Progress has been slow and steady-ish over the past week and a half. We’re keen to get the concrete poured for the slabs and pool before the snow flies so the pressure was on to finalize the details and commit to a pool contractor. Part of the process was marking out the lay of the land. With measuring tape, hammer, spikes, string and spray paint DB made it happen (after getting the pile of cedar shakes and random stone out of the way).

We signed off on the drawings, hired Crazy Steve to do the pool and Marty’s team will be back on site next week to remove the rubble, grade the property, dig the hole, build the forms and pour the slabs. Can’t wait.

In addition to the landscape planning, Dave finished off the exterior siding on the back of the house…

replaced the front bay window with the one that was originally slated for the west guest room – thanks to Curtis for his excellent assistance and to Mother Nature for more record-breaking warm temps that day!

He also trimmed out the front and back porch ceilings…

and spent half a day dealing with this. Rental of serious plumbing snake required. Good thing it was just bath water.

Fraser and Mike the amazing electricians were back. They installed the rest of the pots, outlets and switches – inside and out.

I am obsessed with dimmers. One of the greatest inventions of all time right after fire, the wheel, vaccination and the Ziploc bag.

Pat and Brock finished the brick on the big fireplace and the dining room wall.

Great that Brock was here to share in the glory – pink boot ta boot! We’re thinking the big fireplace will be painted black and the dining room white. Anything other than the Pinky Tuscadero.

In random news…

DB made a plywood mock-up of the fireplace mantel and took it to DK Custom Welding in Elora who will fabricate it out of steel (sadly no photo), the porcelin tiles were delivered (twice, plus that 3rd skid had to be moved inside the garage by hand BTW), and after checking out a bunch more flooring suppliers for hardwood, we once again decided to go with the first thing we saw a few weeks back at – you guessed it – The Home Depot. We’re going to test out using engineered hardwood flooring on the vaulted ceilings instead of unfinished tongue and groove. We wanted to use Maibec siding but Brad Swanson warned us that the moisture content is too high for indoor use. G2K. Fingers crossed the flooring works!

Weather permitting, next week is gonna be huuuuuge.