Labor day weekend - family style!

Big fun filled long family weekend after taking a quick break from the island...

The Cleveland Air Show was in town and as such the Blue Angels were practicing along the lake shore all day on Thursday. So if it wasn't difficult enough to get through the work day thinking ahead to the long weekend, try doing so while listening (and watching) F/A-18 Hornets fly by your window.

Blue Angels outside the EY office tower window - 16th floor

Thursday night, Anna and me started the weekend early and went to the Pre-season Browns game vs. the Chicago Bears. Check-out this photo below!

Me and Anna, my oldest baby girl

With the latest Browns stadium upgrades and colossal jumbo screens, our former seats in the upper Dawg Pound were relocated to a new section 351.  

Panorama view from the new seats

Friday morning, we got an early start with the first stop at Big Lots in North Olmsted to pick-up 2 queen mattress sets. Second stop, was Menards in Sandusky to pick-up 3 interior doors. I seriously don't think we could fit anything else in the truck bed.

Anna with a fully loaded truck

Friday afternoon, I worked on assembling Sophie's bunk bed. This is a nice unit that comes with one twin and one full mattress plus a cool angled ladder to get to the top bunk. So far, so good. Kinda nice to get some real beds in the cottage, since Sophie has been sleeping on a futon or air mattress for over a year. 

Working on Sophie's new bed

My mom joined us for the weekend on Saturday and booked two nights at the Venture Resort. This has been an annual Labor Day event. Mom and the kids love the Venture pool! 

The pool princess

lil' sis and big sis

 Nama and lil' Neil enjoying the pool

Saturday and Sunday, I installed more flooring, hung doors and worked on the main bathroom. I was able to finally fix the perplexing leak in the bathroom sink drain. This was my third attempt at this and I was starting to get discouraged. Anyway, I just wrapped the top of the drain, where the leak was happening, with some Teflon tape, and tightened it all back up. I checked for leaks probably 20 times over the course of the remaining weekend. So far, so good. Hopefully, this is the last time I will mention this drain.

Master bedroom flooring progress

By end-of-day Sunday, I had finished the flooring in the entire cottage other than the master bathroom. In addition, I was able to hang three doors including the one for the master bedroom. Even without a locking door knob, it is so nice to be able to actually close the door.

 Master bedroom door

When the crew was out shopping at Vi's, I slipped away to take this photo of the Kelleys Mansion

 The Kelleys Mansion

Labor day weekend calls for another rocket launching event! We made our way to the open ball field, checked the wind and set-up the launch pad. On our second launch of the afternoon, we had a system malfunction and the parachute did not open as expected. Needless to say, the rocket plummeted straight down and stuck deep in the ground tail-end up. The impact kinda smashed the tube, so now the rocket is officially out-of-commission. Here is a photo of the last launch...

The rocket's last voyage

Happy Sophie girl and Bon on the ferry

HUGE FAMILY NEWS!

Putting all of this cottage stuff aside, Amie and Scott's new baby boy, Aaron Kanengeiser, was born early Friday morning. Here is a photo of me and lil' Aaron on Monday, Labor Day.

Aaron Kanengeiser - 3 days old

Congratulations Amie and Scott! We love you guys!

Sophie weekend #2

Anna had to attend her voice teacher's wedding on Saturday, so I brought my baby girl along with me for the weekend. The plan was to install the new wood blinds and work on the floor, plus anything else I could get done. Sophie just played outside, watched Netflix on my phone and ate candy all weekend. EZ-PZ.

Ron and Sandy had the entire neighbor crew over for dinner on Saturday night. Sophie came along with me and entertained everyone with her gymnastics show.

Sophie hanging around in a tree

Progress...

I've been thinking about how to tackle the water hauling situation for quite some time. Chris and Tim Arnold have been great and have filled our water tank forever. However, I wanted to have the ability to haul my own water when needed.

The best solution was to get a small 210 gallon pick-up sized tank for light duty that I can put on and off of my truck as needed. I checked online for these and the price was not bad for a new tank, but the shipping charge was outrageous. Plan B, was to look for a used tank somewhere between Olmsted Twp and Kelleys Island. Lucky enough, I found one on Craigslist for $100. The tank was in Vermilion so I picked it up on the way to the island on Friday. Perfect.

Water hauling tank

Friday night, I got a jump on hanging the new custom blinds for the whole cottage. These were an easy install with big impact. My favorite type of work. 

 New woven wood shades - big improvement

Saturday, after taking Sophie to our obligatory breakfast, I needed to get crackin' on the floor. I wanted to finish from the bar nook, to the dining area, to the kitchen. Here are some photos of the progress.

