Time for an update!
Been a while, but we were rather seriously delayed first by a lack of hydro on the site, and then later by a lack of natural gas to the site (though that was mostly the lack of a meter and they can't fire up the gas without that). So the hydro has been hooked up now for about 10 days. That's allowed some portable heaters to be hooked up in the house ( and about five or six different lines to be run from our house to other houses in the neighbourhood) and some more work to progress.
The drywall was up prior to the hydro power being hooked in, but they weren't able to tape it or otherwise finish. Once those heaters went in they were able to wrap that up and the painting and trim work was possible to complete.
The paint we were allowed with our purchase price was either white, eggshell white or off white
Now I don't begrudge anyone wanting white walls, that's personal taste, but it just isn't for us.
Through the building process we've been told that we're not allowed to deal directly with contractors and here's a perfect example of why. To get three colours of paint in the house that are non-standard the builder would charge us anywhere from $2500-3600
Fortunately for us, the painter contacted us rather than vice versa and offered to do up to four colours for $1000. Now that's an awesome deal compared to the builder's prices, but additionally with that two story foyer it would be a serious bitch to paint. Both my wife and I are really comfortable doing most things, painting included, but two story work is less than appealing, so we opted in. As I said, we're happy doing just about any kind of work and we pretty much repainted the house we're in prior to selling.
For reference sake, the stairwell to the second floor after drywalling was wrapped up and actually after the paint primer was on already:
It looked pretty nice right away and once the drywall is up, it actually starts to look like a functional house. It does make a huge difference when you actually paint though and you can also see the stairway railings are in, plus the framing/moldings for the doors. My wife really wanted crown moldings on all the doors and to my dismay, I relented, to a rather kingly sum for that.
I will say they look really nice, but I honestly couldn't have given a **** either way. The stairway railings are in but for the wrought iron spindles (yep, extra, like anything else). Same photo again:
A bit different perspective on the paint colour here, though taken from a similar point in the house. The front door, currently white, will become a dark blue, not dissimilar from the colour in the kitchen you'll see shortly. Not really much in place in the way of floors at this point, though the subfloors have now been screwed down and the additional flooring, where necessary, that goes under the carpet or vinyl has been laid in in some places. We'll have engineered hardwood in the dining room, main floor hallway, kitchen and eating area. The rest will be carpeted.
The fireplace went in as well, at least the gas burning unit itself. The brickwork remains to be done. They've installed the wood area around it as well for the TV and some shelves. The TV will go on the right, away from the window, in spite of the shelves currently sitting on that side. I checked the plans and they have it correct, with the shelving on the left, but we'll see if they get it right
You can see the blue of the kitchen/eating area on the stub wall. It appears dark in all the photos I took. It's a fairly deep blue, but not quite so harsh as it appears here.
Looking the reverse direction you see into the kitchen and eating area with the door to the basement. Tons of work yet to be done in the kitchen but I'm digging the dark colour. The eating area has a ton of light and there's another window in the kitchen area itself that isn't readily apparent. It's also a south facing back yard, so ambient light will be pretty intense in there. So you can see pretty easily comparing the above photo with the one below the blue looks a lot darker depending on the lighting.
We opted for a third colour and let my five year old daughter pick her colour for her room. All I can say is it's interesting. We added the fourth bedroom upstairs as an option (yep, extra
) and decided she could paint it whatever colour she wanted, since she's not real keen on leaving the house we're in right now. So it's kind of purply-bluish, but hey, I don't have to sleep in there. I will say it's pretty entertaining that we painted it that colour, considering it really is sort of a feature room in the house with the bay windows and all. It's also the second largest bedroom in the house. I've been gentle with the picture aspect though, you'll still get the idea of the colour
Our "official" possession date is still sitting between May 15 and June 30, though in talking with the site supervisor he figures he could have us in by late April. Oddly we're a bit of an anomaly and since we haven't sold our house yet, we're asking for some time in May. I think it will work because it takes some pressure off him, since he's supposed to have 30 houses ready on the 15th of May and almost everyone else wants in sooner rather than later. He has to do a 2 hour inspection with each home owner prior to releasing possession, so we're trying to make it all work for him and make it easier to sell our house, which still isn't up for sale. The market is hot and we have no where else to live, so we're trying to time it perfectly, if that's possible.
All my toys are boxed up now, either here, or thankfully with Jim (chuckles) in Minnesota who's sitting on a pile of stuff for me. From a $$ conserving standpoint it's really helping, because buying something just to open it, ziplock it and pack it away isn't all that much fun. As mentioned previously, I probably won't see it for months, if not over a year
It's funny too though, I've obviously priorized some stuff based on what I've put into bulk piles and what is kept close at hand. What seems to matter most are the Kubricks and the vinty figures
