Another big year!

The inside of the cottage really took shape this year! I am extremely happy that we can now "stay" in the cottage anytime - since we have working heating/cooling, plumbing, toilet, sink and shower, HDTV and a few beds. The absolute best is having a live working thermostat (furnace and a/c) to control heating and cooling. This may sound funny, but with the crazy weather swings from 20 deg and frigid to 95 deg and humid, this is so important for the cottage in the middle of an island in the middle of the lake.

Big thanks to everyone who helped throughout the year...

• The drywall crew - Albert, Al, Gary, Ken, Andy, Scott and Brad
• KI Neighbors - Chris, Tim and George

Special shout-out to my uncle, Al Stenger! The heating/cooling installation would not have been possible without all of your help, hard work and advice (including multiple trips to Menyhart in Cleveland).

Here is the final exterior photo of the season. I was hoping to get the lot grading finished, driveway gravel added, and grass seed planted. However, the focus this year was on getting interior items up and running. Therefore, this photo does not look much different from last year.

 "Our House" - November 2013

Check-out the interior progress made in between November 2012 and November 2013. Biggest improvement is the installation of the drywall and wood ceiling.

November 2012

November 2013
 

Here is a nice shot of the sunset from Portside Marina early Saturday evening. Notice the empty dock.

Sunset from Portside Marina

Sunday morning, I finished cleaning up and winterizing all of the plumbing. I used the air compressor to blast pressurized air into the lines right below the pex manifold. This is a two-step process, first concentrating the air downward to blow out any water left in the well pump and then second blasting air upward to blow out any water in the pex manifold, hot water heater, and ultimately all of of supply lines. I then poured anti-freeze into all of the traps and plugged in the heat tape for the sump pump and water main line to prevent freezing over the winter season.

Well, this is the last post for 2013. Looking forward to next year.

Neil

Last working weekend of the season

Well, all good things must come to an end and island season is no exception. I made the final trip up for the year last weekend. The plan was to work on any low intensity projects and then winterize for the year.

Friday night, I framed out the attic access that was just too big of an opening for what is actually needed like the space around the future access door for trimwork and clearance for the nearest ceiling fan to be installed.

Opening re-framed

Drywalled

Mudded

On Saturday, the Arnold brothers arrived late in the day to work on Chris's cottage. We met up later on the Arnold's new lot to make a huge fire and drink some beers. After going downtown for dinner at the Pump, we came back to re-stoke the fire.

Big Tim

 

Sunday, I started early with organizing and winterizing. I had to make the 12:30 pm ferry to get back in town. I spent most of the morning cleaning up and organizing my tools before starting on bleeding the water lines.



Great room - ceiling done!

Made it up to the island just for Friday night with the plan to leave mid-day Saturday. The goal was to finish the ceiling and work on a few other odds and ends. Chris and Tim were cool enough to join me and were critical to wrap-up the ceiling work. On the way, we had to stop at Menards to buy more ceiling boards and miscellaneous trim pieces since we did not know exactly what we needed until we got back at it.

Around 9:00 pm on Friday night, the ceiling was looking good and nearing completion. We did not have time to pre-stain the final wood planks so we hung them unfinished and then I stained them later in place.

Chris measuring up the trim approach

Representing the "last spike", very similar to the completion if the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, here is a photo of me putting in the "last nail" of the ceiling project.

Putting in the LAST nail

Here is a fresh photo from Saturday morning after staining the final boards. This great-room ceiling is really the first finished surface in the entire cottage so far. I am super happy with the results.

Looking good

At the peak of the ceiling where the two adjoining surfaces meet, there is no easy way to trim this out due to the weird angles and trying to avoid making long thin rips of the ceiling boards. We decided to use 1 x 6 pine, cut them to length, and nail between the fan boxes already in place. The fan boxes were great because they had a nice flat square surface to match up.

 The final final!

Saturday morning, I managed to slap up the last few pieces of drywall in Anna's room that close off the plumbing exposed behind the main bath shower. You'll notice I had to "piece together" several scraps of drywall. I realize the drywall pictures are not very exciting, but this was the last open wall and I was able to use up and put away all the remaining sheets of drywall and scraps.

Anna's room - drywall done

This season is rapidly coming to a close. Next trip up will be the last for the year. I plan to winterize and close up the cottage for the season.

Stay tuned.