Merry Christmas!

I really wanted to post pics of all the kitties in Christmas poses, like with bows on their heads, or hiding under the tree, or something. Again, this year, I ran out of time. And getting cats to sit still is ... difficult. So here are a few pics I took tonight while Iain played Skyrim. Merry Christmas from all the furkids at our house!

Stitches,

Snaps,

Jezebel,

and Onyx!

And from Iain and me too, have a good holiday season and a very joyous and blessed 2012.

Lots to do, and Christmas One Week Away

Iain went to the cottage again on Saturday to work on some more electrical stuff.  He put up the outside lights (he didn't take a picture as proof, though, so I'll have to wait to see them).  It was really cold to be working outside; it was -12.  Fortunately, the cottage interior was holding the heat from the sun, and when he got a little fire going, he was able to warm his hands at least.

Lots of insulation, now.  Also in this picture:  the soon-to-be-installed corner shower for the bathroom; the door lockset (we've been using a temporary one); some drywall, which is going in this week; and wood for the ceiling, also probably going in this week.

The chimney looks good  It is near the peak, so we won't have to worry about it getting swept away by ice/snow.  You can also see the eavestrough and ice barrier that was installed this week.

Not much snow, and the lake is mostly free of ice; it has been an odd, warm early winter.

While Iain worked at the cottage, I did more baking:  Gingerbread Men, Orange Wreaths, Peanut Brittle, Almond/Cranberry Bark, Sugarplums.  Today, after church, he wrapped gifts while I baked more Gingerbread and Cranberry/Walnut Tarts.  Tomorrow I hope to complete the baking, doing a bit more Shortbread and Almond Bark, and possibly more Peanut Brittle.  Gosh, I love baking!

Christmas is coming...soon

Christmas prep is coming along.  Rum balls and fudge are done (well, I may make more fudge).  Got a batch of shortbread done too.  Tonight, I wrote up a few Christmas cards, so I'm very proud of myself.  And I am done shopping for Iain (yay!) except for a few stocking stuffers.  Also done shopping for everyone else, which is VERY nice.
The insulation and vapour barrier are done at the cottage, so we're just waiting for the inspector to okay it before proceeding.  The shower stall can go in next, and then drywall can go on.  Yippee!

Hopefully there will be more pictures to post on the weekend.

Last weekend, Iain and I got to the cottage one more time: Iain wanted to bury the phone wire before the ground froze, and I wanted a look at the new stove.

Dan already had a lot of the insulation installed; he was to finish it this week.

Iain and I have just arrived to check it out.



Rather clever, to hold the insulation in place with strips of the plastic bags it arrives in, until the vapour barrier can be applied.

The digging was hard work, as he had to go across Eldon's driveway to bury the cable.  That soil was packed hard from the traffic over it all summer.

Pickaxes do come in handy at times!

I puttered about in the cottage, making a wee fire in the stove (we need to make a few small ones to cure the bricks) and putting some vapour barrier around a light switch.

I like this stove!  It's exciting!

Iain did a little cleanup on some wiring and then we were off again.  He plans to head up again in another week or so to do some more odds and ends.

Ice Storm at Foymount

Last weekend, we took a spin up to the cottage again to do a few things. We didn't expect what we saw at Foymount: the huge rainstorm that had passed through the area last weekend, and kept our sump pump at home running busily all evening, deposited a heavy layer of ice on the Foymount area. Beautiful though the trees were, glistening in the sunlight, many of them couldn't stand the strain of the weight, and had broken or uprooted.

Just down the road from Foymount, toward our cottage.  The ice eventually faded to just snowfall, so we had no damage at the lake.

Just west of Foymount.

These next shots were taken on the Opeongo road, just east of Foymount.

I managed to get myself into the picture!

I like this picture a lot.

Baking list for Christmas

All the must do's:
gingerbread men
shortbread
orange wreaths
sugarplums
rumballs
almond bark
peanut brittle

How is this going to happen with so little time?  I have no idea...  If I had more time, though, the list would just get longer!

It's looking goooood!

The exterior is coming along beautifully now. With all the styrofoam and strapping in place, the next step is soffit and fascia!

The soffit and fascia are white vinyl.  We were tempted to go with black trim, to keep the theme of our old cottage, but decided a black steel roof would be the only nod to that.

 The doors and windows are installed, and the cottage is now fully protected from the rain and snow.

 

We're looking forward to hearing the rain on the steel roof.  Mind you, there will be lots of insulation, so it may not be very loud (probably a good thing, when you think of it).

The pre-stained board and batten siding is next.  We went with wood, even though it requires more upkeep, because we prefer the look of it as compared to vinyl (more cottage-ey) or stucco (Iain just doesn't like it).  White, because that's just what our cottage buildings look like :)

We ordered a nice little woodstove from McCrea's in Renfrew.  Ross Keatley from the cottage area will do the install.  Myles and Dodie helped Iain take it to its new home.  The crate was just narrow enough to fit through the doorway.

The outside is now essentially complete, with the installation of the windows and doors.  There is still the chimney, outside lighting, ice barriers and eavestrough to be installed, but doesn't it look pretty?

The back and entrance to the cottage.

 The high windows in the living room are still on order; coming soon!

Everyone says this is crying for a deck; we'll see how much energy we have left for that, next year!

Inside the insulation is piled up, waiting to be installed.  Lots of cushy pink stuff to keep us cozy warm.  With the approval of the electrical rough-in, Dan can start putting it in!

