Wildlife at home

 Here's a selection of images of life in the garden...

Our driveway leading out to the main road.

Interesting salamander that crawled onto our porch at night. Note the spider tight next to her.

Sally.

Bluejay mid-flight

So you're thinking, 'Oh thats a nice little spider'...but then you get  a closer look (below)

Yes, those are hundreds of baby spiders on its back'. Note the freaky green eyes.

This green anole (lizard) spends most of his time hanging out on my storage shed. 

The deer seem to like these little berries. 

This is a Great Blue Heron poaching my fish. 

 

The grass carp have grown big and now spend most of their time swimming in pods and hanging out under the shade trees.

The cats are enjoying watching the outside world too.

It was only a matter of time before Silka (the climber of the two) made it on to the trusses.

She hadn't had as much fun in ever and was pretty grouchy when we cut off her access (a well placed cardboard box did the trick).

We've also seen alot of deer in the garden but never seem to have the camera handy. Will keep on trying to get some snaps.

Table time

Now that we've moved into the house, we are really starting to enjoy it. Waking up when the sun rises (no choice there as we have no curtains/blinds yet:), watching wildlife from the sofa and eating from the kitchen are really simple pleasures. After using one of the unpacked shipping boxes as a table for 3 nights, I decided to try out my newly-honed handiwork on building a us something to eat on. Luckily google showed me the way to Design Confidential . I managed to return some leftover tile and tile adhesive and got the lumber from Home Depot with the cashback ($60). I put it together on Sunday and we ate our first meal on it this evening. It measures 96" L x 46" W x 29 1/2" H. Photos below:

Our super-kind and helpful neighbour, Larry, lent us some chairs so we could use it. It worked well as we had HK-style fried rice. Yum!

We've just had our first meal in the house (cheese and wine -VERY civilised!). We also took the opportunity to skid around in our socks a la Risky Business. We are too cool.

Spent the last week putting in doors, running the skirting/baseboards around each room, finishing up little jobs so we can get the o.k. to move in. Here are some photos:

 

Night shots

We finished the bamboo flooring a couple of days ago and now we are waiting on the interior doors to be delivered.  After that we should be able to officially/legally move in...

Lights

Most of the lights in the house have been installed and it's really great to be see the house at night

We also have one functioning toilet (hooray!) and the fridge is plumbed in so the water and ice dispenser works.

With the counter top in on Thursday and the cooktop and kitchen sink installed/plumbed on Friday, we only have the wood flooring to go until we can get the C.O. (Certificate of Occupancy) and move in!

All trimmed out

The trim work was finished last week, meaning that we can install the track lighting on the beams without the wires showing.

I also managed to tile both bathrooms - our neighbour Larry having given me a crash course in tiling. It turned out suprisingly well, with Vanessa commenting 'wow, it doesn't look like you did it yourself' - I'll take that as a compliment!

 Larry also helped me hang the master bath sink cabinet and install the double oven and microwave/extractor fan. The counter top will be delivered and installed on Thursday.

We also changed the door and it fits in more with the modern look. Its also trimmed out in Cedar not spruce like everything else