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 :)

Someone Else's Kitchen

Ten points to the person who first recognizes this kitchen

nb the fine view from the back, lush suburban greenery

Mattamy University / Stuff

Busy busy day yesterday, work was just go go go, followed by get home and go out.  As with our last home, Mattamy sets up what they call Mattamy University, in which they invite all the home buyers closing at the same time / in the same area to come together and do a meet and greet with the build team.  They cover stuff like warrantees, the construction process, closing day, and stuff you have to take care of (I know have a "oh yeah" list to follow up on that looks like a list of bills (Hydro, water, gas, phone, etc.)  As a group, the Mattamy team are not strong public speakers, which having met many of them one on one over the course of the build know most of them to be gregarious constructions types, and in front of the mike they become monotone nervous speakers.  I suppose that's just anecdotal evidence that fear of public speaking seems to affect most people.  In any respect I'm glad they are skilled and competent home builders, and being able to communicate that comes second.

From the session we learned that the park behind our will be built before the end of the summer, will be very similar to the one near Bryan's baby sitter (which is a nice one) and will have a trail that connects it up to other stuff near by.  Its actually kind of funny, the similarities in location between this house and my parents.  Backs on to a trail, the brick and trim, and a few other little things, not the least of which is the exact same kitchen appliances :P

Okay since this is actually a real(TM) blog post, and my stomach insists on being heard, I really wish I hadn't left my breakfast on the counter this morning :(

So what else, oh yeah, most important we met a bunch of the families in our neighbourhood, there are lots and lots of kids around Bryan's age, so it is going to be a super fun street for Mr B to grow up o.

<< why is Streetsville go station a cell dead zone, he asks as his internet connection dies. >>

So yeah that was Mattamy U in a nut shell, um, we don't get a tree on our lot, but we get some trees and shrubs at our back fence (on the other side.)  Our back deck may not be built until after our grass goes in, so no going out the kitchen door because that first step is a doozy.

As for the actual house, they did a lot of painting and finishing yesterday, and all the cabinets arrived, they are all shrink wrapped in the family room, and our bedroom, but they are there.  When I got their and started taking pictures I was ducking around all the painters, just trying to stay out of the way, I had an amusing conversation that when kind of like "Hey are you the guy to install the cabinets", "nope, just the soon to be home owner," "oh, well there in the way."  Typed out it is boring sounding, but it was funny at the time.

So after all that chaos I got home, and got down to work :( we are headed out to our suprasecret test lab soon and I had to get a bunch of stuff documented so it could be sent there, and it needed to be done.  I write these release docs pretty regularly, so much so, I think I wrote yesterday's on auto pilot, and it still might be the most error free one I've written to date.  For some reason I'm not able to create them flawlessly, but I'm getting better.

So thats why no one heard from me yesterday, it was go go go.

Anyways, I'm signing off for now, ttyl

Tiles

Light is washing out the colour in a lot of places, but tile is in, not grouted, but laid.

Front Hall

Laundry

Kitchen

En-suite

En-suite Shower

Bryan's Bathroom

Stone and More Stone

So news from the front today, we had an appointment to select our batch for granite, it was a little bit of a denouement but the place was itself pretty cool.  Basically if your a company who sells custom granite and marble, you have EVERYTHING in granite and marble.  Your desks, your walls, you weird ornamental stuff.  Hell I bet the toilets were carved from stone, just because they could...

So we got to walk through the factory and see the giant robots:

This was the less exciting of the two robots types we saw (and they had a couple of each.)  There was also these enormous CNC Mills going on, but there were people working near them, and I didn't ask if I was allowed to take pictures.

After walking past all the machines we walked past the slabs, row after row after row, of large slabs of granite, and marble.  Which brought us to Black Galaxy Colour Lots 7 and 8.

So you don't get to actually pick your slab, and in fact you don't even get to see a whole slab (the rows are just too tight) but you get to pick from a slab lot, as each slab lot is a slice of the same stone, so imperfections and colouring tend to be consistent.

So we picked 7 because the 'flecks' seemed bigger then those in 8.  We then got to pick a bunch of other things like the edge style, and the sink style etc.   We chose to pay extra to have them carefully, (instead of destructively) do the sink cut out.)  So we will receive a sink sized slab of edged granite for use in the construct of a coffee table (many people use them for hot plates, and cutting boards.)

After granite it was back to the house to finish the days work, and then we did the house visit of the day. The brick is basically done, the bricker was just finishing the last row above the door when we left.

I imagine the siding will go up next week, sometimes they work weekends sometimes they don't so who knows what to expect, but it looks great.

The insides are coming together, they started work on the main floor and seem almost done upstairs.  The tub was installed, and for some reason I didn't take a picture, but whatever they won't uninstall it.

Here is what I call the cat niche, technically it is for art, but cats are art right?

Now it is 8+ feet off the ground, you would think cats couldn't get up there...  I have faith in there ability to get where they don't belong.

Well thats all for today.