First things first: The wonderful news is that Sue brought Ric home from Ste-Agathe on Nov. 1st and he is recovering very well from his heart attack. Needless to say, we are all thrilled for Ric and for Sue that he's back and doing so well! So too is Mark Gagnon, Jenny Lindsay's husband, who, many of you will have heard, suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this week but is most wonderfully and miraculously on the mend. That family has certainly had far more than its fair share of excitement in the last couple of weeks and they are all much in our thoughts and hearts.
As for the house - its rising from the ashes, which is as exciting as it is scary and emotional. It was certainly very special to arrive on a beautifully sunny All Saints' Day and find the second floor framed, a plywood roof covering the main structure and great piles of shingles waiting to be installed. As you can see from the pictures, a team of three men managed to complete that job on the morning of Sunday, November 2nd, and did so in about three hours.
The current pictures show that the next step is to complete the building of the balconies and erecting the rest of the roof. Jean-Marc says that in another couple of weeks we'll be able to see a fairly complete outline of the house that will welcome us and all of you come next summer.
Thanks to everyone for their input on windows and doors - it's been quite a journey. In the end, we have ordered Bonneville double-hung wood windows - eastern white pine inside and white aluminum clad on the outside. The French doors will also be white pine inside and aluminum clad outside. Fiberglass windows were hugely tempting for a lot of good 'green' reasons, but are still too expensive, and in the end, not as good insulators as the wood ones. We are learning that there is an enormous amount of give-and-take in this world of trying to minimize one's footprint.
The next big decision is around the heating system or systems. We're still hoping to figure out some way to involve geothermal heating out of the Lake, but it's not as easy in Quebec as in Ontario. A fall-back possibility is to have a hybrid electric/wood furnace that could be modified to include geothermal heat in the future. Suggestions and advice are always welcome.
As for the house - its rising from the ashes, which is as exciting as it is scary and emotional. It was certainly very special to arrive on a beautifully sunny All Saints' Day and find the second floor framed, a plywood roof covering the main structure and great piles of shingles waiting to be installed. As you can see from the pictures, a team of three men managed to complete that job on the morning of Sunday, November 2nd, and did so in about three hours.
The current pictures show that the next step is to complete the building of the balconies and erecting the rest of the roof. Jean-Marc says that in another couple of weeks we'll be able to see a fairly complete outline of the house that will welcome us and all of you come next summer.
Thanks to everyone for their input on windows and doors - it's been quite a journey. In the end, we have ordered Bonneville double-hung wood windows - eastern white pine inside and white aluminum clad on the outside. The French doors will also be white pine inside and aluminum clad outside. Fiberglass windows were hugely tempting for a lot of good 'green' reasons, but are still too expensive, and in the end, not as good insulators as the wood ones. We are learning that there is an enormous amount of give-and-take in this world of trying to minimize one's footprint.
The next big decision is around the heating system or systems. We're still hoping to figure out some way to involve geothermal heating out of the Lake, but it's not as easy in Quebec as in Ontario. A fall-back possibility is to have a hybrid electric/wood furnace that could be modified to include geothermal heat in the future. Suggestions and advice are always welcome.
Porches are on their way...
Jean-Marc our our new verandas
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