Let there be light!

One of my final tasks was to select the light fixtures for the house. I had a pretty solid idea of what I was looking for, but also had a few items on my wish list that I was hoping to somehow work into the budget.

Needless to say, I was in the showroom all of 5 minutes when I blew the entire budget on one light! I wanted a shazam-pow-wowzers kind of light in the foyer and boy, did I get my wish. I ended up getting 40% off of the fixture...but it still blew my budget to bits!

Undaunted, I carried on...gotta have lights everywhere ya know.

Here's what I selected for the rest of the house (all fixtures - with the exception of the foyer light - will be in oil rubbed bronze).

Foyer (it's 9' tall and made of Swarovski crystals! I think this is what heaven looks like):

Dinette: Island (there will be 2 of these):

Kitchen Sink Light:Half Bath (had to pick mirrors too!):

Main Bath:

Ensuite (there will be 2 of each the fixtures and the mirrors. Bonus - the mirrors tilt! Cooool!):


Exterior (these will be in black):



And that just leaves the Dining Room fixture. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find one that met all of my persnickity requirements. Soooo, we'll be eating by candlelight until I can make my mind up.

Definitely not DIY

I took a quick trip to the house today with my friend Kristel to check on progress. The drywall, although now completely hung, is officially a week behind schedule. The mudding and taping will be left to the experts, and should start on Monday and take a few days...famous last words. There is an art to finishing drywall that I cannot even begin to understand, let alone execute, so I'm happy to leave the job to those with a clue!

It was super fun to walk Kristel through the house and show her what has consumed all of our time (and cash) for nearly a year! I'm not sure if she liked it, but at least she pretended to, and that's really all that matters.

Everyone told me that, once the drywall went up, the house would seem alot smaller. I have to say for the record that I found the exact opposite to be true. Sorry folks, you were WRONG! There are not alot of decisions left to make about finishes, etc so now we just wait for everything to come together, and hope that it's remotely close to how we wanted it to look.

Master Bedroom:

View looking through the ensuite bath to the closet:

Dressing Room (giggle):

Bonus Room:

Dining Room:

Main Floor (living room, dining area, kitchen, stairs and front entry) Hi Kristel! :

Those responsible

A few people have asked me for the names of the contractors and suppliers we're using for the house. I figured I'd start a list and update it as more crawled out of their hiding places to delight, anger, and rob me blind!

They are (in no particular order):

General Contractor: WestDee Construction

Lighting: Richardson Lighting

Plumbing/Heating: Sterling Plumbing & Heating Ltd.

Paint: Benjamin Moore

Cabinets/Counter Tops: Cougar Custom Cabinets and CaesarStone

Interior Doors: Lynden Door

Siding: James Hardie and Horizon Exteriors

Flooring: Arteca , Kraus Carpet, and United Carpet

Railings: Canadian Oakworks

Exterior Stone: Eldorado Stone and I-XL Masonry

Garage Doors: Garaga

Interior/Exterior Hardware: Schlage and Wally's Miobile Locksmith

Appliances: Sears

My next house will have no kitchen; just vending machines!

Friday was “pick the kitchen” day. The contractor had already given our wish list to the cabinet maker, so my job was to pick out some finishes, and give the thumbs-up to those items that he had already planned for (layout, etc.).

I managed to save a few bucks by switching the countertops from Granite to Quartz (something I’d wanted all along), and also squeezed a few dollars from the budget by changing the cabinet in the laundry room from oak to an mdf cabinet that we’ll have painted on site.

I also compromised a bit on the hardware, picking an aged copper finish instead of oil rubbed bronze. This saved me some cash, and got me the handles I wanted.

I am happy to report that we are well within the kitchen budget and I still got my custom oak cabinets, the layout I wanted, and even added a few items to make sure that the end result would be top of the line!

The wood being used is a 'Shaker Oak', pricey but so worth it! We'll have ours finished in an oil stain called 'Provincial':

The countertops in the kitchen and main floor bath will be CaesarStone Quartz in 'Espresso':

The upstairs baths and laundry room will have CaesarStone Quartz in 'Blizzard':

We'll also be having a microwave drawer installed in the island. I wanted to hide my microwave (I think they're so ugly) and this is the perfect solution!

There once was a man from...Nantucket?

I just have to say for the record, that I am getting a real kick out of the names of the various finishes, colours, and products that we've been sorting through. I thought that if any product wouldn't take itself so seriously, it would be exterior stone. Boy was I wrong! After sorting through Santa Fe, Chapel Hill, Buckhorn, Appalachian, and (my personal fav) Manzanita, we settled on....Nantucket! It's got a beautiful mix of greys and earth tones, to tie in all the colours of the exterior without adding too much visual bulk and weight to the facade. The weather has been so great that the masons are hoping to get this on the in the next 2 weeks. It sure will be nice to move in and have the exterior completely finished!

Easy peasy mcsqueesy!

For once, a decision we've had to make about the house hasn't kept us up at night. We had about 20 designs to choose from but we made our decision in less than 2 minutes! Woo hoo! We selected the "Caiman" from Lynden Door. All doors, including the bi-folds on the closet, will be the same profile. We're going to have them painted, but the colour has yet to be determined.

UPDATE: Paint colour for the doors has been chosen!

Benjamin Moore Aura 'Frostine af-5':

Introducing…Poly

We’ve been awaiting her arrival for some weeks now. And finally, she’s arrived! This means that our next visitor will be Drywall. The countdown is on to possession...I hope they can stay on schedule to get us in May 1st!