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!

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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!

As Promised...

A photo of the new roof....and the rotten siding.......and the jungle of vegetation...... New siding begins in two weeks! Yay! That includes new windows!!! We cannot keep grinning at our new roof!!!

Ruh-Roh! Or Maybe TMI??

Ok, that is Scooby-Doo for "uh-oh". I've spent the better part of my entire life on septic systems. Hmmm, that previous sentence sounds like I've got medical issues..... What I mean to say is everywhere I've ever lived (college and Longview being the only exceptions), my places of residence have been on a septic tank/drainfield. This is not a hardship as long as the system is properly maintained. You know what's coming here, don't you? A little voice kept whispering to me that the beach cabin septic system has likely not been maintained (a fair assumption given the physical condition of the cabin itself). When we removed a portion of the floor in front of the fireplace, we both scooted underneath looking for uh, more boxes, and perhaps buried treasure. My dad had been told his father's silver dollar collection was underneath the house. No treasure (how sad....) or boxes (thankgoodness!) but off in the distance towards the back of the house, I could see a small pile of what looked like, uh, toilet paper. Ok. Fine. Let's call the plumber. We are NOT going to deal with this ourselves. Yep- the sewer line under the original cabin is in good shape, the sewer line under the addition was not glued together and has come apart under duress. Duress? Oh yeah, a MAJOR case of ivy in the sewer lines has caused our plumbing issues. Where is that septic tank, anyhow? Just north of the deck. Where are the cleanouts? Oh yeah, UNDER the deck. Guess who has a new trapdoor feature to their deck. Uh-huh, that would be us. This is not a casual ivy problem, this is largishly thick woody stems in the septic tank and into the sewer pipes. This has been an issue for several YEARS by the look of things. The tank itself is in good shape with a rather thick and sturdy metal lid which is in remarkeable shape considering its age! The plumbers, bless their hearts, dug deep holes beneath the house and removed "the evidence". The bathroom smells much nicer - oh, especially after the plumbers removed the toilet (it was merely sitting on top the pipe, not fastened (!), installed a new flange and wax seal before properly seating the toilet. So, in my best "bathroom humor voice" I am happy to report we have an audible water-feature sound....at least until the tank fills up. No photos for this post! Roof photos coming later..... We are on the contractors list for our new windows and Hardie plank siding! Yay!!! I feel like renting that Tom Hanks moving "The Money Pit".....