Fall family weekend

Packed up the whole fam for our last trip to the island together for this season. This was the annual Halloween weekend for the kids hosted by various island businesses. Bonnie took Sophie and Neil up on late Thursday afternoon. Anna and me came up on Friday, early evening.

Friday afternoon, Tim Arnold delivered a load of gravel for top-dressing of our driveway. Luckily, Captain Ron still had his Skidsteer on island and was able to spread evenly on Saturday morning. The driveway is done for now. Here are some photos of the progress...

Captain Ron working the Skidsteer to level the driveway gravel

I didn't realize I had some black-n-white filter effect on my phone camera. Anyway, here is a nice photo of the driveway finished product.

Driveway looking good

Saturday afternoon, it was time to kick-off the Halloween festivities with the kids. First stop, we headed out to Bag the Moon for pumpkin carving. Then we rolled to the KI Brewery for more kids crafts and costume activities. Check-out Jake the Neverland Pirate!

Lil Neil as "Jake the Pirate"

Next stop was the 4-H club for some food, crafts and a hay ride. We could not get Neil to leave, here he is on the swings with Bon. Shortly after this photo, he took off running toward the lake in the background. He wanted to stay there all day.

Bonnie and Neil

Sunday, we took a long hike along the North Shore Trail. Bonnie packed lunch and we ate it on the rocky north shore on the water. It was windy and chilly but a very nice day and great time with the family.

Since this was an official all-family weekend, I didn't get too much work done, but was able to accomplish a few items on the "to-do" list. 

Cottage progress:

• Driveway done!
• Closet door hung
• Utility closet light fixture
• Dimmer switch in kitchen
• Mini-bar top sanded and sealed
• Shower head swapped out
• Utility sink in master bathroom removed

Next steps:

• Master bedroom
• Re-paint the ceiling
• Re-paint the walls
• Stain the wood feature wall

Off-island weekend update

Big football weekend off-island. We started with a nice home victory from the Olmsted Falls Bull Dogs. I took the girls to the homecoming game on Friday night.

Sophie and the Bull Dog mascot

Island progress:

Since, I didn't make it up to the island at all, no real work got done. However, Chris was working on his new cottage and took a photo of the grass coming in for me.

Green fuzz - all good

The real fun started Sunday morning when my cousin John invited my Browns crew to join him on the boat for the tail gate festivities.

First Energy stadium from the lake looking south

We had big fun rolling down to the stadium on the boat and then hanging out at the new North Coast Harbor Marina before heading into the game.

Pre-game crew

The Browns beat the Steelers 31-10. It was a great day and great game. I hope we can keep this winning streak alive.

Go Browns!

Let there be light #2!

Back at it after a 26-month hiatus from the electrical work, Al and Joe (ANJ Electric LLC) with a very special appearance from Kenny, got rolling again this past weekend. Big huge thanks to Al, Joe, and Kenny for all the help making it happen!

The weekend unfolded as the crew made the 6:30 pm ferry and started working right away. Later Friday evening, we went out to The Pump for perch dinners.

Uncle Al - happy guy with a fresh pitcher of Great Lakes brew

Saturday morning, we reluctantly started working (and a little late) since we had a few too many beers and laughs Friday night.

Here is Al working on the panel. Funny, because the whole reason for all this work was to turn on some lights and this was the darkest room in the cottage for most of the weekend.

Al and the panel

After a rough morning, Joe rallied and kicked it into high-gear to wrap-up electrical work inside and out. Check-out the photo below installing an exterior flood light for the yard. Nice work.

 Big Joe working away

Kenny is the unsung hero of the weekend, helping out all-over-the-place. Here is Kenny leveling off the range installation. I've been staring at the over-sized box for months. I've had to move it in and around the cottage several times. Getting this thing out-of-the-box to finally having a working electric range is so nice and looks great in the kitchen space.

Kenny

I was so friggin' happy to be able to turn on lights with a switch, I wanted to post photos of every working light in the cottage, but that would be silly. Anyway, here are a few of the highlights below. 

 Kitchen pendant lights and electric range

After shopping for ceiling fans for a few weeks, I found these really cool modern/rustic looking ones from Menards. Bonnie and I preferred the 3-blade model with a single light fixture. The blades look like white-washed driftwood. Here is a photo of the fan in Anna's room. We will have the same style fan in the master bedroom as well.

Ceiling fan - Anna's room

Check out the main bath fixture, below. You never know how a lot of this stuff will look until you lug it up to the island and install. Well, this one worked out well. The fixture is brushed-nickel with two lantern style lights. The lights look great and are the perfect size for this smaller bathroom. You really have to see this live to appreciate. 

Vanity fixture - main bath

Bonus item:

On Sunday, the crew finished work, packed up and headed for the ferry. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up and actually got the TV and HDTV antenna working with high-def channels again. The Browns game came in free and clear! Another noteworthy item, the Cleveland Browns won the game, on the road against the Tennessee Titans, in the biggest road team comeback in NFL history!

Grass update...

It's been about two weeks since we seeded the grass. There are some nice green sprouts here and there seen around the yard. I took a few photos, not really because it looked so great, but so I/you/we can look back in a few months (or years) and see where it started!

Grass growing progress - slow but steady

Next steps....

• Paint the ceiling (again) in the master bedroom
• Stain the feature wall
• Paint the master bedroom (again)
• Master bathroom everything
• Doors, trim, etc...

