Area51- Mike & Sandy's New House 2014 :

After a long arduous search, the purchase and sale agreement for our new (and first time owning a) house finally closed in June 2014. The property is about ten years old and located on a half acre plot in Torbay. It's less than five minutes from Stavanger Drive so plenty close to amenities while having a more rural feel.

It's 1400 square feet per floor plus a detached 12x20 garage that is slab on grade, finished on the outside but a blank unfinished canvas inside.

The boys Shadow and Oscar are certainly feeling right at home and are loving the hot water radiation heated floors!

New house new couch for the living room! Inside our new home we did some immediate painting which included my basement office, living room/hallway, master bedroom, master bathroom and kitchen. All these spaces were so much more welcoming with fresh paint!

Outside I immediately tacked fixing the lamppost which really brightens up the driveway, I also added a photocell so it will turn on/off automatically. I made a few dump runs with items that were left inside the hose, the old garbage box, and crap left under the patio. 

One Saturday at the end of June we hit up a plant/flower sale on Sugar Loaf Road and picked up some perennials for the front flower planter. It was severely neglected and looked terrible.

We weeded it, turned over the soil, tilled in a few bags of peat moss and set out our new plants. A few existing healthy plants were left in the bed. Eventually it will all see a fresh coat of paint although that may not happen this year.

Another item that was first on the list was cleaning and applying an epoxy coating to the garage floor. The concrete finish wasn't spectacular, this coating covered stains and will make cleaning the floor much easier in the future. Check out the whole build out of the garage in my Mike's new Area51 Location article.

In July we got to work repairing the lawn. The previous owner drilled a brand new artesian well, apparently the old one was in a vein of sulphur. This meant the trench to the house had to be leveled with topsoil in addition to areas damaged by the well drilling truck.

In one day Sandy and I shoveled and wheeled out a full tandem load of topsoil. What we didn't use out front was spread out back in the disaster of backyard grass.

The soil was raked level and then seeded.

That summer we had a generator panel professionally installed. We moved circuits over including fridge & deepfreeze, some lighting, the well pump and the trash pump for the basement black water pit.

In mid July we were finally ready to host a house warming party which was an awesome time with family and friends.

In August I picked up a very special machine. Family friend Harry upgraded his 1990's vintage lawn tractor and gifted it to Sandra and I! It will be a huge help mowing nearly a half acre of grass, it's a 12HP 38" cut unit which will serve us well.

We always enjoyed the firepit at our old house in Mount Pearl, I wasted no time setting it up here in Torbay. The backyard is wide open, for now it sits proudly in the centre of the garden. I dug out the sod, laid 5" of stone and placed four 2'x2' patio stones which will hold the firepit and create a safety barrier for embers.

We were getting a fair bit of sediment from the newly drilled well so I installed a whole house water filter to catch the particles which is now keeping the screens on all of our taps clean.

Before we knew it winter was bearing down, a little earlier than usual this year with first snow in November.

Sandy spent hours on the phone tracking down the owner of this abandoned former job site construction trailer. In December the eyesore was finally towed away!

It was an incredibly busy first six months as homeowners, but we are so happy and proud to be improving our very own property. We have lots of plans and work will continue into the new year!

Cheers, MIKE