Back Porch

Several years ago I painted the cabin with opacque stain.  Spent a lot of time...  Well, living next to a large body of water, one expects some bugs, spiders, mildew, etc.  We had more than our share.  The stain didn't hold up well at all.  It was very disappointing.
John, the carpenter, did a great job of cleaning the exterior of the whole house.
A sprayer containing bleach, JoMaxx and water did wonders!!!  Last week he started painting the back porch and gable end with Lowe's Valspar DuraMax.  A latex based paint.  It is taking two coats to cover some places.  I love the colors.  Ultra White for the trim.  Gull for all the walls.  Sky for the porch ceilings.
I haven't decided on the color of the railing, floor and steps.  A gray should look good, but I'll decide that later.
We have another fan to go out there and vent covers for the eaves.

More Sunroom

These windows look out at the lake, north west.  We'll have window seats under both sets, with some sort of storage under them.  Some may be open, to store baskets, etc inside, or closed with doors... to keep things hidden.




This photo is where the computer desk will go.  The window seats start under the window at the right edge of this photo.  The front door is on the left.

Sunroom ceiling

This doesn't really do it justice.  There's only the stain on it so far.  It needs a couple of coats of polyurethane on it. 

Kitchen

While this doesn't look like much of a kitchen, it will when John, the carpenter, gets through with it.
The sink will go under the double windows.  A 15' run of countertop to the wall at the other end.  Lazy Susan cabinets at each end.  Range with a glass top and frig along that wall, too.  I haven't worked out the cabinet configuration, except for the lazy susans.
The pile of lumber against the wall under the double windows is stained beadboard.  As of this evening, all that is on the ceiling of the sunroom.  It looks so good!  Will post a picture soon.

Guest Bath

Well, it doesn't look exactly like a bathroom... yet.  Just wait til John, the carpenter, is finished with it!!!  It will be awesome!!!!  There was going to be room for a closet in the corner, but after a good friend suggested putting the HVAC in the basement, away from the bedroom, the closet was out and the bathroom got smaller.  There is room for a small cabinet/storage in the top part of that space.  There is only so much room in this cabin and we can't afford to waste any of it.

Sunroom

This is the sunroom, part of the open living space.  The big pile of lumber is the beadboard planks that will eventually be the ceiling for the whole house.  One of my grandmother's house had beadboard ceilings.  It was painted white and I loved it.  I can hardly wait to see this when it's finished.
We'll have window seat under all these windows... Storage of some sort under them.  Our cats will love these! 
Oh!  I just noticed the boxes in the floor.  That's the Murphy Bed frame!  :-) 

Murphy Bed

The cabin is about 1200 sq ft.  With most of the space in the kitchen, living room, dining room and sunroom.  All of those are open and connected.  We'll have three interior doors and three exterior doors.  Just one bedroom... but there's a Murphy Bed for overnight visitors. 

For those who have never heard of a Murphy Bed, it's like the bed in one of Carol Burnett's skits.  It folds up into the wall or a closet.  We chose to buy the frame and have our carpenter build the cabinet/closet.  It's queen size, so it will be comfortable for whoever sleeps in/on it. 

Here's a link...

http://www.murphybedsdirect.com/

It has already arrived.  UPS delivered it in less than the two they'd said it would take.  Oh...  The bed will go where that bar stool is sitting.  As soon as John gets started putting drywall up, I'll get more photos to show you.

Lake view

Before I show you the inside of the cabin, I'll show you some of the views.  Of course, it's the middle of December and some of the leaves have blown off the trees.  So, there's not as much color right now...  I did go back out there...  Brrrrr!  We're up to 40 degrees now!  On highest resolution, my camera takes 4mb to 5mb pictures.  It takes forever to upload them.  Set to the lowest res., this will go much faster.

Looking down the east/back side of the cabin.  We asked John to extend the porch.  It gives us a little more room back there, but the main reason was to be able to clean out the gutter!!!  That one hasn't been cleaned out since installation in 2006!  There are a few small trees, and other things, growing up there.

From the north end, but showing you part of the yard and some of the Corp of Engineers easement below the cabin.  It really is nice out here.

This is looking North East from our back porch.  The Corp of Engineers is doing a draw-down of the lake until February 2011.  
The trees and underbrush along the bank obstruct part of our view, but that is mainly in the summer.  We really don't mind too much...  we won't ever have neighbors on that side of our property, because our backyard is a 30 something thousand acre lake!!! :-)



Bird in the Cabin

When I went down to the cabin to get a few photos, there was a bird inside.  There are only so many places where they can get it, but this one found at least one!  This time, it was the eave vents with no covers on them.  That will be a good project for John, our carpenter, to do tomorrow!!!  I hate having to clean up the bird poop after they've been in there for a while!!!  Usually, it's only a sparrow or wren, they are little and don't poop as much as a bigger bird.  Well, enough about that. 

After looking through my trusty bird book... Smithsonian Handbooks Birds of North America, Eastern Region... I found that our intruder is a Northern Flicker, which is a member of the woodpecker family.  This one is a female, since she doesn't have a black mustache.  Now, that makes sense.  After opening all three doors, I sort of chased/followed her around the cabin with a broom.  I'll go back down there later to clean up...  It was 36 degrees and the wind is very COLD off the lake.  Long johns and a fleece jacket will feel really good out there right now!  My feet and fingers were getting numb...  Which brings back memories of a wedding about this time of year back in 1995...  :-)  Love you guys, that was a fantastic evening!!! 

Here is a link for more info.  http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/id

Cabin remodel project

I've seen lots of blogs and have been very impressed with how anyone could understand all this.  Well... today I'm starting my own blog.  :-) 

Back in November 2002, my husband & I bought the cabin that is between our house and the lake.  (I'll have to find the paper photos to scan.  I didn't have a digital camera back then.)  The next spring or summer we started taking it apart.  I'll get into that later, too. 

Skipping forward to the present...

After all this time, we finally made the decision to get someone else to finish the cabin.  With the recommendation of people we know, we hired a carpenter.  We're very pleased with his work. 

This photo shows what we've done so far.  I'll post several other photos that I took this morning.  It was too cold out there to take very many.  It is up to 36 degrees, but the wind off the lake makes it much cooler.