Big year!

The cottage really took shape this year! It is amazing to see the progress we made on such a colossal undertaking built on blood, sweat, tears, beers and advil. I am very proud of what we accomplished and very thankful to everyone who helped throughout the year with special thanks to...

Contractors - Sam, Chris, Tim, Tom and Joe
Neighbors - Chris, George and Capt Ron
Friends and family - Brad, Scott and Matt

Big shout-out to my uncle, Al Stenger! Thanks for multiple trips up to the island, tons of quality work, good advice, good times and lots of laughs.

It's hard to believe we went from this...

August 2010

To this...

November 2012

In 27 months! Sheez!

To my wife Bonnie, who shares the dream of our Kelleys Island cottage with me, none of this would be possible without you taking care of business at home while I spend hours and hours and weekends and more weekends working on this project. I love you!

Last working weekend

Made it up to the island last weekend for the final closing ceremonies of the season. Totally lucked-out with great weather. Also, pleasantly surprised by how dry the property was after Hurricane Sandy and a week of solid rainfall.

The plan was to insulate the water tank and build the frame around the insulation in preparation for future vertical (decorative) decking. Uncle Al came up Saturday and installed all of the outdoor receptacles, wired up the water pump, and installed a switch plus two overhead lights in the crawlspace.

I also finished hanging drywall in the master bathroom. Unfortunately, because of the size of the room and the lack of lighting, I couldn't snap any usable photos.

Onto the progress...

Water tank wrapped with 2-inch foam board insulation and framing underway

Water tank receptacle mounted to framing

Water tank insulated and frame finished

Next year (Spring 2013) I will hang vertical decking around the tank framing and install stairs on the north side. Then back-fill the gap with pea gravel to let rain water drain through and provide a nice finished look on top.

 Receptacle wired up

Big Al installed this receptacle to be used for either the water pump or heat tape, depending on the season. This electrical box also feeds the outlet on the water tank, nice. In preparation for the coming winter cold, I wrapped the water line with heat tape to prevent freezing. 

Crawlspace light switch and water pump wired up

Thank again to Al, there is a light switch directly inside the crawlspace entry door that can be reached from the outside. This is super convenient to be able to switch on several overhead lights in the dark crawlspace. Also, the water pump is wired up and ready to go for next Spring. Lastly, notice the white pex tubing, this will be used for the water main line that will be connected from the water pump to the pex manifold.

Inside progress looking towards the back door slider

Election Day

Today is election day for the US President. I voted on my way into work this morning. Anxiously awaiting the results this evening. Other notable items, the US is recovering from hurricane Sandy. The east coast was absolutely hammered with storm damage... I am wishing them a quick and safe recovery.

Planning to venture up to the island for the last time this year. The weather is forecast-ed to be clear and dry all weekend. Just perfect for final work efforts and closing-up for the season. I hope to finish drywalling the bathrooms and insulating of the water tank.

Winding down...

Well, although it has been unseasonably warm this week (70 deg or higher), it was cold and damp last weekend. I did manage to work on the drywall for both bathrooms. Just dealing with drywall is a pain in the rump. It's very awkward, heavy and fragile. Before I could even begin hanging the drywall, I had to add furring strips to both bathrooms to get the room width to exactly 60 inches to perfectly fit the tub / shower.  Here are some photos of the progress in the main bathroom.

Looking in from the family room to the main bath.

Plumbing wall stubbed-through

Main bath - drywall done

The season is rapidly coming to a close. I think my next trip up to the island won't be until Nov 9th. Probably will wrap-up that weekend for the season.

Fun "Fall" weekend

Al and Lori joined Bonnie and I for the weekend up on Kelleys. We had some big fun giving Lori the tour of the island and hitting all of the local spots. Saturday night, we watched the Buckeyes game from the Caddyshack, ate some world-famous "grilled wings" and enjoyed one of the last outdoor party evenings of the season.

Me and Uncle Al

We made our way home on Sunday and managed to bring a load of wood from our cottage. Here is Lil' Neil trying to help unload...

