An amazing welcome-back party!

The hostesses with the mostest

Di Nancekivell (having had to leave a sad and ailing Tom in Vermont) and Helen and Graeme Rutledge hosted a wonderful party for us on the Saturday of the long weekend. There were about 40 – 45 people there, many of whom had come to the Lake especially to help celebrate the fact that we’re in the last stretch of construction. It was a marvelous affair and those of you unable to be there were missed - and you missed a fabulous party!

'Aloha' to the Lake

Wikipedia says that 'aloha' means ‘affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy’ though it has also come to be used as an English greeting for ‘hello’. The lei I was presented said all of that: our family was certainly surrounded by love, peace, compassion and mercy, and we were well and truly welcomed home in a most amazing Lac des Iles way.

Party time!

A truly wonderful party!

Graeme made a lovely toast

The new cottage will have many treasures given by treasured friends

The fireplace

The finished chef d'oeuvre except for the mantles:
featuring Cécile, Cath, Tassy and Edmond

We thought you might be interested in seeing some of the steps that go into building a field-stone fireplace.

It started with Jean-Marc's fireplace guru - Serge St-Pierre. He took Jean-Marc and me to look at stones in a quarry in Ste-Agathe. Not satisfied with what we found there, Serge sent us off to a couple of other places. We were 'third time lucky' in Mirabel – who knew that field stones could be so different and that finding a ton or three of rocks so very complicated?

Step 1 - The skeleton

A mere 4 tons of field stones

Work began a week ago Thursday - by Friday morning the living room looked a bit like an indoor patio

Monday morning- the patio was larger and Serge (on the right) hard at work.
Note their addition of a vent (with a tip of the hat to Bruce Calhoun)

By the following Friday afternoon, it was all done but the mantles.
This is the dining room side - with the mortar still drying

WE'LL BE MOVING IN MID-JUNE!

Jean-Marc's scientific method of marking off the driveway circle

There is light at the end of the tunnel! The driveway has been mapped, the huge boulders are gone, the kitchen is under construction, electricity is working, doors have been hung, fireplace field stones are to be delivered on Wednesday, most plumbing fixtures are on order... And, astonishingly, Jean-Marc has given us the green light to move in the week of June 15th!

We are very excited about the 'welcome back' party next weekend and can't wait to see those of you who will be there. Both Kathleen and Melanie are very sad that they can't join in the fun - but will certainly be there in spirit.

Gilles is doing a great job of cleaning up and landscaping

The kitchen skeleton is provided by IKEA - everything else is being made by the Duvals

The fridge will be to the left of the unit in the corner, and the dishwasher just to the left of the window. Then there's a small cupboard unit with the sink to its right - centred under the window. To the right of the sink is another shelving unit which will provide counter space next to the stove which will fit into the next gap. Over it will be a hybrid convection-microwave-fan. More counter and cupboards to the right of the stove and around the corner.

The doors we salvaged in St.Jacobs have been 'revivified' and hung

The furnace has come with its very own fire tools!

Chantal trying out the shower for the basement bathroom

Nancy checking out the bath for the main floor bathroom

SNOW HAS GONE AND SPRING HAS SPRUNG

The porches have railings - posts will be painted next year

Railings from the driveway and an uncovered porch added for the BBQ and laundry line

Another week and lots more accomplished; but Tassy is right that we have to look more closely for the progress – changes are tending to be subtler.

The most obvious additions this week were the porch railings - Jean-Marc built and painted them in his garage and brought them over ready to install. He is now working on the porch screens – none too early as you’ll see from the last picture of this blog edition! FYI - the support posts have been treated so we can’t paint them until next year, and we think we’ll leave the cedar beams ‘au naturel’.

The Duval team have continued to mount window and door moldings as well as many of the baseboards and have laid more flooring as well. The back kitchen door has been installed, and now that the snow is gone, Gilles has been doing a great job cleaning up the site.

The tile is to be delivered this week, and Jean-Marc and I are hoping to make the final choice of stones for the fireplace. Hopefully the rest of the plumbing fixtures will be chosen on Wednesday morning – so we are beginning to really believe we’ll be in residence for the summer.

All quite amazing!

And if this wasn’t all enough – we’ve just sold the house in Montreal to a lovely young couple (occupancy at the beginning of August), so the hunt for duplex-type apartment is on.

We have a real door into the back hall

The second floor hall and stairs are flooded with morning light

Sue and Ric check the view from Kath's bedroom (note the baseboards and moldings around windows and cupboard!)

A nook for a bureau in Mel's bedroom

Screens needed on May 2?

SPRING IS COMING!

A great visit and lots of help from Mary Wemp, Jim's wonderful sister

Spring is really coming to Lac des Iles – there are early flowers blooming here and there and the patches of snow are fewer and smaller. In fact, on Sunday, April 26th, the ice was black and into its last gasps with large patches of open water. It was too inviting even on Saturday for our son David, so he had our compound's first swim of the year between the ice floes!

As for the cottage – it was a week of floors, windows and window mouldings – most of which are now stained, installed and looking wonderful. It’s amazing what a difference they make in helping the house feel like a home (in fact, like our home) and it was surprisingly emotional - “an ambush” as Sam Burstein would say.

