Buz trip to Europe

On our way to the Auto Summit in Munich, we stopped in Toulouse to visit one of our technology partners. We arrived on Sunday morning and had time to see a bit of the city before heading to Germany the next afternoon. Here are Seb and I in a coffee shop having cafe creme (as suggested by Janet) across from the Opera House.

What's a post without a few cats?

The boys were interrupted from their reading when I took this picture. Seb is training them to provide investment advice in hopes that we'll be able to afford to finish the house. ;-)

I lied. The view.

I can't wait to host a skating party!

The last of the Hill pictures for now

One of the advantages of ICF (insulated concrete forms) which I also refer to as Incredibly Costly Foundation, is that the resulting walls create gorgeously deep sills. This double window is in the back wall of the hall that connects the garage and the main house. You can see John's machine (bulldozer or backhoe?) parked outside.

The single set of french doors are in the master bedroom.

The close up shows the main part of the house. There is another set of windows to be installed in the "silo", they're in now, I just dont have photos yet.

And even more pictures of progress on the Hill

Still in the second floor, I'm standing where the loft will be. I didn't realize our windows in this area were so high. Only extremely tall people will be able to look out :-) These are for light, the view would be of the master bedroom roof. That's why they're so high, to accommodate the roof line of the master bedroom wing.

The french doors in the great room are in, and since this photo the transom windows above are also complete.

The double stack of windows is for the staircase "silo". The stairs will have no risers (floating stairs) so that light from this side gets in to the house.

Belated updates...

I've been chastised for not updating the blog recently. So here, finally are some fairly recent shots, they were taken a couple of weeks ago. All the windows are in and most of the doors. We also have basement stairs. Next big project is installing the steel roof but we'll probably have to shovel first. Ack! Could there be more snow?

These pictures show the view from laneway coming in, we're still missing some of the windows in the "silo" on the front of the house. The other two photos are taken on second story -- one looking into the great room below, the other looking into where the two guest rooms will go.

QNX Automotive Summit, Munich (11/28)

A bunch of us from QNX HQ met our German colleagues in Munich this past week to host our inaugural auto summit. It was a great success. The event was well attended, well organized and everyone had a fabulous time. The team also got to enjoy some time enjoying Munich food and drink!

Mystery Hill Update

As anyone local realizes, winter and snow have come early to Ottawa this year. And predictions are that this will be one of our worst winters in years. This is bad enough in itself but much worse in the context of trying to build a house. There are many major tasks on our to-do list but first and foremost is the job of getting the house closed in for the winter which is a month earlier than usual. This means the steel roof has to go on and the windows have to go in. So the guys started the windows on Thursday and will finish early this week, then it's on to the roof. Half of the windows are in now (front hall, garage, master suite and tv room). Left are the great room and second story. The windows look really great. Interesting how the openings dont look quite as big once the windows are in.

First snow of the season (too early)

Here's a picture of our back deck view in Kanata and a picture of Mystery Hill in its first coat of the white stuff.

New Marineau in Clan and not much on the Hill

I haven't been to Mystery Hill in a week. The cement floor in the garage got done but it rained the night it was poured, so unfortunately it's not as perfectly smooth as Seb would like. I say "good nuff"... its a garage after all! The garage is almost framed and Seb has been working on the front porch. Next we do the screened porch. All of these need to get done so we can get the steel roof on before the snow comes. Then the doors and windows get installed.

The property and the house continue to amaze me. I'm making small steps on design decisions and its all good. That's one advantage of this pace, I have lots of time to consider my options.

On a completely different track, Seb and I got to meet our new nephew "Luca" on Saturday night. At ten days old, he was pretty darn fabulous. I thought Chloe was small but she's a heavy weight in comparison! He's a sleepy quiet agreeable baby. Even scared Uncle Seb was happy to hold him.

Mystery Hill - getting ready for cement in garage

On Saturday, I dropped by the Hill with Seb's lunch and took a few pictures. The first thing to note is that the second floor of the garage is almost finished including the shed dormer. This room is going to be an amazing space, although we have no immediate plans to do anything with it. You'll also note that the garage is a major storage area for wood. On Sunday, Seb and I cleared it out to get ready for the cement work which happens today.

Cat Guarding Food

Here's Murphy keeping an eye out for cat food thieves. He finds the best way to guard the food is a fully physical approach. Here he manages to combine guard duty with some relaxation time.

Details, details...

It occurred to me today that when it comes to reporting on Mystery Hill, I'm all about appearances. And as such, I blog on the visual changes at the property. But there might be people who read my blog instead of Seb's because he never updates his (not even to link to mine...) and at least, with mine, they get some news on our progress.

