The pantry is done

After two coats of Espresso-coloured stain and a semi-gloss coat of urethane, the pantry is done.

Remove scratches in wood: Tibet Almond Stick by Zenith

I saw recently a Youtube video of someone scratching a piece of bamboo hardwood flooring with a utility knife, and then using a product oddly named a Tibet Almond Stick to repair the damage. This seemed too good to be true so I purchased this product from a seller on Ebay and tested it.
It actually works and even on hardwood cherry flooring. Caveat: seems to be more of a cover-up product but small scratches almost disappear. There may be a chemical reaction or dying effect at work.

Here are some before and after photos.

Curved 32" Napoleon electric fireplaces for bedrooms

Matching electric fireplaces were installed in the bedrooms. We will use a 36" or 48" floating shelf below to trim them.

Home Depot has an inexpensive option that will match our colour scheme.

Kitchen pantry

This week we built a pantry for the kitchen using mostly 3/4" birch plywood with trim. It will be stained soon, and we have plenty of storage space now in the kitchen.

New GE Profile refrigerator

We finally found a French door top mount refrigerator to fit the tight 30"W by 68"T space. Here's how the stainless steel GE Profile looks in situ.

Interior decor: New Vesta corner sofa from Urban Barn

I would like to thank Tanya Youd and the staff of Urban Barn in Kamloops for helping us select the Vesta corner sofa for our new place on Gabriola Island. Tanya provided excellent customer service and spent time working with our building plans and showed us how different sofa and chair combinations might look.

Transplantation of existing plants: The rock flower beds are filling in

Our gardener John Boretsky from Gabriola Island has done some wonderful work re-using many of our old plants by transplanting them into the new rock beds. He has quite the eye for design and we love how he's accented the small Monkey Puzzle tree with a cool side bed.

Thank you visitors - We hit the 30,000 mark today

I would like to thank all of our readers for checking in on our progress. Today we hit the 30,000 visitor mark - all within the last year and a bit.

Stay tuned for updates over the new month or so on the following topics:

Landscaping: We'll be planting grass seed soon
Driveway work
Interior finishing with inside closets and kitchen pantry


Cheers,

Michael and Kathy

Top-soil in place and rolled

The top-soil is now in place and rolled. We will broadcast grass seed in a few weeks and hopefully by Spring a nice lush lawn will be here.

Putting down topsoil

Our property is starting to take shape now thanks to the hard word of Gabriola Island landscaper John Boretsky. John began tackling this 20 yard pile of topsoil this week.

Here's what the property looks like today and we still have half of the pile to work with.

Metal siding on coach house complete

Things now match!

New mini blinds installed in coach house

Changing siding from cedar to steel on old coach house

When we first built the coach house we sided the entire structure in clear cedar boards with a light stain. The extension is sided with metal, and now when one looks at the back side of the house the mismatch in materials is obvious.

We are now changing the siding on this side of the coach house to match the steel on the extension and breezeway. Here are some photos of the project at the removal stage.

Building natural rock flower and plant beds

To take advantage of the many rocks found on our property, we decided to build two rock flower and plant beds. One of the beds is along the back side of the house - and topsoil will be put in it to hide the pipes for the rain collection system. The second rock bed is beside the driveway near the entrance and it helps to protect a beautiful Arbutus tree.

IKEA kitchen finally done

Big bang light in grand room

Unfortunately we broke the only replacement halogen bulb on the island, and will repost a lit version soon.