I'm writing this on a huge screened-in balcony overlooking Lake MacGregor near Ottawa. Cara and Elaina had a serious fire at their cottage and found this place as a substitute summer home for 2012. Enormous balcony over the water. Looking through mature trees at the sun on the lake. Like my own Tom Thomson. Loon sounds on the lake.
So, to recap, Paul and Noreen came for ten days and I squeezed 7 full days of work out of Paul, or rather I couldn't have stopped him working if I'd tried. He is a master with a jigsaw. He planes like a professional musician. And I fired staples into his cutting jobs.The last day was a bit of an effort and we nearly gave up on one very difficult electrical box, but we succeeded. You can see from the photos. Four walls and no funeral.
Basically it leaves the floor in the master bedroom and bathroom and walls in the two living areas... And, of course, the outside wall and the screened-in porch. Maybe I'll try to get him back next year to build something else. I just think he wants to cut wood.
And then we left to help Chris and Adrienne Elliott to pack up their Baie d'Urfé home and fly back to England. First mistake was to make the trip back to Quebec in one day, a sixteen hour drive. Deborah was not happy and the next day passed slowly as we tried to adjust to the strain of being confined for those 16 hours. Never again: two days it is.
Then we got on with helping Chris and Adrienne and their move, with wrapping everything up, selling things, giving lots away, deciding not to take the god Pan from the garden in the container so he ended up in our garden wondering why he'd been left out. Helping Danny Anderson move a bed over to his Sainte-Anne flat behind the town hall. Making supper, drinking wine, trying to tie up the odds and ends of 40 years of life lived in this place.
It was all very sad, really, and when we finally got them and their last bags to the airport and hugged and said goodbye we'll see you in England good luck don't worry about Pan no one wants a 400 pound Pan in his garden, it was a very emotional send off and we were glad to come here to Cara's verandah and chill out in our very own Tom Thomson.
I would never go back to live in England, even Surrey England. What would happen to Pan?
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Friday, 13 July 2012
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Week 7 Things really start happening
I was on my knees for most of Week 6 of this building season, laying out the floor. I'm feeling surprisingly good after the experience of wrestling 2 by 6s into position on the floor. Takes longer than I expected, mainly because you have to do the whole process: measure, cut, install, but I get to two thirds of the main floor done. I didn't realize how big this room was: 24 by 24...
Time isn't the issue anymore.
And then it turns to week 7 and the summer begins with Noreen and Paul visiting, bringing West Coast sunshine, shorts and Cape Bretoners complaining about the heat and the humidity. Somehow Noreen has the knack of bringing gorgeous weather to Nova Scotia. This is not the first time.
Knowing there are heat warnings back in Montreal and Toronto, it is hard not to feel a bit smug and absolutely delighted with the temperatures in NS.
Deborah is beginning to win some battles in her slug wars: but Cape Breton slugs and snails climb right over copper wire which we've reclaimed from ends of old wires. They are still fatally attracted to beer and distracted by melon skins but somehow they continue to produce armies of reserves. This battle with nature is permanent.
Noreen and Paul arrive at midnight in Sydney. In her pink suitcase packages of ICI's latest weapons against slugs which even Cape Breton slugs will not be able to resist. Little blue pellets like slug viagra, promising slug-delight delivering slug conclusion. Mary-Anne's house in Sydney is the scene of a Master Builder intervention as he cuts out old windows and installs new ones from the Baddeck company which supplied several windows for the chalet.
We start their visit with a full Cape Breton breakfast, including white and black pudding. See blog photo of Paul at work. Then we spend an hour at Home Depot loading up more supplies for the floor before careering off down the lake to Cape George.
But not before visiting George at Lobsters r Us for 8 lobsters to make a welcoming feast. Young Hannah is in fine form: getting into Ottawa U for medecine has boosted her confidence to the point where she happily splatters me across the table with lobster juice.
Meanwhile Mary-Anne coaches her fellow medics Noreen and Paul in the Cape Breton art of demolishing a lobster which they both accomplish with distinction.
And so to work, this time under the watchful eye of our Swiss Professor, the Master Builder, who is now playing the role of instructor and coach. Paul seems to understand his directions immediately, mainly because he's already spent a lifetime building boats and houses. The Master Builder gives us a list of tips, explains some of the recommended tools, then prepares the yard to receive the wood for the walls, inside and out. He clears out the Wood Miser trimming machine, cranks up the excavator to make sure it's working, then goes back to his cabin to tend Kola who has once again strained her hip to the point of exhaustion.
Meanwhile Dr Griffiths measures and cuts floorboards and I go back into my praying position to screw them onto the insulation and straps. By the end of the day we have a floor completed, although I still have to attach a couple of boards.
At six Glenn Higgins arrives, backing in, with the wood for the walls, inside and out and 25 boards for future decks. As we close down this first day of labour with my Welsh ally, the yard is full of lumber and I can see the endpoint. We plan to finish at least the main room...
This will be fun.
Time isn't the issue anymore.
And then it turns to week 7 and the summer begins with Noreen and Paul visiting, bringing West Coast sunshine, shorts and Cape Bretoners complaining about the heat and the humidity. Somehow Noreen has the knack of bringing gorgeous weather to Nova Scotia. This is not the first time.
Knowing there are heat warnings back in Montreal and Toronto, it is hard not to feel a bit smug and absolutely delighted with the temperatures in NS.
Deborah is beginning to win some battles in her slug wars: but Cape Breton slugs and snails climb right over copper wire which we've reclaimed from ends of old wires. They are still fatally attracted to beer and distracted by melon skins but somehow they continue to produce armies of reserves. This battle with nature is permanent.
Noreen and Paul arrive at midnight in Sydney. In her pink suitcase packages of ICI's latest weapons against slugs which even Cape Breton slugs will not be able to resist. Little blue pellets like slug viagra, promising slug-delight delivering slug conclusion. Mary-Anne's house in Sydney is the scene of a Master Builder intervention as he cuts out old windows and installs new ones from the Baddeck company which supplied several windows for the chalet.
We start their visit with a full Cape Breton breakfast, including white and black pudding. See blog photo of Paul at work. Then we spend an hour at Home Depot loading up more supplies for the floor before careering off down the lake to Cape George.
But not before visiting George at Lobsters r Us for 8 lobsters to make a welcoming feast. Young Hannah is in fine form: getting into Ottawa U for medecine has boosted her confidence to the point where she happily splatters me across the table with lobster juice.
Meanwhile Mary-Anne coaches her fellow medics Noreen and Paul in the Cape Breton art of demolishing a lobster which they both accomplish with distinction.
And so to work, this time under the watchful eye of our Swiss Professor, the Master Builder, who is now playing the role of instructor and coach. Paul seems to understand his directions immediately, mainly because he's already spent a lifetime building boats and houses. The Master Builder gives us a list of tips, explains some of the recommended tools, then prepares the yard to receive the wood for the walls, inside and out. He clears out the Wood Miser trimming machine, cranks up the excavator to make sure it's working, then goes back to his cabin to tend Kola who has once again strained her hip to the point of exhaustion.
Meanwhile Dr Griffiths measures and cuts floorboards and I go back into my praying position to screw them onto the insulation and straps. By the end of the day we have a floor completed, although I still have to attach a couple of boards.
At six Glenn Higgins arrives, backing in, with the wood for the walls, inside and out and 25 boards for future decks. As we close down this first day of labour with my Welsh ally, the yard is full of lumber and I can see the endpoint. We plan to finish at least the main room...
This will be fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)