Insulation Mania

 We were so thrilled that the wiring is all finished and we passed the electrical inspection! Thanks to David's Dad and friend Vaughan!!! It was close. The guys had planned to come on Saturday April 16th to finish everything (officially this time, after three other full days of driving up and working) but amazingly their schedules worked better to change andcome on Friday, April 15. Just in case you ever wondered, the electrical inspector (somebody different than all the other inspectors) only comes to Muskoka on Fridays. Last Friday was Good Friday so we would have been waiting two weeks for an inspection and stuck without being able to move on. The inspector showed up just as David's dad was hooking up the meter base so David gave the inspector a tour of the house and everything was done just in time, a little close, but just in time! We are SO thankful for their help! They did a fantastic job! (Notice all the pretty electrical boxes that have been taped around.)

 Our life as progressed to insulation. I've actually enjoyed insulation (as long as you wear long sleeves and gloves).

 Tuck taping (the red tape) is even more fun than insulating.

Our whole upstairs is now insulated and has vapour barrier! The downstairs will hopefully be finished tomorrow.

These bags of insulation are no longer there. They have been expanded to 17x themselves and blown into the attic. Our ceiling looks like it's full of cotton candy. (You're jealous aren't you Stacy. =])

The hardest I've laughed in a while

So this might be one of those stories that's not as funny unless you were there but since only I was there I'll tell it anyways.

A couple weeks ago, life was crazy (ok a little crazier than normal it seemed for several weeks). I was helping David, his Dad and a friend with the wiring and then rushed home to throw supper together and drive it back to the house to serve it.

As I drove I waved at several of our friendly new neighbors who were out enjoying the nice day. I noticed they seemed to be looking at me a little strange. I thought they must just be wondering why they see a green pontiac drive by ALL the time. However, when I got to our apartment I found out the real reason... I had hung our lunch bag on the passenger side mirror and drove 10 minutes with it flapping there. No wonder they stopped, turned and stared at my car after I drove by! Somehow the pot with leftover rice inside kept it from flying away! It was a day that I needed something to laugh at...and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time!

The permanent dirt etched into our lunch bag.

My Thumb

This is the blog I keep telling people I'm going to do. It's inspired by my thumb. When you see the picture you'll know why. This three+ weeks since it's looked like this. Apparently it will look like these for a few more months.

I was jacking up a wall to put the forgotten sill gasket (however you spell that) the pink foamy stuff that goes under walls that are on cement. As you can see I still need some practice using a crowbar and a hammer. Thankfully I have moved away from those dangerous tools for the time being on to things like exacto knives, black goop and Tuck Tape.

My official "carpenter's wife's thumb". (Aren't you proud Dad?!)

Our soon to be Kitchen

 In looking at kitchen prices, we found a configuration we really liked and the cupboards, etc...but we didn't like the price of $7500 when our budget was $5500. We were really unsure what to do, but knew that the Lord would give us wisdom. That day, David went on kijiji.com (like Craig's list in the U.S.) where people post things to sell. He saw a white kitchen that was posted one hour before for $2500. We couldn't believe it! We drove the 2 1/2 hours to look at it the next day and see if it would work in our house and discovered amazingly enough that it's the right size and a configuration that will work with some tweaking by David. In the end (after it's taken out and her new $20,000 kitchen is put in) we'll get the kitchen, including the kitchen sink for $1500! We were totally shocked by God's provision! We hope to get a new countertop at some point and David will build some shelf units and take the fake doors from the peninsula side and make real cupboards with them...eventually. =]

House update

 Even more pipes had to be hooked up for the furnace to work...but it's been working for nearly about a month now! Yahoo for a warm place to work. Now, if only the snow and cold will go away then we don't have to run it and dig the logs out of the snowbanks!

 Someday the electrical panel will have wires hooked in properly. =] The upstairs is nearly all wired and part of the basement. David's dad is coming back on Saturday and it will hopefully be finished soon so we can get the inspection done and finish insulating.

 Once again we have stairs...the real stairs...the stairs that passed the framing inspection!

 This will be the laundry room.

 This will eventually be the downstairs bathroom. Our friends Heather and Aaron gave us second hand tiles (for the laundry room and bathroom) and a vanity and a shower unit so the long-term bathroom might be a closer reality. Now that we have everything for it, it'll just be a matter of David finding time after the upstairs to get to it.

 Here's the end of the  framing upstairs (notice the wires!!) surrounding the stairs.