Duct work, plumbing, mud, beers and cold

Welcome to Kelleys Island 2013! Well we opened up the season with a bang. The weather was unseasonably cold ~25-35 deg on March 22. I was able to make the second official ferry run at 9:00 AM on Friday. I was pleasantly surprised to find the crawlspace of "Our House" very dry after the long winter.

Uncle Al and Brad came up Saturday morning to work on the HVAC duct work.

Brad working on assembling a duct

Chris helping out

Uncle Al working his magic

 

Huge shout-out to Big Al for spending most of the entire day on Saturday up in the rafters, wrestling with the duct work for the HVAC installation.

Uncle Al and the air handler 

Me filling-up "Old Smokey" the kerosene heater

 

Chris brought up two old-school kerosene heaters from his endless arsenal of stuff. "Old Smokey" and proved to be an invaluable tool for the weekend. Without these heaters, we would have not been able to do much work at all in the frigid cottage. After a few hours, with both heaters working, the cottage heated-up nicely. Since the heat would build up in the attic, we were sweating working up in the rafters.

 

Septic 4" pvc pipe tied into cottage

The area directly in front of the tank inlet will be backfilled with dirt to bury/hide the pipe and gradually tapered towards the cottage. Unfortunately, the pipe from the cottage will be exposed permanently because of its position in the siding. I am planning to add some type of low landscape wall using vertical decking (same as planned for cistern/water tank) starting at the back-right of the septic tank and stopping near the back-right corner of the cottage by the pipe outlet.

Septic 4" pvc pipe tied into tank inlet

 

Thanks to Chris for his help engineering this install using two 22 deg couplers and leveling the proper fall from the house. This job follows the old saying, "sh-t rolls down hill". Let's hope so!    



 



 

Well pump plumbed-up from the water source

 

We managed to get a ton of work done despite the weather. However, we did spend our fair share of time at the Pump drinking beers and "Storm Cloud" shots. Good times...

Opening weekend approaching!

The long awaited opening weekend is planned for Friday, March 22nd. I'm working getting the crew assembled and the ferry schedule hammered down. Hopefully, we will have more fun than issues with both cottages. More details and pictures to come!

KI Neighbor party at Sawmill Creek Resort

The annual KI party at Sawmill creek was on Saturday night, March 2nd. As usual, it was a good time had by all. This is a funny event where we spend most of our time hanging out in hotel rooms highschool style. Great to see all the neighbors and get mentally ready for the upcoming season!

Me and Bon

Bon and the lady neighbor crew

Me and the dudes

Notice the hotel room background

Happy New Year 2013!

Well here's to healthy, happy and prosperous 2013. It's only been 7 weeks since we closed up the cottage for the season and I'm already getting the itch... Since, the plan is to open sometime in March (weather permitting) I'll be back on the rock in less than 90 days, nice!

On facebook today, the Village Pump posted some new info about the Battle of Lake Erie. Starting to look forward to the Bicentennial celebration already. Should be tons of fun with various festivities planned on and around the lake all summer. The big shindig on Kelleys is happening on Labor Day Weekend. This gives me a deadline to have running water, at least one bathroom, and air conditioning working in the new cottage as soon as possible but NO LATER than August. Let's do this...

Get ready for Labor Day Weekend 2013

Big year!

The cottage really took shape this year! It is amazing to see the progress we made on such a colossal undertaking built on blood, sweat, tears, beers and advil. I am very proud of what we accomplished and very thankful to everyone who helped throughout the year with special thanks to...

Contractors - Sam, Chris, Tim, Tom and Joe
Neighbors - Chris, George and Capt Ron
Friends and family - Brad, Scott and Matt

Big shout-out to my uncle, Al Stenger! Thanks for multiple trips up to the island, tons of quality work, good advice, good times and lots of laughs.

It's hard to believe we went from this...

August 2010

To this...

November 2012

In 27 months! Sheez!

To my wife Bonnie, who shares the dream of our Kelleys Island cottage with me, none of this would be possible without you taking care of business at home while I spend hours and hours and weekends and more weekends working on this project. I love you!

Last working weekend

Made it up to the island last weekend for the final closing ceremonies of the season. Totally lucked-out with great weather. Also, pleasantly surprised by how dry the property was after Hurricane Sandy and a week of solid rainfall.

The plan was to insulate the water tank and build the frame around the insulation in preparation for future vertical (decorative) decking. Uncle Al came up Saturday and installed all of the outdoor receptacles, wired up the water pump, and installed a switch plus two overhead lights in the crawlspace.

I also finished hanging drywall in the master bathroom. Unfortunately, because of the size of the room and the lack of lighting, I couldn't snap any usable photos.

Onto the progress...

Water tank wrapped with 2-inch foam board insulation and framing underway

Water tank receptacle mounted to framing

Water tank insulated and frame finished

Next year (Spring 2013) I will hang vertical decking around the tank framing and install stairs on the north side. Then back-fill the gap with pea gravel to let rain water drain through and provide a nice finished look on top.

 Receptacle wired up

Big Al installed this receptacle to be used for either the water pump or heat tape, depending on the season. This electrical box also feeds the outlet on the water tank, nice. In preparation for the coming winter cold, I wrapped the water line with heat tape to prevent freezing. 

Crawlspace light switch and water pump wired up

Thank again to Al, there is a light switch directly inside the crawlspace entry door that can be reached from the outside. This is super convenient to be able to switch on several overhead lights in the dark crawlspace. Also, the water pump is wired up and ready to go for next Spring. Lastly, notice the white pex tubing, this will be used for the water main line that will be connected from the water pump to the pex manifold.

Inside progress looking towards the back door slider

Election Day

Today is election day for the US President. I voted on my way into work this morning. Anxiously awaiting the results this evening. Other notable items, the US is recovering from hurricane Sandy. The east coast was absolutely hammered with storm damage... I am wishing them a quick and safe recovery.

Planning to venture up to the island for the last time this year. The weather is forecast-ed to be clear and dry all weekend. Just perfect for final work efforts and closing-up for the season. I hope to finish drywalling the bathrooms and insulating of the water tank.