Eagle's Landing - The Final Chapter of Construction

This is the last entry in the saga of the construction of what shall come to be known as "Eagle's Landing". That is the name I have chosen for this property, and it is so named because of the bald eagles that like to land on and near my riverfront property - at the tops of the tallest trees. The work as far as my contract with my builder is virtually complete. It is now time to enjoy the house, and the property, and all that goes with it. Here I will display some of what I will be there to enjoy. Thanks for joining this journey with me. So when are you coming to visit? :-)

This is a video - push the arrow to play it !



This too is a video !

- THE END -

More Winter - And More Progress

Here we are 2 weeks before Christmas! The house is pretty well done. And even better, the water passed the lab tests with flying colours! Here is the first result, for coliform bacteria - ND = None Detected. Now for you city folk, this may not seem like a big deal, but when a well has been drilled and it's your only source of water, and when your bank's final property evaluation depends on the water being good, this is a big deal! So this is a very large load off my mind, to have good, clean water. The second test was for Arsenic and Uranium, standard tests, I'm told. There was no arsenic and only 2.5 ppm of uranium - the allowable limit for uranium is somewhere around 20 ppm, so all is good!




















Dave got the taller stair balusters installed, Eric the plumber got the water sediment filter installed in the basement and the carbon filter on the kitchen drinking water all in too. So the water tastes and looks pretty good now.






In closing for today, here is a bird that was around my feeder briefly today - never seen one before, but I'm told it's a pine grosbeak. It was about the size of an evening grosbeak but instead of yellow and black and white, it was red and black and white.



































Here are 2 short videos of the pine grosbeak - click on the arrow in the bottom left of the picture to play the videos.



And one last video - down by the river on Saturday morning, around 8 am -

Winter Has Arrived On The Wallace River

After a tough week I needed some peace, so headed up to the Wallace River, and was planning to head back to Halifax the next day for the office Christmas Dinner. These videos show what the weather looked like that developed throughout that day, so needless to say I stayed put for the weekend. The wind stayed quite high all night but Sunday was bright and sunny and the wind had died down nicely. Still cold though.

Details, Details

The end is near! The bank inspector has been in and declared the house 100% complete. However the county building inspector had a few things he wanted corrected before he would issue the "Occupancy Certificate", which is required for the final bank payment to be issued.

Issues that require final completion and correction include : (1) higher handrail on the stairway from the main floor to the second floor; (2) handrails on the basement steps; (3) handrails on the steps to the 2 porches from the front door and the deck; (3) more strapping and bracing here and there; (4) and a couple more small items I can't remember.

I also need to get a copy of the final septic certificate from the installer, and a water test.

Al seems OK. Here are a few recent pictures :

Living and dining rooms, taken from the kitchen.














Master Bedroom, taken from the doorway to the deck.












Master ensuite, taken from the doorway to the shower.














Powder room off the main front hallway, near the front door.
















Guest bedroom on the second floor.















Main entry of the house, with the handrails installed from the porch and from the deck.











All for now!

We have Water! (that means all the conveniences!)

Have you ever considered what a pleasure it is to have indoor plumbing? Try staying in a building with none for entire weeks at a time and see ! The good news is that Eric the plumber showed up today to get the water running and the heat turned on. The water is somewhat "murky" yet, but it already started to clear up just by running the taps and flushing the toilets and running the hose outside for a half hour or so. Here are 2 videos - the first was taken at 10:30 am, and the second one was taken at 11:30 am. Quite the difference!









I thought I'd throw in a few sunset photos taken today, from the deck off the bedroom. This is 1 of 3.
















This is 2 of 3.


















And this is 3 of 3. These were all taken around 5:00 pm.

Only days to go ---------

November is here and so is snow - just a bit of snow, but snow nonetheless. The house is still just being heated by a little construction heater that's plugged into my welder outlet in the garage with a long heavy cord. Makes me wonder why I paid so much for in-floor heat, as this little heater makes it quite comfortable inside.

So this past week, Eric the plumber was in doing some work installing toilets and faucets, but no running water yet. Mike the Electrician was in finishing some stuff up (inspection this week coming). No sign of Dave though, so the final trim, door handles, stairs treads and handrail, etc are still waiting - I hear me may do some of that work this week.

Here are a few shots taken this past weekend - outside temp about -2C.

The ensuite bathroom, with vessel sink, waterfall faucet, and tile work done! And the toilet is in! There's a story behind this toilet. It's Spanish, and I bought it several years ago when I was living in Richmond Hill. I have moved it (in its original carton) from Richmond Hill, then to Aurora, and then to Halifax, and now to Wallace, where it has finally been installed! I hope it's worth the effort.





The master bedroom, with ceiling fan now installed. Looks great, and works well with the fancy dimmer and wireless controller.

The living room is slowly getting usable. I took up the easy chair from my home in Fall River.

This sink is in the kitchen, and the faucet was installed this past week.













This is the door to the basement. I wanted a French door there for the look, but I didn't want to be able to see down the stair. So I bought this wisteria-patterned window film and put it in this weekend. It does the job, especially when the lights are on in the basement!












This is looking into the kitchen from the dining area, showing the bar and the 2 new bar stools located at the bar.












Picture taken from the driveway. The garage is just out of the shot on the right, and the roadway down to the river is just out of the shot on the left.








This is looking from the path down to the river, looking westward though the poplar trees at the deck on the east side of the house.










From "below" the house, looking northward. The stairway from the deck is done, and the lights have been installed on both sides of the door into the basement.












This is the view you get as you drive in the driveway from the dirt road, and turn right toward the house and garage. Just off to the left is where you would drive down to the river where I keep the boat in the summertime.




This video is just a pan from inside the living room, ending out on the screen porch. If you're on a slow internet connection, sorry about that, it's a biggish file.

View from below the House