Memorial Day

Big fun family weekend! We have been waiting a long time to use the new cottage with the whole gang and the good news is that it worked out fine. The weather was absolutely beautiful everyday. Despite having no doors, limited lighting, no floors and the entire cottage covered in drywall dust, we had a great time.

The lil' patriot

On Memorial Day, Monday - May 26th, we attended the service at the cemetery with about 300-400 other islanders. All of the veterans were dressed in full uniform along with several active duty military, coast guard, police, etc. The service was very moving and made you think about the sacrifice of these great men and women that makes our country what it is today.

After the memorial service chilling at the VFW

Before the Memorial day festivities...

I had Friday off from work so I made it up on Thursday night (After my mandatory trip to Menard's to pick up more stuff). I lugged our old grill from home and set-up a nice little base camp.

 Backyard base camp

 

While I was cleaning up all of the construction materials/mess in preparation for the family's arrival on Friday, I found a bunch of ceiling scrap wood that was already clear coat stained. So, late night on Thursday, I framed out the attic access doors. I need to decide how to hinge and trim these. Anyway, this is a good start...  

Attic door access work-in-progress

Friday morning, I primed all of the closets, Neil's room and the rest of the main room. Bon and the kids were coming up Friday, early evening, so I got a chance to knock-out as much priming as possible in about 8 hours. I also installed 2 closet organizers in the Anna's room and the master bedroom.

Saturday, Captain Ron stopped over with his Skid steer to spread the gravel around the driveway. It looks great and you can really see the driveway now. I still need another dump truck load of gravel to finish it off, but it looks awesome for now.

Driveway gravel spread by Captain Ron

 

Later on Saturday, I taped off and started the chalkboard wall. Surprisingly, one pint of paint would only allow for one coat, so I'll have to wait until next weekend to finish. This does look pretty cool and will be a fun casual addition to the cottage.



  Chalkboard wall work-in-progress

My mom Jill (Nama) joined us to spend some island time with family on Sunday. We had a nice day that started with a long lakeside lunch at the Brewery, hung out with the crazy "hood" neighbors and then took a walk down the State Park pier.

Anna and Nama on the pier

Bonnie - former "Hula-hoop champion"

Now that the driveway is finally taking shape, I wanted to cover the exposed swale drain that goes under the driveway. The reason was to gain about 4 more feet of usable yard space and just make the drain opening look nicer and more functional. This photo does really do this justice, but it covered up the ugly exposed bright green pipe and should allow for better drainage. It's the little things...

 

Driveway swale drain

Other boring maintenance included cleaning out the front gutter because heavy rain would just pour over the side. Should work as expected now and help dry out better around the cottage.

Next steps:

• Install the cottage "Our House" sign
• Finish chalkboard wall
• Finish up the attic access doors
• Keep priming