It is evident that The Lake House is not a fixed time theory story. Things change; it is the point of the film that they do. Thus there must be an original history of the world, whether an erased history under replacement theory or a prime universe under divergent dimension theory, in which nothing reaches the past from the as yet unformed future. As we determined last time, there is no dog in that history.
It is clear that Alex Wyler purchases the all-glass lake house built by his father when he was a boy, in the late winter of 2004, probably shortly before Valentines Day. He puts a fair amount of effort into repairing it, struggles with his relationship with girlfriend Mona, reconnects with his brother Henry, and tries to work through his feelings against his father Simon. However, without the dog Jackie he never meets Morgan and Kate, nor collects Kate's lost book.
The death of his father seems to have been the motivation for his move out of the lake house and into the partnership with Henry, and so we have reason for him to vacate in time for Kate to occupy the property. What we do not have in this is reason for Kate to find that house and occupy it, or for her to leave Morgan to do so. However, that might arise separately, from two details.
The first detail is that Kate several times mentions having done her residency in a hospital in Madison. This is almost certainly Madison, Wisconsin, which is about three hours from Chicago, Illinois. (Madison, Illinois is over five hours from Chicago, too far for a lake house near there to be close enough for a weekend visit and clearly in the wrong direction.) However, the lake house in question must be on the shore of Lake Michigan (the only place they would call "The Lake" in Chicago), and the nearest point on that lake to Madison is Milwaukee, rather a large city already ninety minutes away, too far to be a useful local address for a hospital "resident" and over ninety minutes from Chicago as well. But if we assume that her residency was significantly east and south of Madison and the lake house somewhat south of Milwaukee we can stretch the concept and allow that Kate moved to the lake house when Alex vacated it so she would be near her residency, probably in the winter or spring of 2005. Alex was her landlord, but she would not have known that, having rented the house through a real estate agent.
It happened to become available at the right time, because following the death of Simon Wyler Alex reconnected with his brother to start their long-dreamed architectural firm in 2005, and the lake house is just a bit too far to commute to work in downtown Chicago, so he moved.
Meanwhile, residency means that Kate has moved away from Morgan and does not have time for that relationship anyway; and it appears that in that time Morgan was offered a job far enough away that his later visits to Chicago are presented as business trips. Thus the Morgan/Kate relationship was always doomed. It is not clear what happens to the Alex/Mona relationship, but she did not move to the lake house and he did not move in with her, so perhaps they drifted apart as he focused on his career and not his girlfriend.
Thus on Valentines Day 2006 we have Alex single and in partnership with his brother, and a single Kate at Daley Plaza lunching with her mother; but we have no reason for Alex to be there. This becomes the biggest complication in the entire film, and will have to be given its own examination next time.
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