It's December ... Week 14 of Renovations

Sunday was quite foggy until around 11 when the sun finally broke through. After laundry and baking Christmas treats, Ray and I went outside for a fire to get some fresh air. Definitely cool out there at 3C, but we bundled up and sat very close to the fire. The lake level went down a couple of inches in the 2 hours we were outside. Always amazed how fast this lake rises and falls for such a large body of water.  However, just like gas prices, it goes up way quicker than it goes down!

Homemade Turtles

My cleanup crew!

Onto the next ... sugar cookies, picture taken by a sneaky photographer!

This morning Kristi called. Jason has possibly broken his foot while they were out getting their Christmas tree in the forest. He went later in the afternoon to Emergency and he is to wait 24 to 48 hours and if he still cannot weight bear then go back to the hospital for an X-ray.

Drywallers were here at 2 pm until about 3:30. Tomorrow should be the last day when they sand everything. There will be lots of dust again.

Monday, once daylight started the fog developed again, kinda spooky on the water. Colder today, the grass is crispy and there is frost on the ramp and dock. At 8:30 you could see patches of blue sky as the fog dissipated. It will be a cold sunny day.

Around 9am I saw this out in the lake ... at first glance it looked like a kayaker but it turned out to be a huge tree and stump floating by.

Les, Paul and Kristy arrived at 7:30 to sand the basement today. They will be finished except for their cleanup guy who will come tomorrow first thing and clean up. They get drywall mud over everything!!! Can't believe their Dewalt Stereo actually works. They will be back after the painting is done to install the T-Bar ceiling. Dan "the clean crew", also came briefly to finish sanding in the master bedroom. We are all ready for paint on the main and upper floors starting at 8am tomorrow.

Ray was out the door at 8am to take the car into Ford to have this leaking problem with the sunroof addressed. Apparently they will have the car for a week and are giving us a loaner truck to drive in the meantime. He has some "Christmas Chores" to do. lol so won't be back until after lunch so I will stay home and manage the "fort". With it feeling like -2C outside, I am happy playing in my kitchen. He came home with an F350 diesel pickup that they loan out to contractors ... what a pig to drive. Hopefully our car comes back soon because I don't like driving this truck. When we had our F350 six years ago it drove a whole lot easier than this one and it was even a long-box dually. 

Bernie arrived at 8:40 am to put the shelving units back together in the boat garage and put things back in the car garage so we can move around in there, especially accessing my fridge. Again, the sound of drilling and hammering noises echo through the house.  Also on the agenda is to finally finish the downspout from the sundeck as Roger finally bought the fittings. Freya was unsettled again with all the noise coming from the garage so I put her new "Thunder Jacket" on and she settled right down. Marvelous. Friends had mentioned that it might help after her getting upset with the smoke detectors last week. Bernie was all done just before noon and left.

Shelves back up, now Ray can organize it again for the third time. lol

Freya and her new Thunder Jacket.

When Ray got back at noon, we put everything back on the shelves that was on the floor of the garage including my canned food that was in grocery bags in the dining room. I lifted all of the heavy stuff for him. Another tidying job done. Now there is room for the boat to go back into the garage.

This afternoon, Ray helped me decorate the sugar cookies I made yesterday. A new Christmas thing for us to do together. Our kids will be amazed. :) I have not been much of a baker ... but am learning.  We managed to get half of it done and will do the rest tomorrow ... too much sitting for Ray.

We finally sat down at 3:30 pm. Definitely a busy day for us both.

Tuesday morning the painters were here at 7:50 am. Good thing we were up and dressed. lol Shortly after the drywall cleanup guy showed up to sweep up the mess downstairs. Took him an hour or so. He did not do a very good job. No vacuuming just sweeping.

It was very cold out this morning at -3C. It stayed pretty crispy all day.

By 11:00 am Mona and Andrew finished the hallway, pantry and living room. So we are finished in the main living areas ... yeah. Mona was working on our master bedroom applying 2 coats to the new closet and all the other touch ups on the walls and bathroom.

Now we are ready for Chris, our carpenter, to finish putting in the shelving, trim and doors on the closets our room and en-suite will be finally be done. I texted Roger that I would like Chris here tomorrow to start the finish work and he replied that both Chris and Bernie will be here as we are getting some cupboards, shelving and doors delivered here tomorrow. Wow, we should be back in our own bedroom in a couple of days.

While Mona worked on the main floor, Andrew worked on the two upstairs bedroom closets and then moved downstairs to prime the new gyproc. At this rate it looks like they will be finished with painting Friday afternoon. These guys are awesome. They sure pay attention to detail with no over painting of any timbers unlike the previous painters.

Downstairs kitchen ... starting to look more finished with the primer on.

Master bedroom closet.

 Garrett's closet.

Backside of Kristi's closet.

Ray phoned the Rock guy, Derrick, as we had not heard anything regarding when he is coming. He's bringing a crew here on the weekend to put back the rocks on the back of the house, rock our fireplace in the basement and lay the ceramic tiles on the sundeck. Apparently Roger was supposed to tell us .... didn't hear a thing.

I spent a couple of hours wrapping all of the Christmas presents I purchased. Mostly done other than a few odds and ends. Good thing I had cookies, as Pat brought her 2 grandchildren over for a quick visit before she takes them to karate. The boys love playing with our old lego too.

HO HO HO

Wednesday, -2C outside but feels like -6C Yikes. Took the dog out and the skies are crystal clear and full of stars.

