The End...

Are you still waiting with baited breath to find out if we made it in? Well, your wait is over. We've been living in the shack since October 29th! Yes, we got in before November hit us. It was our goal. A total of four months of working on the shack, living in tents, basement, neighbor's houses, and under mosquito netting, we finally found a place to call home. Let me go way back to where I was at the last update.

Dave did all the wiring and then I tackled the insulation. It took me about eight hours to insulate the whole place with the fluffy pink insulation. When I was finished with that, I jumped right into drywall. I did the calculations and then Dad and I went to Home Depot to pick up our bare-minimum of 22 pieces of drywall. Yes, we took Eddy (the Astro) and Rusty (the trailer)...

It was another adventure with Rusty and Eddy when Eddy blew a tire. Dad and I were sure that something else had happened to the poor trailer - it was lucky that it was just Eddy with a flat. It added that familiar flare to the rides that my Dad and I tend to go on when we are doing construction projects.

Well, we recovered and got home in one piece and brought all the drywall into the house. It was ready to start looking like a real house!

Then I hung drywall! Yay. (sorry, no photos were taken during this time.) And then I mudded the drywall several times (sorry, no photos.)

The big hurrah was when we moved the wood stove into the house. It had been waiting patiently in the storage container and we finally got to bring it home. Yes, this is the beautiful wood stove that we bought with all the generous contributions we received at our wedding.





Here is Dave working on starting our very first fire. We needed this so that the mud on the drywall would dry since it was very cold out. (Notice in the background the drywall in progress and the fancy baseboard trim I crafted.) It took some work, and a little practice, but we've gotten really good at building our fires. Here is the first one after we really go it going.




Ain't she a beauty!!!! And look, the smoke comes right out the chimney like it's supposed to!




The leaves are still really pretty in this picture.

Okay, as far as our photographic records show, the next accomplishment was the standoff that Dave built for our electric service. It pained him to bore a hole up through our roof, but he tied it all in quite nicely and it looks pretty smart.




Notice that we have curtains on our windows! Yep, the second I was finished with the sanding of the drywall, I painted the walls white and moved the couch in. Then came the bed, the dresser, and our long lost kitchen (much missed!) We moved in the next day! We had recently gotten a delivery of two cords of green wood which I quickly stacked.




It is green wood, but it is ash, which burns relatively well even when green. We discovered that it was difficult to really get the green stuff started, but once we got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. We were just so happy to be living in warm house! A few weeks later, we got a delivery of two cords of drywood. I took a picture of our completed woodpile so that anyone who might be worried about how warm we are can rest easy. We have been burning this wood for a month now, and we find that the toughest thing about it is keeping the temperature down! We have a very efficient stove and it sometimes keeps us a little TOO warm. We aren't complaining, though. We are toasty and content. Here is our woodpile - it is stacked four rows deep, so you know we won't run out any time soon.




We have found that a big perk to living on the West side of the lake is that it is protected from the high winds that are always blowing on the East side. Because of that, the ducks and other aquatic birds like to spend time in front of our house.




We see dozens of different kinds of birds hanging out here. There are a bunch of adolescent loons that like to do their diving practice where we can watch them too.

WAIT! You say, what about the shack?! What does it look like inside?! How is life without running water? What have you done with the furniture. Yeah yeah, I know you're all dying to know. So, I took some pictures so you can envision us in our little tiny lake house.

First off, you come in the front door and see our little sitting area where we like to watch movies and stare into the flames of the fire.




As you will notice, the drywall is just beautiful (almost flawless if I do say so myself) but the trim has not been done. this is because we decided that the trim was not a crucial element to our happiness and that it could wait a few months. I may be working on it during my down time after the holidays.

Across from the couch is our little wood stove, which is always cheerfully chugging away and keeping us warm and toasty.




Here is the full view of the front of the house, over looking the lake (and the ducks.)




If you walk up to the front windows and turn around, you'll see the kitchen, where Dave is cooking his lunch/breakfast.




Hmm, where does that ladder lead to. Well follow me and I'll show you! It goes up up up to our loft bedroom.



This bedroom is quite cozy. Sometimes it gets a little too cozy if the fire is really cranking. But, it is mostly just comfy. We have a nice soft carpet on the floor, our reading lamps, and a great view of the lake. If you look closer, you'll notice that the window up here is trimmed. I decided that our bedroom should be completely finished before we moved in, so I trimmed out the window and the walls.




