Boat Lift

The pump box for the new boat lift is all ready to go when the weather gets better.  I put a new motor on the pump, cleaned all the old oil out of the pump and reservoir and scraped all the old oil (which looked more like caramel) out of the bottom of the box.  I put a new solar charge controller on the lid of the box, so I just need some fittings, a battery and some new cables when we put it in the water this spring.
 

Retaining Wall

While I was at the lake today, I noticed our neighbor's retaining wall on the beach had collapsed.  While inspecting the damage, I found that ours had also taken quite a bit of damage also.  So I guess we get to rebuild these walls this summer sometime.  Why not, we've had to build or re-build every other retaining wall on the property.  I guess now we can expand our lawn and eliminate the seam between the walls.
 

Sink Base Doors

I had to be at the cabin most of the day today for a drywall inspection.  While I was there, I cut the holes and mounted the doors on the front of the sink base.  You can just see where I had to trim about 1/2" off the top of the doors so they clear the bottom of the sink.  I still need to sand and paint that area.  I also plan to make a set of small trim pieces that fits next to the sink on either side to finish it off.
 

Water Softener

In order to hook up the water softener, I needed to install a floor drain in the back of the girls closet.  That drain is installed and hooked up to the utility room sink drain under the house.  The only thing left to install the water softener is to setup the discharge lines to dump water into this drain.  The hardware store didn't have the fittings I needed, so I will do that the next time I go up there.
 

Water Heater

The water heater is finished and ready to turn back on this spring.  Before hooking up the vent, I had to build a shelf to put in the corner.  Before the tree came down, Tlo managed to get stuck behind the water heater and we had to lower Kylee down by her ankles in order to grab him.  I also had to cut an attic access in the closet in order to hook up the vent pipe in the ceiling.  I still need to trim out that access hole.
 

Boat Lift

Over the summer we picked up a 2 ton hydraulic boat lift for cheap.  It sat in the muck for a while and worked itself out of level.  So when the previous owner lowered the lift, the bottom rails bent.  I have the new sections built and attached.  All that is left on these 2 pieces is the drill the 3/4" holes for the deep water side pivots.  I'm also in the process of rebuilding the hydraulic cylinder.
 

Mechanical Closet

I spent some time working on the mechanical closet this weekend.  The water heater is installed as far as the pan, supply and outlet lines.  I still need to do the over pressure drain and the exhaust vent.  The radiant floor heat manifold is also attached to the wall and the trim has been built around the tubes.  The water softener is nearly ready to go in as well.  All that is left there is a drain in the floor.
 

Finish Work

Yesterday I was able to get the pendant lights hung over the bar and the ceiling fans up in the living room.  That means in order to get back to where we were when the tree fell, all we have to do is tile the shower and install the water heater and water softener.  We should be ready for all our inspections very soon.
 

Ceiling Fans

These are the ceiling fans that were in the cabin when the tree came down.  The drywall fell off the ceiling around the blades of the fan but didn't break them.  The one outside the bathroom sat for several days with the blades bent so the tip was pointing at the floor but you would never know it by looking at them.  There are a few nicks on the top of the blades, but no other damage.
 

Roof

We have a roof again and just in time for the rain!  We upgraded from the rolled rib roof we had before to one that has concealed fasteners.  Sam at DG Contracting was great to work with. They were expensive, but worth the extra money.  They went the extra mile to make sure I was happy with the work they did.  I would definitely use them again.
 

Overall Update

After this last week, we are just about back to where we were before the tree fell.  I have all the sinks finished with supplies and drains hooked up and the counter tops siliconed in place.  I still need to drill the holes above the bar for the pendant lights and build the false beam at the peak of the ceiling.  We also need to install the water heater and water softener.  

I still need to install the ceiling fans in the living room and finish around the fireplace.  We are going to cut a niche above the fireplace for the TV and install some conduit to run wires from the shelves on the right up to the TV.  I suspect we will not get to the stone on the fireplace until next year, but we'll see how that goes.

In the kitchen, the dishwasher is installed as is the garbage disposal.  We are down to just finish work.  The doors on the cabinet under the sink had to be cut down to fit the deeper sink, so we need to repaint those.  I need to install toe kicks, the end panel on the upper cabinet and the crown molding along the top of the upper cabinets.  We are waiting on the granite piece that fits behind the stove before we set that as well.

