Fire!

...in the woodstove.

Barb and Laura came to see the cottage for the first time on Saturday, November 22nd.

It was a cold day so we tried to warm up by making a fire in the woodstove. Evidently, it takes more than an hour or two for the woodstove to heat the place. We hadn't planned on staying any longer, so we left before it was able to do it's job.

Pictures on Flickr

To see a slideshow on Flickr, go to :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32917079@N07/sets/72157623883858903/

I'm here!

Finally! I made it! What a journey that was.

Sorry I'm so late, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

I've been standing around in a field south of Ottawa for the last two months, waiting to be delivered.

Early Monday morning I climbed aboard a couple of big trucks for what was to be a three hour trip from Moorewood, Ontario to my new foundation overlooking tranquil Petit Lac Cayamant, in Quebec.

As luck would have it, one of the trucks broke down on highway 416 and part of me had to spend the night in Arnprior, Ontario, while the other part of me made it as far as Bryson, Quebec. Not a comfortable way to spend the night!

Throughout Tuesday, with snow falling off and on, many people worked hard to move me into position. The job of sliding me onto my permanent perch was finally finished late Wednesday, a clear but cold day.

I love my new home. Surrounded by tall white birch, cedar and pine trees to protect me from the wind, I'm facing north so the sun will always warm my backside.

Let me tell you a little about myself. I'll try not to sound like I'm bragging.
First, you won't believe how many windows I have. Four really big ones adorn my front wall in my great room with cathedral ceilings. In the back, you'll find three comfy bedrooms for country air induced deep sleeps. There are a lot of things that make me special, but one of the greatest is my screened porch. It lets you enjoy the best of both the indoors and the outdoors all at once. And the interior is finished with the warmth of cedar.

On cool fall nights or during winter visits, you'll love the heat from my Osburn 1600 woodstove, in the corner of the great room. This was just delivered and installed today.

Now, over the next week, they'll be working to finish up some of my roofing and siding. Then I'll be ready to host many many years of cottage life in this wilderness setting.

In the meantime, I thought you'd like to see a few pictures of my big arrival.

Backing half of me into position along side the foundation:

I was pushed along these "I" beams and lowered onto the foundation:

This woodstove was installed today, November 20th.

Facing the lake.....

My designer poses for his first picture with me..

A patio door will be installed to separate my great room from the screened porch.

And the kitchen area in the great room..

My main entrance on the east side, future site of a deck.

I want to thank all of you who believed in me and sent positive thoughts my way. Check back later to see a video of me crossing the Picanoc River!

Patience Patience ARGH!

Alright, so no cottage yet. It's a long story about a bridge repair estimate that is double what the Association can afford, a 70 ton crane, and time running out before winter sets in.

So now, we're looking at the possibility of going over the bridge as is, as long as we can get the clearance from the engineer.

If we do, it should all go down - oops - across on November 10th.

Not much more to say except stay tuned...

Some Good News!

I was up at the lake for the day yesterday. It turned out to be a very nice fall day despite the forecast. It was also really quiet. There was no one else at our end of the lake. I chopped some wood, packed up our tent for the season, did a little fishing from the dock (no luck) and finally tried out the hammock Barb bought me for Father's Day. I had stored the string hammock we bought in Mexico in the outhouse since last year and when I opened it a few weeks ago I found that mice had chewed huge holes in it. I'm happy to report the new one works just fine.

Speaking of good news, there are encouraging developments on two fronts of the cottage project:

The foundation is now completely finished and looks great. Have a look:

And I dropped in on Brian, the Secretary of the Property Owners Association, for an update on the bridge situation.


The engineer came to do an inspection yesterday morning and has made specific recommendations for repairs. It seems it should be within the Association's budget but we'll know more on Wednesday when an estimate is expected from a contractor. Both the engineer and the contractor are friends of one of the other property owners and are keen to help. Even better, this contractor might be able to do the work Oct 1st to 3rd, the week before the cottage is to be delivered.


Finally, I wasn't the only one who seemed to think he was alone at our end of the lake yesterday. To reward you for checking in on my blog, I thought I'd share this picture that I took using my telephoto lens of one of our neighbours going for a swim with no clothes on. Those of you who secretly, or not so secretly, appreciate wild and crazy living may be comfortable scrolling down. For others, you may want to stop right here, unless your curiosity is too much to BARE...

Wild and Crazy

Delays - And a Troubled Bridge Over Water

Now we were getting tantilizingly close to welcoming the stork, a crane actually, delivering our big bundle, when we heard there was a two week delay. The new date was to be October 3rd.

Initially very disappointing, it turns out this may have been a lucky coincidence. You see, when the cement trucks came to pour the concrete foundation, their 32 tons of weight was a big strain on the bridge across the Picanoc river ( see picture in earlier post) and one end of the bridge sunk about 8 inches. An inspection revealed that one of the steel stringers compressed the timbers that make up the crib at that end. It was known that the timbers had suffered water damage over the years and would have to be replaced at some time. But now the repairs need to be done before the crane can cross over to lift the cottage components into place. The good news is that the property owners association, responsible for the bridge, is moving quickly to try to get it fixed and they have some money in reserve for just this eventuality.

Meanwhile, word came today that Guildcrest Homes has started building the cottage in their factory.

If everything goes smoothly, the cottage could be delivered as early as October 6th. Realistically, I'm expecting it to be the week of October 13th.

Stay tuned..

Some pictures to share

Laura's first kayak adventure on Petit Lac - August 31, 2008

Our daughter Andrea's first visit to the lake - July 2008

Showing off my building permit as we break ground with Doug Zacharias Construction - August 2008

I love old farm buildings. You go by these along highway 301 about 20 kms before the lake.

This was taken from our clearing