Catching up...

It's been way too long since I've thrown a post up on here.  Sorry about the neglect!  We have made a few trips up over the last couple months.  We managed to get some work done, and we also managed to have some fun.  :)

One project that needed doing was the addition of a door to one of the barns.  We need to begin hauling "stuff" up from Ohio, and the last thing we want to be doing is re-cluttering the de-cluttered house.  About a month ago I went up on a solo trip, and I built a door for the smaller barn from materials we had lying around.  With some hinges and hardware thrown in from trip to the ACE Hardware store in Rogers City, a day of work and about $30 has us a workable door.

Here's the completed project.  It's a little hard on the eyes right now, but when the weather warms up it'll be getting a good coat of paint.

Also on this trip I took down all of the wood valances over the windows.  They just made it way too dark looking, and what a difference after they were down!  Take a look.

Kitchen Window - Before

Living Room Window 1 - Before

Living Room Window 2 - Before

Here are the same windows, with the valances removed.

Here's what the valances looked like after removal...

That trip was in early February.  We made a second February trip, but this time we accomplished absolutely no work whatsoever on the house.  That was completely by design.  We were joined by our very good friends Bob  and Melanie, who we hadn't seen in quite some time.  Rather than putting them to work we decided to play all weekend.  We drove around and checked out the sights, went out to eat, stopped for a quick photo op by the Mackinac Bridge, and generally just goofed off and laughed a lot.  The coolest thing we did was go snowshoeing at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.  I've been wanting to drive up to see the falls in the winter time, and Shelly discovered that the park was offering free snowshoe rentals.  None of us had ever been snowshoeing, but we were all in for giving it a shot.  We had an absolute blast, shoeing around in 18 degree weather.  Shelly summed it up best when she simply said, "I think we'll be just fine up here."  I have to say, I think she's absolutely right.  Here are some pics from The Bridge and from the hike at The Falls.

Mackinac Bridge

Dave & Shelly

Melanie, Shelly, and Bob

Tahquamenon Falls

Tahquamenon Falls

So, that's it for this installment.  I'll try to be quicker posting on future trips.  It's a busy time for us right now, with trying to sell the house, getting Kyle finished with high school, my starting a new job at work, getting Kyle ready to go into college, planning for graduation parties in Ohio and in Michigan, working on Shangri La to get it ready for moving in, and ultimately the BIG MOVE.

Our oldest son Mike and I are planning a trip up in a few weeks.  We're hoping to get most of the basement cleared out, with the majority of the "stuff" going into the newly secured small barn.  Talk to you all soon!

Not your typical bathroom window...

This past weekend I made a solo, extended weekend trip.  I headed up on Saturday and stayed through Tuesday.  My goal for the weekend was to begin to tackle the master bedroom.  This room has a few strange "features" that just have to GO.  First and foremost, the "window" between the bedroom and the bathroom.

Obviously, this "feature" wouldn't allow for much privacy.  What it does allow for is the sharing of a myriad of sounds and smells.  We did finally unravel the mystery of this strange and bizarre opening, and it actually makes sense.  The original owner's sister was very ill, and when building the house this room was intended to be hers.  The owner was afraid that if she fell while in the bathroom he would not be able to hear her, hence the "window".

This is also the reason for the next special and exotic feature of our master bedroom.  A sink...right there...out in the open.

You'll also note in the photos a smaller wooden panel to the right of the mirror.  This is a clothes chute which is accessible from both the bathroom and bedroom.  It is also a second means of sharing the aforementioned sounds and smells, and so must also GO.

I arrived at the house on Saturday around 2:30 PM, fired up the wood stove to warm the house up, and then headed over to the local ACE Hardware to pick up the necessary supplies.  I got back, made some dinner, and dove into the demolition of the window and the framing.  By the time I couldn't push myself any further the window looked less like a window, and something more like this...

...and this...

...and the clothes chute looked like this.

First thing the next morning I dove right back in.  I wanted to get the drywall cut and secured, and a coat of joint compound on before diving into the sink demolition.  This all went pretty quickly.  The window was double everything, because I was also working on the bathroom side.

