Construction Widow aka Gilles has a new mistress

It is official. I have become a construction widow! In other words, Gilles has a new mistress (picture on the left). His new mistress was once just an idea, a dream. Now, she is taking shape. When I met her today for the first time, she had a few floorboards nailed down. By the time, Gilles comes home tonight, I expect that she might have the wall structure already built. This my dear friends is one of 2 mistresses Gilles is allowed to have: the shed & the house.

So, I decided to embrace his new love and make sure he was well fed. Ok, I also wanted to spy a little and see how things were going. Yesterday, I brought lunch. I stopped by the Rumeur Affamé, picked up a quiche and headed over to the construction site. What a pleasant break from a hard working day. Today, I showed up with sandwiches, but the lunch was quickly over. After gobbling, his sandwich, Gilles' mistress was calling and he quickly returned to nailing some lumber.

Later, I thought I would grab some groceries and prepare Gilles' summer time favorite: BBQ steak and BBQ corn on the cob. I imagined he would not be home early so I prepped everything for 7 which is already past his usual arrival time.  Well, 7 came and went and still no sign of him. I wondered if his mistress would not let him go. This morning he thought he might sleep there, but he promised to come home for dinner. So, I decided to go ahead and make it to buy some time. I ate dinner alone thinking he would be home any minute and then he would just join me. My dinner was over and he was still not home. Finally, at 8:15 I decided to drive to meet him and find out what had happened. Mostly, I thought I was just going to get annoyed at him losing track of time, but you never know and it is best to be prudent. By the time I got to the village, I saw a dirty old construction man waiving me down. Where was the car? What was he doing just walking in the village? Was he just running late and picking up some fromage en crottes??

The truth was that Gilles wanted to leave the land and his mistress behind at a reasonable hour. The car, on the other hand, had other plans. It did not want to leave. So with a car that would not start, Gilles decided to walk home. Now, I would like to put this in perspective. Gilles worked hard from about 8:30 to 5:30 all day on the land, hard labour. Then, he hiked home for about 12 km or 7 miles to the village. He left most of his tools in the car, but he did manage to carry the batteries all the way so that they could be charged for the morning.

Well, I am happy he is home safe and sound. We'll figure out the car issues tomorrow and hopefully it won't be such a big deal.

More pictures of the progress. Click here

The wheels are in motion Babu

Gilles cannot stop saying: "The wheels are in motion. The wheels are in motion" repeating one of his favorite episodes from Seinfeld. He is so excited. I am not sure if he has slept much in the past few days.







 
Checklist:

• The road/ driveway is done. There will be a bit to do in finishing the top coat, but that can't be done until the foundation is done and there big trucks are done passing through. 

• The basement is has been blasted and dug. A few stray logs have fallen in, but nothing that can't be picked up
  

  

  Gilles and Chulita checking out the basement

• Water Well: dug and spewing out water like the best most powerful geyser at Yosemite. A typical well, can supply 40-50  gallons per hour. Our well has a capacity of 150 gallons. That my dear friends is a lot of water. Our neighbour even said hat their water is so clear and pure they don't need a filtration system. Hopefully, we will be just as lucky. It will be a while before we know. 

• Foundation: Tomorrow, the foundation work will begin. Bob L'Amour is our foundation guy. He will be starting tomorrow. WOOHOOOO!!! This is just getting too exciting. I can't even contain myself. I have to get back to Sutton and take a few more pictures.

• Windows: Gilles and I went to look at windows and have decided on wood windows by Martin. Upstairs we will have "des fenêtres guillotines" Gosh, what a great expression! Downstairs, we will have  3 beautiful patio doors. I can really start to see things taking shape.

For more pictures click on the link
Did I mention we have wild blackberries on our land?

WATER UPDATE!!!

When your water gets turned off, there is not always an easy solution. Mine was getting the heck out of dodge. In other words, I decided it was high time to make it back to the city. I took the bus early in the morning and headed off to Montreal. I was planning on going on Thursday for a few meetings anyways so what's a few more days.
Ok. Ok let me back up and review the events as they unfolded:

• Friday the 13th: Big day of cooking and getting ready for the family coming over for dinner. 30 minutes before they arrived, the water went pitch black. 
• Saturday: Whew! Great to have a shower at Sara's. Dinner was great too, but seriously, let's stick with the basics.
• Sunday: The water was slightly better. I was able to have a shower, but no hair washing.
• Monday: 
• The guy that dug the well came. Our first impression: we thought he was still drunk from the previous night. Anyways, he turned off the electricity to work on the pump. He thought some sort of vandalism had happened since the seal was broken and there were rocks in the well. Gilles and I were not sure sure about this theory. The pump was wedged. Despite bringing in a digger to try to wedge it out, there was no budging it. Then, oops the hose broke and a new well had to be dug. No water until further notice!! Not a pretty scene as you can imagine. 
• How to take a shower in Sutton when you don't have running water? We had Sara's key to go take a shower but we did not feel like driving 30 minutesto go take a shower and then another 30 minutes return.  Gilles suggested we try to bathe in the lake / pond near the house. For those that don't know me well, let me tell you that bathing / swimming in a pond is not my sort of thing. After a few glasses of wine, the idea was getting better and better. So we grab some towels and headed off. It turned out to be a whole lot of fun. We were silly and giggling and could not keep a straight face. Chulita was a little confused that we were swimming in HER pond! We had a blast and felt much more refreshed afterward. It was not like a real shower but it did the trick.

