Progress Report

Here is where we were on the project just before noon on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007.

Hi everybody! I'm back in the city for a few days, so I thought I'd give you a little update on how things are going at the lake. The good news is that we haven't run out of money yet, so work continues at full speed (at least by West Quebec standards). Things slowed down a bit for the Shawville Fair, and I can tell you, it was one heck of a party. But as soon as the fair was over, things started moving pretty fast. If I recall, at one point at the beginning of last week there were 5 contractors on site at the same time.

Here is the state of the project as of 7 a.m., Friday, Sept. 7th.

We moved the back door from the kitchen to the old small bedroom, which now will serve as an entrance hall/mud room. We also opened up a new door from the old SBR to the old MBR (now the den) so you get a view of the lake when you enter the house through the back door.

Another door, between the new MBR and the den, allows for a sight line that runs all the way from where the bed will be to the fireplace. On cold winter nights Louise will be able to keep an eye on the fire, and if necessary, go and put on another log or two.

New picture window.

The bathroom measures 9 1/2' x 12'. There will be a 3' x 5' walk-in shower to the right.

The new small bedroom's dimensions are 9 1/2' x 16'. Note the high ceiling.

The master bedroom has three doors, one to the deck, one to the den, and one to the hallway leading to the entrance, bathroom and small bedroom.

The 10' ceiling gives us lots of room for storage cupboards located above the closets. Notice that all the inside walls, including the closets, have lots of insulation too.

The old cottage has a pine floor throughout so that is what we will install in the new part as well. Refinishing the old floor will be a project for this winter maybe.

We insulated the attic with two layers of 5 1/2" pink fibreglass, equal to R40, and the 2x6 walls with half that. We also tore out and replaced the yellow R12 in the old cottage with the same R40.

We covered the whole roof with IKO Cambridge 30 shingles, colour Driftwood.
Here's how they look up close, kind of.

We installed a drive point well, and connected it to a jet pump in the house. There is plenty of water, and the pump draws about 8 gallons per minute.