Left, Right, Repeat

 Left, Right, Repeat ... it's slow but we are making progress!!

We've made some major steps forward over this summer and the cabin is beginning to look livable!

One of the earlier projects this summer was to complete the screen porch. We installed shakes on the exterior and tongue and groove cedar on the interior ceiling. We added a barn light on the cabin wall in the porch, and outside over the deck, and then stood back and marveled that we actually had one room of the cabin finished!!

You may have also spotted the slide, which was added for our granddaughter's entertainment; we also hung a swing inside the cabin (temporarily of course - the things we do for our granddaughter!) There are advantages to having unfinished ceilings!

Next we evaluated our life expectancy and decided to hire the remaining drywall to be completed. We hired Arrowhead Drywall and their work is impeccable! We're so excited to have the walls finished that we forgot to take photos to share with you!

We enjoyed taking breaks this summer spending time biking, canoeing and paddle boarding. Mark survived another boundary waters trip in September.

Not quite as exciting, but we needed to replace our solar inverter to fix a battery charging issue. We had great technical support from the companies we worked with, and the inverter was covered under warranty. Everything was back up and running in a couple of hours despite the days and nights of dreading the task of replacing the 70lb beast and rewiring the inverter.

Next up ... finishing the reclaimed barn wood floors! In our typical style we installed the floors before the walls were finished. "Why you ask?" The simple answer ... we found the reclaimed hardwood on Craigslist for a decent price and purchased it. Now we had 800 square feet of flooring sitting in the kitchen area of the cabin. We could either work around the flooring or install it. We chose the latter. Mkay and a friend Kathy started in the bedroom. Their work was amazing!! The flooring is multiple widths from 3" to 7". It has screw holes, saw marks, knot holes, and came with a sufficient supply of chicken poop on top. The flooring installed easily but it took us some time to complete the project. The engineer on the install team (aka Mark) needed significant consulting in order to install a random floor pattern (that's a joke, by the way!).

We finished the floors in September. We spent a weekend sanding the floors to prep for the finish. We rented a floor sander and spent an entire Saturday sanding away. Remember the floors are not meant to be perfect ... the goal is to retain the rustic appeal. However if you are interested in a game of marbles there's definitely a home court advantage! 

The following weekend I (Mark) had a solo weekend at the cabin and applied FIVE coats of oil based Varathane polyurethane floor finish. I sanded after coats 2 and 4. That's approximately 600 square feet of flooring sanded with a 5" random orbit cordless sander. You do the math. It wasn't as bad as it sounds ... it was more like an early morning yoga workout stretching across the floor with the sander. The five coats took five gallons of polyurethane which I applied with a lambswool applicator pad. We LOVE the results!

Ta Daaa!

I think I can, I think I can ...

Our precious little shack was feeling neglected so we gave the little "Mouse House" a fresh coat of barn red paint this fall. The little thirsty 10x20 tiny cabin soaked up 5 gallons of paint!

We hope this blog arrives to find you safe during this bizarre pandemic time. We've found our little slice of paradise to be the perfect place to social distance from the rest of the world. The fall colors are now past peak in northern Minnesota but we had beautiful fall color to enjoy this year.

Stay safe ... 

M&M