Oh – we are making quite a bit of progress on the cabin. Slowly but surely, little tiny bits of progress. It went up so quickly with the big parts, the walls, the roof, the floor going up in only ~ 2 months. But now, things seem to be dragging and dragging and dragging. It feels like every other weekend we are down at the cabin working and making small amounts of progress. It actually feels like we are always working. But, finally, finally, finally – we have some progress to show for it.
It is by no means anywhere close to done. No.Where. But, it’s getting closer and we are able to stay there now the weather is warmer, which is nice.
The upstairs loft is getting the most attention lately. It’s about 2/3 of a floor, so I can’t quite stand up in it. But, that’s OK since we really should be outside at such a beautiful location.
The upstairs have gotten a new coat of porch paint for the floors and most of the ceiling is done. There are some tricky angles, as you can see. But, Lance is diligently working away to get it all together and the insulation all hidden away from the kids level.
The walls are up, and still need some caulking and some paint, but the hardest part of all the cutting and measuring is done.
We have some twin beds for us and some smaller-than-twins for the kids. We tested them out on Saturday night and it was very comfortable!
The loft stairs have been installed and we can now get up and down very easily. The downstairs, as you can see is still studs. We are planning on leaving it like that for the summer to be able to have some fun and not just keep working, working, working on it. We will paint the downstairs floor too to make it easier to keep clean. Other than buying a very small fold-out couch and maybe a small table/chairs, we are done with the downstairs for the foreseeable future (or until Lance gets an itch to work on it again, which ever comes first).
The outside is looking really fabulous. It looks almost done, until you realize that the yellow color is just primer. Bummer! Although, I really do like the light yellow color so we plan to paint it roughly that same buttery yellow color, so it is nice to see what it looks like before taking the big plunge and buying the paint. The shingles will stay the same color and we painted the door last Fall, but it came out all blotchy, probably because we were pushing it in terms of temperature when it was drying. It will have to be re-painted. But, not anytime soon.
Here’s where a long day will be spent this upcoming week or two – all that wood that is laying on the ground needs to be split and stacked in that nice shed/covered-area that Lance built. There is a lot of wood, so Lance is planning on getting a log splitter. It will be so nice to get this off the ground and stacked and ready for s’mores time! We have a picnic table that is perfect for this site and just love sitting around the campfire.
Here is Lance and Sara celebrating the end of a nice long (fun) work day at the cabin. Whew! It sure is a lot of work to build this thing, but we sure love it and have been having fun learning about all sorts of things and Lance enjoys doing something completely different from his day (desk/computer) job. We enjoy seeing Grandma Judy a lot and the kids are really loving that so much!
We hope that now that we’ve got a nice area, we can have lots of people come down and enjoy it with us. If you are interested in enjoying the beach, playing in the sand, playing on the boat (if the tides are right for putting in and taking out the boat), getting clams, oysters, even geo-duck – let us know.
We would love to have you join us!
It’s been a long time since I last updated on the cabin, and so much has been done. So, here we go -
We have the boat structure up and the boat is in it – being protected from the elements as we speak (and apparently storage for some wood).
The cabin is up and level, sided, the door and windows are on/in, the roof is done, the stairs up to the cabin are up, all it’s major pieces are put together and done! There is so much left to be done, but it’s great to recognize how far we’ve come. Lance was sweating the roof for a few weeks with the rains coming in November and the roof not finished yet, but we made it! There was only a few minor rains before the roof was done…
We have yet to paint the outside (the yellow color is the primer) and the door. We also hope (someday) to put on a small deck surrounding the front of the cabin, by the door, and to the left of the house facing the fire pit.
This is what the inside looks like right now. We have a lot of work to do here. Electrical, insulation, walls, paint, floor, furniture, bedding and an outhouse. That doesn’t seem like too much, right? Well, the good part is that we are in no rush and we can take our time (except the outhouse which needs to be done first thing this Spring/Summer).
We bought some twin mattresses (the only size that will fit up the pull-down ladder up to the loft area) and put them up in the loft. We’ve used the cabin a few times in September, once in October as a whole family and Lance and Alex did one time in November by themselves. But, with no insulation and only a space heater, it was pretty cold I guess. We’re waiting for it to warm up in late Spring to stay down there again.
We plan on getting a couple more twin beds for the loft area to make a nice sleeping area up there for all of us. Downstairs is planned to have a hide-a-bed couch (for extra sleeping space), some furniture for storage and a table & chairs.
We are so excited for this Summer to spend many weekends down at the beach in our cabin. We hope to have many friends and family join us!
Kids playing with glow sticks up in the loft.
and two happy, lucky cabin kids
It’ almost looks like what we imagined last summer before anything was built!
The roof is on! And just in time - we might say!
Lance is sore from head to toe, top to bottom. He worked so hard this weekend, stretching and nailing, cutting, and bending this way and that way, up and down the ladder – but the roof is done and protecting our little cabin from the rain. Lance’s Dad and Uncle Joe helped us this weekend.
We even slept in it – all of us – on Saturday night. Even Steve, Lance’s Dad, stayed with us.
Never mind that it doesn’t technically have a door yet. It wasn’t a problem since it was so muggy and warm that evening.
We even had our first inaugural fire in our new fire pit (built by Alex and yours truly).
The light from the fire came in the front window and I was imagining what it would be like when it was finished, as I laid down with the kids to get them to sleep. Lance and his Dad and Mom were out by the fire still. We would put the kids to bed up in the loft and Lance and I would sit out by the fire on warm summer evenings after a full day of playing at the beach, in this little cabin that Lance build with his hands.
It’s starting to feel very real (very real to the pocket book, I’ve been told, too). I can “see” the finished product, and feel how it will feel. And it feels good.
We truly had a great weekend, but when we woke up on Monday morning – the question everyone had on their mind was – Can today be Sunday again?
© three-thirty AM. design by Cinnamon Girl Studio
