Craigslist mission today. Put 2 dogs in the truck (we are dogsitting) and headed north about 2 hours to just shy of the Canadian border. And there we scooted this beauty from one pickup to the other, left an envelope of cash with the wife of the seller (he just had to go ice fishing), and drove south again.
Stove, sink, fridge.
Kitchen: complete. After we fix ‘er up.
K thinks it’s hilarious that every time we arrive at the cabin to work, I exclaim “Mice-out!!!”, so this week has been about everything-OUT!
First, we yanked out a lot of the old wiring. We knew when we bought it that this was a start-over kind of electrical system, so K has spent all week re-wiring while I have gone around with my new fabulous wire cutters and staple-pullers and de-wired. Fingers crossed, we will have lights in the next week or so (just need the electric company to sign off and then plug us back in!)
Then, back to trash duty. Making big progress here (it seems, but then again, we have a lot to still remove). There was the rowboat, which we posted on Freecycle, thinking it would make nice yard art for someone. Someone thought so too, and was going to use it to plant a garden in. So we picked it up to load for her, and it tore right in half.
Two halves of a boat. Not seaworthy.
Ah, well. We loaded it, some mattresses, a toilet from the woods (eew), and some horrifying old plywood and drywall up and went to the dump. Fortunately, we made $42 returning scrap wiring, so even after the dump fee, we were up $8 for the week! Most of “the pile” is now gone! It’s just small stuff that can fit in trash cans. Looking forward to a clear yard for spring!
By the way, after loading all that trash, a big fat mouse ran down a trunk of the lilac from the roof right in front of me! Geez. At least he was outdoors.
Lots of photos today, because we did some real work! It is finally warm enough to do something besides schlep garbage around. Tuesday I had the day off and took the dog to camp. Our mission: begin reglazing broken and missing windows on the back side of the cabin, so we could get all the plywood off the back of the house.
Before: bathroom non-windows
Before: boarded-up shack
I unscrewed the first piece of plywood, and was thrilled to find that the two hinge pins slid right out, depositing a lovely sash in my hands. We measured up the other, completely missing window and took of for the glass shop down the road.
Then I got a cold. And it got windy and cold again. Finally felt better yesterday so all three of us went out to reglaze the back of the house. Thankfully the wind had not blown out the combination of old cutting board-tupperware lid-wood block I had jammed in the windowsill. Because the previous folks couldn’t even board up a window properly – the plywood was about 2″ short to cover the opening! And voila! Windows!
Bye bye, plywood!
An open window!
The second window sash in the bathroom was totally missing. So we did a quick fix until we figure out the long term plan: cut a piece of plexi and pop it in the opening with some wood trim to hold it in place. Does the job.
Blinding sunlight. Nice to see the bathroom. But ugh, a lot of work to do!
Who would cover up that view?
…or this view?
View from the front is pretty good too.
One the other end of the house, two gigantic pieces of plywood were covering up…one tiny break in one pane?!?! Who goes to the trouble of boarding that all up? Why not just toss some duct tape over the hole, as the laziest possible fix? Can’t believe that hauling plywood, deck screws, and a drill was somehow seen as easier than just slapping a band-aid on it. We called the glass guy from the porch and picked up a new pane on the way back to town. Later today, we’ll install it and we officially have a cabin that is NOT a boarded-up shack!
The other boarded up window, released! (With many cobwebs)
When we bought the camp, security was poor. We couldn’t open the back door because it was padlocked and we didn’t have the key. (Bolt cutters and a new padlock solved that one). The front door was another story – the knob didn’t catch, jamb was all cracked and torn out, a rim lock didn’t work, and a deadbolt was hanging on by a thread. Actually, it was hanging on by latching into a piece of masonite beadboard – 1/4″ thick – that had been bashed through to allow the bolt to catch, and slapped onto the jamb with a couple of roofing nails. So that when you ‘locked’ the door, it still was like 1″ open. Lovely.
We got a nice used set of excellent (though brass color – not a favorite) deadbolts, latches, and knobs in an auction – all keyed the same – so we finally cut out and replaced part of the jamb and fit in a new proper deadbolt today. Of course, we forgot our cordless drill and several other tools at home, so it was a bit of a primitive-style fix. But it worked. It was kind of amazing to see the door shut all the way! Now we’re ready to do some real work – our vacation time is coming up, and we are getting ready to work toward electrification, now that we can lock the place.
Not quite before – we had already removed the awful masonite “catch”.
Helper/hindrance. Briefly entertained with a birch branch.
After (for now – it will eventually all be replaced).
After – new deadbolt! That’s solid, baby.
Restoring a rugged Maine cabin 