Good times

Bonnie and I had some big fun on the island this weekend. On Friday, we just chilled and made our rounds to our favorite places and had dinner at the Village Pump. On Saturday, Ron and Sandy took us up to Put-In-Bay for the day on their boat. The weather was beautiful and a good time was had by all.

Perry's monument from the boat heading to Put-In-Bay

We stopped for a few cocktails at the new Mojito Bay - Tiki Bar. This place is ridiculously fun! Great drinks (~30 flavors of Mojitos all made with fresh muddled mint and lime - wow), the floor is all sand, open air, live entertainment, etc. I even won a free drink because I could name 3 of the 5 members of the Traveling Wilburys. Bonnie was in heaven swinging on the hanging bench style bar stools.

Bon enjoying a rum drink in a fresh coconut 

On Sunday (much less exciting but way more productive), Tim and I installed the gutter drains and started planning the interior plumbing.

Back of the house side gutter drain dry-fitted

Gutter drains, 2 sump pump lines and the new outdoor sump crock

Next steps are to install gutters (and downspouts), hard-pipe the new outdoor sump pump and back-fill the entire mess. This area will be eventually covered by the deck. I will need to build an access panel to get at this stuff from above. Hopefully, we can get rolling on the rest of the pluming soon.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Holy frijole! Made it up to the island on Thurs, July 5th and wow... it was hot! Crazy hot! Ultra humid with a heat index of well over 100 deg. I seriously can't recall painful heat like this in recent memory. Anyway, I got the pex manifold installed for the water fixture supply (can't wait to get rolling on the rest of the pex plumbing).

Manabloc water management manifold - for 1/2" pex tubing

Uncle Al came up on Friday morning to install the electrical service and meter base on the outside of the cottage and the electrical panel on the inside - all while fighting the extreme heat.

Electrical service - nice!

Inside panel - ready to rock-n-roll

Saturday, despite the 3rd straight day of gross heat and unforgiving humidity, I was able to paint the front door and hard-pipe the crawlspace sump pump. Did I mention it was hot?

Freshly painted front door

Crawlspace sump pump - done. 

Ran into another snag with the cistern installation. Although we did receive our permit in the mail last week, we need to re-layout the plot plan (again) to accommodate the required set-backs from the road, etc. As expected, nothing is easy (or cheap) on the island...

Funny, now that the weekend is over, and I'm back to reality (Monday on the mainland), the temperature is in the mid 70s with low humidity - absolutely beautiful. Perfect. Go figure.

Next weekend, Bonnie and I are headed-up to have some fun (a little work) and spend some much needed "no-kids" time together. Looking forward to it!

Non weekend

We are not headed up to the beloved island this weekend and I am already having withdrawal symptoms... Anyway, I was informed this week that we need to have the cistern installation supervised by the Erie County inspector, so that should be fun. Not sure what to expect, but this will delay us by a few weeks as we haven't even ordered the tanks yet. Also, today I am applying for the plumbing permit. I'd like to get cracking on the interior drain plumbing soon in parallel with the cistern installation. 

Happy Anniversary

Today is Bonnie and my 14th wedding anniversary, the longest day of the year and also the first day of summer 2012! Happy anniversary Bon, I love you!

My bride

Cistern excavation

Not too much "high-feedback" activity going on up on the island this past weekend. However, we did get the excavation started  in preparation for the cistern (1850 gallon underground cement water tank). Also, Captain Ron did some more work on the back-fill and grading. We also managed to move the shed back about 12 feet to the edge of the property line, so the side yard looks much bigger. Stayed overnight for the first time in the new cottage. It was marginally comfortable. Not too hot during the night. Anyway, I don't have any new pictures to post.

Had a wonderful father's day with the family yesterday!

Gravel delivery and back-fill

This weekend I worked on cleaning up the lot from the huge mess left behind from the framing in preparation for the back-fill and rough grading. Saturday (June 9th) morning, we had 21 tons of gravel delivered. The plan was to use 1/2 for the back-fill and the other 1/2 for the driveway. Well, it turns out that we used ~approx 20 tons on just the back-fill! So not much left for the driveway at all! The good news is that we did have enough dirt to complete the rough grade. This sounds funny but dirt is a rare commodity on Kelleys Island.

Gravel delivery - big truck but not as much material as you think

 Captain Ron (KI neighbor) working on the back fill with his favorite toy, "The Skid Steer"

This is a view of the completed back-fill from the back of the cottage.

Ron did a great job and was done in about 3 hours.

My amazing wife ran in the annual KI 5k race, in the blazing heat...

with ALL THREE KIDS on Sunday, June 10th

Cottage framed, sided, and shingled

Bonnie and I took the whole family up to see the finished product on Friday, May 25th. We were more than pleased. Everything looks great -- colors, size, design and layout. Chris and his crew did a "bang-up" job coming in on time and on budget. They also did many of the little extras that show their dedication to quality work. I would highly recommend them to anyone and have already discussed them helping with the wrap-around deck and covered porch project for next year. Nice.

Sophie and Anna on waiting for the ferry at the Marblehead dock

Front of cottage - done

Family pic

Back of cottage - done