Family weekend - nice weather

Nothing too much going on this weekend, just nice weather and not too much work. The whole family came up except Sophie, who stayed with Nama for a weekend sleepover. All lil Neil would talk about for days was having a bon-fire and roasting marshmallows. So, Friday night we got it going on...

Neil roasting marshmallows

We finally added a new chair to the great room. We debated over the size and style for a while since this is a limited space. This one is like a beach blue velvet, pretty sweet. Notice the lil man in the background flashing the peace sign!

new chair

Saturday, I mounted a deer skull from my neighbor in ceremonial representation of the buck he got back in November 2015. FYI - this is not the actual deer skull from Kelleys. He would not part with that prized possession.

Deer head

You know I can't go a solid weekend without some cottage project. So I did manage to finally install two outdoor hose spigots. Not super exciting, but done.

Working outdoor spigot

Nice weekend had by the family. Here is us headed home on the ferry.

Anna and Neil on the ferry

See ya soon!

The "Washer and Dryer" experience

We have been coming to Kelleys Island now between cottages since 2009, and we have yet to have a working washer and dryer installed. The neighbors have been very kind and let us use their's or we had to go to the marina to wash clothes/towels etc. This has been a huge priority for Bon and now I can proudly post that we finally have a working washer and dryer installed!

First, Captain Ron hooked-up us up with a crazy $$ discount and then volunteered to pick-up and transport our new appliances from the factory in Clyde OH to Kelleys Island for short-term storage in his barn. Double bonus, and huge thanks to Ron!

New appliances - Ron's truck

I picked up the washer and dryer from Ron's barn on Saturday and got Chris to help with the install. After cutting the dryer vent hole(s) and running the vent pipes in the crawlspace, we fired up both appliances and they worked great. Thanks Chris!

Last trip to the island, I removed the old grill with plans to replace ASAP. Well, I brought up a new one that I bought and assembled at home. Looking forward to grilling some meat on this soon!

New grill

So far, the Kelleys Island weekend weather has been brutal and this past weekend was no exception. Early Saturday evening, it started snowing on and off. Here is a photo of the light accumulation. I'm ready for warmer weather...

April snow

On a side note, I planned to work on the washer/dryer and grill this weekend and not much else. At the very last minute before leaving home, when I'm kissing the family goodbye... Sophie's shouts out, "daddy, I'm coming with you". So needless to say, I brought Sophie up with me for the weekend, my baby girl.

S-O-P-H-I-E

Miscellaneous dumb island news for you...

The village of Kelleys Island has just DOUBLED the cost of bulk water. Just another thing to add to the overall cost to do anything on this island. 

Water $ increase $

Early Bird Weekend

Early bird weekend coming up on April 8th-10th. We should have some fun photos to share since we are leaving the kids at home and bringing up some great friends.

Cottage projects planned... none!

Cold family weekend

I took Sophie and lil Neil up with me to the cottage this weekend. Bonnie stayed home with Anna, who had several Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus performances on Saturday. Bonnie and Anna caught the 8:00 am ferry Sunday morning so we could spend the day together before I headed back home. Bon and the kids then would stay for the week since they had Spring Break from school.

Neil and Soph have not been to the island since September 2015, so they were super excited to see their rooms and get re-acquainted with the cottage. Friday night, we had a "Play-Doh" contest, watched movies and hung-out.

Play-Doh content

Saturday morning, it was freezing outside at a brisk 35 deg and windy! My only mission was to build some heavy-duty deck barstools. I found some great looking plans online, bought the wood and a new pocket-hole jig. The first one took about 4 hours, since I was learning the system and wow, it was cold.

Deck bar stool

I started another stool just to see how far I could get. I managed to finish one more before dinner time. By Sunday, early afternoon, I had all three completed.

Ready for a margarita

Gas grill...

I needed to try to salvage our gas grill again! It had seen many, many years of action and actually looked better that it worked. The stainless steel lid was in great shape but the insides were a total mess, completely corroded and would not distribute the gas properly. I believe I extended its life last summer by trying to re-build the innards. This time, "no mas". Time for trash pick-up back home. So yes, I will need to get a new grill for the cottage ASAP.

Longing for warmer weather.

Opening weekend 2016

After not being on the island for almost 4 months, I made it to the island for a solo trip on Friday, March 11th to open-up for the season! Because of the mild winter, this was 3 weeks sooner than last year. All good news. Furnace, well pump and all plumbing worked fine. Very happy!

Great room

While checking out the property, I noticed a mysterious deck installed bottle-opener. Still not sure who provided this little gem, but it will get much use very soon. I suspect the KI "hood" neighbors have something to do with this, but none would own up to this surprise.

