But It's Not All Bad!

Leading up to becoming Atlantis Of The North, we had ourselves some pleasant and productive weekends.

The Festival Of The Maples takes place in Perth on the last weekend of April and, you may recall from past posts about this event, is our target date for opening our place up, so we look forward to it a great deal. Christine went without me last year, but we both went this year.

Unfortunately, I left my phone in the car, like a dippy dummy, so I didn't get any pictures of the event itself. But we did fare rather well.

Maple cotton candy might be the best $5 I've ever spent. Christine looks for that particular bottle of maple syrup at right because it's organic (and extra yummy).

We spent the most time at a booth for All About The Soup. They don't trumpet it, but their entire line is vegetarian so it was nice for us to not have to cherry pick.

We've had, and loved, the Trinidad Corn (as a soup) and the African Peanut (over rice) but will likely work our way down the menu. I may donate my portion of the Beet Chiller to my mum, because I know she loves her beets, and I luv my mum. :-)

A few weeks prior to all that, my dad and I worked on the living room floor.  I won't display much of that now, because I would rather wait for the baseboards and quarter round to be installed, but it's looking pretty class, I think.

Looking forward to the finished product.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a different approach to the kitchen floor. I'd already removed some of those tiles but now I pull one up every visit. By the time the season is over, I should have the whole thing pretty well stripped and ready for replacement.

We haven't fully completely settled on a new tile yet but it probably won't get done until about this time next year anyway. We'll come up with something.

One Hour Closer To Cottage Season!

But man it's cold. It's so damn cold.

Last winter, I managed two overnight visits to Crow Lake. Just one this year and even that one was testing the boundaries of good sense.

There was a job I wanted to complete though. During an earlier winter visit (only for a couple of hours) Christine and I began removing some of the living room tiles in order to replace them with something awesome.

When I'd messed with those tiles during our last weekend there, they came up easily. That created an incorrect perception that the job would be fast and easy.

The reality was that I just happened to choose easy ones to try to lift. Turns out the central part of the other tiles and the floor were stuck together tighter than Sigfried and Roy. So only the edges of the tiles would come up and break off. You ended up with this situation for virtually every tile around the fireplace.

Come on, man...

This was unexpected because for the most part, the dining room floor had come up fairly easily last year. At times I could pop those off in bunches of four or six.

But not in the living room, baby! There I was pleased if I could snap off a six-inch chunk. It was baby steps the whole way.

And so an excuse for a winter trip emerged. Christine equipped me with all sorts of scrapers and hammers and what-not and off I went. It was a battle but I threw on some classic blues and (literally) chipped away at it.

No flooring is already an improvement on the atrocity that was previously laid down. I could live with it for a while except that it remains sticky in many places. When we've dropped by and there has been exposed flooring, we've been a little concerned that we're going to find a mouse that got stuck and died there. Or a chipmunk. Or a moose. Can you imagine arriving to that?

Ideally, I'd like to have the new floor done before opening up but weather seems to be dictating otherwise. If it's an opening weekend job, so be it.

In the meantime, I'm going to make up for lost time a bit with a few pictures from our summer vacation that haven't made it on here yet.

Truthfully, I wish I could post a boat load of pictures from when Chantal and Joseph visited in September but it was only upon their departure that we realized that not a single one of us took a single picture. It's been months and I still don't understand how that happened.

It was a great visit, too, even though it was hot as hell throughout most of it. Outdoor fires, port, cigars, a little time spent in the water...But not a single picture. Baffling.

Instead, I'll throw down a few shots from our (Christine and me) visit to the Scheurmann Winery in Westport in late summer. We had stopped there before but there was no activity in the place. It felt like we were trespassing.  We assumed that maybe they just hadn't fully opened for business yet so we took off.

They were clearly open this time around so we stopped in and were greeted by this dood and his timely cock-a-doodle-do.

Fun stop. I recall that Chris wasn't blown away by the Pinot Noir but I enjoyed my sparkling cider just fine. But I would stop in just for the rooster.

Spring! Time To Rotate The Furniture!

We had some company this past weekend. Christine's mum and Nanny came by on Saturday and spent the night. Rob and Deb joined us that afternoon, then Kathy showed up early on Sunday for the day.

Beautiful mini-vacation. Chris and I arrived on Thursday evening because we took Friday off to make a four-day weekend. The entire "holiday" was sunny and warm. A lot of our time with guests was spent at the kitchen deck, chatting and munching.

The dining room and hallway renovations aren't quite completed yet but discussion about the work done to this point made me notice how many things have been improved simply by moving items around. The paddle on the wall above the wine rack and the boat picture above the couch in the dining were both wasting away in the bunkie, for example.

With that in mind, more recently...

The above was the proverbial first domino to drop. Just a Wal-Mart purchase. It replaced a dresser that was shorter, but wider. However, because of that width, it was a bit in the way when entering the master bedroom. So not only does this guy look significantly better, he helped create better access.

