Nanny Visit, Evening of Sept 28th (and following morning)

I wasn't able to attend Nanny's "day trip" last weekend so I was looking forward to getting back to the cottage.

Going over the pictures, it seems as though we had a pretty full weekend.  Just...not right away.  I only get home from work at about 6:15PM so by the time the last bits of packing and everyone is settle in, we don't leave until around 6:30PM, then have a two hour drive or so.

So our Friday was rather quiet.  Oscar trying to steal something (which includes personal space) and Nanny reading about loons.

The loon book thing might seem odd, but as Caroline can confirm, that book is fascinating.  Seriously.

The place is mighty chilly this time of year when you first arrive but once all bundled up, and with a couple of  glasses of your favourite drink in you, it gets cosy real quick.

We've often had dismal weather upon arrival, but for the most part we've had spectacular mornings.  Along those lines, here's kind of a neat thing; Sitting at the end of the dock looking left...

Sitting on the dock looking right:

Quite the contrast.  We're headed out there next weekend too.  I plan to take similar shots at about the same time on Saturday (weather permitting) to see the difference one week makes.

A Little Kitchen Sun

I mentioned in an earlier post that Christine and Nanny were making their way to the cottage this past weekend.  This was true, but what I did not know at the time was that they were to be joined by Rob and Deb.

It was a relatively quick day trip.  They left late morning on Saturday, stayed long enough to have dinner and came back in early evening or so.  I don't recall exactly; I stayed home with Oscar and fell asleep with him on the basement floor in front of...get this...a football game!

The goal was for Nanny to see the place before she left for Halifax.  Mission accomplished, but we're going to take her there again this weekend and spend a couple of nights.  I'm hoping she'll be a sport and help me haul in the dock.  All I need her to do is get in the water and push. We'll see how she feels.

Apparently I've drawn dinner duties on Saturday night. I'm tasked with making an Italian veggie casserole, one of the first meals I made successfully after overcoming my Oikiphobia.

That means a little time in the kitchen.  I have yet to spend a whole lot of time there yet (imagine...) but there is one aspect of it I quite appreciate.

Around the time we were buying our current house, Christine mentioned that she'd always wanted a sunny kitchen.  Sure enough, our kitchen gets almost no sun at all.  I don't know why, because it's not as though she mentions it frequently, but I always remembered that she wasn't able to scratch that off her wish list.

She's a little closer to having it now.

This time of year at least, the sun doesn't shine right through that window for a particularly long time.  It's partially shaded by the trees and the part of the roof that extends past the wall a bit.

But it still improves a view that is already slightly more pleasant than staring at the cars parked on our street.  It almost puts you in the mood to clean dishes!

Almost.

Brief Update on Oscar

Not everyone knows this, but little Oscar dog's been having issues of late.  He appears to be recovering, however.

Quick recap; Four years ago, the morning following our return from the cottage we rented near North Bay, Oscar lost the use of his back legs.  He required surgery to have a disc in his back filed down.  Told that the success rate is about 90%, we proceeded.  After a few weeks of rehab (ever walk a dog with his ass in a sling?  Instant conversation-starter!) he recovered the ability to walk and all seemed fine.

Shortly upon our return from the same cottage this year, damned if he didn't start showing similar signs.  It reached its worst point the evening that we returned from our first visit to our place.  He could walk, but was wobbly, and he'd get the shakes.  He was clearly uncomfortable.  We made a bad call; we brought him with us to Kingston and back twice, and one those trips was in a U-Haul van (so not the smoothest ride).  Factor in the drive to the cottage from home and back and that's a lot of road in the space of about 48 hours.

We have since "refreshed" one type of liquid medicine that he was taking, thinking it may have expired and become useless.  The vet suggested an additional pain-killer and keeping Oscar still as much as possible.

We adjusted our routine accordingly and the little guy is perking up nicely now.  He no longer gets the shakes unless he's being carried or needs to bake brownies, if you know what I mean.  He's getting a bounce in his step again.  The arrow seems to be pointing up.

