Last week of September - septic time :)

Lots more digging and filling in:  first off, the trench for the hydro feed.

Iain is supervising, natch.

Ralph's fine touch with the backhoe.

 Once the trench was dug, we had to constantly remind ourselves it was there, especially when wandering home from Dodie and Myle's place, in the dark.

Iain had to dig some bits by hand, as the area was too delicate for Ralph to attempt with the backhoe.  Here, he is working on the water line trench.  We ended up only going part way with it, as it seemed best to not hook everything up, only to have it freeze.

 Septic systems are necessary, but how many of us get a close look at them?  Well, this is the time, before it gets all nasty and smelly.  Just a few pics to give you the basic idea of what was happening;

The big white box on the upper left is the tank, being craned into place.  Ralph has made a nice deep hole for it.

An area had to be excavated for the weeping tile.

Hard at work to fill things in.

I have a few more pics, and I'm going to post them, too.  That's up next.

The second week of September, wherein not a whole lot happens

...but we have pictures of it!

The cement was covered for almost a week, as it cured.  I was amazed by the amount of heat it gave off the first day or two.  At first, it was almost too warm for you to comfortably lay your hand on it for any length of time.

All covered up, wet and warm.

Neighbours watered it when we weren't there, and then Mother Nature took over and kept it damp for a few days more.

Not quite a week later, it was time for the forms to be removed.

We picked up the tarps and disassembled them.

And then, nothing happened for a while.  Iain pieced together some conduit for the hydro feed, but there was nothing more to do with it right away. 

My funny cousins decided to liven things up a bit!

Finally, on the 23rd, Ralph came back with the backhoe and did more digging.  This was to expose the foundation sides so we could apply styrofoam.  This is to keep the frost from getting under the foundation and freezing our toesies when it gets cold (at least, I think that's what it's for).

A bit of catch-up blogging...

Mom's birthday was on September 3.  She turned 94!  Just a few pics from that day.

Here she is with our little cousins Taylor and Hope.

With our niece Janet.  It was a very tiring day for Mom, but she had a good time.

Finally, the foundation!

At the end of August we were finally ready for the foundation to be poured!

Iain and I stitched together tarps, so we'd have them ready to lay over the cement as it cured.  Keeping it protected from direct sun, and keeping it wet, makes it cure better!

The first truck arrives, and the cement is wheelbarrowed into place.

This looks like hard work!



Wonderful to have family around to help out, since Iain and I couldn't be there.  My cousin Leon has experience with cement-laying, and kept an eye on things.

The finished floor; doesn't it look gorgeous?  And our little cousin Hope put a 2011 penny in, to christen it!

Work continues...

I really do get my hands dirty, too. Yes, it looks like Iain is doing all the work all the time, and, well, for the most part that's true; but I'm helping when I can. He's the one with the hunky muscles, though, and digging is just... not my thing, okay?

This is me, helping with the digging!

 Now that the forms were in, the insulation and rebar had to be put in. So GreenR sent up their guys to work on it. Unfortunately, these lads didn't know how to read the blueprints.


The lads putting in the insulation etc.

It was a big job, and they did try to do it right.

This is Marie, the building inspector.  She wasn't impressed with the work done.

The building inspector called Iain after she had been in to check things out.  The work had been done so poorly, she couldn't possibly pass it.  So, Iain had to go up the next day and tear everything apart (again, with the help of Carl and Roger).

Iain working on dismantling the insulation and rebar.

GreenR sent some lads back the next day, and with Iain explaining to them what needed to be done, they worked with him to fix it up.

It would have been easier to do it right in the first place, yes?  But they didn't have the guidance from their boss that they should have.

Finally all done correctly!  Ready for concrete.

Third week of August

The next step:  installing the concrete forms.  It didn't take them long to do it:

Here are the Greenwood guys starting to put in the forms.

The were finishing up 3 hours later.

Mark and Susan, our plumbers, came in and put down their pipes.  Friends watching reported that they were hard workers!

They started one day, and finished the next.

