We knew it was beyond our capabilities to have the house finished by 2002. Did we rush out and hire subcontractors? No, we did not. From the houses we’ve built in the past and the quality of the work we’ve seen, why would we pay someone else to do inferior work? We’ll just take our time. We don’t work quickly, but the standards will be ours and we’ll save a bundle of money by insisting our standards are met even though we have to do it ourselves.
I had purchased a new range that had gas burners and a convection oven, along with a Wood’s all refrigerator and upright freezer. Those three appliances needed to be hooked up. If possible it was preferable to have the walls behind those two large appliances painted including the ceiling above them.
That was what we targeted.
The oven because the burners were gas had to be installed by a licensed gas fitter. We made the arrangements to have one come to the house in May. I had to go and pick it up because the place where I bought it was a scratch and dent appliance store. The refrigerator, freezer and dishwasher would be delivered in May.
First we put the drywall up in the 3-piece bathroom off the master bedroom followed by the dressing room and what would be our new bedroom. I now went to the house by myself in the daytime in order not to impede Haydn joining me in the late afternoons.
The walls were primed. The finished colour we chose to paint the interior was Northern White “Bleached Cotton.” It’s a white we fell in love with when we painted our house in London. It has a slight yellowish tinge to make it warm. It takes on the colours of the furniture in the rooms. It doesn’t give rooms a stark, cold feeling; on the contrary, it makes them light, airy and relaxing. What I discovered when I removed all the wallpaper from the house we were selling was, we both liked it much better. The furniture doesn’t compete with patterns on the walls, making them the focus of the room along with paintings and accents that are added. I told Haydn he had my permission to shoot me if I ever said I wanted to put wallpaper up again. :) We didn’t have the ceiling paint tinted, just used white ceiling paint.
I do like to paint in the daytime and by electing to go there during the day, it speeded the project up substantially.
Haydn installed a walk-in shower with glass doors with two glass panels at the sides. Then he installed the toilet. It’s a very small room, but big enough for a good-sized pedestal sink. Because he’s finicky about the shower head he uses, I had removed a German-made head from our previous house. It wasn’t in place when we showed the house. He preferred chrome, single handle, temperature setting, anti-scald plumbing faucets for both his shower and sink.
The dressing room was a conundrum. There were two doors, one leading into the bathroom and another one from the bedroom. With having to redesign the back of the house so there could be a window in the kitchen, it really isn’t big enough for two people. We had done the best we could with the interior design and promised each other we would build an addition onto the back of the bedroom at a later time. Room for hanging clothes, and shelves had to fitted into an L-shape. Corners in dressing rooms make it not feasible for all clothes to be equally accessible. Haydn did bite the bullet and said he'd willingly put his sweaters and folding clothes there. What a peach of man he is! :)
We didn’t buy top of the line California closet and storage units because of the temporary nature of their fate.
The carpet we chose for the room was in golden hues. We picked it out together and brought samples home to see how they looked in the light where they were intended to be installed. It isn’t a high pile, but it’s not so tightly woven as Sisal. Our's does have a muted pattern. One of the criteria was it had to be kind to our feet. The same carpeting extends into the dressing room from the master bedroom. We don’t skimp on the price of carpeting, but we don’t buy the ‘the’ most expensive carpeting in the store. Just spend enough for it to last a long time, retain its shape, colour and not show wear spots where it’s more heavily travelled. Good underlay gives softness, bounces back under constant use and provides insulation against cold air.
The flooring in the bathroom would be reddish/brown ceramic tile, with a Tuscan look. This is fairly close to what we picked:
While Haydn was installing the plumbing in the bathroom, I primed the walls and ceiling in the kitchen and finish painted the ceilings and the wall where the refrigerator and the freezer would be placed.
We didn’t have a sink in the kitchen and wouldn’t be hooking up the dishwasher until the bottom cupboards were made and installed.
All that remained to be done was install the doors in the bedroom area, varnish the Hickory trim, and affix the doorknobs. The doors were painted with white high-gloss paint after they were hung. I used Sikkin’s clear marine epoxy varnish that Haydn uses for boats in high-gloss finish. One gallon of it goes a long way. It doesn’t change the natural colour of the wood or cast a yellow hue. On Teak it breathes moisture out of the wood while preventing it from sinking it. That’s one of the reasons boat builders use it. It’s also very durable, and is almost impervious to water. The Hickory needed two coats. That’s a very hard hardwood. It’s difficult to mill because its so hard. Cupboard manufacturers sometimes use it to make breadboards instead of Maple. We looked at several different types of wood before we decided on using Hickory.
He bought enough rough Hickory to do all the trim in the house as well as the cupboards. I assisted a couple of times with the milling of the wood, but mostly the guys at the shop and Haydn milled it. I did do all the varnishing and helped Haydn place it around the rooms.
The flooring installers came and laid the under padding and the carpeting. The rooms looked fantastic! Three rooms, ready for furniture! What a feat! We treated ourselves to a bottle of wine in celebration of all the work we’d done.
With eager anticipation we looked forward to our moving date.
