Dudes only weekend

My old friends Brad and Rob came up for the weekend. We definitely had more fun than getting much work done. One nice accomplishment was that I picked up the new custom built table (and matching benches) by Bob and set it up in the kitchen/dining area.

 New table and benches



We ordered a custom made addess sign that is shaped like Kelleys Island and actually made from recycled aluminum cans. There are many of these similar address signs up and down Division street. After waiting for weeks, Bonnie picked it up on Friday... extremely happy with the results. You can see from the "205" photo below, the background brown color and silver accent color is friggin' perfect!

205 Lower Cliff - New address sign

The big task for the weekend was too FINALLY finish-off the catch basin. You can see the final product and driveway in the photo on the right. This was a tricky little project. No clear solution to properly fix this mess. After looking at this problem for 4 years, I am happy with the results. The deck top has nice clean horizontal lines that actually extend the rectangle shape of the green electrical tranformer. Anyway, we are still thinking about what we could place on top of this open deck, like a large planter or maybe just nothing - more to come...

 Catch basin progress - from fresh block work to finished wood deck top 

Another big task was the extension and reshaping of the driveway. Huge thanks to Chris and Tim Arnold for extending the drive by making it wider on both sides but also for making it shorter to give us more usable yard. They used the Bobcat to lay down some rock screenings as a base for the fresh extended sides, then gravel on top and then freshly graded with more gravel from front-to-back. Looks awesome. Big thanks and shout-out - Chris and Tim!

Fun weekend with my buddies. We hit the town Friday and Saturday and did some damage.

The next photo is just for a little comic relief. Brad and me decided to go get some water with "Big Red" and fill up a tank load. For some reason, I didn't secure the middle hose line properly and then proceeded to launch the water. Thankfully, no one else was around or they would have laughed at us...

Water truck fiasco

I also finally purchased the vinyl plank flooring for the entire cottage. The plan is to take up 1/2 on Friday, July 25 and the other 1/2 the next Friday. Apparently, the load is so heavy that my truck can't handle it all on one pallet.

Next steps:

• Paint
• Start on the flooring

4th of July

Long weekend with the family up on the island. After attending the Arnold's 4th of July party, we caught the last ferry (Friday night) at midnight! Bonnie and me had both vehicles loaded up with the kids and tons of stuff. Now ready for the long weekend...

Me and my boy

I really wanted to do something different for the master bedroom headboard "feature" wall. I considered: painting (too easy), grass cloth (too expensive), pallet wood (too trendy). Anyway, I decided on a nice wood treatment using thin tongue-n-groove pine planking. I found a cool inexpensive product from Lowe's that I used for the installation. You can see the progress and finished wall below.

 Horizontal planked pine "feature wall" in the master bedroom

Yes, the painting continues. With the entire family at the cottage, I really couldn't get too much painting done because of the large mess. However, I was able to trim Anna's room along the corners and ceiling with the first coat. We chose a pale light green as the next selection in the beach palette for the entire cottage. So far, so good, every color looks cohesive with the rest of the other colors. This is a good thing.

Anna's room trimmed

LOOKING AHEAD

We are slowly, but steadily, approaching the final design phase of this cottage project. I can't wait to finally get to the fun part where we get to furnish, decorate, accessorize, etc. Bonnie and me have been thinking, planning, measuring, buying and waiting for this for years! Much more to come in future posts.

Next steps:

• More painting
• Build out a small deck to top the catch-basin
• Buy the flooring

Solo - "Rockin' the Rock"

Not much exciting to report. I spent the entire weekend painting as much as humanly possible. I ended up using about 7 gallons. At any given time, I had 1-3 brushes and 1-2 rollers with alternating paint cans/colors open. Plus, I kept the drywall mud flying as well. I would mud over any spots that I needed to fix and try to sand them before or between coats of paint. Big fun. Big mess.

After getting a late start on Friday, I began painting Neil's room and finished around midnight. Here is a photo, although the room really looks much better onsite live.

Neil's room painted

 

Friday night, I was determined to keep rolling. I worked into the wee hours of Saturday morning up until about 3:30 am working on assembling Neil's new bunk bed. I can't wait for the little guy to finally have a real bed in the cottage. He will love it! 



Neil's new bunk bed

Saturday morning, I got a late start because I needed to catch-up on some sleep lost staying up late the night before. Next on the list was our master bedroom. This is the largest bedroom, but had the least amount of drywall/mud fixing needed. Again, not the most exciting photo, but it looks great live.

Master bed room painted

 

Saturday night, I was thoroughly sick of painting and I needed to leave the premises of the "work camp" to get some fresh scenery. I took Chris's golf cart downtown to check-out the music festival underway. After some good live cover tunes, a few Dortmunders and a pile of fresh hummus, it was time to head home. Not too much fun really at a music festival by yourself. Although, I will be looking forward to attending this next year (with some family and friends) because the vibe was very cool.

 

 1st Annual Rockin' the Rock

Sunday morning, although semi-disgusted with the thought of more painting... I had to push forward and crank out Sophie's room. Sophie's room was next on the "to-do" list. Here are some before and after photos.

 Sophie's room photos - trimmed and then finished

I wanted to get the trim and rolling done around the kitchen counter tops because they needed to be oiled up again with butcher block treatment. So after painting the walls (very carefully) and removing the blue tape I layed on a heavy coat of the the butcher block oil/wax. This protects the surface and makes the counter tops look much richer and brings out the natural wood grain, etc.

Most recent kitchen photo

 

The painted rooms do not come across that great in theses photos. However, this was a nice chunk of painting that that I was able to finish over the weekend. Unfortunately, I need about 1 & 1/2 more similar weekends to finish up.

Projects completed:

• Neil's room painted - done
• Neil's bunk bed assembled and mattresses set-up - done
• Sophies room painted - done
• Master bed room painted 90%
• Main room painted 25%
• Kitchen counter tops oiled up again

Next steps:

• More painting

Looking forward to this weekend for a long Fourth of July weekend with the family.