Packing up; work done for now.

When we came up for the weekend, Iain got to work early Saturday morning.

Working on the water feed line.

And we put in some electrical conduit (this is before they were cut to length, of course).

And then it was martini time; we didn't work all weekend, you know.

Cat pictures!!!

When we saw the gang in Ottawa a few weeks ago, I promised Jenny I'd post a pic or two of Onyx.  We had all the cats at the lake during our holidays, and though they didn't get to go outside (except for a few strolls by Jezebel), they had a pretty good time.  Sad to say, there were no mice entertaining them this year (as far as we know).  The chipmunks nesting under the kitchen cupboards did hold everyone's attention now and again, however!



Onyx is doing his impression of a panther. He looks pretty tough!

There are actually four cats in this photo:  Onyx, Jezebel, Snaps and ... hiding beneath the covers... Stitches.

Week Two

So, the 2nd week of our holidays saw more big machines and busy work!

The first load of "A" gravel, which will form the base of the cement pad.

The gravel is spread and packed.  Amazing to watch Ralph at work; he is an artist with the backhoe!  He smooths it out bit by bit, and forms an almost perfect rectangle, just using the bucket very skillfully.

Jean Paul is an excellent worker!  Here he runs the packer.  Not an ounce of fat on this guy.  He just goes and goes and goes.

And then Iain spoke with the slab guy, who, it turns out, has his own way of doing things, a way inconsistent with nicely prepared "A" gravel.  He waned to put the forms on top of this gravel, not dig them in like every other slab layer in the area would do.  Not that he would bother to explain this BEFORE all the work was done on the base.  So then, Iain (with Jean Paul's very necessary assistance) had to dig out the trench for the forms.

Iain and Jean Paul posed when they stopped for a quick break.

There were so many large rocks in the gravel, that a pickaxe had to be used to chip away at them before digging them out.  This had to be done for just about every shovel-full of dirt.

At the end of the first day, Iain was so exhausted he could hardly move!  After two days of work, they were finally done preparing the gravel bed.

Taking Credit

Just a quick rant about credit cards.  If I could give one piece of advice to any young person, regarding finances, it would be to always pay off your credit cards every month!

What brought this to mind?  My Mastercard bill for August.  The grand total on it is just under $40 (a very quiet month, for me), but the estimated time to repay this piddly amount, if I make only minimum payments of $10 per month, is 5 MONTHS!

Why do we allow this sort of usury in our society?  It's disgusting.

End of rant.

About time for an update...

It's been pretty busy with one thing and another, but here we go!

Work began on the building site right after the long weekend, which coincided with the first week of our holidays.  It wasn't the most restful time (the workers showed up before 7:00 a.m. each morning, and we were serenaded by the machines every day), and our apologies go out to our neighbours, who were trying to enjoy their holidays too.

The calm before work began!

Ralph, the very talented backhoe/bulldozer operator.  He has an amazing touch with the machines!

After one day's work, it's quite a change in appearance.

Back at it the next day.  All the gravel had to be compacted as they went.

Iain and I are doing a bit of height marking.  The gravel had to come up to the top of the orange marks on the posts.

More gravel!

More compacting!

The end of one week.  Things are coming along!

More to follow...

Update

Back from vacation, and it's time to update on the cottage:

One of the last things to be done before the landscapers came to change the look of our property forever (if it sounds ominious, well, that's how it felt) was to move the hydrangea bush and a couple more trees, and to save the astilbes from the little garden.

Pine and one of the Astilbes.

The tamarack looks pretty good.

Moving the hydrangea was by far the biggest problem, as it is a bit large and is currently blooming, which I understand is about the worst time to move them. However, we hadn't a choice.

We provided a bit of protection from the sun for a few days.

This was two weeks ago, and though it looks quite a bit more wilted (and in some spots plain dead), I think it'll survive.  Not sure about the pine.... but we tried.

We just about wore ourselves out with holidaying, actually.  Mostly work, this year.  We did accomplish quite a bit though; more pics to come.