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.