Progress Continues to be Made.

The finishing process continues on schedule. Dick and his crew have finished painting the basement as shown in the following picture. Now the basement is ready for the flooring to be installed.

Family Room.

Chad and Mike are finishing the hanging of doors and installing the casements on the main floor so that Dick and his crew can finish painting the main floor this week (I believe that Chad specializes in baseboards and casement, while Mike specializes in hanging the doors).

Chad finishing the casement on one of the master bedroom window.

French doors into the master bedroom.
(Door on left is the half-bath).

Garth installed the doors on the cabinets, the crown molding, some of the drawer fronts and hardware so that we could have an idea of what the finished cabinets will look like.

Finishing Work Continues.

After a couple of days of trying, Jon was able to get his cube van running so we were able to go to Calgary and pick up the hardwood for the floors. Thanks to Uncle Ed, who cleared the driveway, we were able to get in to unload the hardwood. The carpet installation has been arranged and the tile is in, so we have everything ready to go for the flooring once the painting is completed. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so that the Trades can get in to do the work.

Yesterday Cody (our plumber) and Pat (our electrician) got the boiler and in-floor heating going. Hopefully this week they will get the furnace and pumping system working.

The finishing work is well on its way to completion. All of the drawers, shelves and counter tops have been installed in the cabinets and vanities. The next phase for them is doors, drawer fronts, crown molding and trim.

Kitchen Cabinets.

Laundry Cabinets.

Master Bathroom Vanities.

Chad and Mike continue with all of the interior finishing work (hanging interior doors, baseboards and casement). They have made great progress and the basement is nearly ready for painting and they think that the upstairs won't take to long to hang the doors and do the casing around the windows.

Closet Doors in Downstairs Bedroom with Closet Organizer.

(Chad and Mike's Work)

This downstairs bedroom only needs the window casement installed and it's ready for paint and carpet.

Cabinets, Paint and Interior Doors.

Thanks to Randy (Carol's brother), who came and dug out our driveway after the wind blew a huge drift in front of the garage, the cabinets, interior doors, base boards and casings were able to be delivered.

All of the muding, taping and knockdown has been completed and Wayne Dick (our painter) has finished the undercoat. We even have some walls painted to see if we like the colors that we have chosen for the main house color, bathrooms and feature walls. So far all of the colors are great except (as Dick puts it) the purple milkshake feature wall in the master bedroom.

Garth has made good progress on the installation of the cabinets. All of the upper and lower cabinets and island have been installed in the kitchen and laundry room. The vanities in the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms have also been installed. Now he has to build the drawers, drawers and more drawers and hang the cabinet doors.

Chad and Mike have started to hang the interior doors. Now it is starting to look more like a house.

Looking from the living room into the kitchen.

The paint color is the main house color.

Looking from the laundry room into the kitchen.

Photo of cabinets in the laundry room.

Installation of interior doos on the downstairs bathroom and two bedrooms.

Finishing Phase Begins

As you can see, winter has arrived. Before the snow came they were able to get some of the rock work done and the footings for the front porch and steps were poured. When the weather warms up a bit they will tarp the front and finish pouring the porch and steps. Then Chad and Mike can finish the sofit and fascia on the front. At that point the the rest of the outside will have to wait until spring.


As for the inside, the following pictures show that the finishing work is is well underway. The muding and taping is complete, as well as the knockdown on the ceilings, closets and garage. Now the painter (Wayne Dick) is in putting on the primer. Next he will paint the areas where the cabinets will are going so that on Monday Garth Jensen can start installing the cabinets.

Photo of great room.

Photo of family room in basement.

Chad and Mike did a excellent job on the shelving in the closets.

Photo looking from the master bedroom through the closet into the ensuite.

Photo of shelving in one of the downstairs bedrooms.

Photo of shelving in the storage closet next to the media room.

Great Holiday

Jared is still working on finishing the muding, tapeing and knockdown in the house. ATCO finally came and put the gas line in; the gas meter should be installed on Monday and then the boiler and infloor heating will be up and running.

So no new pictures of the house, but in the meantime the family was enjoying some vacation time at Fairmont.

Flurry of Activity

There was a flurry of activity on Monday. Ed, Randy and Ray were putting in the fence posts for the barbwire fence to keep the cows away from the house. ATCO gas was out to survey for the installation of the natural gas line (it has only taken them from April when the request went in). Ken Wilde and his crew were there to put in the forms for the front steps and stairs from the garage to the basement. Jared Janisko started on the mudding and taping and Chad and Mike were building their portable duck blinds.

The two pictures below show that most of the sofit and fascia is on. The remainder on the front can't be done until the front porch is poured.


The following picture shows the new garage doors that have been installed and the excavation that was done in preparation for the pouring of the footings for the front porch and steps.

New Road

At the end of last week they came and put in a driveway from the road to the house. We even have a sign at the driveway entrance that has our 911 address on it; it is 280057 township road 30.

Scratch Coat Applied

Prior to the drywall being hung, the scratch coat for the stucco was applied. The scratch coat needs to cure for 30 days, so depending on what the weather is like the first week of November we could have stucco or we'll have to wait until next year.

Hanging of Drywall Completed.

The drywallers (a company called the Board Lords) finished hanging the drywall on Monday, so now the house is looking more like a house with walls and ceilings.

Here are some pictures of the spray foam in the garage, basement and main floor (Made it look like Barney's house - all purple). The application is a closed cell foam (Mike Holmes recommends this stuff) applied three inches thick between the wall studs. Since the foam is impermeable to water a vapor barrier is not required.

Chad and Mike wanted their names to be permanently enshrined in the house so they spray foamed their names on the walls with a different color spray foam.

Sorry for the delay, we have been busy I promise

Here are a few pictures of the house as of yesterday. The singles are on, we spray foamed the exterior walls last week, and the house is wrapped and wired ready for the scratch coat. We went down to Cutbank today and got a load of drywall, drywallers are scheduled for tuesday. The garage floor is also poured and looks great. I will try to keep this updated a little better I promise.

Finally got some pictures with all the windows and doors in. We finished all the little back framing stuff that seems to take forever. Shingling will start Monday!!!

Framing is finished, just have to put the windows and doors in on Tuesday. Then we will start shingling

We flew the roof trusses on Wednesday. The wind was crazy but we finally got a crane so we got them up and braced. Sheets on by the end of the week.

We are still waiting on a broken down crane to come fly our trusses, but while we wait we lifted some of the smaller ones by hand and set up the detailed front entrance ones and both sides of the house with girder trusses. The deck half way done and FORTIS showed up to day and put all the poles in. Next week we will have power!!!