1st Week Update

I'm pasting in my dad's email update from the first week of work up at the cabin:

The cabin is back under construction!
We will have our four-way inspection on Tuesday of this week.
The good news is that the decking was installed on the loft level last week, and framing for a stream side window in the upstairs bedroom, plus some other tune-up stuff to get ready for the inspection got done.
The disappointing news is that the decking was installed upside-down. The beveled edges are facing up and the flat side that we wanted for the floor of the loft is facing down.
There are several possible solutions to this problem:
1- Have the floor torn up and replaced. The downside of this is that since the floor was glued and nailed down the floor boards it would be wasted, and we would need to have Jack Sargent mill more. This would cost several weeks time. Still it is not out of the question to do this, and the cost of the "re-do" should be on Casey and Bob.
2- Instead of having an exposed wood floor in the loft, we could do wall to wall carpet. Down side of this is that the wood is really nice, and it is hard to keep wall to wall carpet clean. (We need to decide about all of the floor coverings ASAP. Current thinking is to have a hard surface floor everywhere except the bedrooms, and do wall to wall carpet in them. Slate is one choice, which is inexpensive if we could lay it ourselves. Hard-wood is more expensive, and higher maintenance. Slate in the kitchen-dining, baths, and living rooms, and hardwood in the downstairs bedrooms, and up the stairs, with carpet or hardwood in the upstairs bedroom is another option. All other suggestions are welcome. Lisa mentioned a thin finished concrete floor as a possibility.)
3- Sand the wood loft floor to smooth out the joints, and do a thick urethane finish that mostly fills in the beveled seams, then do a large area rug over the top. (If we do hard surfaces downstairs, we will need area rugs there too. These rugs could be either substantial oriental style, or cheaper ones that we replace every 2-3 years.)


Our next planned events at the cabin are 9 AM Saturday morning June 14, to prep and paint the wood of the loft, and mantle.

Father's Day, Sunday June 15 1-6 (or so) PM a BBQ and scattering of Gram and Gramp's ashes. We bought a 12 foot Blue Spruce that will be planted at the cabin before Sunday. This tree will be the first of our landscape and re-planting of the grove, and it is gram and Gramp's memorial tree, where we will scatter their ashes.

These will be good opportunities to discuss our plans for completion of the cabin through this summer.

Owen and Lisa are planning to hold a BBQ Pre-Wedding Party at the Cabin on August 15, which gives us a good target to shoot at to at least get the basics done.

A Grand Open(Cabin)House Party over Labor Day would be another target date. It would be a great opportunity to invite the sub contractors and all those who participated in the project to celebrate it's completion.