Plus he's heavy as hell. Christine likes to have me carry heavy things.

The dresser that was replaced went into the bunkie.

There he is, holding up Fred The Frantic Garden Frog. He was a bit in the way in the master bedroom, but for a structure that will become a shed, a dresser with several drawers of varying sizes makes a lot of sense. Nice fit.

While I was down there, I noticed a small table that I also wanted to repurpose. It's supporting another frog now.

Just a little fold out deal that they had tucked away for guests to use while spending nights in the bunkie. Therefore, it no longer served a purpose. Now it does. In addition to displaying Fern, I also rest my Captain Canuck coaster there when I sit in the Captain's Chair.

The table we used previously is now next to the new dresser (at right on the first picture).  And the coffee table that we were using in the living room now appears in the bunkie picture.

And why is that, you ask? Because we made this guy:

This was another table that sat in the bunkie, gathering up clutter. We popped of the top, trimmed a few pieces of wood that were laying around under the house and screwed those in place. It looked pretty nice at first, but one of the boards is starting to warp so it still needs a little love. We'll work on it.

To cap things off, we replaced the cushions on the chairs in the living room.

Doesn't Fern look happy? He's positively glowing! :-)

Nothing fancy there, those were picked up in a Loblaw's. The previous ones were stained and worn so they're now in forced retirement.

So a bunch of small changes executed while making the big ones. The big ones are almost done and I can't wait to share those too.

More Floor Futures

I still don't want to show anyone what's going on in the dining room and the hallway but I can say that it's well underway.

My dad and I planned on heading out there last Saturday to work on a number of things. There was no way we would be bored, there are plenty of projects, big and small, to attack. Asley made a surprise guest-appearance and provided another extremely helpful pair of hands.

Once we got going, there was no stopping our little runaway freight train. We worked for five or six hours straight. Well...I did take the occasional break to text Christine about how friggin' awesome the whole thing looked.

We made sure the floor was level. Or as level as we were ever going to get it, anyway. We're not exactly working with a quality canvas here. If the walls are crooked, the floors are too, right?

But despite that little road block we got about 80% of the dining room done. Dad and I are heading back out there tomorrow to wrap it up. In theory. I shall report back.

At some point, feeling I wasn't contributing much (it doesn't take three people to tap in uncut boards of vinyl flooring) I wandered off to finish the stairs.

Man, look at that...Why in the hell would you ever tile that over? It's unlikely that we will. We'll give them a good sanding and proper framing but this is a case of less is more.

Here's another look at the post "demolition" result.

Maybe a stain or something...We'll figure it out.

Of course, now we're falling into the trap of "The floor will look great in the hallway!" leading to "The stairs will look like crap."  Then when the stairs look great, the floor around the fireplace in the living room will look like a turd in a punch bowl. And so on and so forth.

So while I don't like to overstate things, I must admit that we're at the point where the mere sight of that living room floor tile feels like a violation of our souls.

Thankfully we believe we've landed on its replacement.  If you can find the time, rotate your eyes about five degrees to your right.

See that colour scheme? That's going to be the floor down there, we think. It should blend nicely with the other half of the room.

Not sure yet of the timing on this one. I mean, I would LOVE for it to be done for when Christine's mum next visits but I'm not sure about scheduling, resources (including manpower), etc.

We do have a few days off at the end of April....

"Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?"

Usually from other people.

With perhaps small exceptions that don't register enough to come to mind now, I think we're pretty well done replacing the knick-knacks that had been left behind by the previous owners.

One of the most recent changes involved a wooden train set placed on a small shelf above the couch in the dining room. Pretty inoffensive stuff, but it meant nothing to us.

It occurred to me at some point that it would be cool to replace it with my own toy train from when I was a kid.

I spent a fair bit of time messing around with that guy. We had this large table top set up in the basement combining the train with an auto racing track and would run both at the same time. Good times.

I knew that I'd seen a box in my parents' basement at some point with at least some of the pieces still intact. Assuming my dad had no plans to rebuild it all in his own basement, I asked him to bring it up some time and he did so when my parents visited during the first weekend of October.

We're located fairly close to train tracks at Crow Lake. You might not expect it to be, but the sound of the train going by is actually kind of pleasant, whether it's by the fire in the evening or buried under blankets early in the morning. You wouldn't necessarily attach the word "soothing" to that sound, but somehow, it kind of is.

So a railway-themed decoration is completely appropriate for us, particularly in light of the family members who have careers in the field. I love seeing this thing when I walk in and plan on adding to it.

Another "toy" spent the back half of the season at the cottage. It's what everyone at some point or other has wished they had at hand: A figurine of John A. Macdonald.

No?