Surprise - bottle opener

Saturday evening, being a very chilly night ~40 deg, it was time to build a fire and have a few beers.

Time to relax

Not much island news to share. Kinda quiet being so early in the season. Looking forward to 2016!

2015 year end wrap-up!

Bonnie and me were fortunate enough to have a weekend to ourselves to spend some quality time together and winterize both cottages.

We hung out with the neighbors Friday night. Saturday afternoon, we winterized the Cedar Cottage and then watched the Buckeye's game back at Captain Ron's place.

On Sunday morning we got rolling on the winterization of our cottage. Around noon, we were done for the year!

2015 was a big year for cottage progress and we almost completely finished. Only remaining items are painting several doors, ceiling trim and washer/dryer install.

Taking a quick look on the inside, here is a quick peek at the great room...

Great room - November 2015

Looking back to last year at this time, here is the final photo taken in 2014...

November 2014

Last year, was all about getting the lot graded and the lawn seeded. You can see a little snow accumulation on the roof too. This year was focused on finishing the trim on the inside and then the wrap-around deck. I am really happy with the results. The cottage looks much more balanced now and the approach to both front and back doors is much more functional.

November 2015

Thanks to everyone who helped this year and for being patient with me throughout the ultra-long deck project!

Until 2016...

The deck is done!

Alright, enough is enough. I know this summer has been hyper-focused on the deck project. Well, on Thursday, November 5th 2015, I finally finished construction.

The photo below is of awful quality, but it was a significant event nonetheless. Here is me installing the FINAL deck screw. I used almost four of those x-large deck mate boxes of screws, so I think that puts the deck project on around 10,000 total screws!

The final deck screw!

Here is the official press release photo of the completed deck

November 2015

Just for fun, check-out the progress timeline starting back from ground breaking in June...

June 28th

July 4th

July 18th

August 9th

August 16th

August 23rd

August 30th

September 7th

September 27th

November 5th

No more deck photos this year, I promise!

Next steps:

• Power wash and stain in Spring 2016 

One more board!

Ok, it has been nice to take a little break from the island project(s). I have been so focused on finishing the deck, I have been driving myself crazy for months. Made it up to the island for the first time in 3 weeks. My plan was to make ONE FINAL STOP at Menards for the remaining deck material to finish the back steps and the back bar top. Then return any left-over material back to Menards on Sunday, once and for all!

Friday, I stopped on my way west and picked up the stairs stingers, 14 ft thick deck for the stair treads, and other miscellaneous lumber for the stairs. Loaded up and got on the ferry.

Chris brought me a load of gravel to finish off the back of the driveway and fill-up to the left side of the front deck stairs. You can see the curved approach in the photo below.

Driveway gravel fluff

Before it got too dark, I was able to set one 4x4 post in the ground in preparation for the back stairs...

Saturday morning, I got an early start and set the LAST 4x4 post for the entire deck project. For those of you keeping track, I think that makes it 34 total posts. Just to put that into perspective, even if you are really good (and I'm not), it takes at least 1/2 hour per post to dig, level, re-dig, re-level, drop in the dry concrete and then plumb the post. In reality, this is probably way over 20 hours.

So...

All posts done, good!

On to the stairs...

Take a measurement...

Holy sh-t!

I bought all of the stair material for a 14 ft span because that is what I thought I needed. It turns out, the stair opening is 15ft! I am now screwed!

I was ready to "call it a day" and forget the deck for the weekend, because there was no way I was loading it all back up and going to Menards again. Luckily, Chris had Winston working for us this weekend. After a little convincing, I sent Winston on his way to catch the 9:30 am ferry, destination - Menards and back!

While I waited for the proper sized deck material, I got cracking on the back deck bar top. Below, you can see a photo of this finished product. Just need some outdoor bar stools.

deck bar

Winston made it back to the island around 1:00 pm I think. Time to get moving on the back steps. Here is a photo of the progress below:

back stairs underway

By 5:00 pm it was time to go to Ron & Sandy's barn for a clam bake.

Sunday morning, I made the push to get it done. I rock-n-rolled on the stair treads, side railings and spindles. Just when I thought the sun was shining bright and I would be done soon, I noticed that the last 15ft deck board to be used for the final stair tread had a few saw cuts in it. Someone had returned this board to Menards and when Winston picked it up the day before, he didn't notice.

back stairs

So, I proceeded to clean-up the mess of remaining scrap wood and load up the truck with all returnable material and headed to Menards once again...

Final progress photo when I left on Sunday.

progress photo

Next steps:

• Finish the back steps - one more board!