 Flooring into the kitchen

By early evening Saturday, I had finished the kitchen and bar nook. I think I am > 80% complete with the floor so far. I have to finish the master bedroom and bath to go and I only have 12 boxes of flooring left @ 20 sqft per box. I think I have enough material to finish and hopefully I am slightly over. More to come on this topic later.

 Flooring looking good 

Sunday morning, since I had to move the refrigerator to get at the sub-floor and I knew I had some painting to do that I was unconsciously procrastinating, yes, it was time to paint yet again. As soon as I started to get all the supplies together, Sophie's intense curiosity and strong will took over. She broke me down and convinced me to let her paint. The wall behind the fridge was a good place to start. 

 The little painter

The bathroom sink plumbing issues continues. I re-installed fresh the drain stopper all the way down to the p-trap. Everything looked good and dry for several hours. Then it started dripping again in the same spot as last time. Anyway, I am slightly frustrated and will need a second set of eyes to take a look because everything looks "by-the-book", correct and clean. This sucks.

Since I like to share real progress, here is a boring photo of the toilet paper holder installed. The reason why this is important is because this is a tiny bathroom with few to no options for the toilet paper holder placement. We choose a real minimalist piece because of the lack of space. I am happy with the results. I bet you can't remember the last time you viewed a photo of a toilet paper holder. It's the little things.

Toilet paper holder

Lastly, I worked on re-mediating the kitchen pendant lights. This is hard to explain, but the canopy (the part of the fixture that touches the ceiling) was super difficult to install in the deep holes cut into the wood ceiling. Plus after I did get them up, there were random openings around the canopy circle where you could see the cuts in the wood ceiling. Basically, they were hung loose and looked bad. You can't make the holes in the ceiling any smaller and you can't caulk the spaces because it's natural wood and not painted. The last option was to see if I could find larger canopies. Thankfully, Menards sells a few canopies without the rest of the light kit included. This is extremely rare and I was happy to find. 

Long story short, I had to rebuilt the pendant fixtures using new brushed nickel canopies and swiveling hanging brackets. The sad part about this job is that no one will ever even notice.

Closing statement...

Lots of progress. No joke, I did some type of minor carpentry, plumbing, painting, flooring and electrical... all in one weekend, crazy.

Next steps:

• Take next weekend off from KI
• Take apart the master bathroom to get at the walls and floor
• Spot mud, sand, prime and paint
• Finish the floor

Another summer weekend on the island

I met the family up on the island on early Friday night. Although, I had a short week coming off a few vacation days, I really missed my crew. Saturday I worked on the main bath vanity installation while Bon and the kids went to the beach.

View looking west from the ferry

Sunday morning we finally got a chance to launch Sophie's model rocket at the Kelleys Island ball field. Check-out the photo below. I let lil Neil push the launch button and he was thrilled!

Rocket launch - maiden voyage

Progress continues...

I worked on installing the main bath vanity, sink top and fixture. The vanity and sink top were easy and fit the space with no problem. The fixture fits perfectly and looks great also. Next step was to test the supply hot/cold lines. I had to open the valves from the main PEX manifold like I have for every other fixture in the cottage. To my dismay, the open cold water line started spraying out water right at the source as soon as I turned the PEX valve. Crap! Small panic attack! Is the PEX manifold bad? If so, then I am screwed! This is the main plumbing artery system to the whole cottage... Obviously, immediate next steps are to shut off the valve and begin troubleshooting. I had to find all of the PEX manifold crap that I had put away in the attic last year. I found the secret wrench and took apart the problematic valve. Amazingly, I found that the plastic ring that acts as a seal was pinched wrong and had a noticeable dent in the side. Like a needle in a haystack, I found two spare plastic rings. Now, the trick was to get one of these back in place properly and tighten up the whole thing nice and neat. Attempt #1, fail. Water spraying. Just re-pinched the new plastic ring again. Only one more try or this project would be delayed until next weekend (or maybe longer). Attempt #2, success. PEX manifold "kicks azz" as expected! Time to move on to the drain plumbing...

The wall drain was 2 inch PVC and I needed get this to 1 1/4 plastic p-trap. I got everything in and looking good, tested for leaks, no problem. I checked every hour or so just to see if any leaks appeared. Early Saturday evening I noticed a few drips coming from where the threaded drain stopper tube meets the tail piece. Very odd place for a leak. Anyway, tired of messing with it, so I will work on fixing later. For the record, plumbing sucks.

