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.