Great Progress Inside and Out

There's been a tremendous amount of progress over the last week and a half.

This beauty showed up a few days ago! Hugh plans to bring some small pine or spruce trees from the farm to plant around it, including in behind to block it off from our neighbour's "bunky" sleeping cabin pictured in the background.

The furnace, hot water tank. and fireplace will all be propane powered.
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Why are we not going with a wood fireplace?  Well, we're getting older and lugging wood around isn't so appealing. Also there's no wood supply at the lake, wood is messy, and if we come for an afternoon we can easily enjoy a fire and then instantly shut it down. The fireplace can run when the power is off and can be remotely controlled.

Here's the hydro panel being installed in the utility room. The furnace will be in the crawl space underneath. Due to the slope of the lot, the crawl space under the new addition is deeper than under the original cottage. This leaves more space in the utility room and avoids the need for a stacking washer and dryer.

The plumbing team also visited and roughed in the plumbing - bathroom on the left and the kitchen sink under the window on the right.

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And Shawn of SBC Kitchens came by to take his measurements. Very exciting for me! 

The roof plywood is all on and sealed up. The outside walls are sealed up too. And there's a proper step to go in the road side door.

On the lake side, the screen porch floor and roof are done. 

The little overhang over the sliding doors is on. 

And work on attaching the exterior insulation has begun - you can see it at the far left of this photo, on the outside wall of a bedroom. The siding will be attached to the horizontal wood strips.

We've chosen this vinyl flooring for throughout the lake home. It looks like barnboard. ​
It's STAINMASTER 6-in x 36-in Driftwood Oak Floating Vinyl Plank
and is on sale this weekend at Lowe's - 1/3 off and no HST - what a bargain! We've ordered up 52 boxes. We'll choose something else for the bathroom floor.

Today we found the water level to be quite a bit lower. Those smaller rocks are typically under water. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) controls the water levels through a series of hydroelectric power plants and dams along the Madawaska River system which passes through Calabogie Lake. Bits and pieces of our dock are in the foreground.

We left the dogs at home today. I suspect Holly would have braved the cold water but neither of us wanted to see that. 
We did see a pair of mallard ducks and Hugh spotted two loons in the water.

It was very cool today but quite pleasant on our southeast facing deck since the strong cold wind was blowing from the west.

After returning from the summer at her PEI home, our friend Kathy recently paid a visit to see the progress, and to enjoy the beautiful lake views. I'm getting around quite well on my new left knee and still using a cane for stability.