A Mixture of Mediums: House

Monday, 9 September 2013

The Build - Part 2: Interior

As mentioned in my previous post, the interior of the house was pulled together in the final month before possession. Once the exterior walls and windows were installed, the inside of the house was completed on schedule, with barely any hang-ups.

Here's a summary:

The plumbing and installation of the shower and bathtubs were completed early on

May 17, 2013

Shortly after the plumbing was done, the heating, cooling and ventilation ducts were installed

May 19, 2013

Before the drywall could be installed, the builder was required to have inspections done by the Village. This was a little bit of a process, but once approved, they were back on track and the walls were erected and taped.

Electricians came in and wired the entire house in 2 days -- pot lights, outlets and undercounter lighting, done.

***

So remember when we had to pick all of our interior finishes from the design center back in January? Well this is the point where all of those tiny 3"x 3" swatches were going to start showing up...in a much larger format. How nerve-racking.

After drywall, came the first coat of paint. The optional paint upgrade included "most" of the house, with the exception of bedrooms and bathrooms. So "most" of house is painted in Sherwin-Williams Techno Gray

June 18, 2013

Don't worry Xander, we'll paint your room later :(

We took a road trip up to Winnipeg at the end of June, to pick Xierra up for the summer. When we returned, the doors to the house were locked, and we could no longer get inside *sad face*

Looking in through the front window, we were pleasantly surprised to see that our BEAUTIFUL wood floors had been installed while we were away! The trim was also installed.

Determined rebels that we are, we found a way to break into the house (i.e. there was a rope peeking out from the bottom of the garage door - we pulled it up and the door opened :P)

The cabinets!! And the start of my island!!

I'm so giddy!

Complete with roll-out tray garbage cans and lazy susan :)

We were glad to see that the tile was also installed in bathrooms upstairs

...along with the vanities

And what's a house without a furnace

June 30, 2013

A mid-week visit revealed an unexpected boo boo -- they installed the wrong color cabinets for our bar. They were supposed to be Kona (dark espresso) to match the island. Someone effed up the order and they accidentally got the cabinets in Chiffon instead. I was able to catch it just before the carpenters were about to install the lower cabinets -- a call to the construction manager was all it took to get the new one's ordered..

Otherwise, there wasn't too much progress from our last visit -- just the vanity in the powder room and the toilets in all of the bathrooms were installed

July 10, 2013

The next time we returned, it looked like the builder was starting to get the house cleaned up - they removed the protective sheets on the floors, to reveal the stunning beauty beneath:

July 12, 2013

The carpet was finally installed. The entire upstairs is carpeted and the family room on the main floor (off of the kitchen) is also carpeted:

July 14, 2013

The construction manager didn't mess around -- 4 days later, the new cabinets were installed and we were back on track..

The island still needed some finishing at this point, and the counters were still on order, but it was certainly coming together nicely

July 18, 2013

There was another little set-back, when we found out that our counters weren't going to be installed in time for our final walkthrough. We did the walkthrough anyway and returned the day that they were completed:

July 22. 2013

Our closing took place on Friday, July 26th. We got our keys and officially moved in later that day.

Eager beavers, we were, to finally call this place home.

The Build.

Building a house. Certainly on the top of my (imaginary) list of 'things I love to hate and hate to love'.

It was fun and stressful and painful and miraculous, all at the same time... kind of like childbirth, I guess - except the baby lives in you and you live in the house? Whatevs.

Anyway, getting on with this post..

I won't bore you with the billions of details that were involved in the building process, but I will share a brief summary of how the house went from this:

to this:

in approximately 3 months.

[by far, the longest 3 months of my liiiiife]

I will preface by saying that we "purchased" the house back in October 2012 - signed some paperwork to hold the land, put down a down payment, etc.

We stared at a SOLD sign and an un-dug site for almost 6 months before they actually broke ground. Frustrating, to say the least, but once they did break ground, the progress was fast-ass (that's a little faster than 'fast'!)

Here's a series of photos to give you an idea of how quickly it went:

This is after they levelled the land:

April 2, 2013

FINALLY READY to start diggin'. Let me tell ya -- I never imagined that seeing a bulldozer would ever excite me, as much as it did on this day. A bulldozer made my day - who woulda' thunk..