transformation!

Amazing transformation today! 

This is what the back of the house looked like this morning:

view of the backyard from our kitchen window.

Another "before" shot of our backyard (about 10 or 11 this morning after some of the scaffolding had been taken down).

After (at about 5:30 pm). Stairs built in about 3 hours!

The beautiful shingles on the back extension. That's what the guys (mostly Martin and Terence) have been up to the last couple of days.

They started the big clean up this morning. Tools, timber, garbage, bin. All gone.

Port-a-potty gone.

Fifi watching the guys build the stairs. Stop me if I've said this before: these guys are truly amazing!

Steve, this one's for you. Yes, that is Keith. Working.

Last real day with Tercera crew. We'll miss you. From left: Martin, Keith, Terence, Adam.

Thank you.

Girls enjoying the stairs, which have totally transformed the whole rear aspect!

Quite a change from the mountain of garbage and two huge cedars when we bought the place just two months ago!

Sunday: house to ourselves.

Still catching up with the blog: 

Sunday was the first (and last) day we had the house to ourselves, and we finally had a chance to start unpacking. We got the kitchen done (it was mostly piled up in the dining room). 

Dining room, before.

Kitchen, before (it actually doesn't look much different now. Note the temporary plywood countertop; we now have a real one -- pics soon).

Loving the pull-out cupboard drawers!

Katie made this potpourri out of the spices. All her own idea and creation!

The kids did a nice job of organizing the cupcake stuff.

Yoga break. I can't believe this girl turns six tomorrow!

By mid-afternoon, we had some space cleared in the dining room.

Then -- woo-hoo -- time to assemble the table.

It is a very solid table. Industrial country?

Ta-dum.

Poor Fifi made herself sick from all the spinning and could only recover, she said, by lying in the table box.

Katie is quite taken with the table-extension system.

And strong enough to carry those big leaves.

Dining room, after. 

(Is it really unpacking if you just stack it up around the room? Sigh. We'll get there.)

Fifi recovered enough to do herself proud setting the table!

Saturday: Point Roberts

On Saturday, we left the builders to it and drove down to Point Roberts, a little point of US soil at the tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula famous for cross-border postal outlets and sunny beaches. 

We needed to pick up a table and other things we'd had shipped there and thought we'd combine the trip with a little desperately-needed family downtime.

First, the girls tried out the new hair-washing systems.

Fancy!

We rented a van.

And we picked up our new table! Fifi helped Andrew load up while Katie supervised.

Another reason to visit Point Roberts. Katie remembered this farm from a visit two years ago; we had to find them again.

Nice sweater. New ad campaign for the Gap?

Look at the chompers on this thing! Alpaca, is it? Make a nice sweater for the goat.

Fifi was brave. 

There's a nice little cafe down there (with GF menu!). Rare photo of all four of us!

Unexpected treat! The firefighters said it was such a beautiful day, they thought they'd bring the trucks down to the beach for the kids. So sweet: they gave the girls the royal tour. I think it was the whole fleet and the whole crew; not much else for them to do down there.

Fifi was really into it!

Andrew contemplating light fixtures.

The firefighter hats came in handy for beach combing.

Katie added some nice pieces to her extensive rock collection.

Crew Party

Hi folks! Sorry I haven't been posting. Internet connection still sketchy; Andrew finally rigged something up through his iPhone for me....

Let me go back to the weekend. First, Friday night. We had a little crew party to celebrate the move-in and show our gratitude to the Tercera crew for their hard work and dedication.

Cheers! Great lads, every one of em! And fantastic work: the fastest reno ever with no sacrifice in quality. And the working relationship has been a dream! 

From left: Dennis, Max, Steve, Keith, Adam, James, Martin, Jim, Dennis, Martin. Missing from picture (still working!) are Dave and Terence. Thank you, guys!

You can see it was quite an elegant affair.

The girls made up cards.

Andrew looking Leprachaun-ish in Katie's picture. Sheer coincidence, honestly.

We gave the guys little gift certificates to this Irish pub (client of St. Bernadine).

Luckily, we didn't discover this gift till afterwards. Otherwise, we would have had to share. ; )

Yum. 

G'night.