 

Bathroom

The shower pan and curb have been cemented down and sealed to the walls.  The only piece left to do is the membrane that goes over the top of the curb.  I have that piece cut, but I ran out of cement so I could not finish it.  The drain flange is also cemented in and sealed to the pan.  I have the pipe to form the trap under the floor, but I wanted to wait for the cement to cure before I attach it for fear that I would pop the drain out of the pan by pushing up on it.  As you can see, the floor is also complete in the bathroom.  The temporary counter top is also in place and ready for inspection.

Shower

We have decided to go with a full tile shower this time, rather than a fiberglass tub/shower combo like we had last time.  We purchased a Schluter Kerdi shower kit in order to waterproof the walls and avoid building a pan out of dry mortar.  I have the Kerdi membrane applied to the walls and the pan cut to fit.  I don't like the curbs that come with the kit, they are way too big.  So I have made our curb out of some left over cedar we had laying around.  Next step is to cement down the floor and curb and seal them to the walls.  After that, we can put in the floor in the bathroom.
 

Floor Joist Repair

When the tree fell on the cabin, some of the weight was taken up by the utility room walls.  That load was transferred to the floor and cracked 2 of the joists between the utility room and kitchen.  We found this a while back but the contractor never bothered to fix it. So I cut 2 pieces to scab in with 1/2" through bolts.
 

Kitchen Sink

Today I finished building the kitchen sink supports.  You can just see the leg on the front one mounted to the back of the cabinet face.  I used 3/4" square aluminum tubing and welded it together to bare the weight.  The sink is sitting on those supports and has been shimmed into place.  The top of the sink has been sealed to the counter top, but I still have to caulk the front of the sink to the face of the cabinet.
 

Floor

Today we took the floor as far as we can until we get a little bit more work done.  The girls bedroom is now complete, but I have to build the railing on the loft before we can finish that.  I also have to install the shower floor before we can do the bathroom.  We have the pieces all picked out and ready to be cut when we finish the needed work.
 

Floor

We got off to a bit of a slow start before lunch today, but things picked up after that.  We managed to get the living room and our bedroom all done.  It's turning our very nicely and it does not look like we will need to use much of the flooring we saved out of the cabin.  We plan to save it for use in the bunk house when we build that.
 

Flooring

Kelly and I have this coming week off work, so we plan to get a bunch of work done on the cabin.  We started with the floor today.  We decided to go with the same floor we had last time and we had the contractor save the stuff we took out of the cabin, so we have plenty of material to work with.  Today we got the kitchen, utility room and dining rooms all done.
 

Shower

This time around we have opted to build a full tile shower rather than a fiberglass tub/shower combo.  We always knew the original bathroom was temporary, but we figured we would get 5-10 years out of it before replacing it.  In order to put the niche in the wall under the shower head, I had to reframe part of that wall.  There was a stud that ran down the middle of that niche, so I had to cut that part out.  I also had to move a plumbing vent over inside the wall.  It now runs up the right side of the niche.  Finally, I had to add blocking in the wall to tie the shower doors into the framing so they will be nice and solid. I also had to move the shower head to the left so it is centered in the wall.  The contractor mounted it too far to the right.  Finally, I hung the drywall.  Next up is to install the Kerdi shower kit.
 

Lighting

Friday night and Saturday I worked on the can lights in the kitchen, dining room, living room and loft.  I had to enlarge the holes that the contractor cut  in the kitchen and loft because the clips on the lights would not fit.  Then I had to cut the holes in the dining room and living room.  These lights work extremely well.  There is no humming or buzzing noise and no flickering like the last set of lights.
 

Paint & Lighting

The paint inside the cabin is all done!  The cabinets are all set, not just in the kitchen but also in the utility room and the bathroom.  The cabinet lighting is also installed, both under and on top.  The smoke detectors are installed as well as the ceiling fan in the second bedroom.  We still need to get new ceiling fan switches, but the fan is installed.  The microwave is also installed.
 

Kitchen Cabinets

While Kelly was working on paint, I got the kitchen upper cabinets installed, set the lower cabinets in the utility room, and started work on the Sensi WIFI thermostat.  The power supply has been installed under the house and the wires run up to the thermostat as well as the fireplace.  I still need to hook up the relay to make it all work, but I didn't have the wiring components I needed to do it today.  
 

