About A House - Snow & Metal Roof

It snowed once this winter and it was a pretty heavy accumulation. Although the snow hung around for only a couple of days, it quickly pointed out to us metal roof newbie what's missing in ours.

Here's a small set of picture of the snowy day. Pretty spectacular for YVR!

And now for what we learned about metal roof... see that snow crested at the top? It just comes down like an avalanche when it gets heavy enough. The metal is almost like a slide and doesn't hold anything!

After the storm, we noticed some of the other metal roofs have snow guard like this.

I'd say they are of the minority. Most metal roofs in YVR don't have them since we're in a milder climate zone. We're going to get a quote & see!

About A house - Reposition Plants

Remember those plants we nursed in the back? Well, it's early Oct and time to reposition them to their new home around the yard.

First a picture of the bare yard

Here Yuki's crew working on the transport...

These ones were moved from the back yard to the front...

Everything was covered with some nice black topsoil and ready for the rest of the landscaping...

We worked on the new planting bit by bit over the winter & here's what the yard look like in Feb. Doesn't seem to look better but we planted quite a few bulbs, ground covers and small shrubs. It will improve significantly once the weather warms up.

A couple of the nursed small trees were repositioned in the back yard. Arthur's crew did all the heavy lifting to complete the back yard. It's ready for the veggie planting! 

About A House... The Gamster

It's been a few months since we moved into the house. It took us a long time to settle down partly because there was quite a list of finishing touches Arthur's team was still chipping away at. Another reason is we have accumulated significant more stuff over the years living in a bigger house and it took us a long time to figure what to do with it all.  As a result, the suite is fully furnished!

Our dog Gami settled down the fastest out of all of us! We've been extremely impressed with how well she had adjusted to all the changes we've thrown her way in the past year. We moved 6x last year between original house, temporary house, my parent's house and this new house. She just went with the flow with no drama. What a good doggy!

Here's some pictures of her looking comfy in her new environment...

One of her favourite hiding places, on the rug under the dining room table legs.

This is a new "cave" we created for her in the new house under the Moller bench...

The bench doubles as a coffee table book shelf!

It took a little bit more time, but she's even taking a liking to her new balcony & Yard!

Did you spot the dog right way?

Finally, a cute one of her taken just before bedtime, begging for treat!

About A House - Finished Peeks

We've been SO busy the last 8 weeks completing the finishings, moving in and setting up the house for photo shoots. Arthur is showcasing the house for a few promote shoots and we've been prioritizing our post move activities aiming for his deadlines.

Here's a few photos of the completed "staged" rooms

Living room & dining room:

Kitchen

Dave's master piece, the finished master bedroom door

The master bedroom

The house looks fab in these photos... just don't look anywhere else for a few more week!

About A House - Master Bedroom Door

Anyone who knows Dave is aware of his past projects in stained glass. He hasn't picked it up in years. But he's brushing the thick layer of dust off his equipment to make our bedroom door.

It took a few days of mucking around to get the pattern and basic frame squared up. Once he got going, he cut most of the glass in a day!

Here's some pics of over the course of this day of great progress!

Since I can't cut anything other than my fingers, I'm thoroughly bowled over by his talent!

About A House... Wall Tiles Are On!

The counter guys came Sept 18 and installed everything within 1/2 day. Rich the master tiler got to work on the back splashes right after! Rich is meticulous! Almost all our wall tile design are straight stack pattern and he was so careful to ensure it all lines up!

Our kitchen backsplash in Interstyle Glasshues Dry Rose

Our ensuite back splash, Interstyle Marsh

Ensuite shower Interstyle Claypad with the Marsh in the shampoo box

Main bath back splash in Interstyle Barcode

Main bath tub area, Interstyle Claypad & Barcode accent

Suite kitchen being very loud in Interstyle Gable pattern. 

Although the photo doesn't really show it, the bling was toned down after the grout was applied... PHEW!  It will calm down some more once the cabinet doors are in and the hood fan is up.

Suite bathroom & laundry backsplash, a thin strip of the Gable

Suite shower, Interstyle Claypad and Gable

That suite sure is lively!

About A House - Exterior Walkways & Patio

The front, back and side walkways and patios were poured this week. The gang worked hard on the form works prior and it took about a week to get it all done. Together with the garage floor, 1200 sq ft of cement was poured!?!

Here's the finished form work all around the day prior to the pour....

Top view of the backyard, walkway from garage and recycling area towards the house. Our patio is in front of the garage.

Entrance landing for the suite

Walkway on the side of the house

Front walkway

We were a little apprehensive about some much concrete in our yard as it may look extremely cold and industrial. We researched into how we can integrate some natural elements to soften its application and came across this Landscaping Network video. It inspired us to add a wider channel in each section to add small rocks or soft ground covers.

Here's the walkway after the pour on Sept 18...

This is looking from the front entry back out onto the walkway.

The garden view from the suite patio. The other patio in front of the garage is our patio.

We spent the next day keeping the cement wet to prevent cracks. I helped out with that to make myself useful! Ha! Ha!