The Great Construction Saga -- Part 12

While things grew colder outside, work hotted up inside. WW cut, sanded and installed the tops of the kneewalls, with a bit of brute force kindly provided by Eric. It looked like this:

Eric and WW encourage the kneewall top to sit as it ought.

The screen porch became more and more a thing of beauty and my favourite unroom:

The screen porch door and the porch itself, moving right along.

The view, in summer, will be lovely and it will be lovely 

place to escape the pesky mozzies and blackflies.

The lake became less and less water, and more and more ice:

The view from Ken's dock as winter settles in.

Then we had a massive thaw, the snow went and a house that looks a lot like a house gazed over the still-icy lake.

A pretty little house in a pretty little spot.

The Great Construction Saga -- Part 11

We normally leave for Django in the first week of November. This year, WW wanted to get as much construction in as possible before snow closed us down. Often, there is little or no snow before Christmas. Not this year. It looked like this:

Framing the screen porch in the snow.

The lake is starting to freeze over.

It's really not that cold...

Then there was a mighty thaw. All the snow went away, the road turned to mush. It looked like this:

A mucky road, but there's a roof on the screen porch!

A better view of the screen porch roof.

 WW, meantime, has been framing the upstairs windows. Some brilliant person (who has chosen to remain nameless) decided these should have horns. When I asked why, I was told they look nice. Well, actually, no, they don't. I'm happy to announce, the downstairs windows have been dehorned. This is what the horned version looks like:

The horned window frame. Sigh.

Our neighbours Margaret and David came to close up their house and joined us for dinner. In the morning, they were given the grand tour. They were suitably impressed, although they (wisely) refused to pass judgement on horned windows. Their visit, in part, looked like this:

Margaret and David chat with WW by the front window

of the dining room.

The living room and dining room will have a knee wall,

and here is its framing.

The overhang is done. Matt clears the roof 

in preparation for the roofer and his steel.

Then the temperature dropped and the road became firm enough to support a big truck or two. It was time to drill for the artesian well (our municipality will not allow us to use lake water, no matter how treated, for consumption). The artesian well process is one of incredible noise and two vastly strong men heaving about massive pieces of equipment. There's no subtlety at all. The trucks arrived in the morning and left at about midday the next day. It looked like this:

Finding the right place so the truck can be properly braced.

Once in place, the truck is raised on huge supports.

The trucks (there are two plus a pickup) bear the name of the company (Les Puits du Nord -- Wells of the North for non-French speakers) and some great art. Because the Laurentians are full of arid plains, men in serapes with paint ponies, and our mesas are legendary. It looks like this:

Yay for artesian wells in the desert vastness of the Laurentians!

The drill rig is raised and sound and fury commence.

Drilling. Bets have been place on the depth

at which water will be struck. We all lose.

Day 2 and we've passed 175 feet...

View of the drilling from Ken's dock.

Water is struck at 210 feet down. A trench in the frozen ground

channels the flow downhill.

Highly technical flow measurement: plastic gallon jug plus

wristwatch (repeated 4 times) = about 100 gallons per minute.

Our well. We'll connect it to the house next year.

The Great Construction Saga -- Part 10

Things trundle along. Really, pictures tell the story best. All the trundling looked like this.

Front porch getting its cedar siding.

WW working on routing for the grey tubes that

are the in and out conduits for the heat exchanger.

Eric trimming braces for the deck overhang.

More skilled carpentry by Eric.

The front deck begins to have an overhang.

The overhang will provide shade in summer,

icicles in winter.

WW has begun the work of putting batten on the SIP seams.

Batten makes things look tidier upstairs.

Matt installs eave trim.

The nail gun seems to be in continuous use.

The Great Construction Saga -- Part 9

Next on the agenda is everything else. The screen and front porches get framed and work begins on the interior. It looks like this:

The floor of the screen porch is almost finished.

The view up the hill toward the garage from the screen porch.

Matt and Eric get the last of the porch floor installed.

Then the front porch/mud room is begun.

Upstairs, someone is making floor.

The view from below as the floor goes in.

WW preparing flooring for Eric upstairs.

Meanwhile, the front porch is developing apace.

Lots of room on the right for hanging coats.

A definite upgrade from the accommodations 

in the Little House.

It's a floor!

Uh oh. We don't seem to have enough floor.

Still, handing for getting small children downstairs quickly.

The right side will be the guest bedroom.

Left side will be a study/TV room.

Study/TV room.

The Great Construction Saga -- Part 8

I apologise for the hiatus in postings. On November 7, the smallest member of the crew went missing and hasn't been seen since. I can only hope he is resting comfortably with someone who can appreciate his many talents. All other scenarios are unacceptable. I have been overcome with grief and not felt much like perpetrating cheery construction banter. But here we go again. I must get caught up.

As advertised, Zack and the big digger arrived to terraform our environs. Eric, a talented landscaper who has worked with Zack before, was away on a hunting trip to Anticosti Island, so it was Matt who played chicken with the big scoop. Much earth was moved. Many large stones were shifted. It looked like this:

Creating a sloped pathway to the front door.

The view from the other side 

where Matt had begun shingling under the eaves.

Matt holding one of the cement forms that will eventually 

support the screen porch. Zack operating with much delicacy.

A rustic stairway built from our bumper crop of big stones.

The first flight leads to barbecue and bread oven level.

The second leads to the parking area.

Matt corrected me. It's not a chair.

It's a beer table.

Zack arranged more big stones down the incline to make a pool.

Our drainage will run into it so we'll hear running water

from the comfort of our screen porch.

Landscaping as seen from the side dining room window.

With the landscaping at last completed, Matt returned to his scaffold and his shingles. He gave me a brief course in shingling and we discussed beautiful examples of the art we have seen in the Maritimes. Then I went off and Matt succumbed to inspiration. It looked like this:

Matt puts his imprint on our house with his waves.

He said we shouldn't have left him alone...

Eric returned from his hunting trip, recovered from a cold,

and prepared a cement pad to support our propane tank,

up by the garage. Cooking stove and heating (pseudo wood)stove

will run on propane.

The shingling nears completion.

Yes, it is that gorgeous.