Paint

It took a couple days, but the first coat of paint has been applied to every room in the cabin.  Big thanks to Brian, who came up to help yesterday.  He installed all the outlets and painted in all the corners.  Kelly worked on rolling the walls while I did the edging.  The second coat has also been applied in the kitchen and around the back side of the bar.
 

Drywall

We've let our contractor go.  I can't really say we fired him because he had already moved all his stuff out of the house and taken his trailer with him.  Either way, he will not be working on the house anymore.  So this weekend I finished the texture, wrapped the end of the wall next to the dishwasher and the doorway into the utility room with drywall.  While I was doing that, Kelly worked on priming the drywall.
 

Dock Anchors

All the anchors are in the water, the chains are hooked up and the new chain attachments are on the dock.  These new chain attachments are amazing!  They require no tools to adjust the chain length.  I pushed the dock out 10 more feet as well, so in the spring we will have to make a second floating approach, but now the boat will have plenty of water for the lift, even when the water goes way down.
 

Smokeless Fire Pit

The fire pit is finished.  The idea is that air enters a gap between the metal ring and the stone through spaces between the stones in the bottom course.  That air is heated by the fire rises to the top of the gap.  That hot air has nowhere to go but out the holes in the top of the metal ring.  It is so hot, it burns any smoke leaving the fire.  That draws cool air in from outside the ring and the process repeats.  We'll see how well it works this weekend.
 

Exterior Paint

The outside of the cabin is all painted.  It is not quite right, so the painters will have to come back to fix it.  The gable peaks are supposed to be blue like they were before.  While it is not right, it is very nice to finally see progress.  This is also a better shot of the new rock and the flag stones we put in around the edges of the grass.
 

Smokeless Fire Pit

Since we had to rebuild the fire pit anyway, we decided to make it smokeless this time around.  I've done a ton of research and settled on a design using a 36" fire ring I found on Amazon.  I had to drill a ton of holes around the top and 8 around the bottom of the ring, but a good quality stepper bit made pretty quick work of it.  I'll get the ring installed in the pit later this week so we can have a fire on Labor Day weekend.
 

Dock Anchors

We have decided to start leaving the dock in the water for the winter.  In order to do that, we needed to start using concrete anchors.  They may get pulled around by the ice, but they are much easier to put back after the thaw.  So we pored a set of 225lb blocks and a set of 150lb blocks.  The 150s were already in the water when this picture was taken.  There will be 2 blocks on each corner of the dock.
 

Landscape Edging & Rock

We finally got the edging run along the grass under the deck today.  We finished both the side facing the lake and under the stairs.  We also hauled a yard of 3/4" rock using 5 gallon buckets down from the driveway and filled in behind the edging.  Once the bottom of the house is skirted in, we will probably bring down another yard and completely fill in under the deck.
 

Granite

The new granite counter tops were installed yesterday!  They managed to get everything cut out of a single slab and there are no seams.  This time around we even had enough granite to make a full size bar above the sink.  The sink base needs a little massaging in order to make the sink slide in under the cabinet, but that should not be too big of a deal.  Next up is paint!
 

Drywall Texture

The drywall texture started today!  He got everything done except for the primary walls in the second bedroom.  The closet in there is done, so is the ceiling.  He even got the loft done.  So with any luck it should be complete on Monday and ready for paint on Tuesday.  It's hard to see in the picture, but it is a skip trowel type texture.
 

T&G and Mud & Tape

There has not been much progress inside for the last couple weeks.  The tongue and groove for the ceiling was white washed and the base cabinets in the kitchen were set, but not much else.  This week we have started seeing more progress though.  The tongue and grove is hung on the ceiling and the mud and tape is done on the walls.  It is finally starting to look like a house again.  Texture should start going on the walls tomorrow!

Boat Lift

I have been keeping an eye out for a boat lift for a long time and I finally found one that I could not pass up.  This is a hydraulic 4000lb lift that we picked up in Seeley Lake, MT for $1100!  It needs a little cleaning and minor repairs, but nothing too serious.  Because we are so close to the end of the season, we're not going to get it in the water this year.  That will give me plenty of time to get it whipped back into shape.
 

Grass

The grass on the lake side of the house is all done!  The stuff over by the deck did really well, even with all the heat we had this last week.  The sprinkler system looks like it has great coverage over there.  Once this new grass is rooted in a bit, we'll start working on finishing the firepit.  While we're waiting for that to happen, we'll work on the sprinklers and grass next to the house.  
 

