All decked out.

And now the roof on the deck ....

This is going to be a great place hang out!

When the skies are grey and the sky leaks, I will be dry on my front deck.

Today the plumber brought the pipes up to the main floor...  To the bathroom sink and shower.

For the laundry...

In the kitchen...

And here for the tub...

Oh look the sun is coming back out.

The deck will serve well for watching sunsets. But as you can see here when my walnut tree grows up I will have a nice screen from the neighbours across the street.  At that point I might loose the sunsets or figure out how to trim the top of the tree... I will plan this over a few years and a few drinks.

Yup it's looking good.

Time will tell..

Today my contractor buried a hydro conduit from the pole to the house... Now we just need hydro to get power to the pole.

The deck is going down. 

Notice the corner trim and the joist hangers in place for the deck roofing.

Hey look doors! 

What is funny is that I have made so many decisions in the last few months that I had forgotten what the doors I had chosen looked like.

This is the back door with blinds build into the window.

And here is my front door. I love the window. Still deciding what colour I may paint it...

Hmmmm... Blue? Green? Same colour as the basement brown...or just leave it as it is? 

Time will tell.

The deck is not quite done yet....

There will be stairs down of course as this is the front door.

The roof goes here.

A good view of the pole. 

Happy Earth Day tree.. Glad you are still here.

Ah the view from the deck.

Star light, star bright...

First off, here is the rock from yesterday's move, complete with the solar light.

Today there were two projects on the go.. one inside and one outside. 

The day started for me over coffee... my contractor called me while I was enjoying my morning cup to ask me how soon I could get to site. He was working on the rough in of the bathroom today and needed my opinion of the exact placement of the tub. Yes, the tub was finally coming out of the box!

So the decision was to centre the tub under the window with a nice little ledge all around. It does mean that some water may want to linger there and I will have to wipe the area dry, but a place is needed for a candle, cup of tea or a glass of wine... You get the idea. 

Somehow the window is higher -maybe six inches - than I had originally planned. Not sure how that occurred, but it will be okay. Off went the shoes and I climbed in for the first time. Yes,  I actually bought this expensive tub without ever having been in one! It was a perfect fit and will be a great deep soak! With the higher main floor and the higher window, my original plan of looking out at trees and flowers in a private garden will not really work out .... I will be enjoying the blue skies, the overcast and cloudy skies and of course, the starry nights.

Next up was the shower area.

Then later in the day after a few errands, I dropped back in to see that the pocket door housing was in place.

Voila, my bathroom!

So excited I was, that I had to cart up my sink and vanities from downstairs to check out the spacing.

The vanity will be raised up six inches higher with a kickerboard support.

The plan is for the cats to go in the side of the sink vanity, walking through to the litter box which is hiding in the second vanity.

The top of the second vanity will be a tiled counter with towel hanging somewhere above.

Some of errands included checking back at the tile store to confirm the selections made. 

I SO can't wait to see the tile in bathroom! Although I took a picture, I will keep the surprise!

While my contractor stayed inside the crew were working outside in the on again, off again rain today... It was deck building day!

Joist hangers up, it was time for the pillar supports to be trimmed down.

And then later when I returned....

There had been some earlier difficulties putting the pins through this pillar, but it finally came together.

Then up for the view....

I was chatting with the neighbour when suddenly from the yards across the street the local deer family bounced over to say hi. The deer took one look at me and pranced over the neighbours fence instead of visiting my yard.

Then on to the next yard....

Hydro has not yet come by again, and there are still branches of the tree to cut off and trim, but here is another view of my new hydro pole.

Meanwhile in the backyard the apple tree is looking nice.

Tomorrow.... Maybe doors....

It will work out.

A successful meet with my contractor this morning which included a stop at a plumbing store to pick out the shower nozzle and a then meeting to go over finances. These meetings always conclude with me handing over another cheque and today was no different. So far so good, there is still money in the bank. A few hours later we met up again over at the site.

The first project was to clean up the front yard a bit. 

Over the weekend I dug out the wood scraps I had piled near the trees at the front of my property. I say dug out as I had covered the wood up with other wood that was covered in part with concrete, and then the crew threw a lot of other junk scraps on top. 

I piled the good scraps for future firewood, on the side of my shed near my greenhouse, covering with a tarp the next day. Then I gathered some of the scrap metal on site to be recycled: wood bundle strapping, copper wiring the electrician had peeled from the plastic but was leftover, and much leftovers unpeeled from the plastic. I was unsure whether or not I could recycle the plastic coated wires. I was able to do this and received $4.40 for all the wires ... plastic and all.

So today the plan was to move the big rocks away from that area, (from the edge of the trees at the far end of the picture below). Mission accomplished...

Looking good.

My contractor used the backhoe to pick up the rocks, carry them to the other side of the yard and then place them in a nice configuration. I transplanted a yucca plant that was too near the fence line over to the other side of the yard as well.

I think my address will look nice on that big flat rock. The big flat rock also sorta protects someone in a car taking out the new hydro pole and it adds a nice area to put in flowers.

Before I left the site I moved one of my solar lights to one end of the big rock... But I forgot to take a picture of it.

The next project was some decision making in the bathroom. Did I mention the plumber was on site today. The three of us sorted out where the taps for the bathtub will be and where in the shower the taps and shower head will go. I so can't wait to try out my little big bathtub. The window is a bit higher than I had originally planned, but it will work out. This was also the first time I had seen the sink and bathtub faucets my contractor had purchased from Home Depot. I showed him several pictures of what I had hoped to have and he did well at finding similar faucets. Then the plumber got back to his work downstairs.

My contractor and I discussed the kitchen layout. We measured and discussed the type of cabinets. One wall of the kitchen ended up being a bit shorter, so now there is room to pass to the hallway by the fridge. But it will work out. 

And then before I left the site I mowed some of the grass by the bench under the plum tree. Then I looked up to see some hawks/ vultures circling above...

Snake in the grass.

If you look close at this picture you can see the new hydro pole is in place although some branches will still have to removed.

No rain screen yet... But me thinks I see the beginnings of a deck....!

Loving those doors.

Now around back is another board attached to the house where a deck will be in place.

Notice the corner trim.

Back out front I found another snake.... You know if I really knew how many snakes were on my property I may have been less excited at all the tenting I did before I moved here. Oh alright it is a small snake and I hear they are good for the garden.

Inside I did some more clean up - as the construction industry does not really clean up after itself. I am not sure how much of the copper wire ends I can recycle. I will try.

The crew put some blocking in place before the drywall goes in....not exactly everywhere I was hoping. I saw the plumber as he was leaving. Apparenly he will be back for a couple of days next week..... Well I would hope so!

Out back you can see a flowering bush as the sun sets through the open doors.