Main bath room, vanity, sink top and fixture

I continued to lay down more flooring and was able to finish Sophie's room and more of the main room leading into the bar/kitchen/dining area. I think I am > 60% complete with the floor so far. I only have about 22 boxes left of flooring and I still need to complete the kitchen, dining, master bed room and master bath. I don't think I have enough material.

Here is a cute photo of my first baby girl who managed to steal my phone to take many many pictures of herself.

Anna selfie

Next steps:

• Keep working on the floor
• Fix the main bath vanity plumbing
• Paint fixes

Circus circus

We started our family KI extended stay on Thursday, July 31. I took Sophie and Neil up with me and then Bonnie and Anna joined us later that evening. The plan was for me to stay through into early the following week so we could all attend the annual Kelly Miller Circus.

The typical mayhem ensued with the kids being excited and staying up way too late. The little man did not fall asleep until like 2:00 am!

The weekend led into Circus week and lil Neil's new favorite pastime is riding any/all exotic/wild animals! Here are some choice photos...

The girls before the circus and lil Neil and me during the circus - elephant rides!

The kids on a camel

Happy guy on a pony

PROGRESS:
Cottage progress is steady and every weekend now it seems that the casual modern beach theme continues to take shape and evolve.

Thursday night, I had to do some type of work because sitting around idle is just not an option for me. Since most of the main room painting was complete, I started hanging the oars/paddles on the peak of the main wall. It was late and time for bed.

Friday morning, I wanted to work on the new over sized drum shade pendant for the dining area. We ordered this fixture from Overstock.com for a great price, but you don't know what you have until you open the box and get your hands on the product. Needless to say, this is a slick looking fixture and matches the semi-nautical theme as well. Super sweet.

Dining table large drum-shade fixture 

Saturday morning, I had to get rolling on the new floor. We chose a resilient vinyl tile plank with click-lock and hand scraped detail. This is a fantastic product that is not only looks great, but is super durable (50 year warranty) and water-resistant. Anna helped me quite a bit getting started. I worked on the floor for the next two days...

 Anna, my flooring assistant

I had to take the day off on Monday from flooring for two reasons... it was Circus day and I was extremely sore from bending and working at floor level.

Flooring progress - Sunday, Aug 3 thru Tuesday, Aug 5

Monday, before the circus I managed to hang two ceiling fans. The electrical still needs to be hooked up but I wanted to at least get them in place. Again, we ordered these online and did not know how they would look. These are 3-blade, brushed nickel, with no light kit on 24 inch down rods. Love 'em. Perfect fit.

 Twin ceiling fans hung

Tuesday, I got rolling on the floor again. I was able to finish the floor in the main bath which allowed me to be able to install the toilet. I have to say, I am actually giddy about successfully installing another toilet with no plumbing issues.

Main bathroom flooring and new toilet installed - looking great!

Holy frijole, I managed to get a ton of work done this trip!

Next steps:

• Work on the floor
• Bathroom sink and vanity
• Touch-up paint

Dudes only weekend

My old friends Brad and Rob came up for the weekend. We definitely had more fun than getting much work done. One nice accomplishment was that I picked up the new custom built table (and matching benches) by Bob and set it up in the kitchen/dining area.

 New table and benches



We ordered a custom made addess sign that is shaped like Kelleys Island and actually made from recycled aluminum cans. There are many of these similar address signs up and down Division street. After waiting for weeks, Bonnie picked it up on Friday... extremely happy with the results. You can see from the "205" photo below, the background brown color and silver accent color is friggin' perfect!

205 Lower Cliff - New address sign

The big task for the weekend was too FINALLY finish-off the catch basin. You can see the final product and driveway in the photo on the right. This was a tricky little project. No clear solution to properly fix this mess. After looking at this problem for 4 years, I am happy with the results. The deck top has nice clean horizontal lines that actually extend the rectangle shape of the green electrical tranformer. Anyway, we are still thinking about what we could place on top of this open deck, like a large planter or maybe just nothing - more to come...

 Catch basin progress - from fresh block work to finished wood deck top 

Another big task was the extension and reshaping of the driveway. Huge thanks to Chris and Tim Arnold for extending the drive by making it wider on both sides but also for making it shorter to give us more usable yard. They used the Bobcat to lay down some rock screenings as a base for the fresh extended sides, then gravel on top and then freshly graded with more gravel from front-to-back. Looks awesome. Big thanks and shout-out - Chris and Tim!

Fun weekend with my buddies. We hit the town Friday and Saturday and did some damage.

