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We spent a wonderful five days in Airdrie/Calgary and just returned on Tuesday this week. Some of the highlights of the trip were:

• Spending tons of time with JJ, she is so fun and adorable, we love her to pieces.
• Enjoying quality time with Aaron and Sonya (they are great hosts and are always happy to put us up)
• Helping Alexa prep for her Medical School interviews. She had the interviews on Sunday and we sure hope she gets accepted!
• Having dinner with Zach and his new girlfriend Delany (not sure if I spelled that correctly).
• Having the grand tour of Jesse and Pei-Chi’s new home. They just moved in last weekend and we got a full tour of their beautiful home. We love it and we are sure they will be very happy there.
• Got to have lunch and a wonderful supper with my awesome friend Sherry
• We had some medical appointments and Aron had follow ups with his eye doctor specialist. No real updates on that front except he is seeing another retina specialist next week to get a second opinion on what can be done.

We were both excited to come home as we knew that at least some of the kitchen cabinets would be installed. We weren’t disappointed.

They also finished the trim around the upper Great Room windows. This was very tricky and they had to create it all by hand. They did a great job and it looks so nice.

I don’t have a picture, but they have made some good progress on our stairs. We had a specific look in mind that is a bit labor intensive to create. This is the look we are going for with a few minor differences.

Today they have started on the hardwood in the main floor. The goal is to have the great room and kitchen done and the island installed by Monday. Also, Aron is just grouting the laundry room tile today, so we are hoping the lower cabinets in the laundry room can be installed by Monday as well. We might be wishful thinking, but we are still optimists!

Oh I almost forgot to mention they are all done the exterior finishing on the garage (at least as much as they can). They were short a few pieces of siding and fascia, so those are on order. But overall, it looks completed. I’ll post a picture with my next update.

Progress is continuing at a pretty good pace. Here is a quick summary of what’s happening.

1. Hardwood flooring is completely installed on the second floor. It looks so great, we just love it. More rustic than we had before, with lots of character.

2. Exterior finishing on the house is completed (except the stone work). The house looks so good and the guys did such a fantastic job. They care about all the little details and it exceeded our expectations.

3. The whole house has been primed and all the ceiling painted. The kitchen painting is complete and they will be finishing up the great room and master bedroom today. The rest of the rooms we will be painting ourselves. It’s looking like a real house now!

4. We got all our cabinetry delivered yesterday and our house is full of boxes now. They will start installing the kitchen cabinets this week. Sooooo exciting!!

5. Aron has the tile all prepped for install in the laundry room. We are heading to AB on Thursday and we will finish installing them when we get back. Then the cabinets can go in and we can get our washer and dryer back.

6. They have been making fantastic progress on the garage siding. They started it in earnest on Sunday and I think they will be done by the end of the week.

And we’ve been doing other things like installing the bathroom vanity light fixtures, our new ‘Ring’ doorbell and security lights and painting trim and stair risers.

We have run into one bump along the way. We had our water system all working and pulling our water from the river. Aron dug deep and buried the lines last fall. We had a real cold spell a few weeks back and the water system was still working so we thought that was the ultimate test for us. But shortly after that the edges of the river started freezing over more and then suddenly our water intake line froze up. So now we have to put in a line from shore to pump water into our storage tank every few days. Once the weather warms enough we’ll be back in business, but until then, it is a pain! This summer Aron will get to do more digging!!!

Some of you may already know, but for those who don’t, we had to say farewell to our beloved dog Otis last week. He was with us for 17 years and was a wonderful member of the family. It was extremely difficult to say goodbye and many tears were shed. I just wanted to pay tribute to him with a few photos over the years. He brought all of our family so much joy and laughter. We love you Otis and will miss you dearly…

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Just a quick note to show the progress on the exterior finishing. The river side of the house is almost complete, just putting up the soffits and fascia today in the big peak. (The stone work at the bottom won’t be completed until spring). Looks fantastic, we are so pleased!!

A lot of things are happening right now, and it is pretty exciting.

First off, the best thing is that Aron came home. This was the longest we have ever been apart, so it has been challenging for us both. He was happy to be home and me and the dogs were very, very happy to have him home.

First the exterior finishing is coming along great. Everything is done except the very top of the side facing the river. I was thinking they might get everything finished this week, but likely it will be early next. Then they will move onto the garage.

