You’ll notice from the photos below that we started the garage in the early Fall. It’s not finished but we are close, and it’s looking really good.

We started with building up the base with gravel. And by “we” I mean Kevin and Mike Jr from Goheen Construction. Then the slab frame was built, concrete poured, and a cross cut done to give the water a place to go. At the time I thought this was a cool idea, but now am completely appreciative of this as it’s taken months to get the slab covered.

About 6 weeks after the slab was finished the garage materials started to appear on site and the framing got started. Next was the roof, the “man” door, and the 2-car garage door to be installed. We are still waiting for the last 2 pieces of the roof to be put on at the back, and then the capping strip down the middle of the roof so the snow will stop coming in. If I’ve learned anything through this build, it’s patience.

… one day we will drive up and the siding, soffit and fascia will be finished …

… you get excited when the septic system goes in!

Yup, we will be talking to all our cottage-owning friends on how to maintain our septic. It was pretty neat watching it go in. It was a combination of multiple trades – Goheen Construction for the digging and tank installation and then digging the trenches, and then Veenstra Plumbing for the hook-up. Here’s a peek into how it all came together:

Okay, first, I owe an apology. I promised an update “tomorrow” and I didn’t come through. Two reasons; there wasn’t actually as much to report on as I thought there would be – which made me feel a bit down –  and … I ran out of time.

But I’m back now, and very excited to give an update on the Cottage. There is only the kitchen and the bathroom to finish up, and the bath is almost done. The best news however is that we now have a working toilet! This might seem like a pretty standard expectation, but for the past 6 months we’ve had to “take care of business” at various stops on the way down, and then again on the way home. To be able to drive straight through is just amazing.

As I said, the bathroom is almost complete! The hot water tank is in the basement, thanks to Mark at Veenstra Plumbing. Once he comes back to install the shower fixtures we can maybe stay overnight – super sweet!

And thanks to the bruit strength of my brother Joe, we were able to move the refrigerator into the Cottage. This was one of our first purchases, about a year ago. It was a pretty impulsive and a bit expensive, but we think it looks great.

As you can see we have pops of red in the Cottage – hopefully inviting enough for our friends and family to want to come for a visit!

This has been a BIG week for the build! David LaCroix of LaCroix Electrical has put in all the lighting in the main house. The painting has been done, including the 20 foot cathedral ceiling! The garage has been started and progress made on the porch roof.

We are going down tomorrow, but here’s a glimpse into what we’re going to see!

Okay, we are so excited! Over the past two weekends Uwe Leder has been working on the Cottage to get the bathroom tiling done. He is truly a craftsman! We haven’t seen it in person yet, but wanted to share the progress as this makes us so close to having some creature comforts INSIDE!

Yup, can’t wait to no longer need this!

We are having a really big week at our County house! The heat is on in the Cottage – a lovely +14C. The HVAC is being installed and hooked up by our (now) dear friends Bob and Ryan of B&B Heating and Cooling in Trenton.  Having the heat on is not only a really important step, but just makes the place feel closer to being a home. Bob’s #1 guy Ryan is young in age but wise in knowledge. He knows a lot about the HVAC instillation but also all the ever-changing rules and regulations. Ryan has also helped in so many other ways at our site. We’ve noticed that Ryan is a really gifted mentor – just a wonderful guy, all round.

This week the roof over the porch is being built! We are pretty excited about this too, because the front of the house is taking shape. We hope you are starting to see how the house is going to look when finished. The porch is wood deck-boards, and the frame is 6X6 posts, but the rafters are steel – just like the house. The roof will be red and there will be soffit to cover the steel rafters. We are also looking forward to seeing the siding finished – could it be soon? I’m trying not to get too excited!

And inside, the Cottage is having the trim work re-done, which is somewhat frustrating but we are looking for quality, so it’s worth the wait. The tiling in the bathroom is starting this weekend, so we are closer to getting the water turned on. We can’t imagine!

For the Main House, the finishing work on the drywall is being done this week. This work is also taking longer than expected, but once again, we are the quality of the work is important to us. You might notice a living room window is boarded up. One of the guys was a but over-enthusiastic in trying to open a locked window … so it’s being replaced. All this to say – we are moving forward!

Insulation is not very exciting, and I really don’t know much about it, but I bet we’ll really appreciate it on a long winter’s night in The County!

We have a few types of insulation in the main house. There’s pink fiberglass batting in the cathedral ceiling and then they shred it to be blown into the flat parts of the ceiling. And on the outside is a space-aged silver that looks like grey Styrofoam.  In the basement is a wall wrap, and seriously, we could feel the difference once it went in.

All this to say is we should be warm and comfy!

I can not say enough about the fabulous work by James King of Sensational Wood Interiors on the staircase in the Cottage. You can tell when someone is just going to do a great job – they don’t demand all the $$ up front.

Kidding aside, and more importantly, James was really thoughtful about the design of the staircase (it’s nice and wide) and how we’ll be accessing the loft area. Here are some photos so you can see for yourself just how “sensational” our staircase and railing really is!

Building the chimney was kinda cool to watch. It was just an open hole in the living room for so long, I wasn’t sure how it would work. It started with an steel frame (actually the whole house is frames with steel). The steel was covered in plywood and then with insulation on the inside. It took awhile to get built out, but when done, the stone could then be attached. And we really like the look of the stone!

The porch is an important part of keeping the build going. It’s the base for the porch roof and needed to build out the chimney frame. It didn’t actually take that long – there was just a lot of days with no activity between the start and finish. Here’s what the build looked like: