Not withstanding the stuff going on in the basement, we finally put the pendant lights in the kitchen, and hung the art we picked up a few weeks back.

New kitchen pendant lamps, appreciate how in this brief moment in time my kitchen counter is emulating clean.

Art/Thing sill preposterously underpriced for how nice it looks.  Erin and I are now on the scout for any run down barns with old windows we can nab and turn into adhoc frames.

Subfloor Day One, Last Update

Finished up the area which I had cleared, I do need to go over it one last time with some fasteners, but the big work is done.  In total I sub-floored 336 sq. feet in one day, which I don't think is to bad for an amateur.

Tomorrow I will finish the fasteners, and then I'm going on a tool run to Bardon Depot (TM) to pick up some loaner tools.  I'm trying to convince Trevor to come by and help, because in his own words, "the only time I get to use my Dad's tools is at your house."

Other lessons learned... need knee pads, the plastic barrier starts to dig in after a while.

Cortland planted

What an amazing day, it started out grey and blah, so we all slept in a bit.  To try and do something today instead of just putter around inside we would head out to Terra and just walk around the garden centre and enjoy all the indoor planters that they have blooming at this time of year.

We decided while we were there that we would, mostly to show bryan growing things, but maybe if we are lucky actually be successful, we would get some seeds and seed trays and grow our veggies from seed.

On a lark we visited the tree's, and I finally found my coveted Cortland apple tree, so one van full of apple tree, soil, seeds, planting tray and misc later we were on our way home (much later then we hoped.)

After feeding and chasing all the kids to bed, I looked out side to start some hole digging for my tree expecting some chilly rain, when I found out that the chill morning had been replaced by the balm practically summer day.  I had my sweater off before I even started digging, and before long I had a big jug of water, and my Tilly to keep me from getting sun stroke.

By the time Bryan was up and ready to help me plant my tree (he was very explicit on the point of tears that he was going to help daddy, (he was also very tired from a late late nap)) I had dug the hole, prepped my tomato bed, prepped my shade bed, erin seeded the grass, got my tree stakes in, reinforced the tree stakes on last years new trees, and generally got my garden in order.

Bryan and I got my cortland planted, with much mud and ado, then set about planting our seeds.  I think I may have accidentally planted lettuce on my cucumbers while I wasn't looking and Bryan's planting style is kind of scatter shot.

This is our first go at plants from seeds, so we will see how it turns out.

Anyways, busy, beautiful sunny day here in Miltonia, parents and kids are now zonked

>blogged from bed :)<

Going to Miss That Ditch Witch

Well Bryan will be sad to see the construction equipment go, but I think those tears will be short lived as his park opens up.  They have been working a feverish pace, and they look like they are on schedule for Saturday completion.

Trail and Shubbery

Park and Community "Christmas" Tree

House Jobs Hero

In the spirit of console games with their plastic instruments, if their were a game dedicated to getting stuff done around the house, then what ever its oversized plastic implements are, and what ever gesture is required to enter into the mode when the screen lights on fire, then I more then definitely wielded said plastic implement with expert proficiency, and gestured appropriately to enter the bonus mode.

So this weekend we made this list, it kind of looked like this, I say kind of because it started with a markedly fewer number of check marks, and it also fails to capture coherently the interdependency of the tasks, but here it is in some state that it was in this weekend:

Enjoy (while squinting) its authentic spiral bound fashions.

By the time we finished you could add a task or two to that list, and the only left incomplete were the last two the required stores to be open.

So the first one on the list, that due to curing, took the longest was painting Evie's room (still trying to figure how I like spelling that.  Evie, aka, Evelyn, aka the baby we are expecting, and that will be here name, not some secret code name. )  I will spare the details about how much the paint cost, but... well... I'm glad one gallon was enough...

So on top of painting, we also hung the curtains Erin's mom made, so here are two pictures, and basically both of them demonstrate that it is impossible to accurately capture colour.

This one is too pinky

This one is too orange

The colour is called Easter Egg, and it is an Easter Egg Hued purple, come see it, it looks great.  When we get the chance we are going to put up some vinyl stickers of palm fronds and jungle beasts.

Other big tasks this weekend... Hanging a giant fan, this one required me to actually go find a ladder big enough to get up 13 feet, and then drag the 50 lb fan up there.  The fan was a gift from Erin's parents, it was manufactured (I say that, rather then "made" because it is solidly built fan, with a self lubricating grooved axel the raises oil up from the well to spray on to the bearing casings, it is a serious fan) back when men were real men, and the west wasn't tamed.  Okay, more like 20 years ago, and still spins silent and efficient as ever.  It is the kind of fan that when they say lifetime warranty, they mean the fan will continue to spin in the skeletal remains of your house a millennia from now.  

Observe the fan, silent and deadly in its natural habitat:

So as if that wasn't enough, Bob and I also hung the garage door opener:

You can see my ninja ladder in the background

So those were the highlights, the task list was actually rather long, and the complexity varied, but all (including B) helped.  We tackled in one weekend, like three months of jorbs, so woot!  I now have some honestly earned aches and pains, and have taken with pride a pain killer, and some milk and cookies (Bryan made them,) and now I'm off to bed.

Home Improvements

So these only scratch the surface of the work that has been done around here in the last week or two.  I don't know what came over us, but we really have gotten a bug and got some stuff done.  So a lot of the art is out of the boxes and now on the walls not leaning against it.  The sod is going down, okay that is Mattamy not us, but we are watering, and one day mowing it.  The biggest job was the kitchen we have hung all the vertical door pulls.  I still need to do the horizontal ones, but there are less of those.  In the both cases I had to modify the jig to get the job done, and I just ran out of time.  We also (thanks to erin's mom) have curtains in the kitchen, dinning room, and master bedroom, we also have a rail hung in the living room for a set Erin's mom is working on.  So lots of little changes just making the house look done.  So a lot we I'm not  showing in this handful of pictures, I guess you will just have to visit to see the rest.

