Cottage framed, sided, and shingled

Bonnie and I took the whole family up to see the finished product on Friday, May 25th. We were more than pleased. Everything looks great -- colors, size, design and layout. Chris and his crew did a "bang-up" job coming in on time and on budget. They also did many of the little extras that show their dedication to quality work. I would highly recommend them to anyone and have already discussed them helping with the wrap-around deck and covered porch project for next year. Nice.

Sophie and Anna on waiting for the ferry at the Marblehead dock

Front of cottage - done

Family pic

Back of cottage - done

Almost there...

Here is the progress end of day, Thursday May 24. The plan is to be on the 9:00 am ferry tomorrow morning (Friday).

 Front looking good

North side -- notice the crawlspace access framed out

Front of cottage sided and roofed

This is the latest progress from the end of day on Wednesday, May 23. Looking forward to seeing the finished product on Friday morning. We are packing up the whole family for the unveiling, hanging out on the island for the day, and then heading to Sandusky for an overnight stay and then to Cedar Point on Saturday morning -- action packed as usual!

Back side roof shingled

Check it out... the back of the cottage is now shingled. Notice the skylights and sun tunnels installed.

Wow, It's looking like a cottage!

Bonnie and I stopped up last Friday to take a look at the progress and wow, it's really moving along nicely. The weather has been great and the cottage is taking shape.

Roof plywood installed and windows and doors cut

Roof paper installed and windows hung

Bonnie and me, standing in what will be the kitchen/dining area

The siding has been started and the skylights have been cut in.

Walls and roof trusses up

Sophie and I made our way up to the island yesterday to drop-off the new front door, roof skylights and other misc supplies needed for the crew. Wow! The cottage looks great. You can now really see the dimensions and footprint of the overall structure. I am so pleased with the design and glad it turned out as well as expected. The quality of the construction is awesome. I can tell that Chris and his crew take pride in their work and it shows.

View looking at the north side of the cottage. Notice my assistant Sophie...

View looking at the east side (back) of the cottage. You can see the rough opening(s) for the patio slider doors and master bedroom window. 

View looking at the west side (front) of the cottage. I am really pleased with the position of the tree in relation to the front of the cottage.

Framing started!

After 11 months of planning, re-planning, and more re-planning, the builders started framing yesterday around noon. By early evening the floor joists and sub-floor were completed - moving right along. The crew is super fortunate to have great weather expected for the rest of the week. My daughter Sophie and I are making a quick mid-week run up to the island to deliver the front door and roof skylights. But the best part is that we can check the progress and hopefully get a peek at the fully framed cottage structure...

This is drainage hole/ditch that I had to dig by hand. That was a real pain-in-the-azz. Remind me to avoid hand digging in the future. However, it was absolutely necessary to have a solid 40' run of 4" drain pipe to tie in the sump pump and gutter downspouts.

Here is the asphalt primer I applied in preparation for the foundation membrane.

This is me working on the foundation membrane. Slow and messy. The plan is to keep the foundation and crawlspace as dry as possible!

Plywood for the sub-floor.

The crew installed I-joists which are manufactured floor joists that simplify construction, reduce cost and use 40-50% less wood than conventional floor joists. This should make the green environmentalists happy... 

Floor joists and sub-floor almost done. Here you can see the temporary sump pump plumbing that was tied into the drain pipe installed earlier.

Island sunset

Every day we get one step closer to the cottage being built and I am thankful for all of the great things I have been blessed with in my life. Check out this sunset from the south side of the island.

The foundation situation!

I am absolutely beaming over the fact that the foundation was completed this weekend. Actually, crew was done by 12:45 pm on Saturday afternoon. The plan was for them to be sitting at the bar by 1:00 pm and they kept to the schedule. Sam (from Marblehead) was a phenomenal mason - great price and outstanding quality work. I would highly recommend him to anyone needing concrete work in the area.

Day one - setting the first course on the bedrock.

No need for footer due to natural glacial smoothing less than one inch off level - amazing!

Day two - three walls done, moving along...

Day two - foundation complete!

Floor clean and temporary sump pump installed.

Done. Beer time. View from neighbor's cottage.

Slowly but surely

Bonnie and I had a fabulous weekend up on the island. We managed to get a lot of work done despite the rain. This upcoming Friday, our block layer is supposed to start working the corners of the foundation. The plan is to have all complete by end of day Saturday, weather permitting. Too busy to post any pictures. Next time for sure!