I went out to the cottage in Nordegg again this past weekend. When I spoke to my drywall crew last week, they asked if they could move the scheduled start date up a week. They had a cancellation and wanted to start on my project early. I didn't want to risk getting put to the end of the list so I agreed. But that meant I needed to get out there and finish up everything in advance of the drywall.
Hailey came along with me and we stayed out in Nordegg for the weekend. We stayed for the night at the hotel in town. Its dated but comfortable and clean. Its a little rough around the edges and a bit on the quirky side, but it was OK.
In typical teenager fashion my daughter was of very little help. But it gave me someone to argue and bicker with for the entire weekend. Not sure if that drove me closer to insanity, or saved me from it.
We left early on Saturday morning and I got to listen to three hours of pop music on satellite radio during the drive. We saw some wild horses again on our way out. This was not the same herd that we saw a couple weeks ago as their numbers and colors were different.
Lots of wildlife was out and about again. The temperature has come up nicely and the spring thaw is well underway. We saw lots of geese and the ducks are back now too. The osprey was back to its nest over by Buck Lake, and I saw a few robins. Lots of deer, a coyote, and a couple of moose on the way back. I caught a glimpse of a large white bird with some black markings. I looked like a raptor of some sort, and I'm pretty certain it wasn't a snowy owl. It just didn't look or fly like an owl. The only thing I can think of is a gyrfalcon and they do winter this far south sometimes. I didn't get a good enough look at it to have any degree of certainty.
There was lots of work left to do at the cottage so when we arrived about lunch time Saturday I unpacked and got busy. The rough in that we had done for the range hood needed to be modified. We elected to buy a gas range with a built in hood and this doesn't require separate power, and the exhaust duct is different from what we were expecting. I made these modifications so that I could finish insulating this portion of the kitchen. I also cut in a fresh air intake for our wood stove. I climbed up on the ladder and did the spray foam insulation around the two upper windows. While I was up there I also finished the foam insulation to the headers. I installed some support blocking in the walls in three locations to secure the railings to. Then I set to work on finishing the vapor barrier.
I bought a new propane BBQ for out there and I took a break for an hour or so and assembled that. Hailey and I used it on Saturday evening to grill some steaks and bake some potatoes for supper. We settled down in the hotel in town later that evening.
On Sunday I was up at 6:30. I finally got Hailey out of bed about an hour later after I was all packed up and ready to go. We had breakfast at the restaurant, checked out of the hotel, and went back to work. I lost track but I think I must have climbed up and down that two story scaffold at least 40 times over the weekend. That doesn't count all the times I was up and down ladders and the stairs. By the end of the day Sunday my poor old body was telling me that it had had enough. But, by late Sunday afternoon I was finished. Hailey and I spent another hour or so tidying up and made room for the drywall guys to work. We stored a bunch of materials and supplies downstairs and took out a bunch of trash.
I had to leave one small section of insulation and vapor barrier open for the mechanical guys to access the plumbing vent up in the attic. The mechanical rough in is being finished on Monday. The drywall crew is starting on Tuesday, and will look after that last little section of vapor barrier for me. Now I will get a bit of a break from working out there as we let the drywall crew do their thing. Once they are done, there will be the painting to look after....
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