Madawaska

August 1st, Colonel By (a.k.a. Civic day) meant a day off from work and time to explore the Calabogie region. We headed up the 417 to Arnprior...leading to the 17 then turned west onto route 508 following the Madawaska river. Spot the canoeist.

After a stop for a cuppa and watching the fish (trout?) jumping for their snacks we continued to on the 508 until we turned south onto the 511. A little way down we turned east, south, east and south again, all of it on route 9 through the hamlet of Tatlock. We saw a sign for the Tatlock Quarry outlook and naturally had to take a look. The road is a private road, apparently not maintained but in reasonable shape anyway (better than the Ville-Marie in Montreal!).

The quarry was used to extract marble but is now disused. It's larger than it looks in the picture, it was quite a way away and maybe the white does something.....

Out and about to Arnprior

Canada day long w/e....stayed home on Canada Day (1st July) despite, or maybe because, Will and Kate were in town with about 300,000 others. Did I hear you ask Will and Kate who? Shame on you - off to the Tower!
Sunday lunchtime we headed up to Antrim Truck Stop (on White Lake Road on the edge of Arnprior) for lunch. It might be called a truck stop but is very popular with people who don't drive trucks as well and deservedly so.
Then it was into Arnprior to look at the Madawaska River horseshoe falls then just downstream where the Madawaska river meets the Ottawa river for a couple of hours doing nothing much.


Madawaska falls....



















Arnprior Beach...
















Ottawa river

Tiled out

We couldn't miss the opportunity to check the progress on the house during a quick trip out to sign more paperwork so here's the latest pictures. All the floor tiling is done, the kitchen cupboards are roughly in position but not secured and likewise the oak caps on the half walls.

Looks like bathroom tiles are next....

A glimpse of the ensuite...

A gaze at the kitchen cupboards....

A gaze on the kitchen from a different angle....

and a glare at the hallway and stairs to basement....

Drywall on

So, a visit on 11th June showed that the drywall is now installed. This week they are installing the trim that can be seen stacked in the Living / Dining Room.

I was dis-appointed that only the drywall had been done since our last visit. However I spoke to the builder today and he said that closing could be at the end of July if we wanted that. I was happy to hear that although I said that the end of August suits us perfectly.

Here's the pictures...(look at previous posts for more inc. outside)

Family room

Dining Area from the Living room

Front Door / Living Room windows

Breakfast area (th'other side of half wall)

Another weekend but this time we were off to Montreal for Madi's 3rd birthday party. On the way we decided to visit the new house to check on some work being done late last week. As we were sat in 'Tim's' having a bite to eat, my phone went and it was the builder. He had a question for us that had come up during a construction walk through on Friday. He wanted us to visit the bungalow, have a look and let him know how we wanted something done, fortunately we were on our way there anyway!

Here' the latest pics,

Hallway to Living Room to front windows.

Dining area ceiling looking towards kitchen

Did we pick siding that colour?

I guess we did.

Back of bungalow

Down, up and filling out!

First the house went down to the basement, then up to the rafters, now it is filling out with walls, windows etc.

Today we had a meeting with our cable guy to work out what telephone, co-ax and network cables etc we wanted wherever.

At the time there were a couple of guys in the basement doing the ductwork. The ductwork looks pretty much complete. Week beginning 16th May should see all cables and wiring going in, not sure what the plumbing schedule is but it can't be far away now.

Cable guy says we should be in MUCH earlier than our scheduled closing in late September.

It was still raining but at least the roof is on and everything inside was dry.

House front (duh!)

Breakfast area and kitchen

Living room

Hallway towards back of house

Breakfast area to family room

Going up

As it has been more than two weeks since the basement was poured (6 April) and about 10 days (13 April) since it was back filled we took a trip out to the house on a wet Saturday to see the progress.

Last time the house was 'going down' as the basement was dug out but now the walls are going up. Now we just have to hope it stops raining soon.

From the living room to dining room to kitchen, breakfast area and family room at the back (Note ladder going to basement on the right).

Master bedroom

Family room with central fireplace and back door. Wall to master bedroom on the right.

Walk-in pantry in centre (to the left of the blue jacket!) and the back of the master walk-in closet on the extreme left.

Living room, looking out onto the road

Going down

Having made the commute to the east end for more than two years now we are looking to cut down on my commuting time and we also were pretty sure our current house is not one we're want to live in when we retire. So between shortening the commute and deciding we wanted a bungalow we've (more 'I've') been keeping my eyes open to see what we could find. Having looked in a few areas and not found the floorplan we like, not to mention the price, we were about to give up. Then I came across a new development and a floorplan and price that looked right.

We made a trip to the site and saw a couple of almost identical floorplan bungalows that were under construction but we we not overly impressed, partly because they were not the right floorplan and they were messy as they were still being put together.

We were not convinced.

We asked the sales agent if there were any homes with our desired floorplan that were complete and she put us in touch with a couple who had recently completed on a purchase and were glad to show us around their exact same bungalow / floorplan we liked. New home owners are always willing and proud to show off their new place! (Fortunately).

Having seen the finished product we were happy to put down a deposit and reserve our spot.

We soon put our existing house on the market and it was sold in about 3 weeks.

Sold by owner on www.grapevine.ca

On 6th April 2011 the bungalow basement was poured.

Here are the poured basement pictures.

Front

Back

Back corner