Retaining Wall

1 Pallet full of concrete later, the footer for the retaining wall is done. We will let the cure for a couple days before stripping the forms, just so we don't brake any edges while we are walking around on the beach.  Next up, we will pour the fin wall and footer for the steps.

Retaining Wall

It took a couple days, but the ground has finally been prepped for the concrete footer that we will pour under the retaining well.  Before we could get to this point, we had to dig out a stump at the far end of the beach as well as one where the stairs will go.

The section between the gangway support and the stairs has been straightened out and pushed toward the lake 3 feet to give us more grass between the deck and the retaining wall.  This has been a complaint of ours since buying the place, it is just not usable in that area.  

The staircase will be much wider.  By making it 12 feet wide, we will be able to drag the boat lift up the staircase and park it on the grass for the winter.

Retaining Wall

Over the winter, our retaining wall which holds back the lake, fell over on one end.  We have been waiting all summer for the water to go down far enough to fix it and it finally has.  We got all the blocks unstacked so we could assess the damage, and it is not good.  The blocks are decayed badly and need replaced.   

Door Casing

We have finally started working on the trim in the cabin.  We decided on a Craftsman look with 1x3 verticals and 1x4 horizontals.  The casing on the living room side of the second bedroom and bathroom doors are both done and ready for a final coat of paint.  The closet in the second bedroom has the jams as well as the casing on the inside installed and ready for a final coat of paint as well.
 

Sink Base Trim

Above the doors, to the left and right of the sink has always bothered me.  It was a blank space that just looked unfinished.  I decided a while ago I wanted to make a piece that fit in this space to make the cabinets look much more finished.  Since I have trim and paint, today is the day.  I even cut a spacer to fit behind the new piece so it appears to float like the rest of doors and drawer fronts.
 

Sink Base Doors

The new sink base came with doors that did not match the old cabinets exactly.  The old doors were too tall, so I had to cut them down by about half an inch.  Of course, I had to cut off the top edge or the bottom styles would not match up correctly.  I finally got around to refinishing the top edge of the doors today.  We found a paint a Sherwin Williams that matches perfectly!
 

Dock

The new dock is done and in place.  I think we're going to switch the old dock and the new one next spring.  The old dock is more stable from side to side and we will need that more out at the end than we will in the middle of the dock.  I don't plan to put the edging, lights or cleats on until we get everything switched around.  I'm already going to have to replace a couple deck boards where we mounted the ladder.

Dock

Kelly found a free dock on Facebook Market Place earlier this summer.  It was rough, but completely worth saving.  One of the floats was 1/2 full of water and the decking was all rotten.  We pulled the decking off, pumped the water out of the float and just this weekend we started putting new framing on the top.  We have just a little bit more framing and then the new decking will go on.