Renovations!

If you follow us on Facebook, you'll have seen these photos already.  (And you'll know that I'm much better about updating our page there than I am at updating the blog!)  The renovations have continued this year, but I think they're definitely at the slowing-down point.  Here's what we did after Togue:

First, we added new hardwood floors to the loft in the Island.  Goodbye, 70's era linoleum!  The loft (and indeed, the whole cabin) is now light, bright, and welcoming.  More and more, I want to move out to the Island myself.

After that, we put a new ceiling in the living room of Gardner to replace some more white acoustic tile.

We still have a bit more to do in Gardner (floors, bathroom, etc), but that will all have to wait until next year.  Slowly but surely, we're making progress.

Togue Progress

We've made huge strides on the Togue project.  The pine on the ceiling is half complete, and it looks really neat so far- very barnish and worlds better than the white tile:

If all goes well, the ceiling will be complete tomorrow.  That's the easy part.  The hard part will be *cough* rebuilding-the-wall-and-floor *cough*

The wall had to come out so we could jack the cabin up off the ground, and the floor had to come out so we could access the substructure.  It should only take a couple of days to replace the wall and sheathe in the floor, and then once we add new hardwood, it'll be absolutely amazing.  I'm also excited that we're replacing the old door with a window instead.  The door never really worked anyway, and the window will let some nice afternoon light into the cabin.  We'll eventually rebuild the crumbling fireplace chimney, as well, but that will be a future project.

That's all of our rebuilding news for today!  It's been a pretty quiet day in the woods otherwise.  We did have a gang of loons go crazy for fifteen minutes this morning; check out our Flickr set for a few more pictures.  (While you're there, take a look around our other photos as well!)

Ever Onward

With the Island in a good place (and in use for the next couple of weeks), we've turned our sights to Togue.  Due to some scheduling conflicts, we won't be able to get the whole project done as quickly as we'd hoped, but we'll start making progress and see where we end up.

If you've ever been in Togue, you'll remember the distinct 70's vibe it gave off, with its white tiled ceilings, wood paneling, and couch upholstered with partridge.  (Ahem- fabric with images of partridge on it.  I feel I should clear that up right now.) 

We're starting with that tile ceiling.  It came down today:

There was a lot of strapping to deal with. We're going to make the ceiling more of a cathedral ceiling, so that had to go as well. (We'll recycle into new strapping when we put up the pine.)

As with the rest of the cabins, we'll put pine up between the rafters. (Unlike the rest of the cabins, we have actual rafters, rather than logs, to deal with here.) It'll take a few days to get everything looking how it needs to, but I'm definitely intrigued with the new barn-style feel this gives the living room. It's much more camp-y than the tile.

We left the dropped ceiling in the bedrooms to continue affording them some privacy, but we did replace the tile with pine. (My camera lens isn't wide enough to get a good picture.)

As always, more to come as the project goes on.

The Island Renovation

As promised: pictures of the completed loft on the Island! 

We also put up the new cedar mantle, which dresses the fireplace up nicely.  We'll have to find a big piece of artwork to put above it:

I really can't thank the guys enough for doing a great job on the cabin so far.  (I'm tempted to move out there myself...)  We have a few more projects to take care of in the future over there (some new cabinetry, a bathroom renovation, etc), but at this point, I think we're ready to move on to rehabilitating Togue.  You know I'll keep you posted on that progress as well!

A Brief History Lesson

I promise this will be the last post about the Island for a week or so.  I didn't have a picture of the completed end wall over the fireplace when I wrote last night's blog post, so here it is:

The left-hand window hasn't been trimmed in pine yet, but I like the contrast so much that, once it is, I'm going to stain them both a darker walnut color to match the beams.  Everything else will just receive a clear coat to protect it from darkening too quickly.

I've been asked about the cabin's history as a dance hall, which I mentioned in my last post.  To be honest, I don't know much of that history myself, but from what I do know, prior owners (back around the turn of the last century, when the camp was still private) moved a piano out there over the ice one winter.  Over the summer, when friends and acquaintances would stay for weeks at a time, they held dances and other social gatherings on the Island.  As far as I know, the fireplace is original to the cabin, but I don't know if the loft is as well.  I wouldn't be surprised if the original floor plan was completely open (better for dancing), and the loft was a later addition as the cabin was renovated to accommodate sleeping and cooking.

I also don't know what ever happened to the piano; I assume it came back across the pond some subsequent winter.

The Island Renovation, and a Confession

More pictures of the Island ceiling, fireplace, and loft.  I can't tell you how much I'm in love with how this brightens up the inside of the cabin.  I'm itching to get the mantle installed and to lay the hardwood in the loft, but this is such a great, great start to bringing the cabin back to its former glory.  (I have no plans to use it as the dance hall it once was, but it would be a nice one!)  The end wall in the loft isn't finished yet, but once it is, I have a feeling it's going to be just like a tree fort up there; the lighter ceiling really helps draw your eye out to the windows.  The bathroom renovation will probably have to wait for next year, since we have some important mainland upgrades to do this year as well.  One step at a time.