Other notable things for this week... The Ohio University Bobcats (7-0) appear in the AP ranking for the first time since 1968! The Cleveland Browns got their first win of the 2012 season and Jimmy Haslam has officially taken over as new owner.

Waiting for the weekend

Looking forward to spending the weekend (at the Cedar Cottage) on Kelleys with Bonnie, Al and Lori. The plan is not to really do any work on the new cottage but just have fun, fall style. I'm attending a week long training class in Pittsburgh and will be driving home Friday, late afternoon and then directly up to Kelleys. Going to the Buckeye Bar to watch the Ohio State game on Saturday, etc.

The tub shower adventure

Good weekend, great work weather and fun times. Started off with picking up TWO one-piece tub/showers at Menards on Friday night. The goal was to fit both onto the back of my truck, strap them down and make it to the ferry without any damage. The trick is that these tub/showers are: made from fiberglass & clearcoat, super tall, and relatively fragile. I was worried about wind and road movement on I-90 (for the 30 minute drive to the ferry) so I drove 50 mph in the slow lane... big fun...

Tub/showers loaded-up 

After arriving late to the cottage and precariously unloading from the truck, the install begins. (FYI - they seriously build these to just barely fit into doorways, etc.) I had to remove some framing studs to make room to wrestle the tub/shower(s) into place. Then level, add new framing and secure the outer flange with screws. Repeat again, back-to-back.

Main bathroom tub/shower

Early Saturday afternoon, my friend Brad arrived on the island ready to work. The goal was to clean-up and prevent the perpetual mud pile that collects directly in front of the crawlspace access door. We wanted to build a small retaining wall on either side of the door that would keep the adjacent grade in place and look somewhat decorative. Brad dug out the area and back-filled with gravel. The finished product is in the photo below, very nice.

 Crawlspace entry access

Progress on the water tank continued as I wanted to be completely finished with the inside so we could fill-it with some water (~1/3 full) to add needed weight in preparation for the winter season. I attached a 3/4" inch foot valve to the outlet pipe and sealed the entry hole with hydraulic cement. As always, filling the tank with water presented a new set of challenges! It turns out that the tank is so high that the water truck does not have enough height above the tank for the water to flow/fill properly. We will get enough water in there to close for the season, but a new solution is definitely needed for future water filling operations. I'm considering using a special pump or building an earth ramp for the truck. I'll need to figure something out by next Spring...

Attempting to fill the water tank

I installed the main water line shut-off valve in the crawlspace and set the well pump in place temporarily until we can wire and plumb.

Well pump

Since the plumbing drain inspection passed, I needed to do some clean-up/re-work of the washer outlet box. The "before" photo is not included and was a total mess. Below you'll find the "after" photo complete with the first 1/2" PEX crimp connection in the cottage. Plumb on!

Washer outlet box

Well, that's it for now. Going back up the weekend of Oct 12th -14th with the ladies. So no serious work planned until the weekend of Oct 19th-21st.

Big work weekend planned

Nothing new to post lately, regarding the progress on the cottage, since I have not been to the island in two weeks. Looking forward to a most productive weekend starting mid-day tomorrow. Need to make a stop at Home Depot (North Olmsted) for lumber and such, and then Menards (Sandusky) to pick-up the shower/tubs. This will be interesting to see if I can fit all this onto my truck, a true test of my beloved Silverado's overall utility. See ya soon.

Plumbing inspection

Not much new to post this Monday. I did not make it up to Kelleys for any work. Bonnie spent a "girl's weekend" up on the island instead. Long story, short... we got the plumbing drain inspection approved by the Erie County Board of Health this afternoon! This is EXTREMELY good news as there was an initial complication presented last week (glad to explain face-to-face next time we talk) that thankfully turned out to be a non-issue.

Next steps... hook up some water!

Down in the gutter

Quick trip up to the cottage this weekend, arrived late Friday night and left early evening Saturday night, but none-the-less, still productive. I finished up the wall insulation, doorway cripples, and bathroom fan duct termination to the roof soffits. The big accomplishment this weekend was getting the gutters installed. Tom (from Tom Begala Construction) was great - quick, high-quality and fantastic price. He installed seemless gutters and two downspouts in two hours.

