Just a quick update

Just a quick recap of the events leading up to today:
On June 21st of 2013, Calgary and many surrounding areas were inundated by a vast quantity of water in the form of spring melt run off as well as pretty heavy rainfall in the mountains. The result was pretty horrible. My main floor condo was flooded (7ft or so of water filled it almost to the ceiling) and I lost pretty much everything I owned.
It is now 19 months later and I am still not back in. I came close to moving back in October last year, but there was a mysterious water leak that showed up that destroyed my hardwood floor and required that all of the base kitchen cabinets be removed. The source of this water was never found, but possible sources were eliminated. The only remaining cause is human error & or negligence on the part of the contractor.
The good news is that we now have a new contractor & they will be starting next week. The cabinets are to be installed the week of Feb 16th and the flooring will go in 5 days after that. IF everything goes according to plan, I could very possibly be moving back home by the first week of March. Some good news for a change.

In the studio, not much news to report. I was busy making open baking/serving dishes last Sunday, and here is a shot of a few drying their bottoms on the plaster and one that is all handled and just hanging out. I made about 8 of these of varying sizes and shapes. They are mostly round with an altered/pinched rim, but I did do a couple square ones. I do like the round ones the best. These would be good for a shepherd's pie, mashed potatoes, a deep apple crisp, stuffing, anything really.

So close - like 48 hours close

So this is where the condo stands. A few minor fixes here and there, a few last little things to finish, but for the most part, it is done! I need confirmation on occupancy and when I will be allowed to move in, but I have been told that it would not be unreasonable to expect it to be all complete in 48 hours
This is the living room with the furniture that arrived last Friday.

This is the view into the master bedroom from the living room with move of the furniture that arrived on Friday.
 

This is the kitchen with all the tile up, the last bit of paint. An electrical cover needs to be installed, but other than that, done!
 

And finally the bathroom sink and toilet...
 

Condo still looks the same

They say I will be in by next Friday. Things are a bit jumbled in there, what with all the appliances sitting all over the place, but I have some confidence that I will be able to start moving stuff in over the weekend and cleaning it up. I know the contractor claims that they do a final clean, but I doubt their standards are compatible with mine. I'm no neat freak, but I am sure all they will do is vacuum up the sawdust and wipe down the obvious stuff.

Scritch scritch scritch

I have been scritching and scratching pretty much on anything I can get my hands on these days. So much so that all of my small wire sgrafitto tools have been worn right through. These are some more mugs and yunomis that I have been working on...

In addition to the urn I posted earlier with the "boy and his dog" theme, I was also asked to make a less fat, more slender urn with blue butterflies. The recipient did not want to spend eternity in a "fat" jar :) So, here it is...

In condo news, we threatened the contractors with firing and man, that seems to have lit a fire. There has been work, they are firing some trades and getting new ones to fix the incorrect stuff and move it along faster. We were told that this is a 3 week project now. Once they give us a revised and updated schedule and plan, we will know more. So maybe August 1st? I really have no idea, I can only guess. So far, all of my guesses have been wrong though....

Paint!

I was up bright and early for our 7:30 am progress meeting for the condo restoration. This is what I was greeted with. Paint on the walls and cabinet bases waiting to be installed before the flooring goes down. There are a few details to be worked out, like how to finish/hide the gaps between the walls and the ceilings and the un paintable fire stop caulking that had to be installed to meet code requirements. The floors need to be polished/ground down where the leveling compound was troweled on and then the flooring can be installed. We asked for a move in date, and although a specific date was not given, he did say the second week of June, possibly as early as June 5th. Anyway, here is a blurry picture of one wall of my condo with it's new coat of "froufrou" yellow.

Serendipity in Colour

This is it. This is the colour I am putting in my condo. No more second guessing myself. I was only looking at the colours when I was picking my short list and not the names. To my surprise, when I looked at the names after my top 3 were selected, the one colour that was in the lead, choice wise, had the same name as a musical group that I like too. Was it meant to be? Anyway, if you are interested in the music, the group is no longer around, but it was called Frou Frou. One of the members of this duo is Imogen Heap, who is one of my favorite musicians and now works solo.

8 more weeks

I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to attend a weekly progress meeting for the condo rebuild. Apparently they are on schedule and the completion date is estimated to be 8 weeks. So I might be back in on June 3rd??? This pic shows my living room looking towards the patio window that has yet to be installed as one of them had been damaged during the manufacturing process and they are redoing it right now. Not sure when that will be installed.

Condo Restoration News

It would appear that there has been some movement on the condo restoration front. I was called on Tuesday to arrange to meet with the flooring company and pick hardwood and tile for my unit and I went over yesterday afternoon. I have picked it all, and it came in a little under budget, so hopefully I can use that extra money for something else that might cost a bit more. I ended up going with a hickory hardwood. It is dark, but not too dark. It is a really warm colour and I am sure it will be nice.

As for the tile, I only need a bit of floor tile in the bathroom and the laundry “room”. The laundry room is actually no more than a closet big enough to hide the stacking washer and dryer. I ended up going with a ceramic tile with a warm but neutral “marble” look to it. I was also picking tub surround tile and kitchen backsplash and went with 6x18 subway tile. The bath tile is a high gloss white tile with a raised repeating texture, reminiscent of upholstery tufting. There will be a plain un textured tile running about 5 rows up from the tub all the way around. The kitchen backsplash is also a white gloss with a raised pattern of miniature rectangular tiles.

I am NOT an interior decorator by any stretch of the imagination. I have always lived with 2^nd hand, hand me down, or just plain old cheap/inexpensive furniture and all the choices in fittings and fixtures etc were already made. I have never been in the position to choose my own style. I don’t even know that I have a style. I just call it shabby lazy, not to be confused with shabby chic.

In this picture, the wood floor is the darker brown right in the middle, not the paleer wood to the left of it.