Moved.

We're out. We're out of the condo. Ben is doing the walk through with the new tenants as I type. So...we have electricity, but we don't have cable or phone. As such, I bit the bullet and finally got myself a cell phone, one with all the bells and whistles too. What a great sales person I found. Now I just need to figure out how to use the thing. Those who call me, I transfered our old home number so that you don't need to change your speed dial. Talk soon.

Renter Found!

Yay! Only took one week to find a good renter...they must be good, she brought us a bottle of wine when she came to sign the lease. So, we're packing away all our belongings. The movers are coming this saturday. Here's hoping that we'll have a drywall dust free house, and a working bathroom. If anyone has any good microwave recipes, send them along. I don't expect we'll have a working kitchen for a month or two.

Milestone

This is what our place has looked like, essentially, for the last 7 months or so...


And then this arrived...


28 bundles of it insulated the walls, then poly was stapled to all exterior walls and the ceiling (note: a fair amount of bruising to Ben's knuckles occurred)...


All seams were tuck taped or acousti-sealed, 26 potlights & numerous electrical outlets were cut out and tucked taped...long nights...late, oh so late nights...


And then, 8 month of work was covered up in one day.


Here's the living room, insulated & partial poly:


Living room with complete poly, and tuck tape:


Living room sheeted with drywall:


Kitchen island bulkhead, poly & tuck:


Drywall:


It's a huge relief to have the drywallers working away in there. Every wall is now sheeted, and they've moved on to tape, mud, and sand. We're hoping to move in by the end of the month, however...renters must be found first. Know anyone in Calgary who's looking to rent a 2 bed condo right close to downtown?

What happened to September???

An entire month...not a single post. How embarrassing. As you may have guessed, we've been swamped. Since he already wrote it, here is an excerpt from an e-mail Ben sent to his parents:

"We seriously don't have time to do much these days! I pick up Nei from work, get changed and then off to the house until 10ish. We've got drywallers starting Monday so it's been a bit of a mad panic trying to get every last thing done before the walls get closed up for good. Just to update you a little, we finished all the wiring, plumbing (inspector made me re-do more of what I thought I had done correctly...), ran all the cat-5e and coax cable, ran all the speaker wire for the home sound system, installed the gas fireplace, insulated the entire house (Nei was a one woman machine!), and numerous other tedious little, but important tasks. Of course, all the windows and doors have been installed now and they look fantastic! The house wrap is finished on the exterior and ready for stucco. The electrical service has been moved to it's temporary location until it can be buried. Last night we started the poly vapor barrier which is really the last thing we need to finish before drywall starts. We've booked the movers for October 25th and have started to look for renters for our condo. So that's about it for now. It's been hectic to say the least, but we're still having fun. We can't wait to see the drywall go up."

Did he say "we're still having fun"?...yeah, for the most part...we are still having fun. And, and...I am an insulating queen!

Note: For all you DIYers out there - don't kiss someone who has been handling poly vapor barrier. Shocking, hurts the lips...real bad.