....And more painting.....

We're getting there!  We had just one bedroom left to paint this weekend, and that was done on Saturday.

Iain cutting in the bedroom.

That means that the next step is to paint all the trim.  Trim isn't difficult to paint, but it is both time-consuming and space-hogging.  We set up a system of both working on the same piece, and setting each aside to dry as we painted them.   By end of day Saturday, we had about half of the trim done.

Sunday morning, before taking all the painted trim off the ladders where we'd left much of it to dry.

On Sunday, Dodie helped me paint (an interesting choice for her birthday) while Myles helped Iain with the conduit in the trench.  We packed it in at around 1:00, and there is more trim to be painted next time!  The ice is mostly off the lake, so water is easily accessible.  I am really looking forward to running water in the cottage, however.

That's all for now!

Misty morning

Pics from last Sunday morning: mist rising on the frozen lake.

I just thought these were kinda cool.

The painting continues....

This last weekend we went to the cottage on Friday night, so we'd be able to start working bright and early on Saturday.   Sleeping on the floor for two nights was made much easier by the purchase of a 3" thick pad of memory foam!

On Saturday we did make an early start, but it was quite hazy outside.  That didn't stop us from getting into the painting as soon as we had a coffee in us.

By afternoon, we had finished the entire living/dining/kitchen area's second coat.

We had a visit from Chris Lorbetskie, who will be doing our ceramic tile.  Here, he is working out some figures while Iain puts the finishing coat on the linen closet.

The sun came out in the afternoon, and it was beautifully warm!

This is the new hydro post, installed by James Welk's company.  So nice to have the hydro in, and that work (almost) completed.

After getting a coat of paint on the walls in the utility room, bathroom and mom's bedroom, we decided we'd done enough painting for one day.

Iain fired up the grill and que'd up a couple of wonderful steaks.  So long since I'd had a nice steak, and they were delicious!

There was time to do a few things after dinner, too.  The paint was nice and dry, so we put some of the plug and switch plates on.

A trench has been dug for the well line, that will have conduit laid for the line to pass through.  With the heavy rain last week, and the snowmelt, the trench was full of water, so Iain dug a little canal to allow it to drain off.


Just a young lad playing in the mud...

When the sun started to set, we sipped our martinis and watched a video on the laptop before heading off to bed.  It was a good day!

A Good Weekend of Painting

Last weekend we headed to the cottage on Saturday morning, determined to get painting again. When we'd visited with Carl and Irene, we had been able to put primer on the utility room, bedrooms, bathroom and one closet, so our plan for this weekend was to attack the living area.

It snowed a bit in Renfrew, but we weren't expecting what we found when we got to the cottage road:  6 inches of fresh snow, and not yet plowed!  I was a bit nervous about driving through it, but Iain understands what the truck can do with its four-wheel drive, and knows how to use it.  We sailed through easily.

On the way in we met someone coming out, so the path was broken for us!

We got into painting right away, taping off the ceiling to protect the wood, and throwing on a coat of primer.  The work went very quickly.  We painted for six hours, stopping for a quick lunch, and managed to prime the entire living area, plus get one coat of colour on the stove wall, and one coat of ceiling paint on the utility room and mom's bedroom.

Iain cutting an edge.

After that much work, it was nice to change into comfies and have a martini!  I was glad we brought the poang chairs to relax in.  We were happy to put our feet up!

Iain with a wee 'tini.

Most of the place is pretty messy, still.  We really concentrated on doing the wall behind the woodstove, so we can use it next time we are up.  The electric heaters have been a godsend.

You can see we wrapped the wood stove so it wouldn't get paint splatters.  Don't the walls look nice with some paint on them?  We went with a very light colour called "Start Fresh"; it has just a touch of warm orange in it - goes nicely with the wood and keeps everything bright.

We sat watching the sun fade behind clouds, and had a bite of dinner (stew).  Then a movie on the laptop was our evening's entertainment.

A quiet evening, feet up:  wonderful!

We slept on the cement floor:  camp pads, foam, duvet, and sleeping bags, and a comfy blanket over top.  We were both a bit restless, though - it was like camping, but only if you made your tent on a rock.

A little coffee gets us moving!

Sleeping on a cement pad does not lead one to linger in bed.  We were up bright and early, sipping our coffee and watching the sun hit the frosted trees.

It's really hard to capture the sun glinting off the frost.  It looked so lovely, I had to try.

We got right back at it, and got a second coat of paint on the stove wall, then a first coat on the rest of the living area.  After that we packed up and headed home.  Tired!

On the home front...

I would love to make a gif of this! I'm not quite that capable, though.

Snaps and Onyx play every day.  Onyx takes it a bit seriously sometimes, I think:  it isn't unusual to hear a little yelp from Snaps, and see Onyx trying to spit out a mouthful of orange fur. 

Snaps will sit and meow plaintively as they stare at each other, as if to say "You're playing too rough!". He has the advantage in size and youth, though, and keeps coming back for more.

Weekend at the lake

It is so nice to visit Irene and Carl at their cottage: toasty warm, delicious meals, comfy bed and, best of all, pleasant, fun company. We always bring little but snacks and drinks, and the snacks are hardly touched, since there is so much food already available.

Here is the gang waiting patiently for breakfast: pancakes and sausages on Saturday morning. Yummy!

After breakfast Iain and I went back to the cottage to paint (we had started in the morning).  By early afternoon we had decided to knock off for the day, but we made good of our time:  when we finished on Sunday we had painted the utility room, bathroom, both bedrooms and two closets, including ceilings.

So far, the painting has gone well.  Nice to do when there is no flooring to worry about.

The weather turned nasty on Saturday afternoon.  The wind whipped up whirlwinds on the lake, and the windchill was unpleasantly frosty.  Walking into the wind was not fun.

Theo, who is Bob and Helene's dog, was limping through the yard in the wind and snow.  Poor old boy: he finds it hard to get around, now, but he likes to make his tour anyway.

I got out my portable weather station and clocked the wind at 43 kph; it gusted higher, I'm sure.

All the trees - in fact, every upright surface that stood still - wore what Myles called "skunk stripes", thanks to the horizontal snow.

So we stayed inside, did a puzzle, enjoyed a few drinks, and played some charades.  After a great night's sleep, another excellent breakfast (scrambled eggs and bacon), and more painting, we headed home.

There were two of these lovely deer, but one was a little shy and I didn't get her picture.  This one regarded us quite cooly, before flipping up her tail and leaping away.  Isn't she beautiful?