There's a bit of a story here. A number of times when Christine and I planned on visiting Nanny in Kingston, I would suggest perhaps dropping by Johnny Mac D's burial site. There are signs in town pointing to it and everything.

But hell, I figured that the Big Country Daddy would have something with a little flash to represent his forever "sleep it off" point. I wasn't expecting neon or fireworks, or course, but you know...He's no Gretzky but he's still kind of a big deal!

I gave up on ever going, because for some reason Christine seems to lack interest in cemeteries. So I googled it, knowing full well I was in full spoiler mode, and it turns out it's totally lame. I pulled the picture below from the 'net.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak!

But anyway, my apparently-too-frequent mentions of JAM's eternal hangover nap spot prompted Christine to buy me his figurine to sleep next to to display at the cottage. She, with Kathy, picked it up at the war museum, if I recall the tale correctly. (Edit: That's full of crap, they picked it up at the gift shop in the Parliament Buildings. I knew that.)

And while you may scoff at the notion of an "action figure" featuring a historical political icon, the ladies were told that these figurines are actually quite popular with Asian visitors, so...I don't know where I was going with that, but take it into account anyway.

Of course, I'm not foolish enough to have opened mine. It would ruin resale value down the road. But here's what it would look like if I did.

Just needs a couple of bottle of red wine and you're all set.

The folks behind Canadian Legends have since added Sir Wil and Sir Isaac Brock (!!!) to their collection. Not a bad start. Now I'm just waiting for Russ Jackson!

Late Summer / Early Fall Additions

Playing catch up over here. Those of you on the mailing list should not be surprised if you get a bunch of notices in a relatively short period of time. You might not, but don't be surprised if you do.

There were a number of additions to our little slice of heaven during our vacation weeks. Some were practical, some were decorative. We'll start with one that falls under both categories.

My folks handed over their set of fireplace tools because they're changing their fireplace from wood to gas burning.

Man, they're great (The tools. Well, my folks too, come to think of it)! The set that had been left behind by the past owners was...let's call it "well worn".  The broom bristles were all bent and the head on the poker would constantly become unscrewed, which is EXACTLY what you want when you're literally playing with fire.

These new (to me) tools are sturdier and in far better condition. I already enjoy messing with my fires and this kit made a good thing even better.

Speaking of creating warmth (yeah, that's an awkward segue)...I mentioned baseboard heaters before (pretty sure I did) and they were finally installed in early September.

In addition to the one above, in the guest bedroom, we have one under the dining room window as well, on the lake side. They work pretty nicely, especially the guest room one since it's such a small area.

They look a little odd at first. Even the electrician was a little surprised that they needed to be installed at least six inches from the floor. But since so much of our paneling is the same, they actually break up the pattern a bit.

That's practical. We conclude with decorative.

Just in case we didn't have enough Canada-themed items around the place, we added this one. Christine found it on the Byward Market while attending Caroline's bridal shower this past spring. It sat on our table at home for a while until she got it framed and put it up recently.

Being so close to Halloween, I should do a photo collage of creepy reflections. There's another one.

Plenty more to come once I get some of my pictures re-sized, download some more from my phone, copy a few from Rob and Deb...The blog may not have been particularly active in recent weeks, but we (several family members included) certainly have been.

The Great Shed War of 2015

Contrary to what yesterday's post may suggest, Maple Festival weekend isn't all about eating tasty, sweet, tree sweat in its various forms. I had asked Christine on the way up on Friday night if she was ready to witness to the age old feud between man...and shed.

(She was)

The longer we've owned the place, the more we've grown to hate that damn shed. I'd swear that the junk in there actually has some sort of breeding ability and multiplies while we're not looking. We've had several "clean-outs" of that structure only to feel again shortly after that it's still filled with garbage. It is a factory of crap.

Well, no more! We are determined to get rid of it. It's filthy, has holes in the roof and the floor's rotted in some areas. Got to go.

And so, armed with nothing but a screwdriver and my awesome Mechanix gloves...

I charged into the belly of the beast!

George had my back.

For a while...

After the shed spit me out about three hours later, we (Christine included) had pretty much gutted the thing. It's basically just a shell now. We WILL prevail! Eventually.

That was a job that we actually started during our last visit. There were a number of those revisited during this past weekend. Among them was a wine rack we bought that combined took about eight hours to put together. I kid not.

But first we removed one piece of furniture which was of no use to us and slid the one that holds our extra dishes and such over to the window. So that corner looks kind of like this now.

There's that red lantern I mentioned in an earlier post. And that's George's bed at left. He loves to chew that thing when he's wound up. It generates an infinite amount of foam bits.

The space between the doorways that lead into the kitchen now looks like this:

Nice photobomb, Georgie...

I dig that the wine rack coincidentally matches my little lighthouse. The paddle was dug out of the devil shed some time last year, I think, and because it's cracked down the flat end, it's basically useless as anything but decoration anyway.

