DEADLINE

July 2008.

Time to celebrate? Not quite yet...

July held our last few stressful days to wrap it up before Marflax (who was wonderful to work with by the way - thank you!) came knocking on our door looking for the construction money we borrowed. So not only did we have to pass all of our building inspections but all of our mortgage work had to be tied up with a bow. UGH!

It was a lot to coordinate so the family made the trip to help. Papa came down from the UP and Addie took her first trip ever. She liked driving Little Red.

(Tyler, Ernie and D)

The things they can do with concrete - like make countertops. Tyler of Bay House Design in Traverse City created our awesome countertop. The work was done in his shop after taking all the measurements and it took about 4 weeks to cure. It's the perfect material to compliment our rustic kitchen. A big thanks to Tyler and his crew.

(D actually cooked in our new stove)

Although there were some bumpy moments things fell into place!

Champagne and Certificate of Occupancy!
I can't believe we actually did it!!

This really wouldn't have been at all possible if it hadn't been for all the talented people who worked with us and all the family and friends who gave us a hand. Especially Charlie and Linda. Without their willingness to work with us over the years we could have never made this happen. It's truly a dream come true for us and we are excited to share it with all of you!

In that red circle is the Blue Angels practicing for the Cherry Festival Air Show over Traverse City's West Bay. I took the picture from the front deck where we watched them all morning. We needed a closer look...

Buster is finally going home.

FLOOR WAR

June 2008.

(robins before/robins after)

Floors meant we were closer to the end than the beginning. Floors meant we could take off our shoes and hide the subfloor that haunted us with memories of The Battle of the Tarps and mother nature's evil side. Neither of us realized these floors would cause a different war.

(Country Honey Ash installed/before)

Northern Michigan Hardwoods, Inc. pulled up their truck and delivered Country Honey Ash, pre-finished hardwood flooring for the entire cabin. I should have known by the name. I was enticed by the great price and swayed by the warehouse lighting. Beautiful product, super price, wrong color. I couldn't live with it. The hard part was telling D. He didn't take it well. But...

(we ripped it out)

...I did sway him.
What was it D said?
"...either I pay for it now or hear it the rest of my life."
Look at how happy he was reloading it all back into the truck and driving it back to the warehouse...

(Old Mission Maple installed/after)

This is the fabulous new Old Mission Maple which (D's first choice - ouch). Better, huh? Everything worked out. Ed at NMH was great and exchanged what we hadn't laid down and our mason took the stuff we carefully ripped up in exchange for future stone labor. Best of all our marriage lasted through it all. I think we're in it for the long haul!

Our cabinet guy, Dave - a true talent in the north. It was so long ago when we approached him about our cabin kitchen he probably thought we'd fallen off the face of the earth before we finally resurfaced, ready to go. He's done a brilliant job with our cabinets and came up with so many cool ideas that we would have never thought of. Did I mention his attention to details? He really cares about his work and it shows. We've really enjoyed getting to know him and his family. Oh - and he was so nice about taking out the cabinets he installed to allow us to change the flooring. He took it better than D did. Thank you Dave!!

(Check out the scribing detail around the logs)

(Custom chainsawed detailing by D)

We've also been very fortunate to work Eric and the rest of the guys at Northwood Paint and Supply in Traverse City. They've taken care of all of our stain and paint needs and were eager to give us help and advice. It was always a pleasant trip to town visiting the guys at Northwood. The photos don't do the paint any justice...

(Mudroom: French Linen)

(Guest Bath: Drifting Dune)

(Master Bath: Winddrift)

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

May 2008.

You can uncross your fingers now...

We flipped the crest. Only then did I realized the grout we used was for the bathroom and not the mudroom floor which was way too light. Our solution... hours spent using a dremel tool to remove every spot of light grout without dislodging any tiles. It was then set into the foyer floor and grouted with the neighboring slate tile. So, if you don't count using the wrong grout, hours of tedious grout removal, several chucks of tiles popping out while it was being set and one husband flipping his lid, it went pretty well.

(end result)




Master bath tile is done.

Ditto for the guest bath.

Let there be light...

All of our cool light fixtures were bought using change we had saved over the years in an empty water cooler bottle.

The family still wants to come up even though when they do we make them do hard stuff like dig ditches for the downspouts.

The morels were popping and hunting them is our new favorite springtime hobby. It was our guest's first hunt and guess what? They found all of them.

D cooked them up in a yummy stir fry for us all.

I smuggled in a surprise birthday cake for a certain someone who turned 16.

HELLO SPRING?

April 2008.

(good morning April 12th)

If April showers bring May flowers what do April snow-showers bring?

Finally - our new, heavy duty, correctly fitting cap installed by a knowledgable, competent fireplace dude! Great guy, should have used him in the first place. Birds actually flew in through the top and surprised D not once but twice when he opened the fireplace door. I got to catch one and set him free out the window - that was cool.

News update... D is broken!! Due to some unfortunate circumstances homeowner, D has fractured his ankle in two places. Dreams of climbing ladders, hauling wood, staining and manual labor have screeched to a halt. He has immediately been put on light duty. Reinforcements have been called. His wife is currently pulling out her hair strand by strand. More details at 11.

A quick tour of our temporary living situation... Kitchen, complete with microwave, plug in skillet, toaster and small refrigerator (left). Bathroom, including the all purpose sink where you can wash dishes, trowels or your pits - whichever is the dirtiest (top right). Master bedroom contains a sweet new, extra-large Cabela's cot, a small, rickety, 1960's, lawn-chair-like tanning cot (who do you think got that one?) and 2 dog beds (bottom left).


We had some leftover stone from the fireplace so the weekend after the snow stopped and it turned to 80 degrees (???!?), Bobby jumped outside and started throwing them up there. Our stone budget is gone so this project will probably not get completed for some time, maybe years. We'll do a little here and there as we save up the money for it. At least the end result will be real stone!


Logs in the shower...what a great idea! We dry fit them so that we could waterproof then install them. Charlie would have laughed. We spent hours just starring at the arched log trying to figure out how to tie in the ceiling rafter (not shown) without making it look like doogie do-do. D and I asked each other WWCD (What Would Charlie Do)? We only had one log so we couldn't screw it up. It took courage for him to wield his chainsaw. It looks so cool.


The help arrived in the form of Rob, John and Dennis - the super stainers. The interior needed staining as well and the job seemed pretty daunting for gimpy boy (lots of high country). The guys were great and really fast and worked around our budget. We prepped as much as we could to save time for them and money for us. The stain was tinted slightly to help compensate for the aged logs and the newly installed wood so we would end up with everything looking approximately the same hue. Dennis and the guys did a great job with it and we love the color. You'll like it too.


This project started way before we even started building. It's a floor crest that we are installing in the foyer. I designed and created it using hand-cut ceramic, glass and stone. Now I've never done a project like this. I got tips from books and the internet. I'm hoping after the back is poured and cured it will flip over in one piece as easy as a pancake. Cross your fingers for me!!

(before and after the grouting process)