Comments!

I would also like to take this time to thank everyone (mostly Jenn) for your(her) comments. Apparanetly you can comment on a blog which is something I just figured out now! So I just went back and read everyones comments. :) I'm a little slow

You Can Never Escape Reilly's Law

As some of you may remember form my earlier posts we discussed something called Reilly's Law. The discussion was focused around the building permit escapade, installing the leaking air conditioner above our bed fiasco, and could even be applied to the slight incident with the owl. (If you don't know what I am talking about I suggest you go back and read this blog form the beginning. Slacker). Anyway, I thought now would be a time to revisit this discussion.

When our windows were first installed in the house we noticed several issues with them. The two windows in my bedroom, although side by side, are different. One actually was build to open upwards instead of sideways. And to boot, the window in my bedroom that was correct decided to break! The center pain of the living room window decided it wanted attention as well and broke. Not a big deal, it happens and since it was the day after they were installed it is covered under warranty. However, they had to reorder the windows from the factory so we had to wait quite a while. After several weeks the order was in and they came to install the windows. They fixed the glass in the bedroom. However, they forgot to order the new window and the glass for this living room. Sigh, maybe I should forget to pay them.

Several weeks later they came back to try again. Low and behold the window that was built wrong in my bedroom was built wrong again. And, even better, the new glass for the living room windows was three inches too short. Sigh. More waiting. By this time we are long done that house and dad is back in B.C.

They come back AGAIN! This time they are sure they have it under control. They don't even attempt to bring the built-wrong window for my bedroom because something happened that order and it has to be shipped again. But the glass for the living room window is here and it looks like it is going to work. The installer even came over on a Saturday to get this done for us. He takes down the blinds, tares apart the windows, and gets all ready to install the new glass when he realizes it is an inch too short. Seriously, does somebody need to go back to tape measure 101? So he puts the windows all back together and the blinds all up. He was even kind enough to tape over the growing crack with duck tape so my window doesn't fall apart in the middle of the night.
And now, we wait. In 'a few weeks' they say we'll have our windows done. So for now we live with a big living room window covered in red and grey tape, and a bedroom window that doesn't open all the way because it's built wrong.

If you have the Sibley gene Reilly's Law will catch up to you!

Left, Right, or Neither?

If you are still reading this blog you must be very devoted to the building of my house!

We need some help on kitchen lighting. The left light is new. It is white but the glass looks cracked and glued together. The right is the original one we have had for a while. I like the modern design but it is very yellow. The third option is to find new lights completely! What does everyone think?

Just some pictures becuase people asked

A Toast!

I would like to offer a toast! A toast to all those who have given a hand or blood and tears into this house; a toast to those who have followed us on this blog and given advice, encouragement, and criticism; a toast to everyone who has supported us in this endeavor. Last night we went out for supper and toasted to the completion of our house!

Dan, dad, and myself spent the afternoon grouting tile and cleaning up the main floor of the house. Yesterday we were able to get ALL the back splash done in one day! well, almost. There was a slight miss hap because I didn't supervise Dad close enough! We each were tiling one side of the sink (naturally the larger side was dictated to me). On the second to last row dad stands back and asks "Does this look right to you?" I glanced over and gave him the okay. After cleaning up and a few drinks we were sitting on the couch and I was admiring our work in the kitchen. That's when it cause my eye - the tile patter is stacked bricks going up and a diagonal to the left... dad's top row goes to the right! It is really my fault, he wasn't sure what he was doing on the second to last row, I don't know what made me thought that he could copy the same pattern on the next one above it. So at ten o'clock last night I had a little freak out! Fortunately, the tile was not all the way stuck on yet so we pried it off, scrapped of the dried goop, and left it to fix in the morning. *Sigh* building a house is stressful!

