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.