Man alive, that's alot of driveway!

As part of our contract, our contractor is obligated only to pour the half of the driveway that is closest to the house (this is standard practice I'm told) and the walkway to the front door.

Because we won't have paved roads anytime soon, we'll have to wait to have the lower half poured until the roads are done. I knew that the driveway was going to be wide and long, but man-oh-man, it's huge! No way am I shovelling that! And it's only half of what we'll have in the end! Cu-razy!

I knew I'd forget something

In all my excitement to pick out finishes for the interior of the house. I forgot one tiny detail...exterior door handles and locks! Thankfully, my uncle, and all around 'good guy', is a locksmith and he's come to my rescue!

Here's what he's put on a mad rush order for us:

Front door


Garden and Garage Entrance Doors:

Dis n' dat

This post, like another once recently, is full of randomness. Just stay with me.

I must start by paying homage to the King of Pop who passed away today. Shocking, sad, truly the end of an era. I may very well retire my Michael Jackson medly (complete with dance moves) in tribute. Nah, who am I kidding?! I'm totally gonna do it again, but I need to practice. Don't wanna make an ass of myself! Ha! :::insert inappropriate hip thrusting.....now:::

Ok, on to house news. Some of the flooring has been installed. Not all of it. Nope, that would be too much to ask for. The painters have been playing a game of cat and mouse with the builder so it's been holding everything up! Damn it! Anyhoodles, here are some pics I snapped today. I'll give a quick run down of what's been done of note:

• My beeee-autiful railing has been installed...no spindles (they're still on order), just handrail and posts. It still has to be stained.
• The underlay is in upstairs...so squishy!
• The dining room doors are in and casing installed - the doors still needs to be stained.
• My sparkly floor is installed in the laundry room! Luuuurv the sparkles! (And, yes, that *is* the wall colour)
• The flooring is installed in the upstairs bathrooms.
• The hardware has been installed on the cabinets (see poll on the left hand side of this blog to voice your opinion).
• Railing and columns are installed on the rear deck - still waiting for the smoked glass inserts to be installed.
• My ensuite shower is tiled.

Cha Ching!

Our appliances are officially purchased! Dallas, proudly, made these decisons and did all of the negotiating solo. I was 'decision'd out' so it was totally up to him! Big suprise (not) that he got all of the Jenn Air appliances he had been drooling over. So, fridge, stove, dishwasher, microwave drawer, washer and dryer...check, check, checkity check check!

Move in day is only 15 days off!

Good news, bad news

Isn't it just my luck that, as soon as I get excited about one thing, something else comes out of left field to slap me back to reality. I know many of you are aware of some of the issues we've been having with our contractor as of late. I won't get into the details here, but I will say that I took great pleasure in tossing their sign into the Loraas bin tonight on my visit to the house! There is another place I would rather have shoved it, but he wasn't around. :::insert evil laugh here:::

First, the good news. Our cabinets are installed! Love them, love them! They are *exactly* as I'd imagined. I am so glad that we had them fixed after the stain fiasco. We have what is most certainly the world's smallest kitchen island, but it's sole purpose is to house the microwave drawer so I could care less about it's size.

Kitchen: Powder Room:Main Bath:
Ensuite:
They are also busy getting ready to tile the ensuite shower (the tiles look a bit darker here than they are in person):
And the bad news. Looks like our contractor has - once again - failed to live up to his contractual obligations and we have been forced to push back our possession date. This time, it's July 4th. I will be celebrating along with millions of Americans if this actually happens! Cross your fingers people!

Whoa!

Soooo this post is sure to be full of randomness. We just got back from the house and...

Whoa! We have what must be the coolest garage door openers for the front and rear doors of the 3rd garage bay. They are wall (not ceiling) mounted. Instead of pulling the door, they push a bar on the whatchamacallit and it lifts the whozywhatsit and voila - the door is open! Wicked:

Whoa! That's some crazy purple! Yikes! I made a serious error in judgement when I chose Benjamin Moore's 'Slip" to be on the walls of the ensuite, dressing room, and master bedroom. It was pretty shocking. I tried to get a photo of Dallas in his very girly purple closet but he was all sulky, "I don't wanna get my picture taken in my purple closet". A quick trip to the paint store and we have found a more suitable (and grown up) colour to replace it:

Our new colour Benjamin Moore Venetian Marble 2114-70:

Whoa! I have steps and columns on my rear deck. Yay! Can't wait for the handrails and glass inserts:

Whoa! They reversed my paint choices in the bonus room! Ha ha! So much for my handy dandy and, I thought, dummy-proof paint chart! Sorry fellas, the dark bown should be on the *other* walls...DO IT AGAIN!Whoa! Just when I thought all my contactor's taste was in his mouth, he picked these beautiful oak french doors for my dining room:

And....the best part about tonight was that we went out to the house at the request of our contractor cause he didn't think we'd like the way the main floor paint colour turned out! Ha! It was perfect:

Gonna get me some handles

Just when I thought there were no more decisions to be made...up pops another one, and another one!

Tonight we selected our interior passage knobs and stain for the front door. That's pretty much it. No witty repartee. No jokes. No synopsis. Just the facts!

Interior passage door Schlage Georgian in Aged Bronze:


Dining Room french doors Schlage Accent in Aged Bronze:

Door stain Varathane Fruitwood: