While I've seemingly taken a break from reporting on progress, the construction has been moving along.

A couple of weeks ago, Lindsay and Evans of Elm Enterprises returned to complete the grading outside and start some landscaping. The trench along the foundation for the hydro connection was filled in, pea gravel added around the foundation, gravel for the driveway, top soil for the lawns and with Hugh's help the patio stones that were the floors in the 2 garden sheds, were salvaged for walkways. Unfortunately by the time I next visited, snow had covered all of this up so I haven't seen it yet!

The roof has been completed and the soffit and fascia added.

Inside, there's insulation on the outside walls and cathedral ceiling and the propane fireplace has been installed. 

The electricity is turned on and the furnace is operational.

The floating vinyl tile for the bathroom has been added to our garage supply depot. Another great deal at Lowe's.

We're considering paint colours and settled on the same cultured stone for the fireplace that we have at the farm.

Progress continued last week with significant work on the steel roof. It's dark grey which is a little difficult to tell in yesterday's mid afternoon November sunshine. We're very pleased with it.

The plumbing and electrical has also been roughed in over the last couple of weeks, as evidenced by the dangling electrical outlets and cables in the photo above. The furnace was installed in the crawl space last week, and heating ducts are in the floor. 

Yesterday (Sunday) was a beautiful sunny day after a fairly lengthy spell of cloudy, cool and rainy days. So we spent the afternoon at the lake property to burn the remaining brush that came down off the big maple tree in the mid-September tornado winds. Here's Hugh hard at it. Reminiscent of his days of burning at our Carp home after the January 1998 ice storm. No singed hair this time!

After a several week absence from the lake, Holly and Chase were delighted to accompany us yesterday. We were unsure how Holly would react to the much colder lake water but, as we suspected, she was undeterred from swimming. Her swims were relatively short but she did go in the water several times with breaks in between swims to run around the yard with Chase. 

The water level is back up to its summer level. The fluctuating water levels is possibly related to the extensive damage from the tornado at the hydro generating station at the east end of the lake in Calabogie village.

​Late in the afternoon Chase and Holly welcomed a visit by their buddy Dallas, the golden retriever. He and Chase wore themselves out running around!

We were pleased that Chase and Holly were pretty good about staying on our property on this long visit with only short forays into the neighbouring yards. They also enjoyed their first experience inside the new building.

A big milestone as the windows and doors were installed on Thursday Oct 25. They look great - thanks to local manufacturer Scheel Windows and Doors of Arnprior.

The pair of south-east facing triple sliding doors give great views of the lake and will let in lots of light.

The entry door is there but protected for now - presumably until the metal roof is on.

At left, the windows in 2 bedrooms provide great views of the lake. In the foreground, two high windows will flank the fireplace.

In case you're curious about the exterior insulation that I showed in the last post, here's its packaging. 

Surprisingly this is a one person job. Here's Mitch getting close to the end. He reports that it's very nice to work with - no issues like the old pink stuff.

Lyla came to check out the progress.

This is not all fun and games.  Hugh is garbage removal guy and here we are at the dump earlier in the week. Check out all of the gulls! No way I was getting out of the truck to get a better pic!

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

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. 

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.

By the morning of Friday October 5, we found the roof framing well underway.

There was work to be done, and visiting son and granddaughter pitched in to help Hugh shovel this pile of sand away to free this spot for the propane tank.

While bright, this Friday morning before Thanksgiving weekend was cool with a very strong cool wind blowing off the lake as evidenced by the warm coat and mitts. ​Our neighbourhood dog returned and I discovered from his tag that his name is Dallas. He's very well behaved. Holly and Chase didn't come on this trip. 

We arrived at the lake property mid morning on Monday, October 1st to find the framing crew taking a well deserved break and several walls in various stages of assembly laying on the floor. Fortunately I had brought a few brownies for them.

Within an hour, the entire east wall was standing!

​Today (Wednesday October 3rd) we went back at the end of the afternoon and wow - all of the interior and exterior walls are up!
Here's the main entrance from the road side. Door in the middle and bedrooms on either side.

