Construction, cats and sundry family matters.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

More on House Colours



Last Friday, we met onsite at Mystery Hill with Linda (architect) and Irene (interior designer). Purpose - pick an exterior colour... the clock is ticking. On site we all agreed that Baby Seal Black is way too blue and that Iron Mountain, while brown, is better. We also introduced Overcoat and agreed that we should paint another big board to compare as it was similar to Iron Mountain but less brown. Done. Seb painted a big board on Sunday which I was able to see and pretty much eliminated because it turned out to be very light, a less intense colour. Colours are posted above (L to R, 3 boards, Baby Seal Black/Overcoat/Iron Mountain and then 2 boards Overcoat/Iron Mountain).

So. Where are we now? My other design team (Trish and Darrin at work) are in agreement with me... not that excited about Iron Mountain and happy to eliminate BSB. Tomorrow I'll surprise them with Black Jack and Grey.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Saturday morning with the boys



Yesterday morning I didn't go running. It was raining outside and I was tired so I rationalized my way into staying in bed. That meant I got to read the paper with the boys.

Please note the appendage that inspired the name "Mr Big (Foot)".

At least Murph enjoys the paper, I, on the other hand, found it difficult to read.

Small World


Last Thursday, Seb and I returned on a red eye from a conference in Phoenix. We were waiting for our flight from Boston to Ottawa when we spotted Tom Keyserlingk. Tom used to work at QNX. Tom made the mistake of asking about our house and then was subjected to entire photo history of our building project.

Running into Tom reminded me I ran into Seb's aunt and uncle in the passport line at the airport in Paris and then encountered an industry friend in line for the taxi. Both are easy to rationalize, the flight was through Montreal where his relatives live and the reason I was in Paris was for a conference hosted by the company where my friend works. Nevertheless, it was quite a shock to run into people in Paris! And good thing for Ian from Freescale, because he and his colleagues didn't have a Euro between them. They bummed a ride from me so I could pay the driver :-)

Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Boys



Its hard to believe that "the boys" havent appeared in my blog thus far. Mr Big (Foot) and Mr Murphy are the source of great entertainment for Seb and me. Mr Big licks soap, in addition to human heads, and Murphy is a counter surfer and sock thief. Here they help with the laundry.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Baby Seal Black vs Iron Mountain


Here are the two finalists, leaning against the end of the garage. Who would have thought that picking a colour "gray" could be so tricky... ? :-)

More from Mystery Hill




More pics... These show the great room, looking out towards water... and then back into the house. Upstairs will hold 2 guest rooms, a bathroom, and a loft area.

Mystery Hill - A not so lazy Sunday afternoon





These pics show the front door from outside and the view from inside the front door. And, oh yeah, a picture of us with our gorgeous niece, Chloe!

Seb spent another weekend at Mystery Hill working on the house. I popped in this afternoon to work on painting big boards as we try to narrow down our exterior colour. We're trying to choose between Baby Seal Black (gray with blue undertones) and Iron Mountain (gray with brown undertones). Our architect favours the former and our designer, the latter. Argh :-)

It was a busy day at the Hill with visits from Janet, Scott and Chloe, then later we had Uncle Don and Aunt Claire pop in. Seb and John were working on installing tubes (Soner tubes) that you fill with cement that act as the base for the front porch and other verandahs.

It was a truly gorgeous day and as always, I feel lucky to think that some day, we'll be living here.