Fall Is Here…

Fall is definitely here at the Blog Cabin. The smell of dry leaves and wood burning is thick in the air. You can hear the dry leaves skipping across the road as the chill in the air makes itself known in the Autumn wind - CHILLY! There is a pumpkin stand and corn stalks for sale on almost every corner and big buckets of mums on every farmer porch we pass. Saturday morning was 29 degrees! Burrrrrrrr! P and I used 3 blankets and had the propane stove running all night – with no insulation we were still able to keep the Blog Cabin between 65-68 degrees at night. Not too bad. During the day we were nice and cozy - once the sun came up and hit the cabin it took the chill out and warmed us right up.

We got a lot accomplished this weekend. Our Wayne has been busy while we have been away. He finished the last portion of the foundation connecting all four sides. We now have foundation under the entire cabin – a huge Blog Cabin milestone! I finished tarring the last portion of block on Sunday and when we head back in a couple weeks, we will back fill the front of the house an call it complete! P and I are happy to be finishing the foundation – it was backbreaking and we are sooo tired of digging! Our Wayne also covered the entire exterior with house wrap which helped a bit with keeping the heat in – next step for the exterior…siding. P and I have decided to go with the traditional Log Cabin siding…after all, it is called the Blog Cabin and we can’t very well continue to call it that if we don’t have the traditional log siding.

Oh, and in other Blog Cabin news, P and I are in the process of buying a small parcel of land right next to the Blog Cabin! This will give us a nice side yard for the cabin and maybe someday a nice space for a driveway or a relaxing picnic area. We won’t be building on this property because one of the agreements we made is that we would not take down any trees and out of respect for the trees and the beauty of the land we will honor our word. The property is 30 feet of road frontage and 85 feet of water frontage – 2550 square feet overall. Right now the Blog Cabin sits on a 1 acre lot and once the purchase & sales goes through it will bring it well over an acre – not too shabby for our little camp.

It’s been a productive season at the Blog Cabin. We knocked down and burned the original cabin, we built and raised the walls of the new blog cabin, we built a new roof and tar papered it, we started and completed the new septic system, put in the new shower, put up the bathroom wall and door, put in the spiral stairs, moved the propane tank, put up a temporary railing in the loft, hooked up the propane stove, house wrapped the exterior, completed the entire foundation, back filled 2 sides of the camp and re-routed the water lines. Coming soon - ELECTRICAL :)
Stay tuned...

Here are some pictures taken from the new property we are purchasing...

Back side of the cabin:


View of the brook from the new property:

Who Needs Marshmallows?... & Welcome Clever Cat!!!

Hello Blog Cabin Fans!!! I would like to make a very IMPORTANT announcement! This past weekend P and I had a very special visit from a VIP Blog Cabin fan! It was just like when Scooby Doo started featuring special guest stars like Tim Conway & Phyllis Diller - only this was Blog Cabin style...
AHEM...
Ladies and gentlemen, today's Blog Cabin Blog features special guest star - THE CLEVER CAT!...and for the few of you who aren't familiar with the Cat herself, you can check out her blog at: http://theclevercat.blogspot.com/ ...if you visit soon, you can check out her latest post all about her amazing visit to yep, you guessed it - THE BLOG CABIN! If you mention her Blog Cabin visit, she will mail you a tasty homemade cider donut just like the one she enjoyed at the Blog Cabin this past weekend! Ok that was a Blog Cabin white lie - there will be no donut, but nonetheless, visit her blog and become a fan - you won't regret it! Here are some Clever Cat highlights from her blog cabin adventure:

Fun with chips and fire...



When asked what her favorite Blog Cabin moments were, the Clever Cat replied, "tending the fire because I felt like I was contributing...even though I almost let it go out once and I had to have J rescue it." :)

Other Clever Cat favorites were falling asleep to the sounds of the brook, cider donuts and taking detailed notes & tips on construction from Our Wayne:



Overall our Blog Cabin VIP guest visit was a 10 out of 10! Here are some other pics from our weekend!

Buddy in awe of The Clever Cat!



The Clever Cat by the babbling brook...



The babbling brook without the Clever Cat...



The 3rd portion of the foundation THAT IS NOW COMPLETE!!!...



Me eating Chips...AGAIN!!



A lady with some funny pants!



3 of the 17 frogs we rescued from the giant hole we dug - no frogs were harmed in the making of the Blog Cabin!



The Clever Cat tending a MEAN fire!