It's nice to feel like part of the house is finished.



Would you like to see our kitchen? I'll tell you how it works. First off, here is what it looks like.




I cleaned it up a lot before I took this picture. The biggest deal about this kitchen is that it has a sink with a drain! Dave did the plumbing of it, so we can pour water in the drain, and it just goes away! Pretty cool.

If you don't think it is cool, try not having a drain for a couple of days and then you'll think it is the best thing since sliced bread.

You may be wondering what water goes down that drain considering the fact that we don't have running water. That is a good question. See the seventies-motif water-heater with a spout that sits on the edge of the sink? That is our "faucet". We keep it filled with water and use it to wash our hands and our dishes. Mostly, it is just a handy spout. The water comes from my parent's well. We fill up these twenty-gallon plastic water barrels and drive them around the lake to our house. We pull water from them to fill the "faucet" and we pay a lot of attention to how much water we use to do dishes.

For drinking water, we have collected several gallon-size glass jugs and fill them from my parent's drinking water faucet.

We are enjoying our experience to the fullest, but we agree by far that water is the biggest pain in the butt. As far as washing goes, we are still using my parent's shower pretty often. I got a gym membership at Planet Fitness in Concord, and Dave nicknamed it "Planet Shower." It is pretty nice to get to shower after a workout!

So, the water seems like a pretty temporary solution, but it is the long-term solution for the time being. Good thing we're adaptable!

Back to the shack, though. Let's focus here. Okay, here is our front door and our indoor woodpile,




And here is us, in front of our wood stove on a sunny Saturday in November.




Oh, I almost forgot! Last week, I did one last building project before the big bad winter hit. I built our front porch. We needed to build it so that the Dorket was not resting on temporary posts on the ground. Once the ground freezes, it can "heave" and push up on the Dorket, which would compromise our roof, so I built the porch.




The porch is built on Sauna tubes that go four feet into the ground - this is deep enough to prevent frost heaves. We are really enjoying the porch. It would be nice to have steps, but I ran out of time, and so we are sticking with our ramp for the winter. Here's our entire little house with it's little porch attached.




So, it is the end of November, we've been living here for a month. We are still waiting patiently for the power company to hook us up, and in the meantime, all of our shack is being run on extension cords. It is not really a problem, except that the cable company won't hook up our internet until the power company hooks up the power. That is my excuse for taking so long to tell you how the house was doing - I had to bring my computer to my parent's house and borrow their internet. It is good to have parents! We owe a lot to them, and will continue to . So, thanks Gary and Liz, for everything that you have given and loaned to us. And for all that water! Thanks to our friends and family who encourage us to use their showers too! We appreciate it way more than you know. We like to say that this winter we won't freeze and we won't starve, the only real danger we are in is of being stinky. We're pretty clean so far, though.

I guess that is about it. Thank you for being such loyal shack fans. We have loved all of your feedback. We feel like you've all been here building with us. Come and visit. Until next time, this is the shack updater signing out.

Nippy - October 12th

Brrrrr! Autumn is sure here in New England. The nights are cold and the days are brisk. We are still constantly at work on the shack, but we can't control everything. The floor is dry, but sometimes events just happen that force you to slow down.

Right now, I'll catch you up on the more entertaining aspect of our lives before I delve into the Shack.

This week Dave announced that the water might be getting too cold for him. We got back from a kayak expedition in the swamp last Sunday. We took a quick swim together before we went in for the evening.



I am making the weirdest face, but I swear that I was just trying to get Dave to smile. The water was chilly - I'll admit that - but it has gotten colder and I am STILL SWIMMING every day. In that picture, the water temp was 60 degrees. I went swimming this morning after my run and the water was 55. I don't think it is too bad, and I bet I'll last until November - maybe right up until we have ice. It is an invigorating way to start the day. Dave says that was his last swim. Perhaps so, but I'll be sure to post a picture if he gets in again.

On another topic not shack-related, our beautiful robust "laying hens" are looking more and more like roosters. In fact, we have identified at least three, and in the morning, the cacophony of cock-a-doodle-doing leads us to believe that we may actually have four or even five roosters. Please understand that this is our first time with chickens; even now as they run around the yard they are tough to distinguish. Juvenile roosters look pretty much exactly like hens.