  

  Chulita enjoying her pond

•  Tuesday: I got an email saying that we would not have water until Wed at the earliest. The city needed to give a permit to drill a new well, the well had to be dug, etc. This is when I lost it. Enough already! After a small crisis, I called the campground up the street and they agreed to let me take a shower. They did not even charge me! All of a sudden, I could see and think clearly. What was I doing suffering through this? We are now living within close range of lots of Barbeau family members. It has gotta to be one the perks of living so close. So, I made up my mind to go to Montreal.
• Wednesday: I woke up early and took the bus and went to the big city. Sara picked me up at the train station and I arrived to the great promised land of running water: flushing, washing my hands, the works.  I can't quite describe how great it felt. The new well was dug at the rental home and all was good. They had to disinfect and run the water. It would still be until Thusday that we would be able to bathe, but at least you could flush. 
•  Thursday: All is well in Sutton.  Water is fully functional. Showers are possible. Flushing is greatly encourged...

Life in Sutton is back to normal. Now I just need to be back with my little Chulita and my working man and life will be good. Luckily, Gilles' birthday party on Saturday is still a go and the whole gang can come over a flush to their hearts' content ;-)

Country life sure is different

In the last few weeks, I have been learning a lot about the precious nature of water.

I spent my summers growing up in Guatemala and watched with awe as the women went to the local well to fetch their water. They carried it on the head and walked great distances to bring it back ti their family. I always felt fortunate that we could just have tap water that we could drink, wash our clothes with and bathe. In Vancouver, I was stunned by the great quality of the water that came directly from the mountains.
I knew that water in the country could be a whole different experience, but I never imagined it would be quite so intense. Here most people are on well water. We will have our own well at our new house. With filtration systems, pumps and the works, this type of water can be excellent in quality and taste. We rented a house that is only three years old in the hopes that it would be trouble free and have the best equipment. When we arrived the water was cloudy but usable. We thought that after using the system a bit more frequently, the cloudiness would subside. After a week, the water got pitch black.

I was utterly disgusted and quickly called the owner. The next day a technician came and cleaned the whole system. He advised that the system was in god order and needed a cleaning. He also suggested that the more we used the water the better it would get better. After a few days we saw noticeable improvement. Yesterday, I even dared wash white clothing and it came out pristine. Then, I washed Gilles work clothes. When I got the clothes out of the washing mashing, I noticed a black film on the sides of the machine. My first instinct was to think it was Gilles fault. He must have had grease from the chainsaw on his clothes. I decided to do an empty wash to clean the machine. My aunt suggested a little vinegar would do the trick. Once the water starting filling up the machine, it was pitch black. I quickly went over to the toilet and the same thing was going on. The kitchen sink was no better. Crap! We were having Gilles' sister and her family over for dinner. How were we going to wash dishes, etc. I quickly called the repairman in hopes there could be a quick fix. He got me to test a few things to no avail. Looks like they will come back on Monday to run other tests on the well, notably running a camera to inspect the conditions.
In the meantime, our neighbour mentioned that in Sutton, there is free source water (l'eau de source) that is excellent. I went last week and I can attest that it is superb. Evian, watch out! This stuff is great. So, this morning, off I went to collect some water for cooking, drinking, brushing teeth. I am still not keen on showing in this dark soot filthy water. So, today, I will go to Sara's. Hopefully this won't last long and life as we know it with running water can resume.

I am fortunate for many things. For starters, it is great to have access to the free to the source water. Secondly, I can take my car and haul as much water as I can. No need to carry anything on my head and walk for miles. Finally, I know it will eventually be fixed.

Who knows what the next country discoveries will be?? So far most have been good.

Now off to go to the Fireman's Festival in Sutton!

Blasting Day - Wednesday August 11, 2010

Tuesday was a big day because we got the permits to build. Wednesday began the real work in earnest. No turning back now.
Gilles woke up at 5 am and left the house quite quickly. He still had a few trees to chop down before the guys got there. I don't even think he slept a wink. He tossed and turned. I think the excitement of the day ahead was just too much for  him.

The big tasks of the day were digging holes so that the dynamite could be set off. The terrain is very rocky so it needs to be blasted to get the foundation area ready. While that was going on, the guy in charge of the excavation was busy digging trenches and removing topsoil. The top soil and rocks removed will reused for the road up to the house. I guess most people would call it a driveway, but it feels more like a road since it is much longer than your typical driveway.
Gilles came home sometime after 5 and was completely exhausted. He said he felt like he had just run a 100 mile race and was famished. Unfortunately for Gilles, yesterday was the day I decided to take it easy on the cooking and bought a quiche at La Rumeur Affamée. So, I quickly gave him some tostitos and beer. He took a quick shower and a little nap. I suggested he eat the whole quiche which I think he felt like doing, but he refrained. He was so pumped about the days events. It was incredible to be able to see that the dream was becoming a reality little by little.

Woohooo!!! Now the fun begins!!!

Today, we officially received the permits to build!!!
Gilles got busy building the sign that needs to post the permits on the land. He has already lined up a few contractors, notably the excavation guy and the guy that will blast the rock for the foundation. Now, he needs to make a few call for the electrician, the foundation guy.
Once the big stuff starts, he will get start to build the shed. Below, I have included a plan for the shed. There will be a half loft so that Gilles can sleep there during the critical periods of the construction.