Better all the Time

Things are definitely looking up, after a couple of years' work by Terry & Gary. The cabin has gone from being an eyesore to a comfortable and fun place to spend time at the beach. One can prepare meals in the kitchen without fear of plague, and breathe the air without tasting mold any more. The most recent change on the exterior is the removal of the out of control jungle of shrubbery that surrounded the house. It's amazing how much bigger the place looks now.

cleaning out the old shop

let's see if new blogger version will let me attach photos...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Memorial Day 2010

Terry and Gary have done a fantastic job of getting the cabin habitable once again. New roof, new siding, piles and piles of garbage cleared away, brush cleared out, new sheetrock on the ceilings, new light fixtures, and a ton of cleaning and painting.  Gary had a couple of huge alder trees cut down, and we spent some time moving the chunks to the firewood pile for splitting. Some of the pieces were barely lift-able by two men, and Bruce and I worked up quite a sweat!

After all the junk was cleared out over the course of the last year, there's still a few things that we thought someone else might like, so Terry and Bonnie and Michele dragged them all out onto the back porch. I created a yard sale sign to put out front, and the sale began. Every Memorial Day weekend on the Long Beach Peninsula there's a peninsula-wide yard sale; literally thousands of sales going on simultaneously, which generates a bit of traffic. Once the gals figured out the correct sign location, we actually saw some of that traffic, and sold some items. The steel bowls in the picture to the left are something Grandma Pat saved from one of the hospitals along the way. No one wanted to buy them, but I brought a few home for utility bowls around the garage and house. They'll make great scrubbing solution bowls for painting and house cleaning, I think.

After the lumber was cleared, there was a great big aspen stump in the middle of the back yard, so Gary hooked up a logging chain to the front of his truck and pulled it. It took several attempts to get it to come loose, but we were finally able to move it to the side of the road. Then, unfortunately, there was a big hole that had to be filled in, which we did by hand.

We all went for a walk down on the beach on Friday evening while the weather was clear. It wasn't all that crowded for a holiday weekend, and I caught a good photo of a bald eagle surveying the waves, perhaps looking for his next meal.

Our next meal was shrimp scampi, and I was certainly glad to see that the kitchen was way cleaner than it was last year. No qualms at all about cooking and serving a feast. We all gathered around the table to fill our bellies, and later on to play some cards and reminisce.

On Saturday, the weather kept us indoors for the most part, so we worked on painting and cleaning things. I put a coat of primer on the ceiling and walls of the "meat locker", after clearing a few things out of the way, and the rest of the crew painted in the entry way, kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Such an amazing difference in the place now!

Note the absense of piles of trash on the couch, the pretty new fireplace insert, and a ceiling free of tobacco stains and cobwebs.

On Sunday afternoon, Michele and I decided to go exploring, so we drove up to Oysterville, a historic fishing village, and took a walking tour. It was pouring down rain and we were wearing our slickers, so we didn't get too wet. Our first stop was in the Oysterville Church.

About a half a mile further up the road, there's a fish market that was quite busy with the weekend trade. We saw some fishermen out in the bay, despite the terrible weather.

On our way back to the car, we surprised a local having lunch in his neighbor's rhododendrons. We drove around for a while after that, looking at all the houses for sale along the coast. The depressed real estate market has really taken its toll. There were tons of vacant homes, condos, and mobile homes with signs in front of them.

In search of a mocha, latte, or maybe just a good cup of coffee, we headed down the coast again, stopping in Long Beach at a little drive through for a cup of Nirvana. We decided to continue south to the town of Ilwaco, and wandered around the boat basin there, watching the fishing boat crews clean up after their day on the water. I gotta book a charter there sometime.

We decided, due to the weather, and the possibility of spending some time with our son on his 96 hour leave from the Marine Corps, to leave on Monday. It poured rain nearly all the way home, making driving a bit white-knuckle when I had to pass semi trucks and couldn't see anything but the yellow line on the left side of the road. We did see some spectacular rainbows, including a couple of doubles. Here's hoping you find the pot o' gold at the end of your road!

Transformations...

As the year winds to a close, our cabin lay snug in its new outer coat: a new roof, siding, and windows! The siding sports a light gray primer, it will be a darker gray next spring. The focus now points inward: we need ceiling insulation in the addition, and a ceiling throughout most of the cabin. We can't afford to completely sheetrock the place - holy cow is that expensive!!! So we're painting the paneling (wood lover that I am - I never DREAMED I would paint like this). First, two coats of Bins. Smelly stuff, but very affective. Then two coats of latex satin paint. Aaaahhhh! The ceilings in the den and the entry kitchen (when you first enter the cabin) are existing old stuff that is filthy and would be difficult to replace. So: two coats of Bins and some ceiling white, and an amazing transition!! Heck, I even slept in the cabin this past weekend. And I survived with all digits intact! We're headed back down in a couple of days - to celebrate my birthday and dig clams for three straight days! Yahooooooo!

A Year in Review...

Earlier this year we started out here... Now look! This past winter..... And now! Another older view....notice Michele's respirator! And now.... And now the work inside has also begun....Binz (or however it's spelled) - think super killz odor/mildew/ super sealer.....applied in the old den (soon to be guest room) The den....at the beginning! Just look at it now!!!

All Done

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Originally uploaded by spinpygora

Here's the new fireplace door all installed. It has two bifold glass doors and that chain-mail type curtain inside (cuz you can't have a fire in there with the glass doors closed!)

I uploaded this iPhone photos to Flickr, then tried to paste them into my blogger software. This used to be very easy to do. Apparently too easy and caused problems, so now you have to link your Flickr acct to the Blogger account and you end up posting single photos in a blog entry.

I am NOT liking this! Photos look much better uploaded to hardrive,. then uploaded to web server. What a pain.....

It's About Time!

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by spinpygora

I've not been to the beach cabin since September. Holy cow! My work/personal schedule for October was horrendous...and I've nobody to blame but myself for the most part.

The siding and window job has not yet begun. I know the contractor wanted to be helpful, but sheesh, if you're not going to get to the job until after hunting season - TELL ME! Believe it or not, I'd rather have the truth the first time rather than after the fact. Needless to say, when we stopped by to talk to the contractor at his place of business.....I stayed in the truck. That was probably better for all parties at this point(!)

So the siding/window job is starting on Monday (it'saboutime!). They really do wonderful work - I just hate slipping deadlines. Also getting a quote on insulation/sheetrock for the ceilings.

We did go to the beach this past Wednesday. I took a day off, partially because I wanted to go to the beach, and partially to spend the day with Gary. Between my work hours and his hunting schedule, we'd not had a decent conversation for two weeks...and they'd had 100 mph wind gusts at the beach - we were concerned.....

The cabin survived the high winds just fine. We did have some water on the new subflooring in front of the fireplace and on either side. We'd taped up the opening of the fireplace with heavy plastic, but it was not enough for those strong winds. Lucky for us, our new fireplace door had arrived, and we spend the morning installing it!