Just a rough first coat to fill in the seams and to secure the tape.  With that done, it was time for the sink to go.  This was a bit more involved than just removing the sink and attached dressers.  I also had to remove all of the associated plumbing, including the hot and cold supply lines coming through the floor and the drain pipe routed through the wall.  I really lucked out with the supply lines, as there were shutoff valves for both the hot and cold lines feeding this sink.  I only had to shut off the valves, cut off the pipe after the valve, and pull the pipe up through the floor.  Even better, I'll be able to tie into these lines later for the future downstairs bathroom.  BONUS!  For the waste pipe, I cut that off from the main drain pipe and capped it off. I then capped off the pipe inside the wall.  I'll be leaving the capped off PVC pipe in the wall.  There's just no need that I can think of to go through the demo required to get it out of there, now that it's not tied into the drain system.

After getting the dressers and sink apart I tossed it all outside.  After some majorly gratifying abuse with a sledge hammer it all ended up looking like this!

Thanks to the burn barrel, that's one fewer trip to the landfill.  Y'all can't do that in the big city, folks!  That was pretty much it for Sunday.  I dove back in on Monday, and was able to get a few more things done.  I removed the wood valances from the windows, laid in another coat of joint compound on the window, chute, and hole from the removed plumbing.  I also had various other areas to touch up with joint compound, the result of a removed shelf and several wall anchors that left nice sized holes when I ripped them out.  All said and done, it came out pretty well.  Here's a shot of the wood valances and the aforementioned shelf, before removal.

I'll still have a final skim coat to do the next time up, but it's nearly ready for painting.  Honestly, I was really hoping to get a lot further.  Yes, I even deluded myself into thinking that I would be able to get it painted.  Still, I'm pretty happy with what I got done.  Here are a few shots of where I ended up.

By no means did Shelly get off easy.  In fact, quite the opposite.  While I was up tearing into Shangri La, Shelly was back in Ohio prepping and painting the kitchen.  She's working her butt off to get the house ready to list in February.

Now, I have taken a little bit of abuse (not too much, but a little) for not doing anything to relax while up at the house.  Believe it or not, I find working on the place to be very therapeutic and relaxing.  Still, I do understand what these well meaning folks have in mind.  So, I figured I'd better do a bit of what they're talking about, and bring back some proof.  I took a short drive over to Ocqueoc Falls and hiked in to see what it looked like all iced over.  I was truly glad that I did, and I hope you enjoy seeing the pictures at least half as much as I did taking them.

And, here's one final shot.  This is the front of our place and a bit of our view.  If we ever begin to wonder why it is we want to move up there, do you think this picture would be a decent reminder?  Yeah, I agree.  :)

Thanks for visiting with us.  Until next time!

Planning for "The Remodel"

While on our last trip up we took measurements of the whole house so that we could begin planning what we want to do in the way of remodeling.  The first BIG job is going to be the finishing of the basement.  We're moving from a house with 1,500 square feet of living space to one with just 750.  With the foundation being mostly above ground, giving us full size windows and easy means of egress, the basement is a HUGE untapped source of living space.  Here are pictures of the current basement layout, and what we're planning for the remodel.

As you can see, this is pretty much a blank canvas right now.  There's still some work to do to get it to this state.  There's some shelving and a work bench that needs to be removed, along with a bunch of power and hand tools.  Old Dale used to use this as his workshop.  I'm moving the workshop out to one of the barns.

Click For Larger Image

Here is what we're thinking is our shot at utilizing the space as best we can.  We considered adding some storage space, but opted instead to add the half bath.  This still leaves us with some minimal storage space under the stairs, and we still have ample storage space in the barns.  We're way too used to having a bath and a half, and we know that if we don't add it now it's not likely we will later.  We'd regret it every time one person is in the shower and another person has to "go".

I'll be working primarily from home, hence the "My Office".  The plan is to make the office large enough to accommodate a sofa bed so that the space can also be used as a guest room.  The picture shows a standard door, but I'll probably go with a pocket door to leave more room for the sofa bed and such.  The Bedroom will be our son Mike's room, and we certainly can't leave out our home gym.  The laundry area won't change too much from what it is now.

Click For Larger Image

Though this will be the first major renovation we'll be doing, we'll be tackling some smaller projects before taking this one on.  I'm heading up this weekend with plans to dive into the master bedroom.  I'm hoping to get everything shy of flooring done over the long holiday weekend.  I'll post an update for whatever I accomplish.

Talk to you all soon!