Hailey and I went for a drive out to Nordegg on Sunday. We left home about 9:30 in the morning, but then decided to stop for breakfast. We went to one of those breakfast restaurants, and it was really busy. The portions were huge and we were both stuffed to the point of exploding by the time we got out of the place and hit the road. As a result of this unscheduled stop, we didn't make it out to Nordegg until about 1:30 in the afternoon. With the winter solstice just around the corner, it was just about the shortest day of the year. It didn't really get light until around 9:00AM and out in the mountains, the sun sets by about 3:30 in the afternoon. This didn't leave us a lot of time to accomplish much.
It was mostly overcast during the drive out, and dark all the way home. The sun did make it out a few times during the day but for much of the time it was rather dull. There was a brisk breeze blowing all day and that pumped the temperature up to an afternoon high of about +7C. There is very little snow left out there, so we didn't even consider attempting to bring the snowmobile along.
We made a stop at our contractor's place and dropped off a payment. Then we went up to the cottage. There were a whole bunch of things I wanted to check on. I checked exact sizes of all the windows for our rollshutters. I checked some measurments for the trap door into our crawl space, and for a ladder that I need to build to get down there. I checked the rough opening dimensions for all the interior doors. I checked the exact size of the bathroom, and the location of the floor joists. This will allow us to figure out the layout, and order the appropriate size shower base. I also checked the size of our bay window so that I can plan the counter that I want to custom build. This information will allow me to start working on the prefabrication of a number of items, over the winter months.
I bought a 12mm fisheye lens for my digital camera. This Korean made Rokinon has a 180 degree field of view and is fairly highly rated, but surprisingly inexpensive. You have to be careful using it so that you don't get the tips of your feet in the shot. It provides a highly distorted image, but covers the full frame of the camera. I took a bunch of snapshots inside the cottage that give a bit of a feel for what the space will look like. I also took a few "normal" images of the exterior. These are all included below.
The siding, trim and soffit materials have been delivered to site and our contractor is supposed to start installing this week. We should have the exterior of the buildings finished to the lock up stage in the very near future. Of course the Christmas holiday is coming up, and there may be some weather delays, but the end is near. When we bought the property from Clearwater County a caveat was registered against the title. Under the county bylaws were are obligated to build to the lockup stage within three years of our original possession date or risk the county taking the lot back. We took possession in July of 2016, and should be finished to lockup at some point in January of 2018... well within the deadline.
We have a little bit of mechanical rough in taking place this week. The electrical rough in is scheduled to take place in late February. That will leave me the months of March and April to do the insulating, so that we can be ready for our drywaller to start in May.
Hailey and I took a quick spin up to Abraham Lake after we finished up at the cottage. It has been so mild lately that the lake hasn't even begun to freeze. It was pretty windy again, and the water was very rough and choppy. Not quite as bad as the last time we were out here though. By this time in the day the sun was setting and it was time to head home. Both of us were still pretty full from the big breakfast and we didn't bother to stop for lunch. We made a brief stop in Nordegg and topped up the fuel tank of the truck, and grabbed a couple of snacks for the drive home. The lady working at the gas station said there was a heavy snowfall warning in place for Saskatchewan Crossing, to the southwest of Nordegg. We never did run into any snow on our drive home but I understand that Nordegg got a dump of about six inches overnight.
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