fee. Enough said (pathetic). The house now has natural gas (as evidenced by the new meter) and electricity. Someone climbed the utility pole outside the house to steal the coil of electrical wire required to hook-up the electricity. Fortunately for us, it's on Enmax's tab to put in new wire. Unfortunately for the thief, there was no money to be made from the aluminum wire he/she/they lifted.

Whilst on the topic of services...

We are required by the City to replace our water and sewer lines to the house. Did I mention in a previous post that its on our tab?! This is the case for both the lines on our property (we have no issue with this) as well as the city's lines from the property line out to the mainline. Eeek! We've known about this from the outset but time has not lessened the sting of this exercise. We're still not sure why we are responsible for upgrading the city's lines but we cannot have our water hooked up until this is done. It is a significant expense that was not budgeted for. This might be an easier pill to swallow had we not known that the City plans to upgrade all the water/sewer lines in the inner city communities in the future. It remains unclear who will pay for this (City vs. homeowners). So, we pay like everyone else in the community that is (re)building. But will continue to monitor the City's plans...perhaps there will be some restitution at some point in the future (wait, that was my deranged voice speaking out of turn). In the end, we should have some better water pressure and some pipes that won't leach lead into our water.

So, we've completed the first phase of the water/sewer line replacement. An excavator (see below - amusing picture) dug a 12 foot deep pit in our front yard then the pipes were replaced and then the pit was filled back in. These pipes will be connected back to main line once the street side pipes are replaced.