Sunday morning disaster!

After a hugely successful weekend of site work and lawn seeding, etc...

Around 11:15 am on Sunday morning, I drop a heavy iron rod on my finger while loading up Tim's truck. The tip of my left ring finger is hanging by a piece of skin. Not good. Panic sets in! I am covered in mud and need to leave the island immediately to get to the Emergency Room. So after trying not to bleed too much in the cottage, me and Tim bandage up my finger, I pack up my bag and rush for the ferry.

waiting...

waiting...

driving...

thinking...

By 1:15 pm I made it to the Firelands Urgent Care who took phenomenal care of me. I can't say enough good things about this facility, the staff and especially the doc who stitched up my finger like new.

THIS SUCKS!

dumb

So, several x-rays, 15 stitches and a Tetanus shot later, they send me on my way home.

--Kurt Cobain, "I think I'm dumb". 

Left hand x-ray

Bone tip sheared-off

Not to state the obvious, but I think for the rest of the season, I will be slowing down the pace somewhat.

I guess I should be thankful that I've done so much work alone with power tools and have not had any major injuries before this nasty occurrence.

Lot grading and grass seeding!

Big, big, big working weekend. The plan was to 1) finish the landscape wall and 2) get the entire lawn seeded. I finished up the wall, on Friday morning, by installing the 2 x 8 top cap, putting in some additional bracing, dropping in some drain pipe and finally back-filling to cover all the pipes.

Below is a photo of the finished wall, just waiting on final back-fill.

Landscape wall from front-to-back

Landscape wall - direct view

The work crew involved Chris and Tim Arnold plus Brian and Brandon Biltz. Here is a shot of Brandon on the Bobcat working on scraping and leveling the front yard.

Brandon on the Bobcat

Friday night, since Tim was staying at a cottage on the beach in trade for other work done on the island, he invited us over for a beach fire.

Beach fire with the crew

Saturday morning, we were back at it working all day with the plan of getting the seed down before dark.

Brian and Brandon working the property front-n-back 

Part of the new landscape wood wall was the backside of the dirt mound needed to cover the large drain pipe. Chris, Tim and me built a short 3-course stone wall to catch the dirt mound behind the cottage. Here is a series of photos...

Stone wall looking across towards Chris's new cottage

Stone wall from the patio door area

Stone wall and pipe hidden

Stone wall and septic

Shortly after dark on Saturday night, we finished up the seeding just in time for a light rain. The timing couldn't be more perfect. There were minimal to no visible rain puddles = job well done. Here is a photo from Sunday morning of the finished product!

Graded, leveled and seeded

 

Front driveway view

Since we had the heavy machines on site, we decided to push back the overgrown wooded area on the back edge of the property. So not only did we push back all the poison ivy and other junk foliage, we have like 15 more feet of yard to use.

New extended yard thanks to Brian and his tractor work

 Another shot of the extended back yard

Wishful thinking, the grass seed takes and comes in green and full...

Drain pipe/septic tank beautification

OK, sometimes weekends on Kelleys are not really that fun. Since we are hoping to get the lawn put in the following weekend, I needed to knock-out a huge job that I have been procrastinating for about 18 months. Time to hide the drain pipe and septic tank and make it landscape ready!

So Friday morning, I stopped at Home Depot to pick up all the lumber (11 - 4x4x8 posts, 30 - 2x6x8 boards and 8 - bags of Quickcrete). Sounds simple, but first you need to pick out all the straight boards from the pile on the shelves. This all pressure treated wood, so very wet and very heavy. After humping all this material up to the island, here is a photo just getting started...

Let's do this

The weather real bad earlier this week and I heard there were huge puddles of standing water around the property. Since I am working with a tight timeline, I needed to be able to tackle this job with minimal interference from mud issues. Thankfully, the yard/dirt was good-to-go and not too muddy but loose enough to help.

By 8:00 pm on Friday, I had 11 posts set in with 500 lbs of Quickcrete. Let me tell you, this was a colossal pain-the-in-the-azz. Although I did have a gas-powered auger, there was at least 4 times as much hand digging. Hand digging = no fun.

Work-in-progress and 11 posts set and plumb

It was too early to go to bed, so I hung Sophie's bedroom door, and set the rest of the standard closet doors in place, ready for final install some time soon.

Saturday morning, I got rolling on the wall install by 9:00 am. The weather was crazy windy and only in the high 50's. I needed to wrap this job up by end of day because, I had to leave early on Sunday morning for the Browns game. 

Coming along slowly but surely

By Saturday night around 9:00 pm... Pipe no more! I put a slick vertical 2x6 front fascia to dress up the look and cover the massive amount of screw holes. The kicker is that I installed these by screwing from the back side through, so there are no visible screw hole at all now. cool.  

Final product

This turned out great. I am super happy with the overall look. Plus, now I can hide the pipe and septic tank. I still need to install the top cap, put in some additional bracing and drain pipe to relieve any future ground pressure from pushing this wall.

Sunday morning, seriously before the crack of dawn, I had to pack up and head home for the Browns home opener.

Waiting for the 7:30 am ferry, here is a nice photo of the sun coming up from the east.

Early morning sunrise at Seaway Marina

After a back-breaking 20 hour manual labor marathon, it was a great to attend a big Browns victory over the New Orleans Saints to wrap-up the weekend. 

Go Browns!

More to come...

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!