Kitchen windows are in!

After months and months of the kitchen window openings being boarded up and blocking the light and view, the kitchen windows are in! Here’s my AHHHHHHHHH moment :-)

First the boards and Tyvek came down and Brian prepped the openings.

The first three window frames went in…

And then the windows…

Then the second set of three window frames and windows went in, and the job was done!

Now the west end of the house is fully windowized :-) I like to make up words :-)

That’s a whole lotta windows to let in the amazing views :-)

It feels like the house is taking forever, but looking back to where we were at a year ago, I guess we’ve made pretty good progress – on May 3rd last year, we were still working on the garage and the foundation for the house hadn’t even been excavated…

Another step closer to the house being weather-tight and ready for the interior work. That’s where the fun starts for me, I can’t wait to start choosing finishes and paint colours and tiles!

The Living Beach – May 1, 2017

It’s May 1st, so that means time to see how the beach has changed over the past month. And, well, it really hasn’t changed very much! In some places, there’s a lot of sand washing back up onto the beach…

But there are still lots of rocks…

In fact, looking back at the pictures from April, I think there are actually more rocks on the beach in some places! April on the top, May on the bottom…

Hard to believe that by the end of the summer, this big rock will disappear under the sand!

Flamingo fun at LannaThai

Did you know that there are flamingos on the loose in Bridgewater? Well, there are, and they’ve taken up residence in LannaThai on King Street…

This cheeky guy tried to steal Sybil’s drink…

 

I guess it was too much for him to handle, he had to call for back-up.

Are they dancing the Flamingo Flamenco?

Then he ran in a marathon…

Crossing the finish line!

These little guys were hanging out in a planter on the window sill.

And this guy was hiding in the corner behind a police officer (who very kindly didn’t cart this crazy girl on a flamingo hunt off to jail).

 

Here’s a flamingo on the barware.

And here’s Sara and Sybil and me with Stiltskin. Sybil never goes anywhere without her Dollar Store make-it-yourself glow-in-the-dark tiara ;-)

Nice to have this tropical bird vibe here in cold & rainy Nova Scotia. Can someone please tell Mother Nature that we’re ready for some heat and sunshine now!

A week of windows

First we got all of the windows on the water side of the house installed…

Then the skylights…

And the big challenge, the upper windows on the west end of the house…

Then we had to wait for more windows to arrive, and Brian had to get the roofing on the north side started before the skylights on that side could go in. Well, everything came together last week, and now we’ve got more windows and skylights :-) We started with the easy job, installing the skylight on the main roof.

Opening framed & flashed and ready to go…

Peek-a-boo Brian…

Done!

Next came the bathroom skylight, which was a bit more challenging because there’s no floor underneath the section of the roof where the skylight goes. I used the winch to crank the skylight up from the inside of the house, and Brian guided it up the ladder outside.

Almost ready to go, just needs the flashing…

And it’s in!

 

Skylights are all done :-)

 

Next up, the two upper windows on the east side. The hardest part was getting them even and level.

They look so tiny on the big wall!

 

And then the window I’ve been the most excited about – the round window in the upstairs bathroom. This was another big challenge – it took about two hours to get this sucker installed. Like we did with the bathroom skylight, I hoisted the window up with a rope and Brian guided it up the ladder. It almost hit the deck on our first try, but luckily we got it up and in with no damage :-)

Bathroom and closet window openings prepped and ready to go…

Whew, got it in!

And finally, the window in the closet went in. This one didn’t take very long to out in, although getting it square took a while.

A week’s worth of windows all in one picture :-)

And now all of the second storey windows and skylights are in! And assuming our next window delivery arrives on schedule, the main floor windows will be finished soon too :-)

Brian rockin’ the roofing

I haven’t done much work on the house lately because it’s been all about the roofing, and I just cannot handle going up that high. Whose dumb idea was it to build a house with such a big & steep roof anyway… oh yeah, nevermind ;-)

A few weeks ago, Brian finished the ocean side of the roof. Which was awesome, but there was still a lot of roofing left to do. Luckily, Brian has turned into a roofing machine and is totally rockin’ the job!

Making good progress on the north side…

Almost done!

99% done! Just need to install the ridge vent.

Now it’s all done and time to take the staging down. I’m kinda proud of myself for climbing to the top of that ladder to help with that :-) OK, so I wasn’t up quite as high up as Brian, but I’m pretty sure that’s the highest I’ve ever gone up a ladder!

Wooohooo!

There’s still some roofing left to do on the bathroom and entry peaks. One side of the entry peak is done, and hopefully the remaining sides of the peaks will be finished soon.

Our next shipment of windows was supposed to arrive yesterday, but they were MIA. Hopefully they’ll show up today, and we’ll install them tomorrow if it isn’t too windy. And later today we’ll put in the skylight where the piece of plywood is. We’ll be weather-tight soon!