Sprinklers, Firepit and Under the Deck

Today we finished the sprinklers in the area around the firepit.  We also took the top cap off the firepit so we can add 1 more row of blocks and turn it in to a smokeless firepit using a special ring we bought. Finally, Kelly cleaned out under the deck where the pile of firewood used to be kept behind the stairs.  We also started to clear out the area outside the kitchen. Next weekend we will roll the sod around the fire pit and work on the sprinklers outside the kitchen. 

Grass

This area has been such a mess since we bought the cabin.  It had gray outdoor carpet originally and we decided to leave it for the first 3 years just so we didn't have to deal with the weeds.  Last year we thought we would get to the sprinklers and the lawn, so we took out the carpet.  Of course the lawn didn't get done, so the weeds started to grow.  But now we have grass!  I think we will use this space much more now.
 

Sprinklers

Today I finished installing the sprinklers in the strip between the house and the lake.  There was a ton of prep that needed to be done and all the lines for the other parts of the yard are run as well.  I still need to hook up the timer, but the heads are all adjusted and look like they will do a reasonable job of watering.  We need to figure out what we are going to do for edging, then we can lay sod!
 

The drywall is hung in the cabin.  The mud and tape crew is coming up from Texas to help the contractor with several jobs, so it will be a bit before they finish this one.  In the mean time, we will get the tongue and groove on the ceiling and the base cabinets set in the kitchen so we can have the granite crew come in to do the templates.  We are still hoping to be able to stay overnight by Labor Day.
 

Siding and Trim

The siding and trim is all done and ready for paint!  Kelly and I are thinking about doing the paint work ourselves.  Painters are hard to find right now and it will save us some money, so it makes a lot of sense.  We are going to have to let it cool down a bit though, we're looking at temperatures over 100 degrees for the next 6 days!  
 

Stairs

I had to go up to the cabin to do an inspection this afternoon so the bank will release more money.  Since I was there and the weather was so nice, I decided to finish the stairs before I came home.  Now there is only 1 more retaining wall to build up between the driveway and the tool shed.  We don't plan to do that one this year though.  Next we will finish the sprinkler system and fix the fire pit.
 

Bedroom Window

Since all the drywall had to come out, we decided to increase the size of our bedroom window.  It is now 6" wider and 18" taller than it was before.  We also changed it to a single window rather than 3 separate windows.  Add the vaulted ceilings and our bedroom will feel so much bigger than it did before.
 

Stairs

Today was the day to finally rebuild the stairs closer to the lake that we tore apart last year in order to build the set on the street side of the cabin.  Before we could do that though, we had to finish installing the sprinkler lines that run along the house and up to the shed, between the retaining walls and up to the sitting area.  With all that we only had time to finish 2 steps this weekend.
 

Radiant Floor Heat

We finished installing the heat transfer plates in the cabin this weekend, but we didn't hook up the manifold.  Since I had to make a trip to Post Falls last night, I decided to run up to the cabin and hook it up so I can call for the plumbing and electrical inspections tomorrow.
 

Radiant Floor Heat

This weekend we managed to get the heat transfer plates and tubing installed in the dining room, living room, bathroom and our bedroom.  We will have to wait on the rest of the cabin until next weekend, but we should be able to finish it pretty quickly now.  We may use some aluminum flashing to fill in some of the larger areas that do not have transfer plates covering them.

Sleeping Loft

The floor of the loft is down and the pony walls are built.  After this picture was taken, the guys put the boxes and wiring in for the smoke detector, 3-way light switch and a couple outlets.  We're still trying to decide what we are going to do for beds up here, but 1 thought is a couple full size memory foam mattresses so the kids can all just sleep in sleeping bags on top of the mattresses.
 

Sleeping Loft

With the pitch of the ceiling being much steeper this time around, we opted to include a loft above the second bedroom and bathroom.  There will be a ladder coming down between the 2 doors to get up and down.  We plan to put carpet and some twin size memory foam mattresses in so the kids can all sleep up there and the parents can have the bedrooms.  With the queen size hide-a-bed, we can sleep around 10.
 

Dried In

The gable peaks are all covered with plywood.  The battens still need to go up, but the cabin is fully covered except of the bedroom window.  We have the window on order and it is expected to arrive in the next week or 2.  The under side of the overhangs all have tongue and groove, which gives it a nice finished look.