My outside fireplace

My Outside Fireplace

We're getting the last few touches done now - like the installation of the outside fireplace.

This was another of my "must haves". [I know - I've had several]

I first saw an outside fireplace on a very reasonably priced house which was one of the last houses we looked at before we decided to build.  I figured if they could afford an outside fireplace on a reasonably priced build - then certainly I could afford it on mine.  The covered patio might have had a little something to do with driving up the price on my build :(

But by this time, I was in love and no one could talk me out of this.

I can envision many wonderful fall nights sitting out under my covered patio with a glass of wine in hand. 

It's Cabinet Time

It's Cabinet Time


Lots of exciting things are happening now!  My cabinets were delivered today.  Looks like the cabinets will be delivered over a few days.  Here is the first shipment of the laundry cabinets

 

Here is the kitchen - pre-cabinet installation

A few cabinets dropped into the Master Ensuite

Bathrooms - almost done.

Bathrooms - almost done.

I may not have written here about the agonizing decision regarding bathrooms during our home design.  In the first round of floor plans the architect presented us with a plan showcasing 7 bathrooms.  Yes 7.

Who needs 7 bathrooms?  Certainly not I.  hmmmmm.  Or did I?

Apparently, I did.  4 full bathrooms upstairs, one in the basement and two on the main floor.  It made perfect sense.  Of course, I haven't yet been faced with the task of cleaning all of these bathrooms.

Months spent tile shopping have finally come to fruition.  The tile installation is not yet completed.  Saddly, our tile calculations were somewhat amiss, and now we wait for more tile to be delivered so the tiling project can be finished off.

Here is what we have so far {some bathrooms are complete - just awaiting seats, sills, glass, and plumbing}.

The long debated main floor bath, conveniently located through the kitchen and in the mudroom - accessible through the garage and the mud room door.  Grey glass mosaic tile will complete this shower.

The main floor powder room.  The picture doesn't show it, but we've used alternating rows of matte and polished tile.  The accent tile is Spanish Emperador marble.

 

 

Victor has the "grey" bathroom.  It's beautiful.  His bathroom is done with porcelain tile but it looks so much like marble.  This tile is called "wood grey" and is installed in a 24x24 floor and wall tile.  The accent tile is a random-glass-strip mosaic using the wood grey tile.

 

 

 

 

This is the guest bathroom.

 

 

Sienna's bathroom is not done justice by the pictures.  Her porcelain tile is meant to look like Calcutta Marble.  The accent tile is polished glass - if I've achieved the look I set out to; her bathroom will have a sparkly posh feel to it ~ and the accent tile will like diamonds.

 

 

 

And finally, our ensuite.  Wow.  Just wow.  As beautiful as much of our porcelain tile is ~ nothing compares to natural stone.  This picture is of our shower.

 

 

 

And yes, your math is right. I've only shown you six pictures.  The basement lighting has not been installed and the lighting was too poor for any of the basement bathroom pictures.

The Stairway

The Stairway

Well this may not be the stairway to Heaven, but seeing this beautiful stairway installed definitely evokes feelings of joy (at least for me ~ we've already established that I'm weird about stuff like this).


Rod, our installer, was so precise and meticulous in this installation.  We spent hours (okay, maybe not hours) debating over hand rail, post and end cap designs not to mention all the options in picket style and pattern.  {the pattern of one knucle, two knucle will be forever engrained in my memory}

 

This is the railing that overlooks the great room.

 

Tiles, Trim, and more

Tiles, Trim and more

Things are moving quickly and several projects are now underway.  Each day brings us closer and closer to move in day.

Gene and his crew have been amazing.  This is our laundry room.  It's a 24" porcelain tile called Orion Neve.  The picture does not do it justice - this tile is beautiful.

 

 

 



 Frank - my trim carpenter - is a true artist - pictures to come of his handywork - this is just a shipment of trim waiting to be used (but it will serve as a before picture) - I will post an "after" as soon as its done.

 

 

And Frank is not the only artist - This is Charlie, hard at work, installing the crown moulding in the living room.

My Birthday Present Arrives

My Birthday Present Arrives

When we were touring re-sale homes we fill in love with the extra-tall and extra-wide doors.

Once, we'd decided to build our home, we knew that entrance would be graced with an 8-foot tall 42-inch wide door.

Although we loved the beauty of a mahogany door - our budget could not tolerate the price.

Even with fireglass doors, there is a huge variation in price and still a luxury to be splurged on.

When I drove up to the house this morning, I was happy to see our beautiful door had been installed. 

Also gracing our front lawn were several skids of stone.

The Great Fireplace Debate

The Great Fireplace Debate

When we first started designing this house, we were working with a builder who who included 3 fireplaces in their price.  Generally, most people build a fireplace in their family room, as well as one in the Master Bedroom and one in the basement.

I wasn't really in favour of having a fireplace in my Master Bedroom, assuming this would throw off the heat balance for the rest of the bedrooms.  So, we opted to put the fireplace in our living room.