Next the painters have finished all the priming and painted all the ceilings. I have finished painting the upstairs bedroom & bathroom and the laundry room. They just started in the kitchen today, so I expect in a few days most of the main floor will be painted.

Yesterday and today the electrician was on site and I worked with him to install the ceiling fans and all the light fixtures in the kitchen. He then put in most of the pot lights and by the end of today they had all the lights working throughout the house. That was a great surprise for me when I got home from work! There are a few more light fixtures that Aron and I will put up and then all the plugs, but we are getting close.

The two guys working in the kitchen are doing some prep so they can lay the subfloor. When I got home today they had about 1/2 the main floor completed. Then onto hardwood! Can’t wait!

The bad news is that even though it has warmed up here (we had a minor cold snap), the water line from the river just froze up and we can’t get any water. We’ve got a work around to try tomorrow, as it will likely be a while for the line thaws out. Here is Aron out on the tractor moving snow so he can assess the water line situation. We’ve had a lot of snow recently and have a heavy snowfall advisory tonight!

Thank goodness for the tractor, it has been essential to managing the snow. I’ve become pretty efficient and plowing the road and work areas.

I have to say that we’ve met some fantastic people during our build so far. But I would have to say the current group we have doing the siding, painting and flooring have just been so great. They are a Dad (Floyd), his son Kyle and Kelin (and wife Darla) and two new recruits. They are just so kind and care so much about the work they do and about us, I feel very lucky.

Happy Valentines Day!

Yesterday they wrapped up all the work on the front side of the house. They have taken down some of the equipment so you can get a better view of it now. I think it looks great, I’m very pleased with how it is turning out.

So two sides of the house are completely done for siding and trim, the front and the left elevation. Now they are working on the back. I took a photo when I got home from work and it was getting a bit dark out, so not the best quality image.

The water shed is almost done, just some fascia and a little siding in the peak left to do. It will probably take them the rest of the week to finish this side and then they can move onto the right elevation (the side facing the river). So excited to see that get done. Starting to look like a real house now.

As for the interior, the ceilings are going to be started this week. Hoping that the kitchen and great room can get done right away. This will allow the electricians to come in and do all the final installation of light fixtures, switches and plugs.

Aron is planning to come home next Thursday, so that is great news! Although I give him constant updates, seeing it will be awesome for him. Since his retina surgery, he still has no sight coming back in his injured eye. The prognosis is not great for him to get any sight back at this point. He’s tried so hard and gone through so much that it seems unfair for it to turn out this way. But as I told a friend today, even if he has lost sight in that eye, we still have the same dreams and goals as we did before, we will still do all the things we planned, it won’t stop us from living the life we both want. Aron has a great attitude about it all and he is focused on future possibilites where they may be able to do retina transplants or things like that. Even the doctors are saying that they are moving towards being able to do that, so we are hopeful that in the future he may get sight back. In the meantime we will live the best lives we can!

The siding, trim and shingles was completed on the front of the house on Friday. I felt bad for the guys as it was raining hard all day. I spent an hour digging out the gable beams as they had over a foot of wet heavy snow on top of them. They were able to get one of the beams placed in the top gable and it looks great. On Monday they should be able to get the rest of the beams up on the front side and then finish of the soffits and fascia as well.

The inside is completely primed except for the very top portion of the great room room. I’m painting the guest bedroom tomorrow.

My special little project has been to put in a small dog door opening under the stairs to make a cozy place for the puppies to hang out. This photo is when I was doing the mudding and taping (I’m a total rookie). It is all primed now so it looks much better. I’ll paint their names over top once the walls are painted.

And finally a quick update on Aron. He’s slowly recovering from his surgery. He’s spending most of his time lying down in hopes this helps assure the success of the retina attachment. Unfortunately he felt some leakage from his eye the other day. He saw his doctor again and was told not to worry, and they have him booked in to see the Cornea doctor next week. He may need to add another stitch or two to keep the eye sealed up. Here is a picture, so you can see that he can still smile even though he’s been through so much.

Well the siders making great progress and they have been steadily moving up the walls. The back of the house is completely finished and looks great. Friday they will be doing the front approach which has a lot more detail and some gable beams. I’ll be excited to share some pictures when they get it completed. For now, here are some shots of what they have done.