(As stupid as dad thinks it is to spend money on roses I'm very thankful to my husband for my dozen pink pre-valentines roses)

Not to mention that I was already stressed from the 'book case incident' of a few days previous. After waiting months with much trepidation for my beloved book cases I was met with heartache and grief! Dan bought me the bookcases for either side of the fireplace for my Christmas present. They were installed last week but the guy didn't put the shelves in - he left it for me to put them in at the level that I wanted. So of course I put off doing homework (even though I had a test the next day - Got 93% on it) to put in the shelves and load them up with book. However, when I started putting them in I noticed they rocked! Now, this is where the English language fail us because some of you read this and think - oh good, the shelves rocked and were totally awesome! However, this is not what the I was feeling. The shelves rocked! as in they teetered, tottered, wobbled, and in general were not in the same state of solidness as there physical case! This was sad. I cried a little (not really but that is what we told the cabinet guy to make him feel bad!). But then Wonder Steve, said cabinet guy whisked in and saved the day. In one short afternoon my shelves were gone and came back working in their proper solidity! (My new word). This then rocked! As in totally awesome, far out dude, envy of the neighbourhood, and OMG! All in all a stressful situation that turned out alright in the end.

(To get the full effect you really need to click the pictures to enlarge them!)

So we are calling Sunday February 14th 2010 the day we officially finished! As any home owner knows, there is still much work to be done on the house as the months go on BUT we are officially calling it done!, . . Dad was able to cross THE LAST thing off his to do list; although Dan and I have a long list of little things to do as we settle in. We will still have lots of things like filling some nail holes in my baseboards and patching dents in the walls as we get our furniture arranged. The compressor though, is finally ready to move back into storage and Dad is loading the tools into his truck in the next few days.

I've uploaded lots of pictures of the house but I know they don't do the real thing justice! We are planning on having a house warming party here in May and we would love for everyone to plan to come out and see the place!

Ps. I thought I would just include a few pictures of our Valentines supper (with daddy). We spent the afternoon shopping and making sushi! We also made tampura dates - which sounds really grose but next time you are over at mine or dad's house we'll surve them to you and you'll never be the same again!

And the best photo of all to finish off the whole blog: my babies

Thanks so much to everyone for following along on this blog! As the snow melts we'll be doing more landscaping. I will post more pictures in the spring!

We passed our final inspection!

So we had a great time having Halicia here for almost three weeks! (I think it almost killed Jamie having her gone that long).

After two solid weeks of painting we were running out of things for her to do - she's too fast at what she does! So we decided to start in on the hardwood.

I got home from school the other day and I had my Christmas present! Dan decided to get me the bookcases for Christmas and they finally got installed!.

And I just thought I would throw this one in for fun. Dad playing with his very expensive deck of cards:

Dad is also working outside on getting some handrail around the deck - I'll post pictures later because it's still dark outside right now. Other than that dad says he is running out of things to do and wants to go home soon.

Oh, and on a really possitive note we passed our final inspection which means we are now allowed to live in the house! And we have insurance again! so all the little pieces are falling into place.

So Dan is feeling much better, almost back to normal! He's eating just fine but sometimes he still gets a really sore stomach for no apparent reason.

We've had some really amazing weather the last week. We got almost a foot of snow! Dan had to put up a tent to keep the snow off of his work area.

The weather was warm enough for a while that we were able to get another section of the deck done. The front deck is all finished.

I took Halicia out in the snow - she has never shoveled snow before let alone this much!

It is back to -20 outside so we're working on the inside of the house. We're working on tiling the kitchen so our fridge is in the livingroom! :) makes for some interesting cooking.

All the trim and crown in the house is done! Dad did a great job.

Almost looks like a kitchen out of a magazine doesn't it? (The blue dishwasher won't be blue forever)

The tile now goes all the way back to the bathroom. Trouble is we now have bridges all over the place! Makes it interesting to walk around. We have no stove so supper was on the bbq - which means Dan had to carry plates, balance on a board, and try to open the door! Oh yeah, and we ran out of propane half way through so Dan changed the tank while the food got cold and had to start cooking all over again!