Week #27 - Concrete at Last!

(July 19 - 25, 2010)

It was a week chalked full of progress at Casa Roa.

The plumber arrived late in the week to install all of the toilets, sinks, taps, and anything else related to water. I'm so happy with the sinks in the kitchen that I took some pictures to share. Awesome! The bathroom fixtures look pretty good too. No water flowing just yet but it looks pretty in any event. Water hook-up will happen next week.

Your Tour Guide was busy inspecting the new fixtures (and trying out all the drawers to make sure they haven't seized up from lack of use). She is particularly enamoured with the pebble tile in the ensuite shower. The tilers finished up the grouting in the bathrooms this week. Tile work will be finished once the two fireplace fronts are done. Hopefully this will be done early next week.

So you may be wondering what the excitement on Joey's face is all about. I wish it was because the decorating fairy is granting my wish to have someone plan and pay for all the furnishings and decor to make the house ready to move into. Unfortunately, this is not the case. It isn't even excitement over a new bike (I failed to capture that moment earlier this spring). No, no, its excitement over finally having our concrete poured so that the exterior work can resume.

Phew!

The stars aligned (a.k.a. the concrete guys were available and the rain had stopped) and then we had a new sidewalk from the house to the garage. More importantly, the concrete pads were poured outside of the entry ways. In true Italian-style, the trio of Joe, Joe and Michael got the the job done but not without a slight rain delay.

We were on standby for over a week awaiting our opportunity to leave our mark in the freshly poured concrete. We each put our handprint in the step outside the backdoor as well as 'ROA 2010'. We also added our name and year in the concrete pad for the front stairs. As you can see, Kieran needed a little help. She insisted on standing on the wet sidewalk below to put her handprint in. So, we made a second attempt - Joey held her and I pushed her hand into the cement. It was a fun way to make our mark.

Not only can we now walk around the yard without rolling an ankle on our yard full of oversized gravel, the front steps can be installed (they were templated on Friday) and the remainder of the work on the porch can be finished.

Its looking like we be able to start moving in next weekend. There is a lot of work to be done inside yet but I remain cautiously optimistic! Stay tuned...