Adieu

We had the honour, this afternoon, of attending the wake for Myles' mom, Bernadette Bailey, who passed away this week.  I believe she was 92.

We'd only met a few times, and one of those times was at Dodie and Myles' wedding, so I won't say I knew her well.  Today, though, looking at the pictures and drawings of her, from her childhood through to recent times, I was made aware that this was a special woman.  One beautiful photograph captured everyone's attention:  in it, she is wearing traditional native leathers and is playing a guitar.  In other photos, she is surrounded by friends and family, smiling and looking lovely.  Her bearing is that of a confidant, intelligent woman.  A series of pictures taken in a photo-booth captured her sense of humour.

She looked beautiful today, too, though I know she wasn't really there; but her spirit filled the place.

The Boathouse Becomes a Storage Shed

If you remember our "moving the boathouse" project in July, Myles has resurrected the building!    He brought in some gravel for the base and made a low foundation for the walls to sit on.

With the aid of Bob's tractor and the muscles of a young employee, he had the walls up and roof on in short order.  This picture shows the building partly completed.

Myles started to set it up in late October, and was finished by mid-November!

Doesn't it look wonderful?  Nice work!

All trussed up!

The roof trusses arrived on the 9th.  It was pretty cool that the crane truck set them right up top where they were needed.  That saved a lot of work on the part of the builders.  I've heard this doesn't always happen; a friend of mine related how the trusses were left at the bottom of their driveway, when their house was being built!  The guys who supply these Beaver homes have things worked out pretty well.

Dan got right to work on the roof.

By day's end it was mostly closed in.

I love this shot.  I don't know if it was Dodie who took it, or Myles, but kudos to whoever!

On the 12th and 13th, Iain installed phone line and ethernet wire, while the electricians  were there.  Brett and Todd Crozier did the install.  I was there on the 12th - a cold day, but I was some help to Iain.  I wouldn't go back on the Sunday, but he went up and worked with them.


Brett and Iain discuss light and outlet placements.

A look at a week of building.

We are, unfortunately, only able to see the work in person on the weekend.  It would be nice to be around when the work is happening, to see the place taking shape.

We took a drive up on Nov.5, excited to see the progress.  Amazing to see walls, where for so long there was just a big cement pad!  The weather has been great, co-operating with our building schedule.  Some years, there would be snow long before the beginning of November.

Iain and I took a walk around the interior.  With walls, the space seems very small, but I keep reminding myself that it is actually larger than the old cottage, and we will have enough room!

This is the last view of the sky we expect to have from here for a long, long time!  The roof is to go on next week, though there was a hiccup in the delivery of the trusses.  Dan is making hay while the sun shines, and expects that once the trusses arrive he'll get the roof on quickly. 

There's going to be plenty of insulation in this baby.  Styrofoam on the outside, fibreglass in the walls.  R36 in the walls and R40 in the ceiling.  I like to be warm!



The building is going up!

November 1, and building is beginning! Dan and his help show up bright and early (long before this first photo is taken, but that's when the camera has enough light to work).

They get to work right away, setting up a workstation and discussing their work.

In no time at all, the east wall is up!

The second wall is up by day's end.

Day two, and the south facing wall is up by 9:33 a.m.!  Two of the windows are incorrect, but Myles snapped some photos when he was up, working on his shed project, and we were able to get Dan to change them the next day.

Mid-day, and the last wall has been raised already.

By the end of day two, the interior walls are going up.

Day three:  Dan has changed the window in the living room to the large one we had requested, and also the one in the dining room.  Here, the chipboard is starting to go on.

Styrofoam insulation for the exterior; we intend to be warm, in this building!

Applying the strapping.

And the peak above the front living room window is up!

October slips by

October was the month our cottage was supposed to be built.  Sadly, it didn't turn out that way.  Dan the builder man got held up at another job and couldn't get to our place.  So, it was a quiet month.  Here's what happened:

Susan and Mark, our plumbers, finished up connections to the septic.

Iain filled in some holes while I shot pics for the panorama (which I posted on Nov.13 in this blog).

Carl and Iain pulled wire.

The wire-pulling got messy: the conduit had collapsed.  After much digging and making repair efforts, it was decided that a heavy duty cable that doesn't require conduit would do the trick.

And that was pretty much it, for October.   Dan started building on November 1:  that's the next installment.

Something I am so happy to see!

Onyx and Snaps curled up together on the couch.  Snaps has finally weaseled his way into Onyx's affections!

If you want a gander at our view...

Go to this address and open the Quicktime VR movie there.

QTVR from the cement pad

It's a panoramic view I took from the centre of the cottage pad in early October.  It is unfortunately full of watermarks because I used a free version of the software to create it, but you still can get a sense of why we love it there!  I am hoping it will work for you.

My thanks to Jayme for telling me what I needed to do!

And still more septic!

This is what the weeping tile looks at, sitting comfortably on its bed of sand.  I wish I could have been there to watch all of this!

Weeping tile.  It isn't really sad.

Not sure what this is, but it goes into the septic tank.  This is probably the spot where  you are supposed to insert the dead animal (I am not kidding, we were told that's the best way to get the bacteria going in your tank; we aren't doing it).  A skunk was suggested, or perhaps a well-aged groundhog.   Blech!

Once they're done layering sand and stuff, it all gets covered up again, nice and neat.  No heavy vehicles are allowed on it now.  An ATV is okay, though.

And that's all I've got to say about that.