Septic Cover

We weren't here last weekend because of Thanksgiving, and many of the leaves have fallen in the past two weeks.  The neighbour tells us last weekend was the peak of the fall colours, and we missed it.  But they still look pretty on the ground!

Pretty nice colours for such a dreary day!

Emptying the last of the oil, so we can dispose of the tank next weekend.

The septic cover arrives!  

We were missing a slab, so instead of replacing that we ordered a 4'x4' piece with a hatch.  Hopefully we'll never have to uncover the whole tank again!

Chris is a pro!  Perfectly aligned, first try.  

This was so quick and easy, but it was too good to be true...

 It had been raining a lot, and the truck sank into our soggy yard.   Try as we might, we couldn't get him free.  Fifteen pieces of lumber later, and we finally gave up.

He had to call for backup.  Cement truck to the rescue!  My nephews would have loved this.

The mess left behind.  Good thing we plan to landscape in the future.

Floor Demolition

Another beautiful September weekend!

 

 Pretty colours, and morning mist rising from the lake.

 Denailing.

The burning continues.

 Having fun with the reciprocating saw.

 I found a huge toad!

Me with my new friend.

 The lake was calm so we decided to see the fall colours from the water.

 What a great day!

 Arriving back at our little beach.

 

  

Chris went for a swim.  On September 29th!  Will he do it again in October? 

 

 I opted for a nap in the hammock.

 Dad entertained himself by trying to figure out the combination to the key lock the property management company left behind.

 Only 9998 more combinations to try!

Yay!  The floor is gone, the wood is denailed, and we are ready for a dumpster. 

And the walls came down

 Starting to see the colours change, on this hot and sunny September weekend.  At 26 degrees it's hard to believe this is the first day of fall.

 All that earth from the landscaping had to be put somewhere!  

 Salvaging the wall boards.

Some things can't be salvaged... and that's when we're happy to have a chainsaw...

...and a sledgehammer!

 First wall down!

The third wall was tenacious...

...Chris huffed and puffed but couldn't pull that wall down.

Success! 

 Carrie dismantling the final wall.

This is the salvaged wood that needs to be denailed.

Once denailed it gets piled neatly inside to keep dry for the winter.

This is what happens to the non-salvageable wood.  Burn baby burn!

 

 A nice swim to end the day.

 The next day Mike came by to help us demolish the floor.  First he tried the sledge...

...but eventually opted for the reciprocating saw.

 Finally getting a look at the foundation.  Looks pretty good!  And fairly dry considering the amount of rain we've had. Maybe the landscaping is working!

Chris preferred the chainsaw...

 ...and brute strength!  (And he wonders why his back is always sore.)

A timelapse of our progress over the weekend.  What a change!

Sledgehammer

I like to think I can hold my own on a construction site, but these will demonstrate a major difference between Chris and I when it comes to demolition:

 

Trench Aftermath

Since the landscaping was completed we had a torrential rainfall - a good test of the new trench. 

The newly sloped land was all dry, and the water in the trench was flowing nicely.

 

The new trench joined up to the old one, and leads the water far away from the house.

As we get closer to the lake it makes its way through this filtration bed.

The heavy rains made a huge difference to the water level.  The dry summer had caused the water level to drop, but in one week it was back up to its highest point since the spring.

We have a couple of apple trees.  Unfortunately the deer ate most of the low-hanging fruit.

There was some collateral damage from the digger driving back and forth through this area, so Chris had to cut off this broken branch.