Island fest

This weekend, it was time to hang with the guys. It was Island Fest and the weather forecast was all good.

I started out Thursday night by seriously loading down my truck with way too heavy lumber. Because Menard's is such a pain-in-the-azz to get lumber from, it takes sooo much time to stop there and it just adds hours to the island commute, I bought (40) - 2' x 10' x 12' from Home Depot in North Olmsted. Seemed like a great idea. You can't tell by this photo, but I was bottomed out pretty bad and the back tires were squashed. When I did get to the highway, the maneuverability was terrible. Floating all over the road. Anyway, with fingers crossed, I did make it as the last vehicle on the 9:00 pm ferry leaving Marblehead.

All loaded down and ready to head north west...

Bad idea

For the record, when building this cottage, there is an enormous amount of material that needs to be transported up to the beloved island. I have spent countless hours at Lowes, Home Depot and Menards. I am extremely happy to be getting near the end of the BIG projects and then can bring up less stuff every weekend. That being said, I will still have several more trips to get this deck project finished!

Friday morning, I had conference calls all day until late afternoon. So around 2:30 pm I finally got outside to start working on the deck. Around 6:30 pm, Rob was on the ferry and ready to get the party started.

50% done with the joists

I think I have approximately 40 to 50 (2' x 10') joists left. I hope this is enough to finish the wrap-around to the back. It will be close, I think I still may need 1 or 2 more boards.

After picking up Rob at the ferry, I got a totally random text from my old friend Lenny. It's been a few years since we have spoken or hung out. He was on the island for his birthday. So we met the whole crew down at Dockers on the water. Fun night that turned into a rough Saturday morning. Brad finally showed up on Saturday afternoon to join me and Rob.

Rob strumming the guitar

Saturday night at the Caddyshack we got to see one of the best bands to play on Kelleys, "Almost Famous" from Cleveland. We went to high school with the bass player and we always try to catch their show when we can. As usual, they had the place rockin' all night.

Almost Famous

Next steps:

• Finish the deck joists...