Can almost see the finish line! Week #20 of the never ending Reno.

Saturday morning, woke up to rain and gusting winds. The forecast "damaging winds" did not seem to reach us being inland and we still had power so all is good. I headed to Duncan Farmer's Market to get my neck massage and then did our weekly shopping. Needed to get a dog ramp for Freya as she is having difficulty at times even reaching her front feet up to the back of the car to get boosted in.  We tested her out on it when I got back and she had no problem.

Rained on and off all day with a little dash of thunder and lightning thrown in. After the first thunderclap, I immediately put Freya's Thunder jacket on and cuddled her up on the couch with me. She never shook and was ok for the second boom. The jacket seemed to work. Maybe because she was allowed up on the couch with me which usually is a no no! lol The top of the mountains received a light dusting of snow with this small intensive storm cell however brief.

At 3:30 pm this afternoon there was a wondrous double rainbow across the lake from us with the reflection of the rainbow on the water that headed straight back towards out beach. Wow!

Across the lake from us.

 Too bad Ray was not home to use his "big camera". These were taken with my phone and of course they are not as good as actually seeing it with your eyes. lol

Double rainbow with the reflection on the water.

The other end pointing at the marina around the corner.

Kristi arranged for Kat and Garrett as well as herself to stay overnight on Saturday at my Uncle Ken and Aunt Norma's in Coquitlam. Norma and Ken were "over the moon" that they all came to see them. 

Garrett, Ken Kristi, cousin Jackson and Norma

This time with Kat in the picture beside Garrett.

Sunday morning, Garrett and Kristi had the task of making the "Kyle Family" waffles for everyone, silly kids.

I suspect a great time was had by all.

Sunday morning cold and clear, at least at 6 am. There is hope for tonight to be clear so we can see the "Super Blood Wolf Moon lunar eclipse". Usually we are under cloud for these events. Jackie, our housekeeper and her friend did manage to come for 2 hours and do a good clean for the bathrooms and wash the floors and do the dusting, a never ending battle with construction. I usually dust every 2 to three days on the main floor. Ray received a text from Matt, who is supposed to come today and start on redoing the tile installation. He did not receive a call to say to come ... Mr. Coulson .... did not confirm with him even though Ray received a text from David on Friday that Matt would be here this weekend. Now he will be here tomorrow.

Ray and I managed to have an afternoon campfire outside. Chilly but nice to get outside for a couple of hours. Tonight is the Super Blood Wolf Moon. Ray managed to get a couple of pictures before the fog formed off the lake. Pretty cool.

And that ends our Sunday.

Monday 2C but feels like -1C which is correct as there is ice on the sundeck. Too bad for those deck guys ... they should have come yesterday.

Chris arrived about 8:30 and his plan today is to install doors downstairs. Apparently Bernie will be here with the closet doors tomorrow and to help Chris move all of the cabinets from the garage down to the basement so the install can begin. He managed to get four new doors installed and put the hardware on the barndoor for Ray's workshop so it is ready to hang tomorrow. Having the doors hung sure warms up the spaces. They will look amazing once they are stained.

Door to sump closet in bathroom.

Bathroom door that was my upstairs pantry door.

Door to storage room.

Bedroom door that was an extra one from old owners that was never installed.

The deck guys arrived at 9:30 am but after talking with Ray regarding all of the chipped tile, they believed that we did not have enough to fix this ... now 12 more tiles have been ordered and will be here in a week. (Remember at the beginning we could only order by pallet!) So they are to come back when the tiles have been received. More drama. (Received email from David ... Matt and crew will be back tomorrow to get as much done as they can before the extra tiles come).

Tuesday, the rain did indeed begin overnight. A very drizzly morning. Chris arrived at 8:30 or so and started putting trim around the doors he installed yesterday and attached the barn door to the workshop after trimming out the "hole". Apparently Bernie will be here tomorrow instead, probably due to the rain and they don't want our new closet doors to get wet as they are unfinished at this point.

By the end of the day, Chris had the bedroom, bathroom 2 doors, storage room and barn door frames all trimmed out. Looks fabulous.

All the trim wood grain is different and he managed to match up trim boards to be as similar as possible for the window and door trim.

Storage room

Barn door to Ray's workshop

The last piece of window trim that had been scribed around the stone and then stained at their shop.

Deck guys arrived shortly after 9am to work on the deck. Both Ray and I are staying "out of their hair" and hope they get the job done this time properly. Normally I make them coffee on cold wet days but now "NO SOUP FOR YOU", especially the guy that threatened Ray. They seem to be moving fairly quickly changing out the supports for the proper ones and replacing the chipped tiles where they can. The final ones will have to be replaced next week. By the end of the day they had replaced all of the tile supports and chipped tiles on the whole deck except for the 10 tiles they need. We had 23 extra tiles leftover from the installation, so that will tell you how many had been damaged with their zipcutter! And that their original quote of taking 2 days to do the deck would have been correct with the right supports ...

We went out and "jumped" on the tiles after they left and everything is solid as it should be. No movement. Too bad they did not do this the first time for all the hassle this has been. They will be back to finish completely when the extra tiles arrive next week sometime.