Here is the only one we think is a hen - for sure.




She looks like a hen right? Yeah! Say yes! The poor girl is dealing with sharing her house with an awful lot of men, though. Most of the other chickens are in different developmental stages but seem to be starting to look like this guy (our biggest rooster, named Hero.)




Don't mess with this guy, he keeps all the others in line. He is starting to try to keep us humans in line too!

Okay okay, roosters and hens aside, the shack is still progressing mightily and we are trying to keep up this exhausting pace so that we beat Old Man Winter. The shack is looking fine amongst the fall foliage.




It may be hard to see at this vantage, but I have finished trimming out the windows on the outside with rough-cut one-inch lumber which looks just smashing. I spent a lot of time working on the outside of the house because the floor took such a long time to dry. It DID finally dry though. But while I waited, I did window trim. I am proud to say that I trimmed the entire outside of the house using only boards that came off of the former roof. After a good belt sanding, they looked good as new.

There are no pictures of the dry floor, but it looks great too. Come see it sometime.

As soon as the floor was dry, I drilled all the holes in the walls for the wiring that Dave would be doing.

Last week, I found some kitchen cabinets on the side of the road for free (perfectly good), and the Kaufholds generously gave us a couple of cabinets as well. I spent some time trimming these all up to the same hight to go under the kitchen counter top. As soon as Dave is finished the wiring, I may start getting down to business and setting up some of the more "housey" parts of the house while Dave is working (when I say he is working, I mean on his REAL job - the thing he used to do before we decided to renovate the Shack.)

Wiring! That is right, Dave is wiring as I type this (on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.) It is very exciting to see just how much electrical work he can get done in one weekend. Here he is yesterday mapping out our electrical layout.




And here he is today, all the wires have been run and he just has to hook them all up. (oh, look, you can see some of the beautiful floor there!)





It is a small house, but it is no small task. Dave, having had to do day-job stuff lately, hasn't had a weekend since our honeymoon (which, technically, was four week DAYS not a weekend.) Yet, as you can see, he is still smiling. If you see him, give him a pat on the back, and buy him a beer. He deserves it.

I should tell you all that we are working almost exclusively with found objects, salvaged goodies, and reusing the good wood that we removed from some unusable part of the shack. We are pretty darn proud of what we've put together. With the exception of the unsafe or non-salvageable materials we got rid of, we have managed to incorporate a huge amount of the "what-once-was" of the Shack into the "What-will-be" of the Shack. This experience in "shacking up" will be one that we draw upon for the rest of our lives - construction experience and relationship experience.

Curious to know if we make it in before the snow flies? Will our fire wood be delivered? Will we find a refrigerator? You'll just have to tune in for

Chickens - October 5th

Heya kids. Wondering where we've gone to? Yeah, well, we are too. If you ask us how we feel when we wake up in the morning, the answer is "weary". It is October now and this is the first week that it has really begun to get cold. The leaves are all changing now and it is frosty in the night. We promised ourselves that we would take our weekends off from working, and this might be the first weekend that we have actually stuck to that pact since we got married. Well, I guess that isn't true since I was in there for a couple hours yesterday morning trying to get the finish on the floor before we left for my grandmother's 90th birthday party.

You might get a kick out of the fact that, although the lake temperature is only in the high 50's right now, Dave and I are both still swimming pretty much daily. Here is a picture of Dave a couple of days ago. He had worked on the floor all day long and came back for his clean-up swim after the sun had set. I had to use the flash to capture it properly.





you can faintly see the horizon above the far shore. Dave is being a really good sport here because we generally don't spend much time in the water now that is really cold. We are in it just long enough to get that brisk clean feeling, and then we're out.

Now that you know how we get clean after we work a hard day, I should tell you what sorts of things we have been working on. Dave spent three days burning the junk wood that had come off of the house. The yard is just really clean now. He also put down the plywood floor in the front of the house. Oh, and we spent a half-day installing the "spine" under the belly of the building so that the floor would stay nice and solid and not develop a bounce. We have really gotten bad about pictures of all of this stuff lately because we are just plain tired. We keep getting closer to our goal of actually getting in the shack, but it still seems like there are many many things left to do.

