We are not in Texas, but...

It's Canada Day, a statutory holiday. Floor guy is not here but the regular crew have been busy this morning. The basement is finally get attacked. The above ground studs have been waiting patiently on the cement bottom to get studded and then the insulation can begin.

North wall studded with tar paper against the cement.

West wall done. You can see the paint and tile supplies getting moved around.

South wall almost done. I think they ran out of tar paper.

Outside a fun little butterfly was checking out the oregano.

I have two types of oregano. The yellow, and this green variety that grows taller and has these pretty little flowers that the bees really love.

A bear was spotted this afternoon. It was crossing the street, quite a distance away, down towards the park. Apparently it has been frequenting that area. I guess I am not on the route until my yellow plums ripen. Speaking of yellow, aother rose has bloomed. I have doused things in the deer repellant hoping the young buck stays away from it.

This flower keeps getting bigger!

And home to the cottage by the see finds Dora enjoying the sun.

Dare I say .. yet?

I could say that things are heating up.... But they are already quite hot and the forecast says same for the next few days... A positive consequence is that things will start in the basement tomorrow..... because basements are cool. All the framing wood was delivered today and the crew will be on site in the morning. I think I heard that right...stat holiday or not.

Upstairs it looked like the front room was matted and cabled...

Corner clear for the wood stove.

However it is once again the wrong size cable. The room was finished and there was still 20 ft of cable in the box. You cannot cut this cable. Another switch to be made and the learning curve for dealing with this floor method continues. I am told the measurements of the room were correct, so the problem appears to be higher up with things not labelled or charted correctly.  

Anyhow when I returned later the cables were pulled and we await the switch.

This corner will get a 8 inch riser so I will not have to bend down too low to stoke the fire in the stove.

Look my sunflower will be a double decker flower.

 

The deer have not made it into the greenhouse- dare I say yet.

The eggplant is blooming.....

Inappropriately pruned.

When I stopped in on Saturday to see how things had progressed Friday after I left, I can see the thinset was applied.

I biked over to the site and was relaxing on the bench under the plum tree when I suddenly felt like I was being watched. I looked to my left, stared down a deer and I took out my camera only to get a bum shot.

It was a young my buck.

Today I got a call from my contractor stating that the warm - hot - weather was not good for tiling. The thinset had not set right. Timelines may change.

I stopped in later to see where things were at...

The front room was cleared out and the floor was sealed.

The south window was covered to stop the heat of the sun.

And the den windows were blocked off as well as the bedroom window.

Meanwhile outside over the weekend I found a new flower. It mysteriously had appeared on the side of my house.... The neighbour tends to drop seeds sometimes!

But sadly the buck I had met on Saturday had some breakfast on Sunday or was it a late night snack... 

My butter lettuce was inappropriately pruned.

The footprint evidence was next to the corn, pumpkin and zucchini.

I got busy today.... I also sprayed the smelly 'stay away deer' spray.  

Things sorta worked keeping the doe away before. Hmm.... Maybe I need shiny things, rather than the blue flagging tape, but it is all I had at the time.

I made fence line and then I messed up the path that leads to it. 

I thought the old water piping was a nice touch.

All the tiles are sitting outside.... Which does not sound very secure, but not much has been secured throughout the build.

I found some free plant give a ways on the side of the road, two blocks away. But it's too hot to play, so when the neighbour called to say hi I went over to sit in the shade.

Enjoying the view over biscotti.

Recycled waffles...

Mats are down in the hallway before noon... Looking good.

A few errands in town... Including taking some more wire scraps from the electrician to be recycled. I made a whopping $3.90 ... So I bought a waffle for $5.00! .... And bought my well used dehydrator for $20. I will test it out with cherries....

With the present heat wave, I decided to show my trees, shrubs, flowers and veggies some love as it was my side of the street's day to water....

Meanwhile inside the cable went down.

A coat of thinset should be down by the end of the afternoon said the floor guy. I remain optimistic, but it was getting on in the day.

I enjoyed the view from the deck for awhile. The neighbour's yellow- orange flowers look nice.

Den like dinner

Not too much detail here today... Work continues.

The bedroom has second sensor down. Wires not pulled up in the wall just yet, but the room is almost done.

And here is the den done like dinner, (albeit without wires pulled up).

Well actually I have not had my dinner yet, but I did just agree to buy a used food dehydrator for $20.

I left while floor guy was still working away. He was done tiling for the day, and he was cleaning, preparing and putting a sealant coat down on the hallway. Tomorrow they will lay the mats and hopefully get the cable down as well.

Happy sunflower.... I remember my Mom used to have a plastic sunflower that danced when you pushed a button. Not sure I remember what tune it was.... "Don't worry be happy" maybe...

Time for tea.

I spent the morning looking over financials....let me just say that it would be nice to move in soon and stop paying rent.

My contractor has come and gone for the day. But the floor guy and helper (painter) were busy working on the bedroom floor.

There was light rain going on today, so after a quick check in with my veggies I headed to the basement. I am thinking through the dimensions of the cold room, access door, vents...

Things are bit cleaner down here as a load was taken off to the dump. My builder has helped me construct a somewhat environmentally sensitive house, but he has work to do with respect to building site behaviours... Recycling what can be, the crew using reusable containers, (I have seen so many Timmies cups..), and waste of little stuff like screws, staples. I should add that I was never informed how many spindles were needed and I stained probably 100 more than necessary- albeit my contractor said he would buy them back. I am sure there is other waste I am not aware of. 

Anyhow the basement looks better.

I was inside when I could hear drips.... Hmmmm.. A look outside revealed a small issue.

... For the money I paid!....

Shortly after I could hear the floor crew packing up, so I headed up to see what else had been done.

I should note the den is still halfway done, but a bit more of the thinset is down where a little carpet had been sitting.

Looks like three more rows for the bedroom completion.

My contractor called me as I was staring at the floor. He said he will be by tomorrow to assist. They have to put in the second sensor and pull up all the wires to the box, before finishing off the floor.

It will be the electrician, when he comes back to finish off all the outlets, that actually connects the wires from the floor to the ones in the box.

Meanwhile outside despite the rain... My sunflower is so close to fully opening up!

Before I left the site I snipped off some lettuce and chives for dinner.... 

And some orange mint for tea.

So close...

Midday check in at site and things are progressing....

Hard to capture in a picture.... But here you can see the bedroom has the thinset down and all electrical wiring checked out and ready for tile.

And tiling has finally begun... Here in the den.

It's kinda slow going... But it's going. 

The tile is a grey fake barn wood.... 

If I chose a brown fake wood I would have thought I was in a Starbucks...

My contractor was by and we discussed outside light downstairs and the degree of finish in the unfinished basement and of course we talked numbers.... Time to write another cheque.

This sunflower is getting so close to opening.