We'd toured other "for sale" homes in the neighbourhood and most had a living room fireplace.  I grew to like the idea of having a fireplace in my living room.

During our framing walk through, our Contractor asked if we wanted to build the fireplace in the living room.  He suggested that it would be a good area to cut-back on costs.

We debated long and hard over this.  I was adamant that I wanted a living room fireplace and my hubby was eager to start cutting some costs.  I conducted an informal poll amongst friends and the consensus was that women like a living room fireplace (although not by an over-whelming majority).  In the end, my hubby, as all good hubbies do, agreed that I could have my fireplace (even though I kiboshed his upgraded roof!).

So we moved ahead and framed our living fireplace.

It's too big for the room.  It comes out tomorrow - my idea.  But I love my hubby for letting me get my way :)

Bath time

Bath Time

A bathtub for the Master Ensuite has been a point of contention since we first started shopping for plumbing.

The first bathtub we saw and fell in love with was the Soho Tub from Vanico Maronyx:





I have no idea what it is made from but it is built like a tank.  It has beautiful, clean lines, and a high-gloss finish and a stylish center drain which makes it ideal for a two-person bath.

The store had a model on display that they were looking to clear out - but even at their reduced price on this tub, it was still not in our price range.  I had a budget, and I'm sticking to it - or so I thought.

My hubby and I have had numerous heated discussions over this tub and whether or not we should get it.  I really can't understand his affection for this tub.  It's not like either of us are bath-takers .... the tub is a simple staging prop.  You can't have a designer master ensuite without a bathtub.

I'd put the tub out of my mind and moved on with a much cheaper selection, although we haven't ordered anything yet.  I went by the plumbing store again to finalize some pricing over selections we'd first made last fall.  Turns out that big paperweight of a tub is still there.  Seems like they are a little more motivated to sell this boat to the point where we'd be getting it for about half-price and it falls within our budget.

My hubby's going by to order it tomorrow :)

Plumbing, HVAC, and other stuff.

Plumbing, HVAC, and other stuff.

Lots of activity going on this week.  On Monday, the plumbers and HVAC crew showed up to start the rough-in of all tubing and pipes.

We've done a couple of site visits this week to make last minute decisions and alterations.  Our powder room had to get "adjusted" because they needed to move the toilet forward, or it would have been sitting over a beam (can't run a plumbing pipe through a metal beam).

Looks like the drain for the guest bathroom is going to necessitate a bulkhead in the foyer.  We weren't crazy about this at first, but now we are going to coffer out the ceiling and make it look like a design element (or so they tell me).

I'm meeting the cabinetry designer at the house this afternoon for our first measure.  We need to do this now - to make sure we're plumbing the right spots for the island sink, and all the vanities.

And the roof goes on -

And the roof goes on -

It was a hectic week battling quotes from roofers.  With a big gap - almost $5,000.00 between roof quotes.  Most of the quotes were on the high end, but we really liked the guy who gave us the best quote.  We saw some of his work in South-East Oakville and liked what we saw.  If someone building a $5 million dollar home trusts him with their roof, why shouldn't I?

We were not disappointed.  He and has crew have been doing a great job.  Here is a picture of the roof starting on March 28th.  They made a fair bit of progress working on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and again on Easter Saturday.  Then came Monday April 1st, and Mother Nature decided to play a cruel trick on us and bring Winter back.  It's been bitter cold out there for a few days, so I don't blame the roofers for taking a break.  They are almost done though.

These are pictures from Day 1 of the project.

 

 

 

The roof is almost done now - need to grab some more pics.

Framing Walk-Through

Framing Walk-Through

Mark and Victor are on a road trip to Newmarket to pick up some tile.  We'd selected the tiles for Victor's bathroom a while back, but they've been on backorder FOREVER.  We found out this weekend that the Newmarket location have just the right quantity in stock - and it's on sale this weekend.


So, Sienna and I handle the framing walk-through ourselves.  Here you can see the opening which is now framed for our sliding French doors in the great room.  I fell in love with these doors in one of the window showrooms we visitted.  Seriously, who falls in love with French doors?  Apparently, I do.  The opening will house 4 French door panels, each 4ft in length and 9 feet high.  It will be almost like having a full glass wall in this room.

 

 

 

Here you can see the framing for the cathedral ceiling in the great room.



The staircase is just temporary.

This is the foundation for the large covered porch which will be accessible from both the kitchen and the great room.

Tile Shopping

Tile Shopping

We've been busy, busy, busy shopping for tiles.  What started with the intention to buy all tile from one shop quickly changed when we discovered the fun of tile outlet centres. You end up having to buy just a bit extra for overage (because your tile may not be there if you go back for more).  And we've also discovered the savings of contractor discounts.  The old adage of buy-more, save-more is true when it comes to building a house.

