When the lights come on

 

Bright and early on Monday morning, a team from Fortis Alberta arrived and got our High River property hooked up to the electrical grid. It was the final piece of the infrastructure puzzle that needed to happen to turn our house into a home. I have to say, seeing this meter running was exciting!

This week has been all about bringing the bamboo flooring up to room temperature and allowing it to acclimate to the space. Meanwhile the electric floor heating pads have gone down on the east side of the house followed by a scratch coat. The tile guys has also been busy putting down the tile floors in the bathrooms. Soon plumbers will arrive and start installing toilets and sinks.

Darren Imesch, Project Manager, SEED Homes

While I was a little skeptical about getting the house keys on December 22nd, both Darren (project manager) and Stephen (CEO at SEED Homes) insist that is a hard deadline. They know that getting any tradespeople after next Friday will be impossible until after the New Year. So they are pushing, pushing hard.

We try to make a site visit at least once a day. We don't stay long, just enough to walk around the house a couple of times and peer inside through the windows. The less we get in their way, the better.

After taking Heather to work and taking the dogs for a long walk in the park adjacent the Highwood River, I decided to pop my head and body inside. Jim and his crew were busy working on several things and had even started laying down our bamboo flooring in the guest bedroom on the east side. They were in a jovial mood as you can tell from the picture. 

Jim and his crew

The house has a different feel at night now that it is lit up. It feels warm and inviting. Soon skirting will close off the underside of the home and temporary stairs will be installed. The decking will need to wait until spring. 

View from the west

Everything should be substantially done one week from today as that is the day all the inspections are happening. We will do a walk through with the SEED Homes team on the 22nd, the day our Internet service gets hooked up. Once our WiFi network is up and running, 36 4th Avenue SE in High River will be home. Our home storage pod will also arrive on Friday, which will allow us to start unpacking and arranging things.

Front view - eventually the door will be painted a deep yellow

I suspect we'll spend a few more nights in the loft on Elma Street while unpacking and sorting takes place. It is conceivable that our first morning at our new home might very well be Christmas.