And here's the view from the deck on water side - living area on the left, and dining with kitchen on the right - one open area, with 2 triple sliding doors. The wind was really blowing off the lake and it was quite cool. The peaked roof got cut off in this pic.

Hugh in the living room.

View into the dining area and kitchen - and there's the shower in the bathroom.

While we were touring the inside and marveling at the room sizes, the feel of the layout, and the views from the various windows, Holly was swimming in the rather rough lake.

Chase got right into the touring with us until suddenly someone new came along and caught her attention. A lovely dark golden retriever neighbour who is almost identical to Chase in size and shape. Holly even came out of the water to see what was going on. I was lucky to get all 3 dogs standing still long enough to get this picture. They had a great time running all around inside and out! We'll need to find out where the new friend lives and his or her name. Stay tuned.

While foundations are necessary they are not nearly as exciting as the next steps. We are seeing some interesting progress.

On Thursday Sept 27 we were greeted with floor trusses and a partial subfloor.

Holly was oblivious to all of this and enjoyed her usual absolutely favourite sport! She loves swimming right into the waves.

If you're wondering about that gap in the dock, it's the section that the ladder is attached to and Hugh has already removed it.

On today's trip we discovered that the sub floor has been completed. The sun was shining brightly following an earlier rain shower.

Our communities of Calabogie and White Lake have been in the news over the last few days because the Friday September 21st storm that generated the tornadoes in the Ottawa area, originated in Calabogie and traveled in a straight line over White Lake to Dunrobin.
We had a short storm at our farm while it passed by but nothing alarming. It would have traveled over White Lake south of our farm - the lake is very long from south to north. The winds had been very strong at our farm that warm, humid day.  That storm did take our power out until Saturday just after 7 PM. 

On mid day Saturday, son Ken dropped in after a brief visit to their cottage on Centennial Lake which is west of Calabogie. There was power and no damage at Ken and Michelle's cottage. He did report that there were a number of trees down along the highway in Calabogie near our property. On Saturday evening I finally saw on TV the devastation in Dunrobin and the other areas in Ottawa and it was overwhelming.

On Sunday afternoon Hugh and I went to our Calabogie Lake property where we found several large limbs down off a beautiful big maple tree at the back (road side) of the property. There were other trees and hydro lines down along the lane into our place. Our neighbour Frank, after cleaning up a large pine tree that had fallen on his property, had very kindly cut and cleared branches off of our driveway. Hugh must have suspected something because he had brought along the chainsaw and jumped right into action.

Hugh eventually returned to the truck to ask if I was getting out. He'd forgotten that I need assistance in disembarking after my knee surgery last Monday! This was the first day I'd ventured out since the surgery.

Here's the view from the water side deck towards the back of the yard and the big maple tree. In the low light, it's a little hard to see the broken branches. And we now have another, unexpected brush pile. That's the back end of Chase in the foreground!

And you can see that lots of building supplies have arrived on site.

Holly headed straight into the water as usual and she seems delighted with her new, sleek labrador retriever look after her haircut last Wednesday. The water must be quite a bit cooler now but it didn't seem to bother her. She also seems to be swimming more quickly without all of that extra weight!

Last evening we discovered that the Calabogie storm has been classified as a tornado. Other lake neighbours told us on Sunday that the sky had turned kind of green when the storm passed through.
Here's some local news coverage and the latest in the Ottawa Citizen and an earlier Ottawa Citizen article.
​

 Things are really moving along now!

The original 1967 septic system had reached its natural end of life and the new, slightly bigger septic system has been installed by the very capable Evans and Lindsay McNab of Elm Enterprises. And after that, they graded the yard and filled in around the lovely new foundation. And the entire crawl space floor has been completed.
​

A section of the original deck that was covered over by the new deck wasn't quite up to snuff.

 
And all of that swimming has turned our golden retriever Holly into a very matted mess.
That was all fixed up today by the talented groomers at Pawsitively Country Grooming in Renfrew. Holly seems very pleased with her new look (and feel) including her fashionable neck scarf. Looks like we need to tighten up her collar!

It wasn't long before the footings were poured.

​And a week later, we have a full foundation. We enjoyed a cup of coffee on the deck on a warm morning yesterday while golden retriever Holly enjoyed another long swim.