You can see where the lawn ends, the rest should come this week, but it looks good.

Not only with door pulls, clean :)

Deck half installed

Well decks installed, no rails or stairs, but deck :)

Deck

So my new deck arrived today, that is substantially less awesome then it initially sounds, but I will save that detail until the last picture in the post.  They haven't been done yet, but the curbs are coming soon, this week or next.  The grass will follow shortly their after, and the topsoil, or as my neighbours daughter called it, the mountains, were delivered over the weekend.  I'm not 100% sure it isn't night soil instead of topsoil, or at least to some large extent manure based.  That will be good for the grass once it is in, but has a certain, bouquet.

The now complete garden

Random front shot

Mount Poopmore

Not a shabby looking house

Something is wrong with this picture

A useful deck... really :)
Okay so it is 5'x10' (if it wasn't exactly 5x10 I would have given it to you in metric) and not installed, but it will be soon.  In a couple years we will make it bigger.  Not this year.

Abuse of blog

Thought I would abuse my blog  in a more conventional (and thus trivial way) an inane status update about crap :)

Got a bunch of little tasks done around the house.  The TV is up on the wall, and I got some of the bathroom fixtures up.  Not that exciting I know... Worse, I'm going to tell you about my lunch, here I was going "hmm PB + Bacon" that would make a good sandwich, but then I found the tomato, and the roast chicken (real not that sliced stuff that is mostly "meat protein" and lettuce.  BOOM throw down some montray jack and you have yourself a bitching club sandwich.  I don't know what the fight was, or who my opponent was, by my sandwich won hands down.  To accompany my awesome sandwich was a fine episode of "The greatest tank battles" clearly, full of win!

In random news, apple finally did what I said they would do, they came out with a Mac Mini with HDMI, finally invalidating the Apple TV, and producing a device that I've been saying for years "all apple has to do is make this device and I will buy it."  Damn you Steve, damn you... This didn't even qualify as "key note" material for WWDC this was like an afterthought half way through WWDC, just like "By the way, we refreshed this."

Its a rough year for me and my apple fetish, between the iPhone 4, the iPad, the new Mini, and the laptop catastrophe I find myself being drawing to just get a direct withdrawal setup off my paycheck right into steve's pocket.

Ah well sammich eaten, tanks destroyed, time to get back to Mario.

"Garden"

Lacking an actual garden, or grass yet, Erin and I have carved out a niche on our balcony.  I'm actually sitting up here enjoying a fine draft, listening to some D&D podcasts, surfing the web, and relaxing.

It might not be a proper job of landscaping, but it makes it feel like home.  I also have some planter tomatoes, and some herbs up here, so my bruschetta needs will not go untended this season.

Need a few more baskets to fill it out (I have a basket for the far left but the hook broke)

Always cheerful fuscia

Productive Day

It was a bit of a mad house here today, got a lot done, and am on my way up to bed to crash.

Dishwasher finally arrived, and got it installed, with no less then two hardware store visits, and a real oh duh moment.  So the builder roughed in the electrical for the dishwasher leaving a cable with the ends capped in the dishwasher opening in the kitchen, and the breaker for that circuit tripped in the box.  Okay no problem, just leave it off, wire the dishwasher, and flip the breaker and your solid right?  Wrong...  Why? Because the builder actually disconnected the live wire from the breaker in the box.  Easily fixed but had me worried.

Also finished hanging the pair of hanging baskets outside, and got a little bit of art up on the walls.

Finally, AC was installed, and its been going since ~7 and I haven't seen it stop draining water off the condenser, like not trickling water, but like pouring water out of the air.  It's just humid in here.

Last few days

Well it has been busy, very very busy these last few days, we have been in a week now, and I can't even say I noticed it all going by,  just been so crazy.

So here are some pictures of us moved in, I will try an annotate, as always the post title links to the album in full

Inviting Front Doors

Dinning room with table, D, and Chair Fabrics

Kitchen w/mess

Greatroom from above

Greatroom from balcony

Front Entranceway 

Low Clutter Table in Dinning Room

Moving night

Sorry for the delay, but we are just getting are legs under us here, so here we are the night before moving, everything is packed up tight, and every nook and cranny of the garage, third bedroom and basement is FULL

New Table & Counters

Bought a table by accident, the things you will do to avoid packing.
Not shown but it expands to seat 8, 10 squeezed.

Countertops installed

Exterior almost finished

We had our Pre Delivery Inspection on Friday, and everything is almost done.  We forgot the camera, and when we came back around later the door was locked, so I still can't show you the counter, but everything inside is pretty much perfect.  A few minor things, but they are being taken care of.  So here are the pictures I did get:

Exterior finally fully sided.

Railings added (deck still missing.)

Someone Else's Kitchen

Ten points to the person who first recognizes this kitchen

nb the fine view from the back, lush suburban greenery

Shower installed

So this images are a little bit 'steamy' not because the shower was running, but because I left my camera in the car over night and there was condensation on the optics (i know I know I'm a terrible person for doing that to a camera.)

Mmmmm showerlicious

The long awaited dryer vent

Its mate

The missing piece of drywall, and your monies worth on drywall screws.

Packing

Making slow headway on the packing front, certainly filling up my packing niches.

There is a cat in there... somewhere...

Look Maa, it's Clean

Enjoying the house in what may be a rare clean state: