Teaset of Survival

Our Chinese teaset has survived  travel wrapped in brightly colored hand-towels and apple-wrapping-foam (see Leaving Xi'an) from China to Canada, living in a garage and last but not least the moving truck to reach our new place without a single breakage! Pu'er, here we come :)

Moved In!

This is basically done, right:

We figured things were ready enough so after a savage clean we started moving odds and ends Saturday the 15th, movers came on the 16th and the 16th was our first night in!

Rod's favorite feature by a rather wide margin is the smartbox connected to ethernet outlets in five rooms.

This is so awesome we actually already wish we'd had even more put in!

A key to move-in success turns out to be paper-that-smells-like-cheese. Keeps movers from having to track dirt everywhere ;)

In order to get things moved in fast without tracking in too much dirt for most items we had the movers carry stuff into the paper-covered area and then Rod would run the box to the appropriate room for Pavan to begin to unpack. It turns out moving the boxes in takes far less time than unpacking them so everything rapidly began to be covered in boxes:

In the end the mother-in-law suite wound up being about the only place not infested with boxes:

A fence has miraculously appeared too:

As we moved the gardeners were busy installing little trees and shrubs so now we seem to own a row of small trees too.

So nice to finally move in!!!

Best sign ever!

Although the deal is not 100% completed until the other party takes possession and all that we were very excited to see this sign go up:

It was literally gone before we even got so far as to post it on the MLS!

As an added bonus it seems we are throwing in this lovely shopping cart!

Less excitingly we're evidently in the eternal 'almost done' phase and have thus not quite moved in yet. We probably could if we really had to but we are electing to wait rather than rush in early.

Stoned Nosing

The stair nosings are custom stained to match the flooring. Usually they look like they are a slightly different shade than the floor; we were pleasantly surprised to discover the stainer did a pretty outstanding job matching the floor color - much better than we've seen in other places.

Our railings are mostly in and most of the wood around the half wall looking from dining room into kitchen/breakfast nook/greatroom is in place.

The most fiddly part of the flooring is the nosing on the step down from the breakfast nook to the greatroom. It should be done today!

In the greatroom the facade on the fireplace is going in:

Finally outside some much darker and presumably more plant-friendly dirt is being added to fuel the grass. Grass evidently comes in rolls. The front pillars are getting sheathed in what looks to us like chicken coop, which helps concrete adhere, which in turn helps the final rock facade to adhere.

We might be able to start moving in as soon as next week! This would however mean we go in before it is 100% done so whether we run with that idea remains to be seen.

Behind Door 42

A 42 in the address; what more could one ask for!

Perhaps a new door?

Behind the new door we find a counter, a sink, and faucetry (new word?) in the upstairs washroom!

The laundry room now has a sink and some cabinets and no washer or dryer. Probably we should buy such things. All I want for Christmas is a stacking washer and dryer? Hmm ... no, that would be a bald-faced lie. And as we all know lying whilst unshaven is significantly easier.

In the master bathroom more faucetry is on display. We initially wanted an elaborate and rather expensive system but then it dawned on us all we really wanted was a lot of water flow. Our solution: the master bathroom has multiple water hookups (term?), each feeding an independent shower-head. This should give us crazy water flow. Eat it overly complex and expensive shower systems! 

The master bedroom deck has gained some tiles:

And last but not least the kitchen is sinked:

Ever closer to move-in day!!

Appliance'd'd

Appliances (well ... three of them at least) have arrived!

In related news the alarm system should be armed for the first time today ;)

Stair nosing are now stained and starting to be put up along with railings. One day perhaps we'll have a picture.

Stone Cold

It's cold outside.

 Tiles are basically complete in the secondary (not master) bathrooms.

Our dining room has a floor!

Last but not least our breakfast nook & kitchen have flooring and granite!

We might possibly be biased but we thought the backsplash and granite turned out rather well :)

Pretty snappy eh first officer!