For my own piece of mind, I took a side-jaunt into a building project that had nothing to do with the shack. My mother and I have been scheming and researching about chickens. We decided that we were going to get some laying hens. So, this week, I scrounged up enough materials to piece together a chicken coop. It took me about a day of working on it and it was done. It was refreshing to get to build something that wasn't quite so critical as a house to live in. Chicken's live simple lives and don't have high expectations for their house. So, in one day, I built a chicken palace.




What fun to do something so whimsical as a chicken coop! Here is the back view. This is where we can reach in and pull out the theoretical eggs they will lay.





Mom and I were so excited that I went out the next day to get our chickens. They are four-month-old Rhode Island Reds. Five hens and a rooster that are currently free-ranging in my parent's yard. We have found it endlessly entertaining to watch them peck around the yard. Bean, our bold black cat, is terrified of them. Every time he has to walk past them they chase him. We are just glad that he doesn't seem to be thinking about eating them.




Ahh, yes. chickens, you say. That is nice. but what about the shack? What phase of construction have you reached? Let me see. I painted the beams white before Dave put in the floor (because I can tend to be a sloppy painter) so, any questionable paint that may be on them is sealed up with a heavy coat of oil based paint. It looks quite grand inside with the white beams, I don't think a picture really does it justice, but I'll show you anyway.





This picture also captures the loft a little bit. (it is hard to take a picture of a loft) We have found two little windows for each side of the house in the peaks so that we can be well-ventilated. That is easier to see from the outside.




This is the back view with our little loft window nestled up in the peak. Here is a view from the lake side.



As you can see, the leaves are all turning as we are well into autumn. Our little chimney is poking out all ready to have the wood stove attached to it. The current "shack state" is that all of the roof is done, the walls our finished and wrapped in Tyvec, and we are now buttoning up all the little holes. The new plywood floor is a real improvement. Here is a picture from this morning that I took from the doorway. the floor has a red mahogany stain that this photo does not do any justice. It is a rich warm color if you were to see it first-hand.




We are currently waiting for the finish on the plywood to dry so that Dave can start running the electrical wires back in the walls, and hopefully, insulation will be next. These cold nights are certainly making us think about buttoning down and getting moved in. Our firewood is being delivered this week, and we will definitely post a picture of that, as it will be our heat in this quickly approaching winter. We are excited about getting it all stacked and ready to burn.

The trees are getting to the point where everything is overwhelmingly colorful, but we are not quite there yet. A couple more weeks and it will be stunning. Hopefully, we'll be moving into the shack by then. Meanwhile, think warm thoughts for us! We'll keep on trucking.

Asphalt in our hair - and more - September 23

We're not dead yet, though sometimes it seems we are only a breath away. This project has taken us by force and now even the prospect of writing about it seems daunting (imagine that!) But, we have reached a milestone moment that needs to be documented. Against all the odds and the elements, Dave and Taury have FINISHED the roof! It is done. We are still in a state of shock. But, I am jumping ahead. Lets start at the beginning.

The last you heard, we had finished the south roof. I failed to show you a proper picture of it, though. Here you go.




Ain't she a beauty! Yep, all done up. The roof braces have come off by now, but we failed to get a picture yet. Hold your horses.

So, with that side of the roof finished, we dragged all of our scaffolding to the other side of the building and started gnawing away at that leg of the project. All try and save you the repetition of the last side by making the repeated processes brief. Dave trimmed the one inch boards back to the proper length. Dad came over and helped us to lay down the sleepers (the 2x4s that go between the insulation as you may remember.) And than Dave spent a lot of time cutting the insulation. This time, though, he skipped the table saw and cut it with a big sharp butcher knife. I hear the process was much less dusty. Dusty or not, I was going to have nothing to do with cutting of insulation as my skin rebels violently. So, while Dave cut the insulation, I worked on framing in and installing the windows in the back of the house.

Here is the window I put in while Dave cut insulation for the South side (all these windows we got for a song at Big Jim's Discount Windows - we are excited about all the sunlight we will have.)




So, these last couple weeks, I've been working on the windows that will light the rest of the place. Here are two future window holes.




Nice, ehh? Oh yeah! And here are the windows in place. All trimmed out and looking sharp.




Meanwhile, here is Dave installing the insulation he spent all that time cutting. He means business!




Speeding on ahead, we got my dad back for the plywood installation, and this darn thing is looking more and more like a roof!!!




Ahh, but we cannot just speed ahead this time. Here is where things get different from the other side. On this side, we have a chimney hole AND the cricket. What is a cricket? We're not sure. That is why we have been talking about it at every single spare moment since July! You see, the walls on this house are rather short. In fact, Dad had to cut the door down in order to install it. Because of this, an overhang on the roof would be problematic because everyone who was six feet tall or more would conk their head coming and going from this house. We can't have that. So, the discussion of this cricket has gone on for a long time. How will it be made? What slope? Should it be a shed roof? Is it vented? Will it work with the roof we already have? This is a gross summary of a conversation that has lasted a solid two months without interruption. I think some of you even got to take part in the conversation at our wedding. You know who you are - Dad, Thor, Roger! Perhaps there are more of you that I don't know about. Regardless of how many people talked about it, there was always more opportunity for discussion. Dave and I left for Pennsylvania to go to his cousin's wedding last weekend and as we were running around getting our things together before we left, my father slipped me another sketch of this cricket "to think about on the long drive."

After all of this. We finally came up with a plan. Or, I should say, they did. I personally had my fill of the cricket conversation and so tended to just slip out whenever the discussion resumed. On Wednesday, the 17th of September, I traveled with my mother to go and visit Haley and Orrin, Dave delved into this fabled cricket on his own - with a bit of further consulting from my father. Mom and I returned after dark, but were curious to see if anything had been constructed in our absence, so we peaked in at the shack before heading home for dinner. In the gleam of moonlight we could see the beginning framings of a cricket!!! Hallelujah!

Here is what it looked like the next day in the sunlight.




Wow! So, Dave and Dad continued on it while I did some site-work (the yard has been an absolute disaster since we started roofing!) I went home early that day with a bad cold, and they continued on. The results were really exciting after all this talk.




And then even MORE exciting and the plywood was applied.






All trimmed out, this cricket was looking very grand.




A note about that name. We know that technically, this is not a cricket. And, it is not really a dormer either. So, on Thursday, as we mumbled and churned the names around trying to find the correct term for this little structure, Dad came up with the title
"DORKET"
Naturally, what one might call a cricket and a dormer when combined. So, the thing got branded the Dorket and we haven't called it anything else since. It really changes the look of this little shack and we are now fishing for a new name for the whole building because it is certainly not a shack anymore. If you have any creative suggestions for a name for our house, please email me!

Okay, so the fabled Dorket built, I was feeling a little bit better the next day and went ahead with securing the walls to the new framing I had added inside the building. Here I am, trying to look healthier.




Saturday, I went to celebrate my niece Maren's 5th birthday and Dave stayed at the house to apply tar paper. We had put the bituthane on together that morning, and here is where I found Dave at the end of Saturday.




We were in shock that we were coming so close to the end of working on the roof. It feels like months! It has been months! There has just been too much to do this summer and we are running a little bit behind our planned schedule. We got out of bed on Sunday morning determined to finished the roof! All it needs are drip edge and shingles! We can do this! We marched across the lake to begin the battle. Sunday, September 21st - the LAST DAY OF SUMMER! We set to work. The weaving of the shingles at the joint between the roof and the Dorket proved slow going as it required a lot of calculation and we wanted it to be perfect. Here is Dave about halfway through the day in front of our accomplishment so far. At this point, Dave has caught the cold that I had earlier int he week and is feeling pretty crumby. He hides it well, though.




On Sunday, we managed to get the tough parts of the roof done. the valley on both sides of the Dorket came out nicely. The day ended late, though and we trudged home - the roof still incomplete. We would have to wake up one more morning knowing that the roof still was not finished.

We did wake up, though. Late - I might add. And we headed back to the job. Dave was feeling even worse, but we were driven and could not stop. I had the top half of the roof shingled by the time we broke for lunch.




All that was left was the ridgecap now. So, together, we attacked this last bit.




See the lake? That is why this is so worth it. the water is crisp and blue and the leaves are starting to turn. On the first day of autumn, September 22, 2008, the roof is finished.

Shingles from heaven - September 9th

Yes, "shingles from heaven" is the name of this post. If you weren't sure of how long we've been without a roof, let me catch you up to speed. I started ripping the old shingles off of the roof on Friday August 1st, Dave finished ripping them off on Sunday the 3rd, and we have been covering the roof with a combination of greenhouse plastic and blue tarp for a total of 40 days at this point (don't get too excited, we are STILL covering the roof with greenhouse plastic and tarps, but I am getting to that.)

The reason I am calling this update "Shingles from Heaven" is because it is really REALLY exciting to have some shingles on the roof now.

Ah, but I am getting ahead of myself, let me start where I left off last time. Okay, so we put the new boards on the roof (our ceiling, essentially.) After we got that all done, we spent a lot of time wrangling the scaffolding for the South side. We did a bang-up job on that. Here is our scaffolding.





"Boy oh boy," we said, "Now we are cooking!" This is Labor Day weekend, and Dave and I decided to work straight through it and see what we could get done. Now, this is all going to be conveyed to you via narrative because it was one of those times when we were working too hard and too long to take any pictures.

Dave and I labored together inside the back of the house putting up additional rafters (improving the rafter layout from 30-on-center to 14-on-center.) It looks really good in there now, I wish I had a picture to show you all. But, we moved right on to the next task.

Dave worked on getting the roof all tidied up and ready for it's next layers, while I cut 2" ridged insulation with the table saw. I did a really great job of getting them all perfect. The problem with the insulation arose the next day when I broke out in a horrendous rash from the insulation dust (I won't give you details - it was bad.) So, in response to my "foam-a-phobia", as we call it, Dave cut the rest of the foam. He took extreme measures to prevent himself from being afflicted as I was. Here is Dave in my Dad's Tyvec suit.




Yes, we were later heard down the grapevine that you should "never cut foam on a table saw!!" My response is that I've done it on job sites before (rash free) and I was told to cut it on a table saw. I don't know - different strokes for different folks. Anyway, Dave cut all of the foam up beautifully and he didn't get a rash.

So, we forged onward! We rolled pink rosin paper over the roof to keep schmutz from sifting down on us inside the house. The next step, Gary came over and we spent an afternoon attaching our "sleepers" to the roof. The sleepers are the 2X4s that sit between our insulation pieces. Eventually they will hold up the plywood on the roof. Here are our brandy-new sleepers on pink rosin paper.




We are doing one side of the roof at a time because it is just simpler since we only have so much scaffolding. So, the next updates we do might seem really repetitive as we repeat the whole process on the other side- I'll try to keep you interested with clever wit. So, after the sleepers, it was time to squeeze the insulation into the roof. That was Dave's job since I am still suffering from foam-a-phobia.




Whooppee! Then Dave installed all the foam while I worked at the framing in the back room where we are adding a few windows and strengthening the walls (going from 30-on-center to 14-on-center.) By the end of the day on Friday (September 5th) the whole roof was insulated and it was time to put the tarp and plastic back on it to weather Hurricane Hannah-Gustav through the weekend.




Monday morning was especially exciting because it was time for plywood! We got up extra early and the three of us were on the job-site by 8am.




We had all the plywood up by 10:30am! It was a great morning.




We slapped on the Ice and Water Shield (also known as Bituthane - pronounced by contractors as BITCH-a-thane,) and rolled out the tar paper while Dad worked on the trim and shadow board at the base of the roof. Then we started in with the shingles. It was darn exciting. Here I am putting on the first course of shingles.




We set up the roofing gun and Dave and I went at it as fast as we could. We had to call it a day a few courses up because it was getting late and supper was on. But, we had time to set up our staging before dinner.



This morning was the most exciting because we were trying to shingle up the whole roof before the rain hit (heavy thunderstorms and high winds by 11am!) We were slapping the shingles down and the thunder was rumbling louder and louder. Dad came on the scene just in time to help us with the last few courses. We didn't get quite to the top of the roof before the storm really let lose, and we were scrambling in the pouring rain to get the tarp and plastic back on the roof (which is now weather proof on the South side, but not the North side.) We got everything tied down just in time. It was an exciting morning. What else would you expect from us! Tomorrow we are starting in on the other side. We are getting closer and closer to what might be a livable house! We think it will be great. We hope that you all come and visit us. I'll update again soon. Keep tuning in.