Months ago, we had first picked our main floor tile - we're using close to 1,500 square feet of this tile.  We first saw it in a tile shop for $6.99 a square foot.  Given our "volume" purchase, they marked it down to $4.25 a square foot.  We were pretty happy with this, until we walked into another kitchen & bathroom store to price check our bathtub, and found our exact tile with a list price of 3.99 a square foot. hmmmmm.  This is when we realized it was going to pay to shop around for our tile purchase.  In the end, our volume discount with this tile shop snagged us our main floor tile for $2.97 a square foot.

Although we haven't bought anything just yet - we've decided on the following:

• a very neutral grey-white tile for the main floor 24x24
• venatino marble for the master ensuite 12x24
• Calcutta marble for Sienna's bathroom 24x24
• Grey porcelain for Victor's bathroom 24x24
• Earthy brown porcelain tiles for the guest bathroom - 12x24

I will start posting pictures of our tile selections once we actually start to place some orders.

Would you like a tour?

Would you like a tour?

Wow.  We left off on February 25th where we'd just erected the walls on the main floor.  Mother nature has certainly not been our friend through this build process, and a few days of extreme cold or snow have really slowed us down. But the first days of March brought some warmer weather our way.

We headed off on a family vacation leaving March 1st and returning today - March 10th.  We stopped by the house on the way to the airport, and they were just starting to work on the second floor. 

We returned home on March 10th, and drove straight to our build site.  Imagine my surprised when we pulled up to an (almost) actual house.

Would you like a tour?  This is my living room.  The center wall (facing) will contain a fireplace.  The entry to this room will be with two French doors.

 

 

 

This is my Dining Room.  I didn't capture a picture of the ginormous dining room window.  The dining room contains a pass-through to the kitchen.

 

 

 

This is my kitchen.  It seems larger on the plans.  Looking at a big open space for some reason makes it look smaller than I thought. The cooking area is approximately 14 x18 feet.  The eating area (not pictured) is approximately 10 x 18 feet - so the whole kitchen is about 24 x18 feet.  So why does it look so small :(

 

 

 

 

In the picture above, the big opening will house a pocket door that will pass through to the mud-room.  We're planning some locker-style cabinetry for the mud-room.  A full bathroom is also planned for the mud room.

 

I will have a nice big picture window overlooking the back yard.  We've ordered sliding French doors which go from the eating area to the covered porch in the back yard.

 

 



 

This is our great room - the focal point of our house.  The great room is accessible through the kitchen and the hallway.  The wall behind the children should be about 20 feet high.  The kids would have enjoyed seeing it lifted into place, but unfortunately this happened while we were on holidays.  The wall was too tall and heavy to be lifted so it was built flat and then hoisted in place by a crane.  The great room will be completely open to ceiling being topped with a cathedral ceiling.

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the foundation has been laid for the covered porch.  Below the large covered porch are two huge cold rooms - one of which will hold the future wine cellar.

 

 

 

 

 

Shall we go upstairs?  Here is a picture of the future guest bedroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's looking a bit small, but hopefully once all these sheets of wood are gone, Sienna's bedroom will look a bit larger.

 

 

 

 

 

Victor's bedroom looks out onto the back of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

My dream laundry room.  It took several rounds of fighting with my architect to get this room exactly as I wanted.  I described in detail the laundry room centered on the upper floor plan with cabinetry on both sides, and a space for a built-in sewing desk.  The first plan gave me a little closet of a laundry room in the middle of the house.  The second plan gave me a slightly larger of a laundry room tucked into the side of the house.  Several plans later, I finally had the laundry room of my dreams.  Weird, I know.  Who dreams of a laundry room?  Here it is all framed in:

 

 

 

 

 

My master bedroom was also a design work in progress.  The current master bedroom is about 15 x 21 feet and houses a large cathedral ceiling.

 

 

 

 

 

My master ensuite easily planned out according to my vision.  It was one of the few rooms I did not have to fight my architect on.  As soon as you enter is a water closet to the right, a two person glass shower on the left, followed by a makeup counter on the right, and a two-sink vanity on the left.  At the end of the room will sit a two-person free-standing tub. 

 

 

 

 

And finally, my walk-in closet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has taken a little over a month of build time to get to this point.  I'm thinking a move-in of July is looking pretty doable.

 

 





 



 











 



 













Whoa! Where did this come from?

Whoa!  Where did this come from?

Drove by at the end of the day and could hardly believe it - we have walls!

Just as I was getting ready to leave, Mark and the kids showed up.

The Sub-Floor is Done

The Sub-Floor is Done

We're making progress, but we get another dusting of snow.  It's looking good though and the framers are scheduled for next week.

And we have a Foundation

And we have a Foundation

Seems like we are picking pace again.  The concrete foundation has been poured and the weeping tile is place.  The forms have been removed and we can now clearly see the makings of a house.

The foundation walls are braced to prevent the weight of the backfil from pushing them in.

A bobcat brings some of the excavated soil to fill in the future garage.

It's been a VERY productive day.  By the end of they, we have the makings of our sub-floor.



Concrete Forms are Set in Place

Concrete Forms are Set in Place

 

The forms were dropped off this morning and installed by end of day.  We can see the framework of our house starting to take place!