Smooth as ice

Mick has completed (for the most part) the second coat of trim paint.  I love the finish the sprayer leaves on the trim - almost as good as a factory finish.

Spindle Madness

The basement looks like a scene out of Hellraiser!  With the 3 sets of stairs, the spindle count for the railings is astronomical and they require a ton of work - sanding, priming, sanding, 2 coats of finish paint.

Paint continues...

... and continues...

Shoveling

Mysteriously, the painter did not show up today until I had the driveway shoveled...hmm...

Glass or no Glass?

One of the reasons I go back to trusted trades time and again (and consistently recommend them) is for their level of service and professionalism.  With all the work going on at the house, it wasn't until last week that the client noticed one of the back doors was a solid door (it sits in an area with 4 windows).  They had remembered requesting glass in that door.  John, from A&J Windows could have objected, but he didn't say one thing - he simply removed the door, covered it with temporary plywood, and had the new door with glass in place installed within two days.  No questions asked!

John, from A&J Windows... call him! :-)

Water Meter Install

We are getting close to the finishing stretch, so I suppose the city now wants to track our water usage... so Tony installed the meter today.

Artistic paint pics...

Not much to see hear.  Just some artistic shots of paint equipment and prep....:-)

Driveway(s)!

Yorkwest arrived this morning to pave our drive, as well as our awesome neighbour's drive - I can't thank them enough for the latitude and kindness they showed throughout the build. 

Yorkwest, by the way, is the best.  Run by three brothers, they run a highly efficient operation, are straight shooters and always take care of the site like it was their own property.  Highly recommended.

Paint Prep Continues

While pictures of paint prep are dreadfully boring, it is obviously the most important step in the process.  There are thousands of nail holes to be filled, many joints to be sealed, hundreds of cracks to be caulked and thousands of feet of trim to be sanded....

Hopefully by next week we can get the trim and doors primed and finished so we can start work on the walls.

Interior Trim Complete

Trim and doors have been installed throughout the house.  We are ready for the painting crew to come in next week and start their preparations.  The house is looking great!

Landscaping work

Tom was in today to complete the interlock pad at the front.  We're now ready for the driveway guys to come and finish the job.  Sod will have to wait until the Spring.

Basement Floor

Juvee was in over the last couple of days installing the wood look, vinyl tile flooring.  This flooring is meant to last - very durable, scratch and stain resistant and it comes with a thin insulation layer.

Landscaping Progress

Looking good!

Landscaping begins

Thom is back!  It's kind of nice for him to see the progress on the house.  Most trades only see a pretty short window of progress on each house, but since Thom is there at the beginning (concrete), the middle (brick and stone) and the end (landscaping), he gets to not only see the progress, I think he feels he has more skin in the game in terms of making the project look top notch.

Driveway Prep

My friends from York West Paving arrived today to prep not only 45 Monkton, but 47 Monkton as well!.  I have to say, given some of the calls that are going in around this neighbourhood to police/parking/province and city, it's been amazing to have neighbours as nice as Grant and Michelin.  They've let the guys use their driveway and even their yard on the odd occasion to park.  Bob and Simone have offered to take care of putting in a new driveway, and new sod in the spring.

Ahoy

The unique position of the little portal window in the jack and jill bathroom has made us come up with a creative solution that I think will look great.  Of my primary concern - water.  Making sure that area is water tight is very important because it's going to get blasted with water every shower the kids take.  So we had a Caesarstone surround made up, Freddy parged the inside of the window with a waterproof membrane, and we will add a glass mosaic (see the border material in the picture below), followed by grout and silicone for a perfect seal.

Fred moves downstairs

Freddy has moved down to the basement... not permanently, though I'm guessing some under construction homes have been used as a "dog house" when trades are in trouble with spouses (not mine yet, knock on wood).  We are close to complete on the tiles, and Fred should be in to grout by the end of the week.

Aluminum

I've given George some leeway on his schedule - he got the soffits up a little while ago to protect the house from birds etc, but I really wasn't in a rush on the eaves etc.  Finally, he has arrived to put on the fascia and gutters.  Next to do are the two prefinished metal roof areas at the front.

Finish Carpentry Starts

Adriano arrived today to start setting up the doors.  He likes to do all of the door work himself, and when they are prepped and hung, he'll get his crew in to start trimming out the house, likely early next week.

Trim and doors arrive

As soon as we got the floors covered, the trim and doors arrived on schedule.  Perfect!

Floors revealed! Then covered...

Finishing the floors...well, almost

The guys got the stain applied this morning, and by late afternoon had applied the first coat of varathane - oil based in this case, as the dark walnut colour makes a suitable match with oil varathane.  We have to get the floors fully prepared, then covered before we can get the trim carpenters in to rest the door frames on top of the floors.  If you did the trim first, it never makes a nice finish between the frames and floors, and I don't like that :-)

Cleaning up the garage

While final preparations are underway inside the house on the floors, Mick took the opportunity to apply a nice epoxy coating on the floor.  Nice!

