Summer 2018 - Dog at the Cottage

New things and changes arrived in 2018. For me, a still fantastic new job in Woodstock, Rudi and Alex both had good school years, and for doing well in grade 10, Rudi got a stand up paddleboard which he made a fair bit of use of.  We also adopted a new pound puppy Athena, pictured here, a roughly three year old mixed breed, likely Blue Heeler and Icelandic Shepherd mix.  She absolutely loves the water, and like the boys, is a safe water dog, wearing her puppy PFD!

Basement Renovation - Continued

The ripped out 'pump room' before the new wall was added behind it (left), and after the wall was added (right).  I decided to Pex and Sharkbite all the plumbing, and abandon all the old copper. The Sharkbite manifold and Pex piping are installed temporarily, prior to finalizing all specific locations.

Basement Re-Insulation

The walls consist of 3" thick Owens Foamular C 300 rigid shiplap, behind 2x4 bluwood studs, with a lower stub wall of 1" foam behind 2x6 bluwood. The upper is shown hanging, the next section to hang being built on the floor.

The first half of the upper wall is hung, and the second half to be hung to the right of the photo is being framed on the floor.

The entire upper wall is framed and hung, the first section of Delta FL flooring underlay is rolled out, and the upper end wall is also installed.

A closer look at the front and end walls, with blocking in place, and the rest of the Delta FL rolled out on the floor, the OSB strips keep it flat.

The short stub walls have been installed sitting on the Delta FL, and all the cavities have been spray foamed with Touch n Foam, a closed cell, two part, low pressure foam.

Saving Energy

The underside of the sunroom was never insulated, so after the basement flood I used the salvageable pink insulation plus four sheets of 1" Iso Poly foam to insulate and critter proof the floor.

Basements Do Flood, Even At The Cottage

The wonderful sight that greeted me when we arrived at the cottage earlier this summer. It was not a surprise however, as the area (Eastern Ontario) had significant winter snow accumulation, a fast melt off in early spring, followed by numerous significant rainfall events, and my brother in law had been buy trying to dry it out.

All the lower batts of fiberglass pink had soaked up water and collapsed to the bottom of the wall, and were removed, along with all the vapour barrier and framing, and anything else that had gotten wet. It appears from the wet brick the total saturated water level got halfway up the third course of blocks.

Another view of the mold at the bottom of the stairs.

Fixing Even More Things

So the paddleboat, nearing on 20 years or so now, hasn't had the sun cover available because the front web strap snapped a few years ago. Off to Mad Outdoors I went, and with five yards of black one inch webbing, a new strap gizmo, a cheap 'biner, and some rivts, all three straps were replaced in extremely professional fashion!

 

Fixing Things

I spent top dollar on these Merrel sandals about three years ago, even after they were reduced forty bucks off the regular price. And what a poor design they were. The two velcro tabs at the back on each side holding the heel counter in place continually gave way, turning them into useless flip flops. So with a little help from John's pop riveting tool, and four rivets, I made them useful again.

 

 

In the previous three years of owning them, I probably wore them about 20 minutes total... After fixing, probably 20 hours, in just two days.

Typical Cottage Projects...

Neighbours

One of the biggest potential drawbacks to cottage ownership is the fact you may end up having a neighbour who leaves a lot to be desired, like our very own Alan Pepper.

We were at the cottage for Easter weekend past, and on a run to the dump, I crunched the mailboxes belonging to Alan and another cottage owner across the road. Being a reasonable person, I included a note apologizing and offering to pay the costs of replacement for both boxes.

Later that day the boys and I were out on the lake, and decided to say hello to a gentleman ice fishing a few hundred feet away. Of course this necessitated passing Alan's place, and wouldn't you know it, he was there to begin a conversation:

"Hey!" he called out.

"Hello Alan!" I replied

"Nice job on the mailbox." he said, with a healthy dose of of sarcasm.

I paused, wondering the best response for such a compliment... "Well, thank you very much!" I cheerfully replied.

"Those will be fifty dollars to replace, you know"

 

"Alan, I left you and the other owner notes indicating I will cover all costs of replacement" I replied.

 

"You're an asshole."
 

I looked over at Rudi, and then down at Alexander. Personally I have rarely called anyone names, and never would do so in front of children. But I suppose I have a bit of class that Alan lacks.

"Whatever Alan, this conversation is over, have a lovely day!" I replied, and began walking away ith the kids on either side of me

I suspect his bitterness has a lot to do with the issue of replacing his culvert, which resulted in a particularly ugly pissing match, Alan wanting to be paid half the costs of the construction at time of installation. As Alan lives there year round, is the owner of the culvert, is completely responsible financially for it, and controls when it would be installed and by whom, and for how much, I felt our offer to pay half of his construction costs over a three year period was quite reasonable. In any event, he declined our offer, proceeded to attempt to coerce and bully and extort us into paying for half of his culvert, and finally he proceeded to install it, shouldering the entire cost himself.

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Weekend

 

Rudi reading to Alexander, in one of those ever so rare instances of sibling appreciation and cooperation!

 

Buckets on sugar maple trees. The weather was perfect for running sap.

 

Mmmmmm yummy!

 

Snow squalls move in on Easter Monday, as we prepare to leave for Tavistock.

The New Barbeque

The owner of the grocery store I work at recently purchased a new Weber Genesis barbeque, so me being curious, I asked him what barbeque he was replacing, and his plans. Turns out he was replacing an older Weber Genesis Silver series, which needed a couple of hundred dollars and a few hours of work restoring. An absolutely perfect cottage project barbeque.

Cooking grates, warming rack, and flavourizer bars all in need of replacing. These parts were all  steel, and I am considering replacing with stainless for better durability.

About an hour of cleaning later, the barbeque looked like this.

Lid opened, the burners are in good shape, and all debris has been cleaned out.

The control deck after a vigorous cleaning with 'Whip It' brand eucalyptus oil cleaner. The control knobs and igniters are all in excellent condtion.

Cottage Jobs - Jumping off Docks!

Kayaking!

If you want to rent a cottage in the area...

...regardless of whether it is ours, or someone elses place, here are some links that you might find useful:

If you are looking for a cottage to rent in the Eastern Ontario area, you can visit this link:

CottageMe.com Eastern Ontario cottages

The advertisement for our cottage on the CottageMe.com website can be found by visiting this link:

CottageMe.com advertisement for our cottage

Barry's Bay Cottage Resort is located on the far side of the lake, adjacent to the highway. They have a number of newly refurbished cottages for rent:

Barry's Bay Cottage Resort

On Death and Taxes

Well nothing about death here actually, but over the last few months, off and on, I have been compiling absolutely all of our expenes for the Field House, the cottage, both automobiles, and more onto Microsoft Excel files. It makes doing personal income taxes so much easier! I also found a 'snipping tool' that lets you take a jpeg image of any part of your computer screen... How cool is that?

The astute reader will notice that our municipal taxes have doubled in seven years. I imagine the 60% increase in 2006 had a lot to do with that! Just another reason why buying a waterfront cottage of your very own is not the smartest thing you can do with your money. It is far more economical to rent someone else's for the time you want to use it!

There are only two compelling reasons to own a waterfront cottage: First, you have oodles of money to burn, and really want a cottage, whether you use it or not! Second (as is our case), you already happen to own the cottage, make substantial use of it, and are willing to rent it out to people smart enough not to buy their own to help cover the costs!

In 2003 the municipal taxes on the cottage were less than 50% of the taxes on our house in Tavistock. In 2010 the cottage taxes were nearly 85% of our house taxes! Such is the effect of rapid increases in value of waterfront real estate.