The Shedule..part 1
Date: Saturday, March 25, 2000 11:09 AM
Subject: Cottage construction schedule
Right now there isn't ant schedule as the ice is still in. Dieter at Admiral says it will be a couple of weeks. I will keep you posted.
I have had a cht with dennis robitaille and expect he will be ready to go as soon as the ice clears. Word is the water is so low we may be able to drive a truck right to the job. I knew that road allowance would come in hady.
We are heading off to Maine with meredith who has been visiting us while Scott and genny have been in Paris. Will be back 29th or 30th and if there is anything to update i will let you know.
If you want to check the ice conditions go to cis.ec.gc.ca/free/index.html
Joe
|
|
An Update Kind of a slow weekend on the channel but we did get rid of all the dry wall and mouse nests. I guess there is nothing mice like better than a cosy space between a snow covered roof and a smooth layer of drywall ceiling. The space was literally packed with their own brand of insulation and "meeses feeses".
The kitchen is now a thing of the past. It was built by the way in July of 1948. As the father of an archaeologist it wasn't necessary to carbon date anything all I had to do was read the dateline on the newspapers under the roofing. Just as a sidebar I doubt any of you have sent a Christmas card to Louie Passhacienda but he was greatly instrumental in the building of that wing or ell or slant of the cottage. He was a friend of distant cousins who Dad wished were even more distant i.e.. "Why the hell can't they stay in New Jersey." They (John & Harold Mckenna) arrived at the cottage just about the time Dad said, "after lunch we are going to build the kitchen". You have all seen the result. A lot of the credit has to go to Louie. This was obviously before they had invented 16" centres. Squares or levels. Nevertheless it stood for fifty-two years and was damm hard to knock down.
All that stands now is the main living room, which was built some time after 1915. Dennis hopes to come on Tuesday with a "digger" to finish the excavation and at that time he will put this last vestige of the old place to rest. It was a great space. It brings a true feeling to the old poem Bless This House.
We hope the new cottage will somehow keep the memories and love that the old place represented. But maybe with less bat, mice, bears and rattlesnake episodes. Word has it that the "pine bugs are already planning their assault on the new place.
Anyway on with the schedule. There may still be a small hitch in the schedule. It turns out one of the reasons the site was originally selected was that it was a fairly flat area. The reason for this was that sometime after Adam and Eve a nice bowl formed where the cottage stood. Over a few millennium the bowl filled up with soil. When Dennis removed the soil the bowl filled up with water. While this water can be pumped out once it collects (a sump pump) a better idea is to have it drain. It is hoped that we will be able to break through the rock using conventional methods if this doesn't work TNT is the final solution. Once we have the drainage working work will begin on the footings and block walls when that is done the framing can begin in earnest (actually earnest isn't a month) so the framing will begin in May we hope early May.
In the meantime there is still a lot of wood to be converted into BTUs and sent heavenward (is that a word).
Cleanup is still the word of the day.
Joe
|
|
Lets get going
Now that the nice weather is here 08/04/00 its time to get going on the cottage.
But first don't feel bad if you can't arrange any time as I am sure we will have lots of volunteers and the limiting factor of who comes will be sleeping accomodations.
The first order of business is to get the rest of the site cleared so Dennis Robitaille can put the foundation in. I had planned to get up there on the weekend but the fol weather forecast said that it would not be a good idea. I would like to go up on Monday or Tueseday with three or four people and get the furniture put out under tarps and knock down the remaining part of the cottage. if there are any sould available I would like to hear from you.
I expect the foundation will take a week or so and then the construction can begin in either late April or early May.
I will keep yopu posted on progress
one of the Joes
Progress Report
Update April 18/00
Last weekend Tom Jim and I continued the demolition of the cottage. Our work mainly consisted of building a platform to store most of the contents of the cottage, We then covered all the soft goods in plastic loaded the platform with said goods and tarped them. We also removed all the other furniture, the fridge, and the kitchen cabinets.
We knocked down most of the walls and removed the dry wall. We could not bring the structure down as it is still hooked to the hydro. We expect it will be disconnected next week and demolition can proceed.
Dennis Robitaille and an associate came over on Sunday and we discussed a number of aspects of the project
The site of the cottage is somewhat like a bowl once the earth was removed possibly 3 to 4 ft of earth. Once it the earth was removed late last fall it filled up with water and showed us that it will not drain naturally so we will have to have a small channel cut or blasted to allow drainage
This work along with the building of the foundation should start late this week or early the following week. I have no firm completion date but once this work has started we should have a good idea of when the construction of the cottage can begin. I would expect we are talking roughly the first week in May. Doug Peutz says it might take up to three weeks to frame the cottage so we will be looking for help the early part of May. Once the place is framed we can go about the finishing in a more leisurely pace but I would hope the whole job will be finished this year.
The main work right now involves the cleaning up of the property i.e. burning the scrap wood and dismantling the remaining structure. Right now the property looks quite a mess probably worse then across the channel. This may be a good thing because the church was willing to pay ,000 for that property who knows what they might offer for ours.
I had a call from the Township the other day advising me that we have to post signs indicating that we are closing the road so that the locals can bring their objections to the meeting in June when the proposal will be heard before council. There is a rumour that Tim Hortons plan to build a donut shop at the five-chain mark so we may have some opposition.
I am planning to go up on Wed. 19th and will be working away at the mess but there is really no critical work to be done thanks to the efforts of Tom and Jim last weekend. If anyone wants to come up and pitch in please feel welcome
Joe
|
Have a blast
It looks like whether we like it or not we are going to have a blast at the cottage. Probably not to big a one just enough to provide a drain for the ground water. We may also trim a little off the rock behind where the dining room used to be to keep the height down a little. We'll see.
I was up there on Tuesday with Elizabeth. DR had a crew of two bring the backhoe in and the demolished the rest of the cottage and completed the excavation which is ready for the footings and concrete block foundation. Unfortunately they could not find a path for the ground water to drain and blasting seems to be the solution. We could install a sump pump but this would increase the maintenance of the cottage and inevitably lead to spring openings with a crawl space full of water. The blastman will be there Saturday to see what can be done. Until this is decided they don't want to proceed with the footings, as the blasting would no doubt damage them.
An interesting sidelight to the goings-on across the channel is that there is a goodly supply of 2 by 6,8,10s over there as well as almost enough T&G plywood for the flooring. There may also be available enough above ground cable to hook up the hydro. The church is very interested in selling this material at excellent terms.
Right now all there is to do is cleanup of the remaining wood and shingles and assuming the lumber over the way is suitable the transport to our side of the channel. I expect to head up on Friday along with martin and Jake who as one of the oldest of the fifth generation will assist in the demolition and construction. There is not a great deal to be done until we have the foundation but if anyone has some free time they are welcome.
Joe
|
