Week #21. Could it be? The last week anyone from Coulson's will be here?

Saturday, still foggy/cloudy. Where are you Mr. Sunshine?? Just realized that although this is the start of Week #21, we actually started last June with the backyard hardscape renovation ... so we have been at this 8 months, no wonder we are "so done" with this. We still have the front yard to do this spring as well as plant the backyard gardens with deer proof perennials, not to mention that the whole house's exterior needs painting.  The soffits haven't been painted since construction 8 years ago.

It was nice not to have contractors at our house this morning. A rarity lately. All in all, a much needed quiet day. Ray enjoyed spending time in the basement putting his "man cave" in order, while I did laundry ... how exciting. lol

Sunday we were both up early again. It seems lights out at 9:30 pm at night and we are both up between 5 and 5:30 am every day.  Foggy out again ... so I decided to make some Beignets (french donuts) for Ray. I have not made these before but they turned out great. The hardest part was waiting 1 1/2 hours for the dough to rise before I could fry them.

There are so many things on "my to do list" that I cannot do until the basement is finished. I need to go through my boxes of dishes etc. to set up the kitchen. The storage room needs to be emptied of furniture that had been stuffed in out of the way of the construction.  It all needs to be cleaned from dust and reorganized. We also need to assemble and set up the new furniture.

The motorhome needs a huge clean and all the linen washed, as the would be thieves emptied out all of the rubbermaid tubs and threw everything on the floor. But again, I have to wait until it comes back from getting the window fixed before we set it up more permanently and I can open the slides. It is too unlevel at the moment and I am afraid if I put the slide out it may not come back in. I guess I will cook. lol Barbecued spareribs, homemade baked beans and a warm cabbage slaw with bacon on the menu for tonight. Where are you Steve and Dianne?

Ray managed to clear out the "car garage" and the car is finally inside, not in the driveway. It will take some practice going in and out with the angle due to the motorhome being in the driveway. Our neighbour, Pat, texted me Friday morning and asked if we "flew the coop" as she did not see our car!

She fits! Just in time for frosty windows next week in the forecast. The garage walls will be painted next month.

Monday the skies were finally clear with the stars out. Hopefully, this should be the last week that Chris will be here, with all of the finishing work downstairs completed.  Next week should do it, with the deck tiles finally replaced and the last load of construction debris taken to the dump. After that, Ray and I will be able to "wash our hands" of the Coulson Design Group. Ray managed to get a great picture of the sunrise this morning when out with Freya.

View from our dock.

After Chris is done we still need the HVAC guys in to extend the ducting to come through the T-Bar ceiling, painters in to stain all of the new doors and frames as well as touch-ups. They will also be painting a coat of primer in the car garage to cover all of the mudding and taping. All of this, though, will not impede us setting up the furniture in the basement for the most part. I will organize these trades myself so I don't have to pay Coulson an added 20%!

Chris arrived early this morning, about 7:45 am. Nathan came at 10:00 to finish up the plumbing. He also brought all of the dura-vent pipe for the gas fireplace so he can piece it together and then I will paint it with the black heat paint ready for Gerry to come back and hook it up. With Nathan's help, Chris was able to lift the microwave in place and screw it in. It is the required 30" above the gas stove ... now I will need a stool to take food in and out of it if I needed to. lol It won't be used much anyways.

Chris cut the hole for the sink and Nathan hooked it up with the faucet from upstairs, as well as the water line to the fridge. So now the kitchen is complete. I spent an hour or so polishing all the fingerprints off of the stainless cabinets and fridge as well as oiling the counter top. Awesome kitchen. We may at some point put in a tile backsplash and Jason said he would install it, but for now it is fully functional and ready to be filled with dishes etc.

Nathan finished hooking up the toilet and putting in the shower system in the tub. He finished hooking up the tap on the sundeck so we have water up there. Plumbing is officially done, only the last bit of gaswork with hooking up the propane fireplace.

Chris installed the bathroom hardware today, the door lock, towel bars and toilet paper dispenser. We now have a fully functional bathroom downstairs! Yeah. I did a quick "tidy up" wiping everything down from the dust. Chris also managed to finish installing the closet doors in the bedroom. Ray has the door knobs on order and should be here on Thursday. Tomorrow, I suspect Chris will start putting in the baseboards in the bathroom and the mirror before moving onto the other rooms.

Ray worked on and off with rest times playing in his man cave organizing his tools and how he wants everything to "flow" in there.

His wrenches have not seen the "light of day" for years!

Today was a good day. I booked the HVAC guys for next Monday and the painters are coming on Tuesday.

Tuesday, cold and clear. -2C but "feels like" -4C. Burrrr. Today is a Nanaimo day for me as I have a doctor's appointment and will do a Costco run as well. Jason will be stopping by later today to drop off a drill press for Ray. Jason's step dad received a new one from Jason and Kristi for Christmas so Ray gets his old one. Bonus.  Ray went out for lunch with Jason at Jake's at the Lake and did some more straightening out in the basement. I now have stacked boxes in the kitchen to open, wash and put away. lol

While I was in Nanaimo I managed to catch up with Kristi and she joined me for my Costco run and later we met for lunch at the White Spot after she saw a patient at the hospital. She is on call today, but was not very busy, just had to stay near the hospital. A lovely unexpected visit.

Today Chris hung up the bathroom mirror and shower curtain rack. He tackled the baseboards in the bedroom and started in the main area. The concrete is very uneven so each piece of baseboard has to be scribed, then ground, to fit.  A much longer process than he budgeted time for.

My new shower curtain rod. Love that you can hang towels too.

 The bathroom only needs it's baseboards put on and it will be officially finished other than the doors stained.

Bedroom baseboards in other than in the closet.

Chris has to install the closet bar and shelves first. Then this room will be completely done other than the closet doors stained and the baseboard painted it's final coat.

Wednesday, clear and cold. -2C at 6:30 am. it was already starting to cloud up for the expected rain event tomorrow by 8am this morning. Dishwasher going to wash all of the dishes for downstairs before I put them away. They are all covered in dust even though they were in boxes from all of the construction dust downstairs.

Off to Duncan for an appointment with my massage therapist at 8:30 am.  Boy did Jaz work me over for an hour, but my neck feels better. Having scoliosis of my spine he tells me my muscles in my back are at war with each other! I told him I hope one side wins soon, so they can learn to get along. lol He put some athletes tape on me to wear for 5 days to give my muscles a break so hopefully it will help.

Back at home, Ray did some more cleaning in his man cave and Chris installed more of the baseboard trim. He is also fabricating a cover for the electrical panel in the hall to "pretty it up". I had the bathroom all clean yesterday, but you certainly can't tell today with all of the dust. By the end of the day, he had all of the baseboards on in all rooms other than the bedroom closet that will be finished tomorrow with the shelves and clothes rack. That should be it for most of the dust, I hope.

Heard from David Coulson via email today, that our deck tiles should be here on the island early next week for completion. They came off the ship last Friday and should be delivered to the Richmond yard by the end of this week and then trucked over to Duncan. He is still trying to get the piece to fix the window trim that was damaged during demolition of the sundeck ... which was last September! Talk about procrastination.

Thursday morning, it is quite a bit warmer out at 3C. Chris arrived at 12:30 pm as he was putting together the closet and electrical panel door at their shop in Duncan then came back here to install. He finished the closet today except for the front facing of the shelves as he forgot the tool to drill the holes for the screws on an angle.  He put on all of the door hardware that Ray picked up this morning for the bedroom. Chris ended up staying late to move the upper kitchen cabinets to make space for the third cabinet that was not put in at the beginning. Also he replaced the shock that we had replaced as it was low on air. It fits beautifully. He only has tomorrow to finish everything, as he is working in Nanoose on Monday.

It certainly was a gloomy day. The rain predicted hadn't started yet by 4:30, so hopefully it rains overnight enough for Chris to source out the small leak we still have by the upstairs patio door tomorrow.

Chris will do any cutting of materials outside today to prevent any more dust. JS Plumbing called and will come tomorrow to finish the install of the propane fireplace. We should be pretty much done with the work from Coulson's tomorrow.

Friday morning and the rain started sometime overnight. No wind though which we need to find the leak, I believe. I checked the spot that has been getting wet and it is dry until the rain picked up later in the day and then it was damp again.

Chris managed to get all of his "to do" list done today as well as taking care of the "leak". It appears to have been stopped, but only time will tell.

Chris caulked all of the baseboards, finished the bedroom closet, caulked the kitchen counter, put on the last of the door hardware and took out all of the old rugs we were using to protect the floor. He finally sat down to have a beer with us at 4pm. A great job, with attention to detail, thanks a bunch Chris.

While Chris did his thing, I emptied out all of the furniture boxes ready to be put together. Bernie from Coulson's should be here at some point next week to do the last garbage run and I wanted all the cardboard to go as well. I made sure everything was out of the way for the painters doing the baseboards starting on February 11th.

Gerry was here from JS Plumbing to hook up the propane fireplace, it looks great.

The guys rescued our furniture out of the storage room. It is starting to look like a suite.

The kitchen is complete, I will load it with the dishes etc. this weekend. That was our 21st week of reno. Whewwww!