Memorial Day Weekend!

What a great way to spend the long holiday weekend with the family. So happy that we can be together comfortably in the cottage - FINALLY. Five years of working on this place, I am ready to do some furnishing.

Thursday night I got to the island on a late ferry with the media center and new sleeper sofa ready for action. Of course, this was from IKEA, I had to fully assemble.

Comfort zone - in progress

Done

Since the deck project is the next big thing planned for early June, I needed to get all of the lumber to the island. So, the major goal of the weekend was to pick-up all the deck wood from Menards in Sandusky. Thanks to Chris for letting me use his enormous trailer we were able to move all this lumber in two trips over two days. Nothing is easy or cheap on the island!  

Chris and Tim - loading the trailer

I did load some stuff on my truck, but it would have taken me probably 10 trips if I had to do it all myself.

My truck loaded with some lumber and concrete

I put all the hand rail spindles and concrete mix in the shed to keep dry. Funny, the grass looks super patchy in this photo.

Concrete mix to be stored in shed

Here is all the deck lumber. This photo is very deceiving, because it appears as a small amount, but this is a serious collection of heavy materials ready to be transformed into a 3 sided, two-tiered, wrap-around deck. Remind me to never deliver deck wood again...

Deck wood ready

Bonnie and the kids had fun while I was making trips off-island to Menards and back. We did manage to sneak away to the new KI Cantina (my new favorite joint). Great fresh-made mojitos and margaritas.

Bonnie and me - KI Cantina

Monday morning at the cemetery the local VFW hosts a ceremony every year for Memorial day.

lil' Neil and the fam with Triston Link (Captain Ron's son) from the US Coast Guard

the small boy

Later on Monday evening it was time to head home. Here is Sophie and Neil playing on the beach waiting for the ferry.

Sophie and Neil

Cottage next steps:

• Fill all remaining nail holes in trim
• Paint the doors
• Install lock sets
• BUILD DECK!

Other Big News...

The Cleveland Cavaliers are headed to the NBA Finals starting next week!

Trim done

Had a nice little family weekend on the island. Anna and Sophie stayed Friday and Saturday night with friends, so Bonnie and me spent the weekend together with the lil' guy at the cottage. I didn't make it until the late ferry on Friday night, but Bon and Neil went up on Thursday night. Saturday, I worked on the trim while they hit the town...

Bon and Neil

The grass is starting to come in despite being very patchy. Bon cut the grass on Sunday - looks pretty sweet.

Looks like real grass!

I worked on the endless amounts of door casing and baseboard floor trim. I finished the insides of all the remaining closets, bedrooms and great room. The goal was to be done will all the cutting and hanging, so I could clean-up and put away the miter saw and air compressor, etc. Seriously, this is the first time all of the major power tools have been removed from the inside of the cottage in over 3 years. NO MORE SAWDUST!

Great room with work table and tools removed

I still need to fill all the nail holes and paint (plus doors and door jams) but the great room is now ready for furniture. This room has never been this clean ever!

Great room looking toward the front of the cottage

Neil loves to run around the yard looking for bugs, snails, toads or anything else that moves. He found a little frog that you can see in the photo below. 

Lil boy with lil frog

Saturday early evening, we went to the Caddyshack for the grilled wings and to see the band. Plus, it was Captain Ron's birthday. So we met the crew up there for a little celebration before moving the party back to the barn.

Neil at the Caddyshack kickin' it with the band

Bon's latest sunset photo

I am glad to be done with the trim because it took so friggin' long and now I won't have to write about it anymore. Hopefully, we can get some of the furnishings in place next weekend... Can't wait for a long Memorial Day Weekend!

Drywall dude reunion

The plan was to re-unite the drywall crew from 2 years ago to get together for some laughs without so much work. We had a good turnout and big fun. Here's a "shout-out" to the crew who made it:

• Al
• Andy
• Gary
• Vinnie
• Brad

Other than a little evening rain, the weather was awesome. It got into the mid 80s, sunny, hot and humid.

I got to the island Thursday night to get the cottage ready for the ensuing events and get as much work done before the crew arrived. Thursday night, I started working on the trim again and kept at it until around midnight. By Friday at 4:00 pm, I finished Neil and Sophie's room completely including the inside of both closets, the front door, and a few other choice cuts.

Front door trimmed out

Apologies for all of the boring trim photos. I wish this was done, but it looks like at least one more weekend of cutting and hanging.

Sophie's room trim done

I ran out of pre-painted door casing. So, I had to crack the can of paint, get the saw horses out in the driveway and start rolling some primed door trim. Since now the paint was out, I painted the main room utility closet bi-folds and installed the handles. Take a closer look, the handles are actually boat cleats. I wanted a solid handle and it adds more nautical flavor to the decor.

