Of course, Anna and Sophie talked me into going downtown for ice cream as soon as possible. Here is a photo of them at their favorite ice cream joint - Papa T's.
My baby girls
Bonnie packed up the kid crew and headed home late on Sunday. I took the week off for vacation with plans to stay alone on the island and work on the cottage. Bonnie (by herself) came back up on Thursday, for an extended anniversary weekend.
Happy 16th year anniversary to my girl!
We had a wonderful time doing the island old-school: chillin' down by the lake shore, boat watching and much fine dining.
Bonnie and me - happy anniversary!
We spent some time hanging out with John, Amy and Ethan Pyke who came up to Kelleys on their boat for the weekend.
The cottage progress continues...
One huge outstanding site issue was the catch-basin that is located directly next to the electrical transformer at the street. You can see from the first photo below, this is a friggin' mess and not properly installed by any stretch. This "hole" is where all the rain water, gutter run off and sump-pump termination flows to before eventually draining under the street, along George's property line and then to the quarry.
This is a huge pile-of-crap that needed to be cleaned out periodically because dirt was washed into the hole whenever it rained. When we bought the property (in 2010), the seller promised that this would be fixed and now 4 years later it was still a problem...
Before and during the block work to seal in the catch basin
Fortunately, Chris was having his new foundation built by the same crew who laid our block foundation back in 2012. As part of their job, Chris had these guys seal in the catch-basin with fresh block. Nice.
Catch basin block-work finished
Another nice addition was the installation of the microwave. Every new appliance makes the cottage more-and-more livable. Check-it out in the working kitchen photo below.
Microwave installed
BIG HASSLE ALERT:
One big job that took much much longer than anticipated was the finishing of the skylights. No joke, this probably took me 15-20 hrs over three days. The skylight cavities were drywalled and mudded. They needed to be 1) sanded, 2) re-mudded, 3) re-sanded, 4) tapped, 5) primed, 6) painted, 7) trimmed, 8) trim painted and then 9) final trimmed. The real trick was trying to work inside a 13 inch cavity with the sun shining in your eyes in 100+ deg heat. There was no easy way to get inside these narrow cavities while standing on a 15 ft ladder. Plus it was a pain-in-the-azz slapping paint inside them without painting yourself in the process.
My plan is to not touch these again for a long while, hopefully never. The photo below does not do this effort justice. However, I am extremely pleased with the finished product. You really need to see the trimmed-out skylights live to appreciate.
Skylights primed, painted and trimmed
I also finished priming and painting the main bathroom. Again, this photo does not make the small room look all that great. The wall color is a sweet medium gray. Uber cool.
Main bathroom - painting complete
Kitchen/mainroom paint started
Yes I did, I have spent 10 consecutive days on the island. I was seriously expecting to get more done between June 13th and 22nd, but I was happy with the results.
Projects completed:
- All remaining closet organizers installed - done
- Chalkboard wall framed - done
- Main bath painted - done
- Microwave installed - done
- Skylights - done (huge job)
- Finish drywall remediation
- Paint, paint, paint
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