Flooring and tile

The guys started sanding the floors today in preparation for staining later on this week.

Meanwhile, Freddy keeps sneaking in to move the tile ahead of pace.  Looking good Fred!

Decision time on the floors

Since we're doing "unfinished" or "finished on site" floors, we're able to choose practically any stain or finish.  Bob and Simone have elected to go with a darkish brown stain, so we've got samples set up for them to choose later tonight.

Floors (pretty much) installed

Aluminum

George started the aluminum work today.  Once complete, the front of the house is going to fully transform into the final vision of the architect's original drawing.  I love this stage!

Paint, tile and flooring

There was a flurry of activity again today... Mick's team was in to prime everything today, just ahead of the arrival of Carlos who arrived to start the hardwood flooring.

Fred managed to rearrange his schedule yesterday in order to get the areas where tile meets floor all set up.  By Friday, the upper floor hardwood should be in stalled and they'll move down to the main floor.

Hmmm....

I caught Freddy in deep contemplation today... I like a thinking man, and Fred always takes a good amount of "planning time" before starting.  This makes the job go very smoothly and quickly once he has his master plan.

Drypack and tile delivery

While the hardwood floor installation is on the horizon, we go the tiles just as the drypackers arrived today.  The drypack guys, arranged by Fred, set a wire mesh and thin, perfectly level bed of drypack on every wood floor, as well as setting up the shower beds with the proper slope.

Primed and ready to finish

We are primed and ready to finish the house!  Well, it will take a bit of time, but it feels good to be clean inside and to see the light at the end of the... skylight.

There's a house under there!

The carpenters were hard at work until yesterday evening, and the morning light revealed, finally, a house!  The roof work that Miguel did yesterday was fantastic and we can finally see the architects vision.

Meanwhile, the tapers also finished sanding today, so we can clean up the inside and show you some more pictures tomorrow!

Final stucco elements

The last finishing touches of stucco were completed today and Miguel and his crew are hard at work on the remaining exterior carpentry items.

Stucco continues

The underside of the porch roof and the underside of the two bay windows are finished in a stucco finish over weather resilient board.  Once the roof is done under hear, the back porch will be really nice.

Assembling a portico puzzle

Thom and the gang were back at it today, working on the assembly of the 16 piece front porch portico.  If there was ever a case for "measure twice, cut once", this would be it!

The heavy pieces were craned in and put in place according to the schematic provided by the supplier.  It's difficult, careful work for sure, and I wouldn't trust anyone but Thom to do it right.

Finishing touches

With the arrival of the last load of brick yesterday, the guys from BHM were back finishing the front portico brick and the back top right wall.  After today, we'll be able to take down the scaffolding and reveal the house!

Stucco progress

While Tom waits for his brick (it just arrived!), the stucco guys have snuck into the front to get their base material installed.  The front's going to look great next week when we tear down the scaffolding.

Stucco details

There are three stucco areas on the house, and we've started the back bump out window today.

Taping

The tapers have started!  That means the interior is moving, but slowly for the next week or so while they do their two or three coats, dry in between and then come in for the final sand.  After that, we'll have the place looking like a real house in no time!

Oval trim

I like the look of the oval window surround.  In general, I'm not a big fan of round windows or doors (energy efficiency, cost and how they are problematic to finish on the interior) but this touch in the center of the house is a nice one.

Front stone section

The hardest section of the exterior was left to last.  We have to bring up smooth limestone panels high enough to cover the future porch roof interior, then continue with rough cut limestone above (with a custom oval window surround to boot!), and then line the side with smooth panels then brick above.  Sounds complicated?  Wait until we have to install the 10 piece limestone portico!

Shit Show

I'm not going to lie...today was a bit of a shit show.  Not really in a bad way, well, not for my customer, as things are getting done very quickly now.  It started this morning with my labourer not showing up to clean the drywall remnants throughout the house so it wouldn't interfere with the tapers....so I had to "labour up".  

Lo and behold, the plumber shows up to test the water pressure and a leak sprung up in the master ensuite - glad he checked.  Crisis averted. 

Then the fire shutter guys showed up, and their service tech was not the friendliest guy in the world.  I'm not used to working with people that can't adapt and look for solutions to minor problems, and this guy felt like a union guy under strict orders not to do anything out of the ordinary.

The drywallers had what felt like two hundred guys inside - taping AND finishing off the last bits of drywall.  I appreciated the speed, but man was it hard to work there today.

Poor Tom and his crew having to deal with all of the commotion in the house, and poor neighbours who have offered up their lawn and driveway for the cars and trucks of the trades in order to avoid the constant parking officer visits.

I'm going to bed now...

Drywall progress

We've had a ton of guys in to get this drywall installed.  As a result, we should be done tomorrow.

It's looking a bit more like a house though, which is great!