Getting ready for Christmas Holidays

We are working towards trying to spend some time out at the lake over the Christmas break.  We will not be having the big Christmas dinner out there this year.  Maybe next year.  Time just sort of ran out on us and the thought of hauling all the presents and food out at the last minute is too overwhelming.  We will go out for a bit and I get two weeks off, so that will work out fine.
We now have a new area rug in the living room.  I was not sure about it, but the salesman at the carpet store talked me into this one and we both really liked it once it was put in place.

Taken from the loft.

Zooming in a bit.  We have throws down on the couches for our poor cold Dexter Dog to lie on.  That dog is one really pampered,  spoiled pooch.

The outside basement walls are framed and insulated halfway down.  The temperature difference in the basement is four degrees with insulation only part way down the walls.  We will be getting the wiring done for the rooms soon and then the carpenter will come out to finish the walls and put up the interior walls to finish the basement rooms.  

We do not like having a tv in the living room so will move it downstairs once the basement is complete.  The piano will sit in the spot that the tv is now in.  Or maybe the piano can go in the loft or basement and the cabinet radio I have that my Mom bought for my Granny in 1946 can sit in that spot.  Hmmmm........decisions, decisions.

Herman installed the pendant lights this weekend.  The painter finished up on Saturday with some touch ups and we decided that it was not worth it to have someone come out all the way from Manitoba just to hang three lights.  So that is done and we had fun doing it,  as you can see.  I did learn about how the wiring for the lighting ran while holding some of the thingys for the lights!

 I do not think that an occupational health and safety committee on a job site would approve of this set up while installing the lights.  

Herman was really close to the edge of the island when he installed the middle light.  I was a lot nervous about that situation.  Stood very close to the island and the chair he was sitting on while being his assistant.  Thankfully he has great balance and was very careful.

We still need to get a few items and the furnace needs some tweaking this week.  But all in all we are very happy with this cottage and look forward to spending more and more time out at Pelican Pointe.  Just hope the coyote that we saw on the lake the other day stays away from our place.  The ice fisher people are now out so the coyotes will be on the lake eating the stuff that is left from the fish and the fisher people.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Winter is here.

Well...it looks like we will be settling into winter mode for the next few months.  The lake is pretty well frozen over.  The ice fishing shacks are starting to spring up and we heard the first snowmobiles on the lake today.  Guess the total silence is gone till about mid March.  It is still a lot quieter than the home we have in Regina though.

We have everything hooked up.  The furnace is running, the septic and cistern system is performing well.  We have a glitch with the new dishwasher, but it is under warranty and should be fixed soon.  The painter from Conquest is scheduled to come out this week and touch up the mudding and painting he did previously.  The carpenter is also coming out this week to frame and insulate the basement.  We hope to peck away at the basement and have everything completed by next summer.  The basement will house two bedrooms, a bathroom, a workshop for Herman, a utility room, a rumpus/living room and a wine room/second kitchen.  We will use the appliances and gas fireplace from the pink palace to outfit the basement rooms/guest suite.

Dexter on the lake waiting to have his ball thrown.

This is pretty much the same angle from the frozen lake as one of the first pictures in the blog of the pink palace.  Just to think that the old place was still standing in this spot five months ago.  The cottage looks grey in this light.  But it really is a pretty blue.

 The almost completed kitchen.  Once the ceiling is finished being painted we will have the pendant lights installed.  We are also still waiting for the table top to come back from the furniture refinisher.  He is getting two leaves made to match the table top.  We are hoping to have it by Christmas, since we will have a lot of kids and grandkids out at the beach for the holidays.

 Another view of the kitchen.  We need to extend out the microwave shelf, since I purchased a honking big microwave that does not quite fit in the space.  More new home glitches I guess.

We will be pumping water from the lake into the cistern.  Herman bought an auger this week and is doing a test hole in this picture.  We also bought a cute little pump that will sit on the ice and fill the 1500 gallon cistern in about an hour.  This place will definitely keep us busy this winter.   But we love the sun glistening on the snow and the clear, clean fresh cold air.  There is a path to the lake behind the cottage that is the perfect toboggan run for the kids and grandkids.  And another path to the lake fills with snow and packs in so that you can take great big blocks of snow out of there and build forts for snow ball wars.  Some people cannot stand the cold and snow of winter.  We love it.  

Winter has arrived and we are hooked up!!!

