December

Well we have been visiting each weekend this month, no pictures to share. Keep the woodstove going and the place is real comfortable. Have been working slowly on electrical stuff, finished up the bedroom. Working on flooring in bedroom Dec. 16th. We got reasonable temps so even in the morning it is not too hard to warm up the place.

Basically running through the supplies we bought and using them up as cash got REAL tight this fall. Kids having fun so we are muddling through.

Ben figured out paper airplanes fly off the loft real nice......

Thanksgiving 2012 "when winter begins"

Well quite the storm blew in from Canada for Thanksgiving. We arrived on Friday afternoon and hurried to make a fire and warm up the place. The next day we awoke to snow, reports were up to 8 inches just north of the lake, we got 3 inches of snow but it was piled up with the wind. We kept the fire going all night, thanks the night watch....

The vapor barrier REALLY knocks the wind out, it was blowing like crazy and we did not feel it inside, even though the insulation is minimal.

November 10-11

No pictures, kinda hard to get excited over hanging drywall and running electrical. Anyways, we hung 4 sheets of drywall and worked on the electrical outlets. Downstairs bedroom has power and lights!!! Also got the lights upstairs started so that should be done real soon. Weather was nice, warm front blew through and felt good.

We are looking at flooring choices for the bedroom now. Need to get it covered as the OSB is hard to keep clean.

We cooked up some  chicken Alfredo which is now the kids fav food request. Kids got dominoes and writing journals, plenty to do even if it rains.

Oct. 27th and 28th

We carved up a pumpkin for Halloween, cute little guy. Actually I wanted to make pumpkin seeds on top of the woodstove and needed the seeds. 

Also bought Monopoly and kids really played a storm up, they need to learn some strategy but it was fun. The wee one had more properties then the rest of us but no cash....

Got the first sheet of drywall hung in the bedroom. There are 5 more 10 footers ready and waiting to hang. Temps were of in the 40's and low 50's. We kept the stove busy usually in the morning and evening to keep the temps comfortable. The place should be a joy once all the insulation has been installed. Temps never dropped below 60 even with it in the low 30's Sunday morning.

Really think I will install an exhaust vent in the upper roof over the great room to help pull smoke out. Got a bit smoky in the cabin opening the woodstove door.

October Update

Well we have been up here for the last two weekends but no pictures. Mostly working on electrical stuff, bedroom has lights and outlets. We also got stuff organized to get the power upstairs done next trip. Weather has been ok, cool mornings etc. Have not had to rely on the woodstove, temps have been 65 to 70 in house. Looks like this weekend will test our cold weather ability as night time temps will go into high 20's.

Drywall time approaching fast, bedroom is first and then main hallway. Kitchen after that once we finish wiring the kitchen.

Kids got Monopoly game and that has been a great time waster for us. That and squirrel feeding.

Sept 30 Fall in full gear

Fall colors on the ride up north. Colors were really vibrant!!!

Weather was really good Saturday and we were able to complete the top of the front siding project. This took up all of the spare pieces we had. Lots of little pieces leftover that we used up on the south side wall. Also worked on electrical stuff but that is boring to photograph. Working to get bedroom done so drywall can be hung this winter in that room.

We also began work on the front of the lower part of the cabin. This will be the toughest part to side as there are multiple layers and uneven structure on the front. Part of the that due to the work we did and part of it due to the choice of materials whoever built the house. It should all work out in the end, did a few tests to see how it all will fit together. Also looks like we need at least 28 pieces to completely finish the three walls we started. Seven pieces for the north wall, 13 for the front and 8 pieces for the southern wall. We need to really try to get the southern part boxed in due to the winter weather. 

Also, we reluctantly turned off the water. System was drained and we need to replace the filter and add some bleach in the filter to clean it out. Temps inside were very reasonable, the little bit of insulation we added has allowed us to see temps stay around  65 degrees even when the temps were down in the low 40's like this morning. It required a fire on Saturday to initialize the temps but then the electric heat kicked in and maintained. The one heater actually was off due to the temps being above its set point.

And lastly, we discovered a squeak in the floor upstairs. Yikes I hate squeaky floors......that will get fixed.

We officially are now on winter schedule for the cabin, probably no more Friday to Sunday trips, takes too much water for the toilet and no easy showers.

cooking with gas!!!!

Well kinda. First weekend of Fall 2012 and it felt like winter was coming fast. Had every inclination to finish the remaining siding pieces and put that project to sleep till Spring but every time we went outside, it rained. So working inside became a massive electrical work day for us. We dropped in 7 circuits into the crawl space and I got elected to go down inside. After an hour of crawling around the lines were run from the box to their prospective locations. This included the oven circuit.

Took two trips to get the correct breakers and fuses for the disconnect. We also installed 2 4 foot heater units in the bedroom and hallway. This was noticeable to me the next morning as temps were barely 40 degrees. Inside the house we maintained 64 degrees the entire weekend. We only used the woodstove on Friday night to get temps up where they needed to be.

We added a heater unit to the pumphouse and so we will try to keep the water on till end of October. No sense chancing it after that.