So no cottage for him this weekend.  Christine will take Nanny there on Saturday, probably just for the day, to show her the place before her big move while the boys stay home.

Sounds like about 11 straight hours of football while Oscar chills.  I...can live with that.

Weekend of Sept 15th & 16th

This post is brought to you by...Sortilège maple whiskey liqueur.  Golden yellow in colour and sweet, this product boasts a intense nose exuding empyreumatic and vegetal aromas. On the palate, its light acidity and unctuous texture precede a long finish.**

In other words, it's really yummy!  And it was our drink of choice on Saturday night.  I stumbled into it at the LCBO in Astorville the week we visited while my folks rented a cottage out there.  Christine said "better buy it now while we can still afford it".  I could not argue with that line of reasoning.

There were two pleasant surprises this past weekend.  The first was having my dad show up, as he was not expected.  We were under the impression that he had another commitment and that my mom and sister would come down, but something came up and he ended up joining us.

The second was that a gentleman named Lloyd, who lives across the street year-round, dropped by to assist us in removing a futon from our place.  The removal of that futon was a goal that had eluded us the previous week.  Christine had asked Lloyd's wife (Gail) for instructions/directions that Saturday only to find out that we were too late to act anyway.

A week later, this guy not only remembered but came to our door to OFFER to help.  How do you like that?  That's the small town mentality at work.  If we'd been in Ottawa, I'd have probably been told to go screw myself, punched in the pants, then sued.

The point of removing that futon was to open up that corner a bit.  Here's the listing picture:

And the current state:

I should probably have removed the bag of garbage hanging from the door before taking that shot...

You can't tell from the original picture, but the piece of furniture under the window was previously against the right wall, by the table (off frame).  Moving it allowed us to extend the table "permanently" and still make it easier to get around.

So opening up one corner caused another to be more spacious too.  Well, once we find a home for the stuff over on the left, of course.  And obviously we want to add some of our own wall coverings and so on.

Work in progress.  No rush.

** I didn't write that, I found it on some website.  Although I think I remember telling mum that one of my favourite things about Sortilège is its empyreumatic aroma.

Headline: Awesome Ottawa Couple Buys Even Awesomer Cottage!

Most of you have actually been aware of this "breaking news" for a while but it became official on Friday evening when we picked up the key in Sharbot Lake.  Christine and I now own a cottage on Crow Lake.

Huh...This is Jean-François, by the way...For most of you, I'm some sort of in-law.  Short guy, glasses...

Don't know where Crow Lake is?  Don't feel stupid, no one else seems to.  If it's any help, it's about a half hour from Perth.  If that isn't any help, well...That's why God made Google. ;-)

Here she is in all her split-level splendour.  The two pictures below are from the virtual listing.

It is on a significant slope but features a daschund-friendly grass patch along the width of the property.  You can get a better a look at that here:

Showing listing pictures of the inside already borders on the pointless.  Of course, the previous owners (the Milligans) have removed some of their personal belongings/decorations but Christine also wasted no time applying her HGTV skills.  A number of the rooms have already seen significant changes.  I kept the pictures though and will likely do a before/after thing once our redecorating is more or less complete.  More on that later.

We arrived on Friday night, and after confirming that we have power and figuring out how to get water flowing, we got to see how the place withstands a wicked thunderstorm.  Apparently quite well.  Now that we know, let's not have any more of those, m'kay?

The following day's weather was mostly miserable as well, but we had some business to take care of anyway.  We went to Kingston to relieve Nanny of a number of her belongings (to be clear, she was a willing participant in this.  We didn't shake her down or anything...) including the bed from the Florida room.

The reward for getting all these tasks done in lousy weather was a spectacular Sunday morning.  Dig:

Ain't that something?

We have a lot to do and a lot to learn.  The Milligans were kind enough to leave detailed instructions and a number of contacts to help make the transition smoother.

Once better established, we look forward to having people come by and enjoy it with us.  Maintaining the place's history was important to the Milligans and that is the purpose of this blog.  We'll use it to record visits, events, changes, etc, so fair warning: If you drop by some time, there's a good chance you'll end up on here.  Now you know. :-)

More to come.