Railing

(if you look closely at the wood flooring, you can see the detail of the outline along the banister! Good job Mark! All his idea, and I loooove it!)

Ding Ding Ding!! We have a winner!

And for all the rest of you who were just dieing to know what I was up to......

From the beginning of the reno I said - New railing! Needs a new railing! Well, then I went to look at "new railing" parts at the big box hardware stores, and wouldn't you know. They have like. No. Selection. What I envisioned was a white railing/banister/whatever you call it, with dark wood caps, to match the hardwood flooring. And I pictured it in all square spindles.

Turns out that would probably cost $$$$ (thousand(s)) and lots of time. So - my NEW plan is that I bought the caps, stain, and varnish, and I'm going to get the top balls chopped off and put on the caps. To tie in the wood with the banister posts. I also already repainted all the spindles and posts the same cloud white that the rest of the trim will be painted.

The price tag for my new plan was $111.00. Not including the labour fee =).

And now I just hope it looks ok.......

Can you guess....

What my project was today?

Day 40

Everyday now the progress is amazing. That is the best part of the finishing stage. Visual progress.
Like, just today, our bedrooms went from plywood, to beautiful carpet! Same as our stairwell, except that went from the most hideous carpet ever, to beautiful carpet =). And the hardwood floor just keeps coming further and further everyday. All of the switches are being changed to match, and lights are going up. And it is fun to go see the progress!!

My dad found these new type of plug outlets that have a blocking plate in the back. Temper resistant they are called. So your kids can't electrocute themselves. What a brilliant idea. Isn't it funny when these things come out - you just think.....really?! Did it take this long? And probably by next year, it will be in the building code. But in any regard, I am excited about them!

We are moving in 11 days......eeek! I'm still in a bit of denial....but hey, at least our rooms have carpet =).

painting painting painting.....and some other stuff.

The house is really coming along now! And in the next few days things will start to look really different. This is the fun part - when all the visual progress happens!! Tonight and tomorrow will be our last (hopefully) long painting days, and it should mostly be completed. Except maybe the bathrooms.

Today and tomorrow the hardwood is starting to go in - and I am soooo excited to see how that will look!

I am really loving the colours on the walls - sometimes it looks grey, sometimes blue, sometimes green!! Just what I was hoping for =).

All the pot lights in the kitchen/living room have been installed.

The kitchen people called me today to say they wanted to move the install from May 17th to the 13th!! This is great news - because we are moving in on the 15th! And we will have a kitchen, and bathroom vanities. Kind of important components to a house. Too bad we have to wait another 15 days for countertop.......could be for some fun improvisation.

Vanity Tops

We bought these vanity tops for our bathrooms from Rona.

I liked the idea of cleaning these all in one pieces, and liked the shape of the sink.

The price was attractive as well when you put into account

that you usually have to pay for the counter top and sink separately.

Today all the mudding/taping/sanding/ceiling spraying will be done!

Tomorrow will be a full day of painting.

And the floor will be prepped for the flooring! Yippee!!

Day 29

Sorry for my hiatus...... I hope I can make it up to you =)

So what is going on?

Everything is framed and drywalled. All the time consuming, hard part, of the plumbing and electrical is complete. The mudder/taper/sander is currently doing his work on the new drywall, and should be done on Tuesday. Next week the floors should be installed, and the house will start coming together! Before then we need to finish painting everything, and have the floors prepped for the flooring. Yesterday the final wiring and holes were cut for the pot lights we are putting in the living room. This afternoon I go to the kitchen place for the final sign off of our plans.

We have luckily not run into any surprises, which has been great.

A big huge Thank You to my mom and friend Teresa for all the painting help!! It is really boring and lonely to paint alone in the evenings.....so I am so thankful for help!

I hope I haven't bored you silly with such a factual update.

Kitchen Samples

This morning was our final kitchen consultation at Marr-tech.

There are a lot of decisions to be made when putting together a kitchen from scratch.

It is very overwhelming (for me anyways).

I debated between white and linen cabinets for weeks.

Where to put glass, what knobs to pick (still haven't decided that)

What style door, what pull outs?! Oh, the list goes on, and on, and on.

Don't get me wrong. I am so grateful for the opportunity to pick it all out!

And that I am going to get a new kitchen. So so grateful.

But, the decisions still have to be made.

And it is something you don't really want to get wrong!

So we (or I) have picked out (as seen above)

Shaker doors in Linen, with Silestone counter top in Bianco Beach.

The wood to the left is the hardwood that will be in the kitchen

(and the whole main floor except bedrooms and bathrooms)

and also the colour of the wood going to be in the bathroom vanities.

Another thing I am grateful for: My husband.

He trusts me with all decorating decisions.

And doesn't care one bit what I pick. It really is so freeing.

If we both had our own opinions this would be so much more difficult.