It was wonderful to have Mary, Jim’s sister, along to help Chantal and me choose tiles for the front hall and basement and to finalize the kitchen design, when we went up at the end of last week to meet with Jean-Marc.

We stopped at Céramique Ital-Nord in Piedmont on our way up and chose sample tiles for the basement and the front entrance. The ground floor ones were a success, but the three basement samples we'd chosen were not. However, when we returned them to the store en route back to Montreal, Chantal found another one that Mary and I agreed might be better. So David, Tassy and I returned to the cottage on Sunday with it, and we all felt that it was the one.

I continued on Sunday to Lac Brule to pick up my dear friend Joy Tutsch who was visiting from Vancouver. She came with me to Barbeau & Garceau in St-Donat. It’s a great family-owned and run home furnishings store with appliances, and had been recommended by Jean-Marc and the Blacks. Having done a ton of research in Montreal and through Consumer Reports, I was ready to order the kitchen appliances, washer and dryer, and all the beds … a fairly overwhelming experience for me and pretty exciting for Pascal, the son of the owner! The appliance prices were better than any I had been offered in Montreal, and B&G will work with Jean-Marc to deliver things when he’s ready for them, which will certainly be helpful for him. The other bonus is that B&G is local, so if and when we need anything serviced, they will be there too make sure it gets done.

View from the tennis court

Sunday, April 26 - The ice is going out - while the back door is in!

Nancy and Mary in front of the newly stained and framed windows in the upstairs hall

Some members of "Team Cottage" showing off the new floors

Tassy checking out a bedroom cupboard with floors and windows done

The bath is ready to be hooked up

Jean-Marc and Chantal discussing the final kitchen plans

Boards for the ground floor are stained and ready to lay

A sign that the end is within reach - the thermostats are in!

DRIVEWAY FACADE IS ALMOST FINISHED

Note that Di is back in training!

It's been another busy week for the Duval crew at the cottage.

The Blakelies joined Dave, Tassy and Nancy last Sunday for a "Jean-Marc" guided tour of the progress. The clapboard is up on the driveway side of the house and the front door porch is close to being finished. They've painted and installed the tongue and groove ceiling in the living room and dining room, and the electricity and furnace are in and ready to go.

But almost best of all is that the sun been shining, the snow is melting and the sap is flowing - so it won't be long until we'll all be back at the Lake and visiting on each other's docks.

Tongue and groove ceiling is up - beams to come

Floor boards for the downstairs waiting to be stained

Some of the 2nd story floor boards ready for staining in Nancy's room

The chimney for the hybrid electric/wood furnace is ready for clapboard

THE CLAPBOARD IS ALMOST ALL UP

Easter Saturday - the perfect moment for a sense of back to the future

Kath and Nancy went to the Lake on Easter Saturday and were thrilled to find that most of the clapboard is up. All that is left to finish is the driveway side of the cottage, and as you can see from the pictures, the Duval crew is currently hard at work doing that. It is complicated somewhat by the fact that it involves building a small covered porch at the front door. That door, by the by, is where the dining room table used to be. There is now a small vestibule with access to the basement stairs.

Meanwhile, all the flooring planks are stacked here and there throughout the house and are ready to be stained and installed. We’ve included a picture with a sample stain colour which gives a pretty true idea of the colour.

I will be meeting with Jean-Marc in Mirabel on Thursday to look at more fireplace stones and then going to a tile place in St-Jerome where we’ll hopefully find the flooring for the vestibule and kitchen hallway. Bathroom fixtures are pretty much decided upon as is the design for the kitchen – so great progress as we head into Spring.

Belated happy Easter and Passover wishes to everyone from all the Wrights.

Clapboard going up on the driveway side

Jean-Marc helping us visualize the roof over the small front door porch

Stacks of flooring boards everywhere

An idea of the colour of the stain for the floors, doors, windows and moldings

MORE AND MORE LIKE HOME

Waiting for the field stone

Friday, in the pours of rain, Nancy drove up to Ste-Agathe to choose the type of stones to be used for the fireplace. She met the fireplace mason and Jean-Marc (who had brought Sue Garland along to provide support and a second opinion) at the stone supplier. After much scrambling through slush and climbing over snow banks we decided on just the “right” sort of stone – not too grey, not too dark and properly bumpy – in short, as much like the stones of the old fireplace as possible. Unfortunately I did not have my camera along on the stone hunt, but at least there's a picture of my fellow stone hunter with the fireplace skeleton.

CLAPBOARD IS GOING ON

View from the McEntyre's road

Sue and I drove back to her house via the cottage. With the black trim all on and the siding going up at a great rate, the house is looking more and more like home. As you can see from the top picture, the mason has built the fireplace skeleton, and the tongue-and-groove is up in the kitchen and bathrooms, so it is getting easier to imagine what the finished house will look like.

Bless Sue, when she discovered I hadn’t had lunch, she insisted on giving me a quick cup of soup, and then packed a bagel with cream cheese to go, as I had to rush back to town to show the Kensington house to a prospective buyer. It is on the market privately until next Friday, and if it hasn’t sold by then (though there are three couples interested), it will be listed by Re/Max the following Tuesday. So please keep your fingers crossed!

Clapboard and trim outside the dining room

Tongue-and-groove in the kitchen