Well, it's been nearly a month, and we haven't posted a thing! We don't really have any excuses, so we do apologize.

I'll keep this one brief, cause I know Jason wants to do a more detailed post, but he's in Germany right now.

The house is awesome. We love it! There are still a few kinks to be worked out, but all in all, it's coming along beautifully. The walls have all been painted so everything looks uniform now. The basement is nearly done. We get the carpets in stalled on the 18th, and then all we have left is putting the baseboards on and moving Jason down. We're hoping by Friday the 22nd we'll have everything down there for him to start working from his new office. The only things we're waiting on are a new island countertop and a new countertop for our main floor bathroom. Prestique cut a hole in the bathroom countertop based on the round sinks we purchased for every other bathroom, not knowing that we had actually purchased a different size sink for that bathroom due to the problem with the size of the room. Anyway, they need to come and replace that so Canyon Plumbing can come and install the sink and taps. Also, with the island countertop, if you recall, it was really poorly cut when they initially installed it, and then after they made an attempt to fix it, it still isn't up to par. They were originally booked to come and install a new one this past Friday, but the installed couldn't find one of his drill bits, and so they cancelled on us and we have to wait another week. Nice excuse....

We're really not fond of Prestique at all. We've been in for over 5 weeks now, and they're just getting around to finishing our house. It's absolutely ridiculous the amount of time they take to get stuff done. All the other trades are done, and have been for a good week to three weeks. Baywest is no longer using Prestique as their cabinet and countertop supplier. They've gone with another company from Saskatchewan that appears to be much more reliable.

We finally started hanging stuff on the walls this week too! We were waiting for the painting to be finished, and once it was we went crazy with the wall hangings! Not really....we just figured out where we wanted stuff and started putting some of it up. We still have a few things left to put away, but all in all, it looks like we truly live here now! :-)

As for the flood that Jason mentioned a while back, it was a tube that wasn't tightened properly on our water filtration system. So Canyon came back, tightened it and now all is well! We did, however, discover that our basement doesn't have the slope towards the drain that the industry standard suggests it should. With about an inch of water on the floor, our drain was bone dry...we're still trying to figure out how we can get that fixed.

I know that we have photos of the basement in progress, as well as a few other little adventures, but unfortunately I don't know how to get at them just yet! We'll have to wait for Jason, my wonderfully intelligent and digitally talented husband, to return! He gets back from Europe on Thursday evening, but I wouldn't count on anything until next weekend, as he'll be adjusting to the time zone shifts and all that good stuff!

Everything is truly a dream come true for a young, newly wed couple like ourselves. Despite all the frustrations and "learning experiences," building this house is something we wanted to do, and have now done it. We have been so blessed by God, and our families. We couldn't have done the move and the unpacking without the help of family and friends. Thanks everyone!

The best part is yet to come though...for me, anyway. My sister, Chelsea, has been in Australia since the beginning of January, and hasn't seen the house in its completed state yet. She saw it when the floors were half down and there was sawdust everywhere! She gets back on the 16th of March, which is less than a week from today! She's super excited to see everything, but I'm even more excited to be able to show it to her! The only thing that won't be 100% finished for her return is the basement, but within a few days of the Saturday, it'll be finished too!