Break On Through to the Other Side!

Just a snippet of why we love living here on Loon Lake. One morning this week Poppy caught this fellow visiting our pier as he watched for fish. The herons are often seen wading along the shoreline fishing and it is fun to watch their crazy actions.

OK, now in tribute to the Doors, today was the time to "Break On Through to the Other Side." We finally moved things out of the walk-in closet in order to break through the back wall into the new addition. This makes the new space more of a reality. Now we have a walk-through closet. We moved the filing cabinet and the hanging rod and shelf from the closet and tore down the back wall. After removing the studs we now have the hallway that will connect the lodge room with the new section. Here you see Poppy resting after all this work. He is sitting on the steps that lead up to the new bedrooms and bath upstairs. If you walk through this closet and turn to the right you would enter the new master bedroom. If you turned to the right, you would have the new half bath.

Here is the opposite view as I stood behind Poppy up on the stairwell landing halfway up. To the left at the bottom of the steps is the doorway into the master bedroom. To the right is just a tiny niche outside the half bath. Once we are complete, this closet will no longer exist, but this area will be a short hallway of sorts leading to this new area.

After a little rest, Poppy took my job and sucked up all the drywall dust and mess from breaking through the wall. Gotta love this guy!

The other accomplishment for today was removing the old window from inside the closet. This window used to be in the bathroom that occupied this space when we purchased the home. Now we will be able to side the front porch area so it matches the green of the new section. That will make us feel very good to complete this area where we spend so much time.

Next on our agenda of priorities is to decide on flooring for the utility room and upstairs bathroom. Then we can get the furnace set in the new utility room and install the door between the garage and utility room, as well as setting the sink and vanity upstairs and getting that bathroom more complete. Stay tuned for future progress!

Where Did the Last Two Weeks Go??

Sorry I have been so absent from Blog land! I can't believe it was already two weeks ago that we were anticipating the arrival of family to fill the two new bedrooms we had prepared. On Friday, June 5, the fifth anniversary for our younger daughter, she arrived with her hubby and the wonderful grand daughters. What fun to show them the new space we built just for them! Of course, it was very crude accommodations for this first visit, but they were just fine with it. That night they took off to celebrate their anniversary and left Elizabeth and Kate with us for the evening. What fun! The next morning was the annual kids' fishing derby here on Loon Lake. Poppy and their daddy took off to register them and came home sporting wonderful fisher-girl hats and containers of worms. To say the least, the interest on the part of the girls was a bit lame. However, Poppy and Mike had fun trying to catch fish out here from the pier.

But, later that afternoon, once Elizabeth had "won" her own special Barbie fishing pole, she was hard at work trying to catch some. Don't you just love the hat??

While big sis tried her hand at fishing, Mom and Katers enjoyed just sitting on the pontoon. Suppose the new babe still in womb will enjoy the lake like the big sisters do already? Baby #3 is due in three months! Of course, Kate had to "practice" her driving skills for when Poppy allowed her to drive on a cruise.

On Sunday Great Grandma Jordan was able to make a trip to the lake to see how the girls had grown. She was thrilled to get to know them better and enjoy our front deck and a burger cookout.

Kate, just two months short of her 2nd birthday loved the lake and being at Grandmommy and Poppy's. She really didn't remember it from last summer but this year will establish many, many traditions and memories. Here she enjoys Poppy's big recliner.
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The past two weeks we have been busy with all the work to finish the new addition, but it all seems like such slow progress. We had water softener problems and got a new one, but we are still having problems. Hopefully this will be cleared up soon. We also had GG in the hospital for four days with a mild stroke, so that took up quite a bit of Grandmommy's time. Between working and caring for GG, it hasn't left much time to just relax, much less help Poppy with much. Hopefully we can get some good productive days and make stuff happen around here soon. At this rate, we may not have a whole lot more done before the fam returns for July 4th! Wish us luck!

Huge Progress When Under Pressure!

WOW! The past few days have been non-stop work all day. But, look at the progress we have made! This is the back bedroom, where our daughter and son-in-law will sleep tomorrow night! It will still be a bit like camping out, as the ceiling is not drywalled yet and they will have a blanket hung as a door, but otherwise we have made great progress with drywalling. The ceilings must wait for drywall jacks and some men to help, as the 12' drywall sheets are just too heavy for Grandmommy to help much. Plus, until we cleared out the piles of drywall in the middle of the rooms, we could not get a drywall jack set up in here. So, this was done a bit unconventionally, but done none the less.

Here you see the hallway, which was taken mid-afternoon. At this point, at 8:30 pm, the entire hallway is drywalled on the left hand side. That closed in the bedroom for the little girls who will sleep there tomorrow night! We have one and a half wall to cover yet between the front bedroom and the bathroom, then that will also be all enclosed. Hope they like their new room at Grandmommy and Poppy's Loon Lake Lodge. They were the reason for all this extra space we built upstairs!

Check out this wonderful shot of Poppy installing the toilet in the upstairs bathroom. It is quite unusual to catch a plumber squatting over like this without seeing the proverbial "plumber's crack!" This portion of the bathroom is also partially "private" with drywall half way up the walls. This will be the only functioning facility in the new bathroom, as sink and tub are not plumbed yet. They will use the old shower and sink in the existing part of the house like they always have. But, with our daughter being 6 months with-child for our 3rd grandbaby, she MUST have a toilet upstairs and close for all those night time potty calls.


You would not be able to take the photo from this angle at this point, as we have drywall along this wall to close off the bath from the stairwell. Tomorrow morning we will hang just a couple more pieces of drywall, then Poppy will tuck all electrical wiring into their boxes so I can put cover plates on and safety plug covers. Then, when the kids arrive tomorrow afternoon, Mike can help Poppy take beds up to set up, a queen, a twin and the crib. Then, Amanda and I can make up the beds and hang some sheets at the windows and doors to complete the look. Hope they all sleep well at the lake this weekend! We can't wait to have them here!