The next photo is just for a little comic relief. Brad and me decided to go get some water with "Big Red" and fill up a tank load. For some reason, I didn't secure the middle hose line properly and then proceeded to launch the water. Thankfully, no one else was around or they would have laughed at us...

Water truck fiasco

I also finally purchased the vinyl plank flooring for the entire cottage. The plan is to take up 1/2 on Friday, July 25 and the other 1/2 the next Friday. Apparently, the load is so heavy that my truck can't handle it all on one pallet.

Next steps:

• Paint
• Start on the flooring

4th of July

Long weekend with the family up on the island. After attending the Arnold's 4th of July party, we caught the last ferry (Friday night) at midnight! Bonnie and me had both vehicles loaded up with the kids and tons of stuff. Now ready for the long weekend...

Me and my boy

I really wanted to do something different for the master bedroom headboard "feature" wall. I considered: painting (too easy), grass cloth (too expensive), pallet wood (too trendy). Anyway, I decided on a nice wood treatment using thin tongue-n-groove pine planking. I found a cool inexpensive product from Lowe's that I used for the installation. You can see the progress and finished wall below.

 Horizontal planked pine "feature wall" in the master bedroom

Yes, the painting continues. With the entire family at the cottage, I really couldn't get too much painting done because of the large mess. However, I was able to trim Anna's room along the corners and ceiling with the first coat. We chose a pale light green as the next selection in the beach palette for the entire cottage. So far, so good, every color looks cohesive with the rest of the other colors. This is a good thing.

Anna's room trimmed

LOOKING AHEAD

We are slowly, but steadily, approaching the final design phase of this cottage project. I can't wait to finally get to the fun part where we get to furnish, decorate, accessorize, etc. Bonnie and me have been thinking, planning, measuring, buying and waiting for this for years! Much more to come in future posts.

Next steps:

• More painting
• Build out a small deck to top the catch-basin
• Buy the flooring

Solo - "Rockin' the Rock"

Not much exciting to report. I spent the entire weekend painting as much as humanly possible. I ended up using about 7 gallons. At any given time, I had 1-3 brushes and 1-2 rollers with alternating paint cans/colors open. Plus, I kept the drywall mud flying as well. I would mud over any spots that I needed to fix and try to sand them before or between coats of paint. Big fun. Big mess.

After getting a late start on Friday, I began painting Neil's room and finished around midnight. Here is a photo, although the room really looks much better onsite live.

Neil's room painted

 

Friday night, I was determined to keep rolling. I worked into the wee hours of Saturday morning up until about 3:30 am working on assembling Neil's new bunk bed. I can't wait for the little guy to finally have a real bed in the cottage. He will love it! 



Neil's new bunk bed

Saturday morning, I got a late start because I needed to catch-up on some sleep lost staying up late the night before. Next on the list was our master bedroom. This is the largest bedroom, but had the least amount of drywall/mud fixing needed. Again, not the most exciting photo, but it looks great live.

Master bed room painted

 

Saturday night, I was thoroughly sick of painting and I needed to leave the premises of the "work camp" to get some fresh scenery. I took Chris's golf cart downtown to check-out the music festival underway. After some good live cover tunes, a few Dortmunders and a pile of fresh hummus, it was time to head home. Not too much fun really at a music festival by yourself. Although, I will be looking forward to attending this next year (with some family and friends) because the vibe was very cool.

 

 1st Annual Rockin' the Rock

Sunday morning, although semi-disgusted with the thought of more painting... I had to push forward and crank out Sophie's room. Sophie's room was next on the "to-do" list. Here are some before and after photos.

 Sophie's room photos - trimmed and then finished

I wanted to get the trim and rolling done around the kitchen counter tops because they needed to be oiled up again with butcher block treatment. So after painting the walls (very carefully) and removing the blue tape I layed on a heavy coat of the the butcher block oil/wax. This protects the surface and makes the counter tops look much richer and brings out the natural wood grain, etc.

Most recent kitchen photo

 

The painted rooms do not come across that great in theses photos. However, this was a nice chunk of painting that that I was able to finish over the weekend. Unfortunately, I need about 1 & 1/2 more similar weekends to finish up.

Projects completed:

• Neil's room painted - done
• Neil's bunk bed assembled and mattresses set-up - done
• Sophies room painted - done
• Master bed room painted 90%
• Main room painted 25%
• Kitchen counter tops oiled up again

Next steps:

• More painting

Looking forward to this weekend for a long Fourth of July weekend with the family.