Sunday, October 26, 2008

Prairie Gold on the East Coast...

The siding is going on...and the colour, as you may have guessed, is called Prairie Gold. Gary is also working on a stone walkway using the stones that are plentiful around the property....


Saturday, October 18, 2008

Lucky for us Gary's dad, Reg, is a Heavy Equipment Operator and was home from Alberta last week...he dug the hole for the line in from the well, fixed up the driveway and moved some of the big rocks that used to be in the stone wall. The biggest one we put out by the driveway to put the house number on. The others Gary has been working with to make the walkway from the driveway into the house....


Saturday, October 11, 2008




Tuesday, October 7, 2008

We went "lurking" last weekend...looking at porch railings. We love the short, old-style rails we see on older homes, but they are not very safe. So after cruising Miramichi and looking at lots of porches we decided on a combo of the low rail with a higher rail for safety...

Looking down the rail from the front step....

And from the porch itself...

Looking along the side of the house...no railing here yet...

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

While you're waiting...

for new pics, I think I'll share some of the financial lessons we've learned so far...

1) Dirt is expensive....and it takes a lot more fill than you would think when you look at what seems a huge truckload, but hardly makes a mudpile once it's dumped.
2) Do not get an inspection and THEN order stuff...by the time you get the money the new stuff has been added to the bill, but the draw money in the pot won't have gotton any bigger. (Yes Helen, you told us this, but men don't listen!)
3) You WILL go over budget...you will...then you either have to cut something or hope the nice folks at the bank and CMHC will renegotiate with you.
4) Interest rates are important...but sometimes going with a bank and a person you can trust is more important. We could have saved a 1/4 or maybe even 1/2 a percent going with one of those online mortgage lenders...and never actually met any of them. Instead we chose our NBTA Credit Union, and Helen, who knows our life story by now...she is a phone call/e-mail away and I can drop in on her when I am in Freddy for meetings. She cares about us and our house project, and that is worth a lot.
5) You can do it yourself, and save money, but be prepared to invest your time...thankfully teachers get the summer off...