Andrew and Mona arrived at 7:30 to start painting the first coat of paint in the basement. Kurtis Electric will come sometime today and disconnect the big plug for the drywaller's heater so it is out of the way for the painting. Currently the plug is hanging out of the electric panel .... Adam was in and out around 10:30 am.

At 10:45 Chris and Bernie showed up with the Windsor Plywood delivery truck. They delivered our fir trim, a bunch of closet doors and the cabinets Chris built for the closets at the Coulson shop. Bernie's task is to paint all of the trim using the basement workshop downstairs so it is ready for Chris to install. We were told the staining would be done at the shop.  Chris spent the rest of the afternoon fighting with our master bedroom closet ... none of the walls in the existing closet are plum so lots of trimming for the shelf he is trying to cut to fit. I hear some growling!  He spent 2 hours ($100) trying to scribe the back of the shelf to the wall instead of just cutting a 1/4" off, in a place we'll never see... unbelievable!

 All of the fir trim boards for Bernie to stain.

 My new pantry door in front with our Master Closet doors in behind.

 My new ironing board cupboard upstairs in Garrett's room.

 The start of the built-in closet in Garrett's room.

One of two sets of upstairs fir closet doors. Absolutely gorgeous. They definitely match in with the other doors we have in the house.

Mona and Andrew finished the second coat in the basement today so the room is finished at the end of the day. Paint was $500 in total and they have one left over primer that they will paint on in the car garage for us once it has been emptied, at no extra charge. It's been wonderful meeting this couple as they live in Lake Cowichan and are relatively newcomers here.

All painted and ready for the rockwork on the fireplace hearth this weekend.

Kitchen

Bedroom with the cut outs for the 2 built-in bookcases.

The built-in bookcases, Chris has built for the space.

Received a call from a freight company out of Ontario asking me what customs house do I want to use to get my ceiling tiles??!!!?XXXX WHAT. Anyway, called Home Depot here in Duncan to figure it out. I purchased the tile through them online with free shipping to my house. So we shall see. After talking with a department manager around 4 pm as I had not heard anything ... she called the website and found out that I am supposed to ignore the call and if I get another one to call their website customer service immediately. This order was split into two deliveries. One will be arriving shortly via UPS and the other one is currently in Chicago and will get here by the 17th of December. 

Mona and Andrew came back for dinner and we spent the next few hours sharing stories and getting to know each other. A wonderful couple and we had a great time. Dinner turned out great too. (InstantPot shortribs)

Mona and Andrew, our painters extraordinaire!

Thursday morning I was out of the house by 7:45am with Freya for her Vet appointment. Certainly was frosty outside. Bernie arrived at 7:30am and Chris shortly after. Bernie staining trim boards and Chris starting to assemble our upstairs closet.

Got another call from that freight company but gave them Home Depot's online customer service number as I was told to do. Never heard anything else the rest of today.  Turns out the shiper put my name on the shipping document instead of Home Depot.

Chris managed to almost finish one of the upstairs bedroom closets today and Bernie got most of the trim painted. Unfortunately the house really stinks from the stain. I had to turn off the furnace, open all the doors and turn on the fireplace which thankfully now works. Both of us suffered headaches and Ray felt dizzy.

 Closet getting there. Now for the doors and trim.

This will look great framed out with natural fir.

Thursday night, Roy came over to measure up the stainless trim I need between the stove and counter top to stop food dripping down the stove.

Friday morning a balmy -6C ... Had to turn up the furnace even though it's still smelly in the house from the staining yesterday. I texted Roger last night and told him he needs a plan "B". No more staining in the house it is making us sick. Roy also commented how bad it was when he came over last night.  He also said that doing the staining here like Coulson did, gives contractors a bad name.

Chris arrived at 7:45 and started working on putting in the doors on Kristi's closet upstairs. Roger and Bernie are to come later with the trailer to pick up the construction waste and take the wood to stain at the shop, not here. Ray is fit to be tied.....WTF were they thinking.... oh ya THEY WEREN'T.

Kurtis Electric arrived shortly after 9 am to put the plugs into the receptacles downstairs and left around 1:30 pm. They noticed the mudders/drywallers made some cutting errors around the bathroom pot lights. This will be fixed next week when the T-Bar ceiling gets installed. (Les of the drywall team confirmed this.)

South Shore Cabinetry came at 10 am to install our bathroom mirrors, we have a completed bathroom again.

Bernie arrived about 12:30, and Roger about 1pm. First Bernie helped Chris put our bed back together and then began picking up the construction waste for Roger to take away in the trailer. Yeah ... back in our own bed after about a month or so.

Chris spent the rest of the day finishing Kristi's closet, installing the doors and putting in the baseboard trim work. He also put the trim on the inside of our en-suite so the room is almost totally finished. He will work on our master bedroom closet on Monday.

 The doors are gorgeous, just needs to be trimmed out and stained.

Ray picked up our car from Ford around noon. Hopefully the sunroof is fixed this time. Apparently the roof glass repair we had done earlier this fall was done poorly, broken clips not replaced and not sealed properly. It is nice to have our car back instead of driving that "pig" of a truck.

Our house has finally aired out enough that I could put the furnace back on. Tonight we met up with Andrew and Mona at The Cow Cafe for their Chinese food buffet night. Yum, great food and great company. After dinner we came home as Andrew and Mona work tomorrow.