Latest photo of the cottage, gutters done, and water tank in place (far left) 

 Front gutter and downspout

 Back gutter and downspout

Pex manifold - done!

All supply lines labeled, ready and waiting for water

Bathroom fan vent duct terminated into soffit - please read on...

The photo above of the bathroom fan duct work needs some explanation. Although, looking at the photo is super boring, this was a nice little piece of work I was able to put together. Keep in mind that the time frame to complete was about 3-4 weeks due to the wrong material, returning stuff and getting new stuff to and from the island.

Without further ado... typically you would use 4 inch galvanized pipe for your bathroom fan vents. However, due to the size of the space between the ceiling and sub-floor in the attic, I had to use 3 inch. My attempt to hand bend flat 3 inch galvanized steel into the needed 3 inch tubes was completely unsuccessful. The balance between forcing the seem to lock without leaving permanent bends and bumps was impossible. After much frustration, it was time to put down and place in the Home Depot return category. I researched other options online (as usual) and found that you could use beloved pvc. OK now the pvc fits well, but how do you connect to the outside? using the existing soffit vents? I bought some soffit caps from Home Depot (wrong parts) and then tried eBay for a specific under soffit adapter. You can't tell from the photo, but there is absolutely no room to attach any type of 90 deg adapter to the pvc vent due to the pitch of the roof. Spoke to a plumbing guy at Home Depot who said you don't need to install any adapter but just terminate right into the soffit cavity. Done. The last trick was to seal the cavity around the vent pipe so bathroom humidity and exhaust would not get back into the attic. My idea was to use the silver HVAC cardboard (actually called joist panning) I've seen used for cold air returns, funny because Home Depot does not carry this product. I found the stuff at Menard's and used some left over foil tape to complete the job!

OK, so you are asking, "who friggin' cares"? I just wanted to use this as an example to illustrate the type of crap you have to put up with when building a cottage on an island by yourself. 

Labor Day Weekend Re-Cap

Although we did not make it up to Kelleys, we had a really nice family packed Labor Day weekend. Let it be known for the record, this will be the last summer holiday weekend that we will not be on the island! (Unless some unforeseen problem prevents us from having plumbing installed before Memorial Day 2013)

Bonnie and I started the long weekend with the Browns game on Thursday night. Despite it was a meaningless pre-season game, the weather was perfect and Bon and I got to hit some cool downtown spots for cocktails and appetizers. We got to check-out our new season ticket seats! The view is great, but I think we are in what is considered "nose-bleed" upper dawg-pound. To our dismay, we discovered that the Legends bar (directly beneath our seats) is now a private club and not open to the public as it had been for years. Sheez, the ticket sales rep neglected to mention that tidbit of information! More Browns updates to follow as the season unfolds - as usual, I am cautiously optimistic.

Beautiful night at the stadium - view from our new seats

On Saturday, we loaded up the crew and headed to African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton. This place is great and has become an annual family tradition.

 Anna and Sophie riding a camel

Bonnie hand-feeding Scottish highland cattle

After spending the day at Safari Park, we headed to Quaker Steak & Lube at McGarvey's Landing in Vermilion for dinner to watch the sunset and the boats.

Anna and Sophie at McGarvey's Landing Marina

Monday, we went to a family party (for Mom's birthday at the Pyke's) that started out at Clifton Beach so the kids could play.

Neil on the beach doing his thing

The family at Clifton Beach

This upcoming weekend, I will be going up to Kelleys for the gutter installation and other miscellaneous stuff. More to come...

Very hot, very busy

I took a vacation day on Friday, to rock-out as much work as possible during the weekend. The weather was dry (good) but hot (bad) - again. All week long... mid 70s... Fri, Sat, Sun, 85-95 deg! Then comfortably back down to the mid 70s on Monday. Go figure.

I was able to install both the outside lights by the front door and the outside lights by the back door slider.