Utility room closet doors done

Some time last season, I bought a used 210 gallon water tank in Vermilion off Craigslist. This smaller tank is made for my sized pick-up truck. However, it sat behind the shed for many months because it needed to be cleaned out and plumbing parts added. Thanks to Chris for picking up the proper valve and connectors, I was able to soak the tank with bleach water all night and finally clean it up and make it ready for use. For various dumb reasons, I have to use a utility pump and standard sized garden hose to transfer the water from this tank to my water storage tank at the cottage. No big deal, but is is kinda slow; takes at least 15 minutes to empty 200 gallons. Bottom line - I can get water when I need it. Here is a photo of the maiden voyage... 

Black Betty - water enabled!

Saturday morning, before the rest of the crew arrived, Al, Andy and me got rolling on the outdoor projects. I had about a 1/4 rack of logs that were too large for the common camp fire. Anyway, Big Al fired up Chris's new log splitter and made short work of it.

Al working the log splitter

I needed to fix the log rack I made last weekend because it wasn't supported enough on the bottom. The weight of the logs was causing it to sag and pull away slightly from the shed. So, I cut a few scrap 4x4s to use at the base to prop-up and distribute the weight. Here's Andy putting the split logs back on the fixed rack.

 Andy stacking the fresh split wood

The grass really greened up this past week, probably because we got some nice rain. Even though it is still very patchy, the good patches were growing mad crazy. So Andy fired up the mower and cut the grass for the first time since I planted last fall.

 Andy on grass duty

After fixing the rotted door trim on the shed, the last chore of the weekend was to make a few water runs to help fill up the storage tank. Beer time.

Next weekend, I think the family is coming up again. I hopefully can finish the trim work. I'm pretty close and may be able to push through even though the cottage will be packed with the fam. I would love to be able to clean-up some of the materials and get the miter saw out and into the shed.

Derby day weekend

Another family filled weekend. It was Derby Day on Saturday; the marinas were full and the bars/restaurants were booming. Seemed like a mid-summer weekend after a few back-to-back slow ones. We finally go the weather we have all been waiting for...

Friday evening Bonnie took to the girls to see the sunset from the west side of the island. This is an awesome photo. Notice the perfect flying seagull heading towards to the setting sun!

Picturesque sunset - nice photo Bon! 

Saturday, Bonnie packed up the kid crew, went downtown for a bit and then hit the beach. Below is a shot of the ladies all hanging out having fun.

Bon, Anna, Lily and Sophie

Bonnie surprisingly was able to talk the girls into doing some shopping around town while she stayed behind and relaxed at Dockers.

Bon at Docker's enjoying the sites

Next on the agenda was beach time. It was a warm beautiful day, but the Lake was still very cold. It didn't discourage this crew from enjoying the island beach.

Anna and Lily

 Sophie

lil Neil

After the beach, while I was wrapping my work around the cottage, Bonnie convinced Anna (and Lily) to babysit Neil and Sophie while we hit the town for some official adult Derby Day time. 

 Me and Bon

Saturday night, Capt. Ron hosted a barn party for the pay-per-view fight that evening. We brought pulled pork and chili and met-up with the neighbors. Here is a photo of Anna on the tractor.

Anna on Capt. Ron's tractor

I did complete a few outside projects including building a nice fire pit with natural island stone and a firewood rack on the back of the shed. The back side of the shed has been a mess and just piled high with crap for several years now. So, I finally took the time to permanently clean-up it up.

Fire pit and firewood rack

Although the grass planted last fall is coming in fairly well, there are many bare spots or just missing grass completely large spots. So... Chris rented a gas-powered slit seeder to re-seed all the adjacent neighboring properties. This behemoth machine, was like a wide heavy push mower that scrapes the soil and drops seed as you go along. This was a pain in my azz pushing this thing around the yard. Anyway, hopefully we get a little rain and we'll see some more grass fill-in!

Another job I have been postponing, was the extension of the door jam in the master bathroom door way. This was framed with 2x6 (not 2x4 standard) and made the standard door kit 2 1/2 inches short all the way around the opening. I used some primed 2 1/2 inch trim wood, cut it to size, shimmed it up and nailed it in. Then I cut and hung standard door casing. To finish it off, I just need to fill-in the cracks and nail holes and paint. The extra deep door opening is kinda goofy, but this was all I really do to made it look decent.

 Master bathroom door jam

Next weekend, Uncle Al and his crew are coming up for an all boys weekend. Not too sure how much work we will get done. I may try to do some more trim before they all arrive in full force.