The priming inside has been progressing well, with the whole kitchen, most of the great room and all of the upper floor painted with primer. I’ll also post some pictures soon of how things are looking on the inside.

So as you can tell things are really moving along here and even though I could probably stay inside the house now if I wanted, I am going to delay moving in until the painting is completed, the flooring is laid on the main floor and the electrical work is completed (light fixtures, plugs and switches) I expect I could be moved in 2-3 weeks if all goes well.

Aron Update: So Aron had his surgery on Tuesday. It was a pretty intensive procedure. His doctor told him the next day it was the most difficult surgery he has performed. Not something you really want to hear. So he was able to keep the cornea he had transplanted but they had to add a few more stitches as it has been leaking. They also added a sclera buckle to the eye in hopes that it will make the retina reattachment more successful. In case you are wondering what a sclera band is, here is an image

If you really want to be grossed out, watch a video of them putting on a sclera buckle, it is pretty horrific. No wonder Aron has a swollen eye and is black and blue. So basically the surgery went well, but there is really no guarantee of outcome. It is still a wait and see situation. He has been keeping on his back and plans to continue to do so, in hopes this will increase the chance of success. Since he is staying with our son Aaron and his wife Sonya, he has quick access to doctors if anything need attention right away. I know he is feeling sad being away from home for so long and missing out on all the changes to the house. We really miss him too (me and the dogs), but we really want him to heal up and then come home all better.

Speaking of dogs, our older dog Otis has been having some serious health issues recently. He is 17, so we know he won’t be around for much longer, but we keep hoping he will make it long enough to live with us in the house. He made a slight improvement the last couple days, so I’m hoping we don’t have to do anything drastic before Aron comes home.

Maggie, on the other hand, is doing great and thriving out here. She loves outdoors and especially loves playing in the snow. They are great companions for me while I’m alone out here.

So my final sign off is that I miss Aron and I’m sad for all he has to go through, but still hopeful that he will gain some sight back. I’m super thrilled with the work coming along on the house and excited to see it all coming together. I’m pretty worried about Otis, but hoping he can hang in there for awhile longer. I wish you all well and hope to have some exciting photos to share with you next post.

Aron is heading back to Calgary tomorrow. He will have another surgery next Tuesday to re-attach his retina again. We aren’t sure why it didn’t stay attached from the last surgery, but as an extra precaution he is going to stay in Calgary for a few extra weeks on his back to ensure it heals up properly this time. So that is the down for us, we will be apart for quite a while this time and unfortunately, to keep our build moving along, we are going to have to give up the dream we had of doing all the interior finishing work ourselves and get some help in.

As for the ups, the exterior finishing is coming along nicely. We’ve only had one fellow (Floyd) on site for the past couple weeks, but next week he’ll be joined by his son (and partner) and two more guys they are bringing on to join their crew. The pace should really pick with all of them here.

The other big milestone for us was that we got all the water filter system up and working today. We’ve had water running in the house for awhile, but it was just being pulled right from the river with no filtering, so we didn’t drink or cook with it. Luckily, the water is quite clean to begin with but now we have a sediment filter and then a bio filter. We had our first glasses of fresh, crystal clear, great tasting water. Was fantastic!!!!

After 16 weeks of doing laundry outside and hanging the clothes to dry and then another 10 weeks of using a laundromat, today I actually did my first load of laundry in the new house. That is a major milestone in my books!

You may not be able to tell, but I have painted the walls and ceiling in the laundry room. The paint color is called ‘silver peony’ and is a very nice purplish color with a hint of grey. Very pretty color and I love it, should make doing laundry more enjoyable!

The exterior finishing is really coming along. All the lower windows and doors are trimmed and they plan to start putting up the siding next week. I’ll provide some pictures as things progress.

It was great to have our son Zach out for the week. He was a great help and it was nice to catch up and visit with him.

Aron unfortunately is not doing as well as we were hoping. It seems the fix to the detached retina did not take and may have detached again. He’s been trying to take it easy all week, in hopes it might improve, but it doesnt seem to have gotten any better. He is seeing a local Opthamologist on Monday and we plan to head to Alberta on Thursday for a follow up with the Retina specialist. I’ll let you know how things go.