All Done...NOT

What was I thinking? Did I jinx our chances by putting the words "all done" in print? Of course we will never be all done at the beach; but I had hoped to at least have all the details of these projects completed.

But alas, the fishing cabin is demanding that we continue to pay attention to it. Upon opening up the wall and floor to replace the plywood, John found more wood damage.

JohnMarth Inc., beginning the repair work on the corner of the fishing cabin

Fishing Cabin repair work grinds to a halt when extensive pest damage is discovered

The damage was not caused by termites this time (like in the roof) but by the wood ravaging Powderpost Beetle. The damage appears to be too extensive for us to manage by ourselves and the chemical that truly eradicates them is not readily available to the general public. So we have called yet another contractor to help us out of this newest predicament.

This Friday John will meet Gordon of Exterminator Services to spray the fishing cabin and pump house - and then walk through the other two cabins to assess any extermination needs they may have. When it rains it pours...and it sort of feels as if it is dumping full thunderclouds upon us!

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But it's not all bad news.
JohnMarth Inc. hooked up the water line to the big cabin and not only do they have flushing toilets but poopy water once again flows to both sinks and the hose. Grandma and Grandpa were thrilled!

No more bucket brigade :)

After this success Bryan (the pump man) arrived and installed a new pump and pressure tank.

Bryan of Red's Electric

This new setup should prevent some of the problems we had in the past.
The tank (that looks like a water heater) holds 5-10 gallons of pressurized water. The pump won't kick on until the tank is down to 2-3 gallons of water. This will allow our imperfect system to bleed and leak a little bit without kicking on the pump.

New pump and pressure tank installed - all toilets flush - two happy smiles

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The master-of-disaster strikes again!
JohnMarth Inc. managed to move the driftwood disaster away from the dock. Next high tide it should be easy enough to push it out to sea.

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The new roof looks great!
Shaun and Kellen used a cool ramp that spans the stretch from the road to the roof to carry all the materials into place - including the all important Makita boom box (you may recognize those 2 names from past posts; they started this summer off as our first contractors when they installed the new wood stove in the little cabin).

Shaun has a construction business - and family members that are in every possible line of work - he has been a great resource for us. I can't remember the name of Aunt Dorothy's handyman but Shaun is our new Fragaria handyman - when JohnMarth Inc. isn't available ;)

The roof looks awesome. The name of the roofing material is Malarkey Black Oak. Malarkey seemed like an appropriate choice since it's definition is nonsense. This summer has been full of nonsense - lots of fun too - but way too much nonsense!

Cool ramp that spans the stretch from the road to the roof

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Next Project(s)...
Groan. Of course it has something to do with the fishing cabin. That bad boy has been very greedy for our attention this summer...and we haven't even gotten to the painting (inside and out)! In the meantime, we are still having lively discussions as to it's future uses. Sleeping? Tools? Storage? Fishing and boating gear? None of the above? All of the above? Somewhere in-between?

Fishing Cabin Steps & Porch

And of course we have the regular maintenance projects that are a bit behind - we are sure hoping the kids will have some time to help - we need roofs swept, ivy cut down from all the trees, dirt dug out from behind both houses, wood chopped, and so on and so forth...whew, I'm tired! 

What a summer of hard work, decisions and lots of time with G&G (now there is a part that I'm cherishing!).