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.