While foundations are necessary they are not nearly as exciting as the next steps. We are seeing some interesting progress.

On Thursday Sept 27 we were greeted with floor trusses and a partial subfloor.

Holly was oblivious to all of this and enjoyed her usual absolutely favourite sport! She loves swimming right into the waves.

If you're wondering about that gap in the dock, it's the section that the ladder is attached to and Hugh has already removed it.

On today's trip we discovered that the sub floor has been completed. The sun was shining brightly following an earlier rain shower.

Our communities of Calabogie and White Lake have been in the news over the last few days because the Friday September 21st storm that generated the tornadoes in the Ottawa area, originated in Calabogie and traveled in a straight line over White Lake to Dunrobin.
We had a short storm at our farm while it passed by but nothing alarming. It would have traveled over White Lake south of our farm - the lake is very long from south to north. The winds had been very strong at our farm that warm, humid day.  That storm did take our power out until Saturday just after 7 PM. 

On mid day Saturday, son Ken dropped in after a brief visit to their cottage on Centennial Lake which is west of Calabogie. There was power and no damage at Ken and Michelle's cottage. He did report that there were a number of trees down along the highway in Calabogie near our property. On Saturday evening I finally saw on TV the devastation in Dunrobin and the other areas in Ottawa and it was overwhelming.

On Sunday afternoon Hugh and I went to our Calabogie Lake property where we found several large limbs down off a beautiful big maple tree at the back (road side) of the property. There were other trees and hydro lines down along the lane into our place. Our neighbour Frank, after cleaning up a large pine tree that had fallen on his property, had very kindly cut and cleared branches off of our driveway. Hugh must have suspected something because he had brought along the chainsaw and jumped right into action.

Hugh eventually returned to the truck to ask if I was getting out. He'd forgotten that I need assistance in disembarking after my knee surgery last Monday! This was the first day I'd ventured out since the surgery.

Here's the view from the water side deck towards the back of the yard and the big maple tree. In the low light, it's a little hard to see the broken branches. And we now have another, unexpected brush pile. That's the back end of Chase in the foreground!

And you can see that lots of building supplies have arrived on site.

Holly headed straight into the water as usual and she seems delighted with her new, sleek labrador retriever look after her haircut last Wednesday. The water must be quite a bit cooler now but it didn't seem to bother her. She also seems to be swimming more quickly without all of that extra weight!

Last evening we discovered that the Calabogie storm has been classified as a tornado. Other lake neighbours told us on Sunday that the sky had turned kind of green when the storm passed through.
Here's some local news coverage and the latest in the Ottawa Citizen and an earlier Ottawa Citizen article.
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 Things are really moving along now!

The original 1967 septic system had reached its natural end of life and the new, slightly bigger septic system has been installed by the very capable Evans and Lindsay McNab of Elm Enterprises. And after that, they graded the yard and filled in around the lovely new foundation. And the entire crawl space floor has been completed.
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A section of the original deck that was covered over by the new deck wasn't quite up to snuff.

 
And all of that swimming has turned our golden retriever Holly into a very matted mess.
That was all fixed up today by the talented groomers at Pawsitively Country Grooming in Renfrew. Holly seems very pleased with her new look (and feel) including her fashionable neck scarf. Looks like we need to tighten up her collar!

It wasn't long before the footings were poured.

​And a week later, we have a full foundation. We enjoyed a cup of coffee on the deck on a warm morning yesterday while golden retriever Holly enjoyed another long swim.

What a big surprise to discover that the concrete blocks in the foundation of the old cottage were actually only half blocks! Each whole block had been cut down the middle, presumably as a cost saving measure. It is not possible to support the new structure on this foundation.
A second day of demolition removed the floor and the old foundation that had been so carefully preserved a few days earlier.

So we are starting pretty much from scratch on the footprint of the old cottage, plus the new addition.

The wood frames are now in place for the footings of the new structure. Building of the new structure is about to begin!

Holly our 8 year old golden retriever loves to swim! As soon as she jumps into the truck she anticipates her arrival at the lake, a 25 minute drive from our farm. Once there, she jumps out, runs into the water and starts swimming. 
She will eventually swim back towards shore until she can briefly touch her paws down and then she turns and heads back out again. This goes on for a long time! And she enjoys when the neighbourhood family of ducks swim by.