All systems are go at Pelican Pointe.  The plumber came in last week and hooked up the water.  We were able to take the port -a- potty back to the place we rented it from for the summer.  We were quite glad to see the blue and yellow vestibule leave the lot.  But it did serve a purpose for the workers and us on occasion this summer.  But good riddance.  The new toilets in the house are really cool low water consumption and it is amazing how something as mundane as indoor running water can lift your spirits.

Herman taking the thing out of Pelican Pointe.

 Sask. Energy trenched in the line on November 10 and set the meter on November 15th.  Non too soon either as the wind chill is hovering near - 25C or lower this past week.  When we went out on Saturday 

we walked into a nice warm house.  Yippee.   Too bad I had to get all whiny and nasty and go the political route to get the gas line in.  But at least it is done.

Tried out the spa tub.  Put too much smelly bubbly stuff in there and almost had a bubble disaster.  Will know better for next. time.  It is lovely to have a warm home with hot and cold running water.  The simple pleasures of life.  I look around at this amazing place and am so thankful.

 

This is only the last part of November and we have a ton of snow already.  The Subaru can plough through almost anything.  

This is Dexter our Dog on the the snowed in road leading away from our place.  The snow was pretty deep already but the Subaru still made it through.  We are going to buy a snowblower this week.  We are the last place on the road before the lake and we don't think the snow plow will make it out very much, if at all.  So we will have to make our own road.

This shot was taken from the pointe.  Looks a little different in winter than summer.  But the place is still beautiful.  We woke up to see coyotes running on the lake and the last of the geese and ducks flying off for the winter.  

This is a great time of year at Pelican Pointe.  There is total silence at our place except for the birds that are migrating.  The lake has just started to freeze and the ice is too thin to be on.  So no motor boats, no jet skis.  The ice is too thin for snowmobiles and ice fisher people.  We have no tv, no internet and don't play the radio or music very often.  So silence.  Nice.............

Waiting and Waiting and Waiting and Waiting........

This picture was taken from the veranda on November 6, 2010.  

We still do not have the gas line installed from Sask. Energy.  I applied in August....the house was set on Sept. 4th....Sask. Energy said they would be out the week of September 27th.....nobody showed up....Sask. Energy said they would be out the week of Oct. 28th.....nobody showed up......Sask. Energy said they would be out on Tuesday Nov. 9th.....don't know if anyone showed up.  No one from Sask. Energy will give me an answer or return my calls.  This is more than ridiculous.

The plumber would like to get in and get the heat going for us.  The kitchen stove, water heater, clothes dryer and furnace all rely on natural gas.  So there is no heat, no water, no stove at the beautiful new house.  Just some furniture and appliances sitting waiting to be used.  The plumber who is doing the installation for us is going to the beach today (in a snowstorm) to put in some industrial strength heaters to try and keep the house from getting too cold.  Did I mention that this is more than ridiculous.  Too bad Sask. Energy has a monopoly on gas supply and installations.  I would be looking for another company with some understanding of customer service if there was a choice in Saskatchewan.
Another person got a home delivered after ours and he has energy already.  Just do no understand this.

Since nothing much is happening at the house until Sask. Energy gets the gas line in I'll post some pictures of the cute grandkids and a picture I took last weekend from the veranda.  Once we have the appliances connected (when we get gas) I'll get out there and do some updated pictures of the laundry room, en suite, kitchen, etc.  We will also move "the beast" out and start unloading the loft furniture once we have central heat and can stay out there for longer periods.  Right now it is too cold without the gas supply to the furnace.

Oh yeah - the spa tub - not useable because the water heater runs on natural gas.  The water in the cistern is really, really too cold for showering or bathing.  We are not that hardy that we want to do daily polar bear dips in our own home.

Spiderman Brody on Halloween.

Regan the butterfly on Halloween.

Spiderman Brody and Thomas the Train Logan.

 Logan and Regan.  

 We have replaced the homemade ramp with some temporary stairs.  We will have a deck built on this side connecting the two back doors next spring.

Moving in slowly

We have started moving in.  The new furniture and appliances were delivered on Friday and Saturday.  The fridge we ordered was damaged somehow so we had to go to the store and pick out a different model. Good news is that we got an upgraded fridge for the same price as the original one we had picked out.  Also our two living room chairs were left out of the delivery on Friday.  The furniture store paid to have our mover bring them out on Saturday.  Most of the antiques, minus a dining room table top, are at Pelican Pointe too.  The table top is at the re-fiinishers because they need it to get a couple of leaves made for the table.