...and P's poor little hand that I smashed with a shovel :( Sorry P!



And that wraps up our weekend!

See you soon for more BLOG CABIN ADVENTURE!!!!

-J

A Very Productive Weekend...

Happy Labor Day Blog Cabin Fans! P and I had a very productive weekend! Our Wayne really cracked the whip on us this weekend and our muscles are still super sore -ouchie! We completed multiple projects - check us out...
We went from this...

To this...

And then we dug out the other side of the cabin to prep it for the footings we are planning to pour this coming weekend!

We also put up our bathroom wall and door...

We built the platform for our hearth and placed our stove...

Then we hung up some Christmas lights in the loft to make it more festive :)


And then once everything was complete, we gave Our Wayne a camp chair and a bag of overstuffed Campfire marshmallows for some Blog Cabin R & R :)


Stay tuned :)

Just a Pic Post : )

Here it a picture from the top of our stairs looking down. You have to use some imagination and envision them with nice solid oak treads - Ooooooo. Hey...I just noticed that my tobies and pajammer bottoms got in the shot! hahaa lol
-J

Take 2! Cabin Video

My apologies Blog Cabin Fans! This video uploading isn't easy! I decided to take a quick video so that you can take a virtual tour of the place, but for some reason my first attampt was a bust and my second attempt is only allowing me to upload half my video :( Boooooooo! Well...at least half of it is working...maybe one day I can figure out how to upload the full file and it will give us all something to look forward to :) Please excuse the following in the video: 1. The large pile of tools that we have accumulated in our "soon to be" kitchen area - it is still a construction zone after all :) , 2. the lack of bathroom wall that is still on the list of "things to build" - the curtain works ok for now, but a wall with a door is coming soon to a theater near you :),3. the camera shake - as soon as I started filming the "low battery" icon began flashing red so I kinda' rushed through it a bit. Oh Yeah...also take notice of our new shower stall complete with hot water and our new spiral stairs! The stair treads are temporary, but we are planning on making them oak! Enjoy and I will cross my fingers that you don't get too motion sick ;)

Another Footing Down!

Yesterday, despite the weather, we were able to start and finish the footing for the entire right side of the Blog Cabin! Here is a refresher course just in case anyone forgot… it has been a while since we did foundation work: “The bottom part of a foundation is called a footing (or footer). The footing is generally wider than the foundation wall and is located about 12 inches below the frost line (the average depth at which soil freezes year after year). The footing distributes the house’s weight to prevent settling or movement.” For New England, the frost line is 4 feet down from ground level and the footing needs to extend 4 inches past the cinder block on either side. So, without going into detail, P and I had to dig one, giant a$$ ditch in the ground ;) We have been working on the one giant a$$ ditch for a couple of weekends now and it was completed this past Saturday! Hooray for us! 8 O’clock Sunday morning, P and I woke up ready to work! Our Wayne met us with coffee and shovel in hand. The three of us were all geared up to start mixing cement and all of a sudden,…it started to pour. We were like "WHAT??? - it hasn't rained in like a year and it has to start now???" :( We waited inside the Blog Cabin for a while, played a couple of games of checkers - I won of course ;)ate some snacks and then, when we realized the rain was not going to stop, we all agreed to suck it up, get soaked and git er’ done! We braved the weather, shoveled the gravel, mixed the cement, carried it over to the giant a$$ ditch 5 gallon bucket by bucket, dealt with the mud, soaked our clothes completely through and in 2.5 hours and about 40 buckets later we had completed the footing! YEAH! Now we can start stackin’ the cinder block! Once we complete that side only two more sides to go and the entire foundation will be complete! Hip Hip Hooray!

Here are some more pictures!



-J

Help Us Pick Out Our Siding!

This past weekend we began wrapping the outside of the Blog Cabin with Tyvek. “Tyvek” or house wrap is a material that is made out of polyethylene fibers, it is very thin, strong and it creates a water barrier. Once we wrap the entire Blog Cabin in it, we can then choose our siding and shutters to finish the outside of the Blog Cabin! P and I are having some trouble agreeing on what kind of siding we want and what color. We know we want a country cottage look and we want low maintenance so an imitation or vinyl siding is necessary. We have to choose a style such as barn board, cedar shingles, clapboard etc. Once we chose the style, we have to choose a color, a trim color, a shutter color and a color for our front door. Any suggestions Blog Cabin fans?

Here are some examples...