Space to ourselves

 

We have enjoyed having our new house largely to ourselves. With so much love and respect to the SEED Homes team, we needed a few days reprieve from having to share our space with workers. Heather and I had reached that point at the same time by day's end on Monday. The other thing that was driving our desire to have our space back was that two of our dearest friends were arriving from Vancouver. 

Claude and Tiffany were in town with a touring production of Always, Patsy Cline. We were gifted with tickets to see it on Wednesday night and were greatly entertained. Colleen Lornie was sensational as Patsy, and Tiffany was entrancing as her friend Louise. After four years of living in Okotoks, it was the first time we had been in a sold out Rotary Performing Arts Centre.  Claude, Tiffany, Colleen and company (from First Impressions Theatre, Deep Cove) are now up in Fort McMurray before returning south for a show in Spruce Grove. 

Apart from the HVAC issues during the cold snap, we are really loving our new SEED Home. While the in-floor heating is nice, it required that the bamboo floor boards be "floated" instead of permanently affixed. With the realities of expansion and contraction, we notice several spots where small gaps have appeared between boards. A couple of transition strips might help with that, but we'll see. It has been recommended not to go with in-floor heating in the studio building so that the flooring can be nailed down. 

I had a lovely visit with Daryl from Pella Windows the other day. A string had popped out of one of the patio doors that needed to be addressed. I learned that those particular units are built to accommodate blinds between the panes of glass. The string was just part of the mechanism to open and close those blinds should we choose to invest in them down the road. Heather and I are fans of light. We may leave our two sets of patio doors wide open, depending how that feels through the different seasons. 

We are hoping to see "the tile guy" today. We have one small strip of wall behind the stove that needs to be done. It couldn't be completed initially because we were waiting for the counter top. Once those tiles are installed the microwave can go in.

More conversations are happening in recent days about Birdsong Studio 3.0. We are asking more detailed questions as construction proceeds in the shop. One of the issues we faced with the house build was around the location of the furnace and HVAC system. As they were situated on the outside of the house, a "dog house" was constructed to protect them from the elements. Something similar will need to be done on the second building. The footprint of the house and studio just not large enough to provide adequate space for these essentials. That was one of the surprises that came to light later on in the construction process. 

Heather is off to Vancouver Island for a funeral this weekend. One of her uncles passed away. She will travel with her brother and reconnect with many of her cousins, uncles and aunties. She will also spend a few days in Vancouver and enjoy a few meals with our son Ben and his girlfriend Tamano. While she is away, the SEED Homes team will descend on the house and complete everything that needs to be done. At the very end of the process, Dave and Elizabeth will return to do the finished painting.