There is still some touch up painting that needs to be done.  But we are waiting until we have central heat for that.  Sask. Energy told me that they would be out the week of Sept. 27th.  They messed up and now we have to wait.  The house warmed up nicely this weekend with four electric heaters and the fireplace.

Robinson Residential designed a special nook for this chair.  The design of the house was based partly on the sizes of the furniture that I knew we wanted to move to the lake.

The living room with furniture in place.  Still need to get an area rug.

The dining room, with the table upside down and waiting for a table top.  The kitchen was too messy to take a picture of.  Will do that at a later date..

Looking from the loft across the great room.  Still need to get a long ladder to remove the Conquest sign.

Looking towards the road side entrance.

The great room with the doors closed that lead to the den and, to the right, the master suite.

Looking out the bedroom window.  This is the view we have, even lying in bed.  With the blinds open we can wake up every morning and see this view.  Of course, when the lake has boats on it in the summer or ice fishers in the winter, the blinds will be closed.

One of the great things about this design is that you can see the lake from every window in the house.  A lot of people who have come to see the house have commented on this fact.

Looking out the loft window towards the road.  You can still see the lake and we have lots of landscaping to do next year.  The yard is still a bit of a construction site.

Looking down at the great room from the loft.

We are hoping that Sask. Energy get out there soon.  The plumber is coming out on Wednesday to finish installing the dishwasher, laundry room and gas range.  He is also hooking up the water, so we will at least have cold running water this coming weekend.  Maybe hot water too, if we ever get natural gas hooked up at Pelican Pointe.

We have electricity and a moving date.

 The exterior is finished.  This is the road side.  Still need the local contractor to put in the deck and stairs on this side.  We are still using that ramp that Herman and I built.

 The detail above the road side door.

We went out to meet with the builder on Friday and found out that Sask. Power had installed the lines and we have electricity.  When I spoke with Sask. Power today the fellow told me I was not supposed to have power.  But we do and I signed off the paperwork.  No gas or phone yet.  But at least we can run portable heaters in the house and have lights, now that the sun is going down at suppertime.

When Conquest came out this week they noticed that the veranda had a bit of a sag between the installed teleposts.  They propped it up for now and we'll get some more piles and teleposts installed in the spring.  

The mover is lined up for Friday this week.  We are starting with moving out the new furniture, appliances and beds first.  Then we will bring out "The Beast" and unload all the stuff we packed up from the pink palace that we wish to keep.  Not much of the old furniture, but there are a few things.

Lake side.  The details and trim are very nicely designed on this house.  Too bad we don't have any of the boats in the water this summer.  We will take some pictures this winter from the lake and some next summer from a boat.  But no pictures from the Flying Dutchman!

Making progress - setting a move in date.

The pile of dirt is gone and the big hole in gone.  This picture was taken Oct. 2nd.

We now have a cistern and septic tank.  They were installed last week and the backfilling is done.
Sask. Energy was scheduled for last week, but as of Saturday had not trenched.  They have been out to the site and are ready to go.  No word from Sask. Power.  Rumour has it that Sask. Power will be out in the near future.  We can only hope.

The crew from Conquest is coming out tomorrow to try and finish off.  I am arranging the mover for October 22nd.  We are moving in some of the antiques from Regina and I have purchased new furniture and appliances for the main floor.

Plumber needs to be arranged once the gas line is in.   He can then hook up the water works in the house.  Hoping to have heat, water and electricity by Nov. 13th.  Would like to have one of my grandson's 3rd birthday party in the new place.

A dusty view of the flooring and baseboard.  We went with Tarkett Fibrefloor.  We have pets and kids so needed something very durable.  This is durable, washable and perfect for a home at the lake.  The baseboards are pine and stained to match the cabinetry.

On the pointe looking back towards the house.  In June there was only a little pink palace sitting there.

We have had a lot of visitors come out to look at the house.  Some people have even brought other friends and family with them.  I guess this is one way to meet new people  

There is a lot of talk in the area about the house that materialized out of nowhere almost over night.  A customer of Herman's with a place at a beach up the lake was telling us that lots of people are talking about the instant blue house at Pelican Pointe.  

Pelicans at Pelican Pointe - what a concept!

Storm clouds over the pointe.  The little streak on the lake is a boat rushing to beat the storm.  

I am thankful every day to be fortunate enough to have this place of wonder to retreat to.  This picture makes me remember that no matter how much this build has stressed me out, there is something greater than any of us.  And this house will be done soon, so I can be even more thankful.