So for this audience in particular, I have this to say: We have electricity at the site. We also have two wells. (Two are required for geo thermal heating.) And even better, the water pressure is very good, as measured in gallons per minute or some such thing. I really have no idea what I'm talking about. If Seb read my blog, he could post a comment to correct and augment my posting. Don't hold your breath :-)

We also have a quote (read expensive) for our septic system. To meet code, you have to meet standards based on number of toilets with no measure for number of inhabitants. In other words, our 4 bathroom house will have a very large system for two occupants :-)

Time to eat more bran. (Ack, can you believe I just said that?)

Jacob A's 7th...

One of my brother-in-laws is turning 7 years old this week. He only speaks French. But despite our differences in age and language, we manage really well. We spent a few hours together yesterday afternoon, mostly shopping and running errands. (Nous allon a la magasin pour cafe. Apres ca, nous allons a la magasin pour video). He says my french is not that bad. Not so bad that he needs to learn English. Here he is pictured with Murphy in a box and at dinner at Mexi's.

More from the Hill....

I was at Mystery Hill today in my ongoing quest for the perfect colour for siding. (Sad when the kid working the desk at the paint store recognizes you and welcomes you with "Again?") Yesterday we tried a derivative of Iron Mountain with less brown in the formula but the result came off very green. Today I bought a gallon of the original Iron Mountain and painted the garage wall. I became optimistic about IM a few days ago when the construction team used my colour panels for, of all things, construction. So there is a piece of IM over the front door and I realized that I like it on its own, as opposed to in comparison to other colours. Anyways, unless something significant occurs, we're going the Iron Mountain road.

These pictures show the progress on the house this week. The two main areas of progress -- the second floor of the garage is underway. Yippee! And the cement was poured for the screen porch floors and for the soner (sp?) tubes holding up the various decks and porches.

Imagine it finished, with a steel roof and Iron Mountain (aka dark gray) siding. Fabulous... :-)

More on House Colours

Last Friday, we met onsite at Mystery Hill with Linda (architect) and Irene (interior designer). Purpose - pick an exterior colour... the clock is ticking. On site we all agreed that Baby Seal Black is way too blue and that Iron Mountain, while brown, is better. We also introduced Overcoat and agreed that we should paint another big board to compare as it was similar to Iron Mountain but less brown. Done. Seb painted a big board on Sunday which I was able to see and pretty much eliminated because it turned out to be very light, a less intense colour. Colours are posted above (L to R, 3 boards, Baby Seal Black/Overcoat/Iron Mountain and then 2 boards Overcoat/Iron Mountain).

So. Where are we now? My other design team (Trish and Darrin at work) are in agreement with me... not that excited about Iron Mountain and happy to eliminate BSB. Tomorrow I'll surprise them with Black Jack and Grey.

Saturday morning with the boys

Yesterday morning I didn't go running. It was raining outside and I was tired so I rationalized my way into staying in bed. That meant I got to read the paper with the boys.

Please note the appendage that inspired the name "Mr Big (Foot)".

At least Murph enjoys the paper, I, on the other hand, found it difficult to read.

Small World

Last Thursday, Seb and I returned on a red eye from a conference in Phoenix. We were waiting for our flight from Boston to Ottawa when we spotted Tom Keyserlingk. Tom used to work at QNX. Tom made the mistake of asking about our house and then was subjected to entire photo history of our building project.

Running into Tom reminded me I ran into Seb's aunt and uncle in the passport line at the airport in Paris and then encountered an industry friend in line for the taxi. Both are easy to rationalize, the flight was through Montreal where his relatives live and the reason I was in Paris was for a conference hosted by the company where my friend works. Nevertheless, it was quite a shock to run into people in Paris! And good thing for Ian from Freescale, because he and his colleagues didn't have a Euro between them. They bummed a ride from me so I could pay the driver :-)

The Boys

Its hard to believe that "the boys" havent appeared in my blog thus far. Mr Big (Foot) and Mr Murphy are the source of great entertainment for Seb and me. Mr Big licks soap, in addition to human heads, and Murphy is a counter surfer and sock thief. Here they help with the laundry.

Baby Seal Black vs Iron Mountain

Here are the two finalists, leaning against the end of the garage. Who would have thought that picking a colour "gray" could be so tricky... ? :-)

More from Mystery Hill

More pics... These show the great room, looking out towards water... and then back into the house. Upstairs will hold 2 guest rooms, a bathroom, and a loft area.