And now, the confession.  I was trying to figure out last night why I'm so stressed about my guide's test to the point where I fear it more than I feared the 8-hour, 40% failure-rate Professional Engineer's exam, and I think I finally landed on the answer.

I'm terrified of being a fraud.

I grew up right here every summer, about as deep in the middle of the woods as you can get.  I vividly remember one day when I was four or five, I was walking up to the laundry room on the top of the hill in a little blue-and-white striped dress, and I was thinking to myself how I lived the most amazing life of anyone I knew, and that I had better well appreciate each day that I was so lucky to spend here.  That four or five year old gave me better advice in that one day than several other years of my life gave me combined, and I have indeed remembered to stop every now and then to just appreciate what my life has been graced with.  That being said, the wise child turned into a fairly normal teenager who turned into a very busy adult. I didn't use every teaching experience I could have as I grew up; I didn't turn every question into an answer; I didn't identify every bird I heard singing; and I didn't focus on being the person that I now think I should be.

In July, I'm going to be tested on those unanswered questions, those birdsongs, and those experiences I had but may not have recognized.  As foolish as it is, I've turned this one test into an affirmation of my entire life in the woods: whether I deserve to be here at Red River or whether I'm just playing house while my parents are away.  Unlike the PE exam, this test isn't just for work.  It's for everyone who, if I fail, will look at me and wonder what I've done with that sage advice I gave myself all those years ago.  And it's for me, who will ask the same question.

Still Wet.

Yes, siree… I said it yesterday, and I’ll say it again. When it rains, it pours. We had six downpours today, with halfway decent weather in between:

My poor-man's rain gage (a water glass on the porch railing) tells me that we got at least another inch today. The last time I was out at the rock pile, the water over the big rock (which usually sits less than four inches below the surface) was up past my elbow, and it's certainly higher now than it was then. Still, I'll take this over last summer's dry weather any day.

Besides, how can you argue with a day that gives you something like this when it's over?

It was the most spectacular double-double rainbow I've seen in a long time.  The main rainbow ran through the color spectrum twice, and there was a double above it.  Wow.  (The camera didn't capture it as well as I'd hoped.)  [After looking at the picture below a little closer, my double-double rainbow is actually a double-TRIPLE rainbow!  I brought out the colors a little in Photoshop, and you can just faintly see a third band of purples below the second.]

In other news, the Island renovations are still in progress!  We got half of one end wall done, and it looks spectacular so far.  I can't wait to get it finished and get the new cedar mantle in place.

And here's a comparison of the new wall to the old wall. What do you think?

Weathering the Storm

It's still raining up here at Red River!  This Memorial Day weekend has pretty much been washed out, although we're expecting only partly cloudy skies tomorrow.  Even with all the rain and fog, we've made it this far without turning the generator on.  (I haven't let poor Tanisha charge her iPod or Nintendo, though.  Sorry, Tanisha!)  Today, our voltage is hovering the 48.5-50 range.  From my understanding of the system, our batteries turn themselves off when they hit 44 volts, so we have a decent way to go yet.  Hopefully tomorrow will be partly sunny as expected, and we'll get our full charge back.  When it's overcast, we pull in between 150 and 350 watts, which is enough to run the lights, if nothing else.

Since it's been so wet out, I've had our guys putting up the ceiling in the Island instead of doing outdoor projects.  It's amazing how well it lightens the cabin up, and it's not even finished yet.  We're also going to do those two end walls and add oak to the floor of the loft, which will make a huge difference. 

The Island

It'll be a thundery, rainy Memorial Day weekend at Red River.  Luckily, Gloria and I cleaned the Island before the storms really started, and I got a sneak peak at the beginning of the new ceiling, as well as the new front door.  The door looks great- Cary did an awesome job, as always, and I think the ceiling will look right at home.  A lot of folks who heard I was putting a new ceiling in were worried about losing the rustic charm of the cabin.  I think that fear is unfounded, because it looks both rustic and spectacular so far.  It'll also really lighten the cabin up a lot, especially once the two end-walls are complete as well.  We also have a new cedar slab mantle, which we'll hopefully install next week.

This weekend is also going to put our solar power system to the test.  The guys ran a few power tools yesterday; between that and laundry, it was the first time we didn't end the day with full batteries.  We'll see if we can balance our demand with an overcast day today and tomorrow!

This Year's Cabin Renovations

It'll be another big year for cabin renovations at Red River.

We picked up a shower basin and plumbing fittings for the bathroom of Denny today and will get a start on that tomorrow.  After the bathroom, we'll just have to install the stove and gas lights and add some furniture.