Progressing

We took a friend from Holland out to see the place on Friday and the work was continuing.  Aly really enjoyed her day at the lake.  I think she would have liked to stay, but her flight was already booked for Saturday to take her home to Apeldoorn, Netherlands.  She did get to see the bison farm while here.

Herman and I went back out on Sunday and saw more progress.  We are getting very close to having the house finished.  The picture below is of the septic tank.  The cistern will go in this Thursday.  That is one very deep hole that the septic tank sits in.

Bad news from Sask. Power.  They are claiming it will take 12 to 14 weeks for us to get power.  This I don't understand.  The power pole is right there and all they need to do is trench in a line.

The amazing carpenter from Conquest finishing the loft railings.

Looking from the stairwell towards the dining room.  The floors are all in place now.

Looking down at the great room and doors to veranda from the loft.

An acquaintance/customer of Herman's stopped by on Sunday to see the house.  Dale has a unique way of coming to visit us!

The view of the pointe from the near the bedroom side of the veranda.

The contractors that built the basement (Mar-New) were out on Friday to have a look and talk about finishing the basement and doing stairs outside.  I think they were impressed.  It is a beautiful house and someday we will move in!!  Someday!

Putting this in perspective.

Herman talked with Conquest today and they will be sending a crew out tomorrow to finish the house.  We are now being told that the house will be done on Saturday.  So that helps with the planning of the move and other things that need to get done.

To put this into perspective:  The pink palace was standing at the beginning of June.  It is now almost four months later and we have a house sitting on a full basement.  Not bad.  One of the teachers at the school where I work told me her parents have been trying to get a house done at the lake for FIVE years.  So I am grateful that we are getting a ready to move into home in four months, regardless of my whining post yesterday.  Keeping our fingers and toes crossed that we will have a completed main floor, loft and exterior this weekend.

A Kingfisher that was in the trees by the lake last weekend.

Starting to get a little (lot) frustrated.

Dexter on the pointe.

There has not been too much done on the house in the last three weeks.  The weather has not cooperated and the drywall mud was not drying.  Since we have no power we are being told that is the reason things are getting behind so much.  I just don't know.

This week is going to be sunny and beautiful, but I was told today that they may not have a crew out.  After being told that the house would be done this week.  This is going beyond frustration.  The hard part is that this builder does really quality work.  But I just want this darn house done.

We have company from Holland here this week, and three months ago thought the house would be ready and we could stay out there.  Not to be.  The place is a mess and no workers in sight.

Oh well........

The gas line and phone are scheduled for this week.  I don't know when Sask Power will get out to hook up the electricity.  We do have a generator though.  And the cistern and septic are scheduled to go in the end of this week, if the exterior of the house is done.  Here is hoping that Conquest can at least finish the exterior this week while the weather is nice.

We have movers lined up for October 6th, but again, do not know if the interior will be ready.  It is a bit of coordination with having to coordinate six different stores and places for the movers to pick things up at.  I thought it would be fine, but now don't know.  Dreading having to phone everyone again and re-organize the dates.  The appliances and furniture have been sitting for a long time at the stores and they would like the storage room that these items are taking up.  I will also have to rearrange my schedule for a day off for the move, if it does not happen on October 6th.

We have had a lot of people stopping in to have a look at the place.  Some are planning on building at the lake in the next few years and we have told many people to come back this weekend to see the finished house.  Hope no one wastes a trip if the house is not done.

One thing I do know for sure.  Never again.........  But it will be a very nice home when (if) it gets done.

This is the fancy ramp that Herman and I  built a couple weeks ago.  Cannot put in the deck and stairs until the cistern and septic are in.  Those cannot go in until the exterior is done.  You can see how muddy it was.  Now everything is dry and the weather is great.  

The almost finished house.

These are a few pictures of the house as it looked on Tuesday. - four days after the lift.  The crew from Conquest was out for a couple days this week.  The rain was a huge hinderance to them and they left today with some work unfinished.  They will return when the weather improves and finish things off.  We are heading out to the beach tomorrow (barring no rain) to do take a quick look and meet the electrician.

The road side.

Looking up at the veranda from ground level.

View from beside edge of the lot - on the beach side.  

The main door entrance on the road side.  Still need a bit of finishing.

The mud room/laundry room/guest washroom.  This room is off the main entrance via a pocket door and also has a direct entry door for muddy grandkids, grandfathers and grandmas.

The kitchen - just waiting for the appliances - and a good dusting!

A view from the pointe.