Project: Cottage Re-do!: February 2014

After enjoying two weeks in the sun and sand of the Caribbean, we grudgingly returned ready to continue our cottage undertaking. Mother Nature had other ideas though. While we were away the -37 degree temperatures caused the pipes to freeze from the shore well to the walls of our house. Fortunately there was no damage to pipes but poor Ron spent countless hours in the narrow crawl space under the house to remedy the situation. Six days later we had water.

It is still too cold to finish grouting the bathroom or tiling the front porch area but Ron has installed the rugs in the two bedrooms and all the baseboards. He also began to move furniture from the garage to the cottage. Nice to have some room now in the garage ... maybe even a car - not. Any way we will re-arrange the furniture to Trish's style when she arrives. But it is really starting to look like a home.

Having struck a dry hole where we hoped to have water we began a conversation with a "fracker". It, in theory, is suppose to open up veins of water ... if not maybe we'll hit natural gas and retire as bizillionaires. Worst case scenario we draw from the Lake... not a big deal, except for the $$.

We believe we're getting close to the finish but all remaining work will need to be finished upon our return from San Diego in mid-April. I'm confident we'll meet our deadline but we'll have to hustle as we just received good news that a Canadian couple wants to rent our Lake front cottage for the entire summer season and there are minor projects I want to complete in there - some tiling and changing out some cupboards.

Thus ends this "blog" until we finish in April but if you enjoyed following our progress with the renovation perhaps you'll enjoy the 2nd annual "blog" of our winter trek west to California.