We also picked up enough pine to do the walls and ceiling of the loft on the Island.  We'll do the whole ceiling and the fireplace wall eventually, but we won't have time to get everything done before the Island gets busy for the season.  (We're not covering the log walls, mind you; just the unfinished walls in the peaks.)  We also purchased subflooring and new oak for the loft floor, and we're building a new front door.  The existing door has charm, but it's also about a foot out of square, and its latch is a death trap for unsuspecting shoulders and elbows (depending on how tall you are).  Also in the Island's future is a bathroom with a new tile shower similar to the one we're building in Denny (once we see how Denny's turns out).  The Island will be an ongoing project, but it'll be good to get a start on it this week.  As always, I'll post pictures as cool things happen.

Togue is going to be this year's big news.  The far wall is slowly rotting because it sits directly on the ground, so we're going to jack the entire cabin, add new sills where needed, replace the floors in the living room and fourth bedroom, take out the old acoustic tile, and add pine to the newly-peaked ceilings.  I'm also hoping that one of our guys can perform some much-need rehabilitation on the fireplace and stone chimney. 

In solar news, this afternoon turned out beautiful after a cloudy morning.  We pulled in 13.5 kWh, and it probably would have been more if our demand could have kept up with what the sun gave us.

Renovating Gardner

It's been a while since I posted on some of the renovations we undertook last year.  Denny wasn't the only cabin to get a facelift, although it was certainly the most extensive project we did (the lodge notwithstanding).  When we first started moving from the lodge to the cabins, I decided to start with Gardner because the floor was bowing quite a bit, and I figured it would be an easy fix to start off with.  Boy, was I wrong.

The floor was bowing because there is a log joist running beneath the middle of the cabin.  That joist stayed in place as the logs on either side of the cabin began to crumble from years of weather.  We jacked up each side of the cabin, removed the bottom logs, and replaced them with a pressure-treated footer:

Once that was securely in place, we covered our handiwork with two of the logs that were left over from the new lodge.

When we got around to the front side of the cabin, we ran into more problems.  The propane tank (which supplies the cabin's lights, fridge, stove, and hot water heater) sits in the corner between the bathroom and the bedroom, right under the valley of the roof.  It's been there ever since I can remember, and all that time, it's been splashing rainwater from the roof onto the walls.

Bummer.

The majority of the logs that made up the bedroom wall had to come out because they were rotten through-and-through.  Luckily, Gardner had seen multiple renovations over the years (it was an old blacksmith's shop and wood shop at two points during its life), and that wall had a stick-built interior with log facing on the outside.

In the second picture, you can see shingles to the left of the window.  If I have my history straight, that was originally the door they used to bring lumber into the wood shop.  It was boarded up when they turned the building into a cabin.

Luckily, Cary and Kendall are amazing at this sort of work, and the wall is as good as new.  (I thought I had a picture of the finished product, but you'll just have to wait until I get back to take one this spring.)  The other thing we finally did with Gardner was to give it a porch railing.  I'm biased, but I think it looks much cozier now.

I assume everyone realizes that when I say "we" in this post, I had nothing to do with getting this done.  I can't thank the guys enough for all the hard work they've been putting in for us over the past couple of years.  I've given them some tall orders to fill, and they've filled them well.

Rebuilding Denny, Part III (Reconstruction)

(Also see Part I and Part II.)

Denny's reconstruction started with the same new pine ceiling we added to most of the cabins last year and new (square!) window frames. We kept the windows themselves since they were in pretty good shape.

We gave the bathroom a new plywood floor.  (The floor isn't crooked; it's an optical illusion in the photo):

After that, we built a new porch!

And even better than the new porch, we put in new oak floors.

And it made sense to add some log facing to the bathroom as well:

And then we finished it all off with new porch railings and steps:

We have more to do next year, but we're well on our way to having a functional cabin again.  I can't thank Cary, Kendall, Ray, Randy, and the boys enough- they do great work.  As we finish things off next summer, I'll keep you all posted on our progress.

Rebuilding Denny, Part II (Deconstruction)

(Also see Part I.)

I assume everybody knows by now that, no, we didn't rebuild Denny as a giant log pile like I jokingly suggested in Part I of this post series.  We did, however, have to do some substantial work to it in order to make it habitable again.

First, we removed the old front porch.  It was getting to be a bit of a safety issue.  On the right side of the picture, you can see that the logs that once made up the porch wall are basically crumbling away.

Then, we removed the floor on the inside, all the way down to the log joists.  Denny always seemed fairly high off the ground to me, but that proved not to be the case.  The joists were in surprisingly good condition, though.

Then the real fun began.  We had to remove a few logs that were crumbling out of the walls.  To do that safely, we had to jack the entire cabin a foot or two off the ground:

Once all was said and done, the bathroom hung a few feet out there in space.  We shored that up as well- I just don't have a picture.  It's in pretty good shape overall, so it'll be easier to refurbish what's there rather than build a new one.

That's about it for Denny's deconstruction.  I'll tell you about the reconstruction in a later post.