Wednesday was extremely foggy. It certainly rained hard all night but seems to have quit now. Hopefully this is the start of the sunshine for the next few days. Chris and Bernie arrived at 7:45 am this morning to start moving all of the boxes from the garage down to the basement to install the kitchen today. Apparently they are on a time crunch as the plumber has been booked for Friday. Hallelujah. It's like Christmas watching all of the boxes get opened that have been here since mid-October. I was happy to see that there was no damage to the cabinets. The insulation guys were standing on the crates while doing their work in the garage a couple of months ago.

Boxes moved from garage to basement.

Bernie and I spent a bunch of time peeling off all the protective cover on all the stainless.

Bernie also painted up all the baseboards in preparation for their install.

The hole in the stone wall, Bernie fixed himself ... deck guys never did fill the hole with a rock!

I took a break helping after lunch and walked down to the dock, quite cool with the wind but stunning. These pictures were not doctored and I took them with my cell phone.

Roger showed up briefly around noon to drop off the new closet doors and take a load of garbage to the dump that Bernie loaded him up with.

Yahooie Louie ... most of the kitchen is in. Plumber coming Friday to hook up plumbing and install kitchen sink as well as the bathroom etc. Chris worked really hard to finish installing the lower cabinets with the countertop so it is ready for Friday and he can move onto other finishing. The countertops I purchased on sale 2 months ago did indeed turn out to be the perfect lengths. No trimming needed other than 1 1/2 inches ripped off the width. We still need the microwave/hood fan installed and two upper cabinets. The garage and Ray's workshop now have some floor space. lol The fridge was taken out of the workshop and placed in it's home. (This was my old kitchen fridge.) The plumber will have to hook up the water to it when hooking up the sink.

A fabulous day of progress.

It's Thursday ... wow this week is flying by. Chris showed up a bit later this morning, probably because he was here an hour later yesterday and had to pick up stuff at the shop on his way here.

Today he managed to hang my upper cabinets and he drilled the hole through the wall for the microwave/hood fan. Quite the project, as the hole had to go through one of the shear walls so it was pretty thick. Chris also had to figure out how to secure the microwave to the wall. Usually it is mounted under a cabinet on the top for support so he will have to build something. The patio door also was trimmed out other than the very bottom. He will wait until the plumbers are finished in case it gets damaged with using the dolly to move stuff into the basement for installation, like the toilet and propane stove.

The sink will be installed into the cabinet closest to the fridge.

Ray spent part of the day organizing his workshop now that all the doors and baseboard material were removed from "his mancave"! He is thrilled with how much space he actually has now in that room.

It stayed cloudy all day but at least no rain. I managed to sit outside for an hour under the gazebo with the fire table on until the wind came up while Ray laid down for an hour or so.

Friday, the plumbers come today. Chris arrived later after picking up supplies to build the box above the microwave and venting pieces. He finished drilling out the hole and insulated around the box and installed the vent on the outside of the house. He will put the microwave into place on Monday after his built venting box dries. With Nathan's help he partially installed the double closet doors in the bedroom which he will finish on Monday.

Microwave vent box out of fir to match trim.

Ready for the microwave vent hood installation.

New vent all insulated and sealed with caulking.

Nathan and Gerry did not arrive until 10:30 am. I was beginning to wonder if they were coming. Nathan forgot about the shower parts that he was supposed to bring, as it has been 6 weeks or so since he was last here. He will be back on Monday to install the shower and tap in the tub. Nathan worked on the other plumbing items, new master ensuite toilet which is taller, and new kitchen tap set upstairs. Downstairs he installed the recycled toilet for the basement and shut-off valves for bathroom sink and kitchen sink. I will be awesome to have the bathroom functioning in the basement when we are outside in the yard or dock and won't have to come all the way upstairs to use the toilet. lol Unfortunately the granite kitchen sink I purchased will not fit on the countertop so they brought me a single bowl stainless sink to fit the dimensions. My old kitchen tap set will be used downstairs.

Nathan installing my touchless kitchen faucet. I made sure that under the sink was totally cleaned out of any "garbage misses". lol

Faucet for bathroom sink, check

Ray's new throne! ha ha. Nathan needs to bring a longer hose for the toilet as the shutoff is further away than usual as it is located in the shower wall instead of behind the toilet which is solid concrete.

Gerry worked on installing our little gas range, converted it to propane, and hooked it up to the gas line they plumbed during construction. He also tested out the second line and hooked it up to our outside propane tank. Our barbecue box was installed on the deck and the water tap fitting will be installed on Monday. 

No more running out of propane while barbecuing.

It's all coming together. Looking back on the week lots got done. I don't think Chris will be finished until the end of next week ... not Tuesday like they thought as there is still all the baseboards to go on, door hardware, and bathroom hardware before they can call it finished with the final dump run lol.

And that was our 20th week of renovation! Hopefully week 21 is the end of working with the David Coulson Group, thank god, other than the deck guys have to come back for the last push once the new tiles are here, probably next week .

After they have cleared out we still need the painters to come back for touch ups, our heating and ventilation guys to feed the heating ducts in the basement through the T-bar ceiling tiles as they are all covered at present. (This is all through us not David Coulson.)

Chris left a little early today ... He's cooking Haggis as his family is celebrating Robbie Burns Day.