Exterior lights installed - looking good

The water tank was delivered last week on Wednesday. Saturday morning, I had the pleasure of "cleaning-out" the inside of the tank. This is a creepy job... I had to climb down into an 1850 gallon solid concrete bunker. After it was cleaned, it needed to have the riser set-in-place and cemented down to fill the seal gap.

Setting the riser 

Fresh cement around the riser

Water line and electrical conduit to water tank

After hand-digging a few feet of trench to the foundation, we ran the water lines from the tank into the cottage crawlspace and installed electrical conduit for a future outlet on the water tank. Next, using the Bobcat, we covered the pipes with gravel and back-filled the trench.

Got a lot of other stuff done that I didn't get to capture with photos including:

• 99% of the interior wall insulation
• Attic vent baffles
• Pex plumbing rough-in (pex manifold looks awesome, photos forthcoming)
• 90% of the bath fan vent ducts
• 50% of the doorway cripples

Water storage tank delivered!

Wow, thanks to my neighbor George (who coordinated the whole pain-staking process), the 1850 gallon solid concrete water storage tank was delivered today.

Water storage tank (incorrectly referred to as "cistern" by island locals)

I will be heading back up this weekend to help with some water tank set-up as well as finishing up the pex supply line plumbing, wall insulation, and other miscellaneous tasks. 

Moving along...

Last weekend I installed the coaxial cable runs for the bedrooms and great room, ran about 90% of the pex water supply lines, and 1/2 of the wall insulation. Saturday night I was so caught up in the insulation mess, I worked until 3:00 am Sunday morning. Tim (Hulk Hogan) finished the drain plumbing with the hope to complete the pressure test this week.

R13 kraft faced insulation in the exterior facing walls

Pex manifold and supply lines in progress

Unfortunately, I ran out of blue 1/2 pex tubing or I would have finished the job on Sunday. Working with pex is without question the easiest way to install water supply lines. I was able to finish 90% of the rough-in work in 3-4 hrs with no previous plumbing experience at all! Of course, this is all dry fitting, since I have no water supply to test yet. Hopefully, I can post the photos of the final product (all strapped up) in a few weeks!

New cottage name?

Bonnie and I (and Anna) have been kicking around a new idea for the official name of the cottage. We are now thinking we like "Our House" better than "Our-Little-Cottage". Anyway, the song "Our House" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was actually our wedding song. We still love it as much as we did when we danced to it on June 20, 1998.

My rough design of our new idea

The whole "Our House" concept has really been a central theme throughout our marriage (and life together). so I guess it just makes natural sense to carry it forward...

Let there be light!

Big weekend, we totally "rocked-out" the electrical rough-in for the cottage (in two days!) and still managed to have some laughs (and beers). Uncle Al and Joe, co-owners of ANJ Electric LLC, are serious about what they do. I can't thank them enough for their expertise and quality work.

Joe and Al working hard

Uncle Al

Working on the panel

Big Joe

Switch box

It's a little tricky to try and accurately capture a whole house electrical rough-in with pictures. However, the photo above is a nice example of the quality work of ANJ Electric (440 427 0577). Huge thanks from me and the family!

More family, less construction

Just got back from a great long weekend with the family up on the island. We visited the Carnival, enjoyed a nice boat ride (thanks John), and played in the pool at the Venture Resort. Bonnie decided to take the family up to Put-In-Bay for the day on Wednesday.

Bonnie and the girls at the Carnival

Me and my boy on cousin John's new boat

The whole family on the boat enjoying the day

Sophie just "sitting on the dock of the bay"

Mom and Bonnie with coconut drinks (their new favorite thing) back at the Cedar Cottage

The whole crew at Papa T's famous ice cream downtown KI

Bonnie at Put-In-Bay

Anna at Put-In-Bay

Although this trip was dedicated to the family, we were able to get the plumbing drains started (thanks Tim, a.k.a. "Hulk Hogan"). Here is the bulk of the pvc fittings. I also brought up ~200 ft of pvc pipe in various diameters. The plan is to have the drain plumbing rough-in completed by the end of next weekend.

Mess of pvc fittings

I am heading back up to Kelleys on Friday to start more work on the whole house electrical and hopefully wrap-up the drain plumbing.