The wall looks a little bare now but slap a bottle of wine and some flowers up there and that should look pretty nice (or at least help mask the faded area where a mirror used to be).

The plan is to cover the chairs with the same material as the couch, something we want to trick Kathy into doing learn how to do at some point. It's coming along.

No posts in October???

I didn't realize it had been that long.  Why didn't one of you say something??? ;-)

It turns out that the last few weekends of cottage season were largely uneventful (which, you know, is kind of nice from time to time...). We had made some plans but they feel through so we were left with leaves to burn and animals to feed (and villains to capture in the Batman series of video games but no cares about that. For the record though, I'm THAT much closer to catching that Riddler jerk. I WILL get him).

I may look pretty miserable there but truth is I'm seldom happier than in front of a fire in the fall (indoor or outdoor). Maybe I'm happier when the RedBlacks win.  So like I said, seldom.

Still, some things got done. We did have Kathy over on a lovely Thanksgiving weekend...

...a visit which was kicked off by replacing the leather couch in the dining room.

Now pardon me, but...that was one heavy bastard. It was a sofa bed, all wood and old, cracked leather...Just dreadful. Comfy enough, mind you! But still. It was time to see what my old friend Dumpmaster Gary was up to.

Kathy delivered replacement couch and for the life of me, I can not find a picture of it now. I could have sworn I'd taken one but I just can't seem to come across it. Whatever. I'll have plenty of opportunity to get one another day because THAT couch isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Another minor project got taken care of earlier that day. Remember those fence posts I "made"?

We had one 12-foot length of wood remaining (always better to have too much than not enough). So I cut it in half, then split one of the halves down the middle to make a frame of sorts for the kitchen garden.

I like that kind of job because it sounds a fair bit harder than it actually is. Then I have the choice to either a) make it sound like a terrible ordeal or b) make it sound like it would be a terrible ordeal for anyone else, but it wasn't for me. I choose based on my desired outcome.

Anyway, it's not exactly the sort of change that will set property values soaring, but the garden looks a bit more organized now and we have a bit of a path to the compost box.

We've done more since, and I'll go over that in the next post, but in the meantime here are some results of the animal feeding referred to earlier.

Birthday Week part 2 of a couple more

But first, before we move on from Christine's birthday, a brief flashback...

Shortly after we opened the place this year, we dropped by Westport to do a little shopping.  Christine eyed a piece decorative metal art (I guess that's what you call it...) in one souvenir store that she thought would be a great fit.

At the time, because she was reluctant to get it, I suggested we go ahead and buy and put it down as an early birthday present for her.  We try to avoid cluttering, but I couldn't pass up that birthday gift insurance policy opportunity (damn good thing, too, 'cause sure enough...).

Anyway, here it is:

It's hung over the window to the left of the entrance to the master bedroom.  We like having a window there, but weren't crazy about the frosted sunrise/sunset decoration on it (can't seem to find a "before" picture at the moment).  We debated about scraping that decoration off, but thinking it might end up being difficult to do it so that the window is completely "clean", we decided against the attempt.  Christine did a great job of using it as a frame to her crows instead.

And it couldn't be much more appropriate in Crow Lake.  We've had a lot of fun with visiting crows this summer, leaving peanuts around for them to find.  We actually miss them between visits, even if they don't always look or sound all that friendly towards us.

Back to our current spot in time, my folks popped by for a couple of nights on Tuesday the 29th.  As usual, it took no time for my dad to get busy with odd jobs.  That included additional work on the picnic table, which had its legs replaced.

That's some sharp looking legs. And the picnic table's pretty spiffy too!

We also started fencing off the area at the end of the property in which Christine wants to build her boat garden.

I'm fairly proud of the above.  We bought three 12-foot pieces of wood, two of which I split down the middle (more or less.  It was eyeballed, so...) with the axe.  A few weeks back, I planted the posts through root and rock (and horse flies), then split two of the remaining 6-foot pieces lengthwise. Pappy screwed them into the posts all nice and tight to further things along.

When the cut pieces weather over time, the whole thing should look a bit more uniform. Christine has since planted flowers at the base, but they don't seem tremendously happy there. I'll wait until they perk up before posting any pictures of that.

Dad also installed an equalizer along our wonky living room floor.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture, but this shot from March, when the floor was painted, should at least illustrate the challenge he faced in making the floor equal.

On the night my parents arrived, they treated us to an excellent meal at The Maples Restaurant in nearby Sharbot Lake.  I've talked about their pizza before, and Chris and I had have had a good breakfast there, but they impressed again.  We had an excellent pasta primavera on their deck, near the beach.  Under some slightly worrisome clouds, mind you, but the rain held off.  Well, it did that night, anyway.

That takes us to Thursday, July 31st, when we made a brief roadie into a swell little town called Newboro.  That's next.