A New Bulkhead . . .

Our long awaited bulkhead repair got started this past weekend!! Yippeee!! It took 2 months of waiting for a permit and 1 month of lining up a scheduling window with our contractor. Since our neighbor was not too keen on letting us onto his property, the contractor drove his excavator from the south beach access point all the way to our property (in the middle of the beach). It made for quite the show. We also had quite the log jam . . . hee hee . . . on our side yard for the last few days.




The girls were instantly mesmerized by the whole process, I mean it was a huge excavator digging out logs and man size rocks!! The event also became a community affair with at least 4 neighbors asking our contractors about their bulkhead needs.

We also managed to unearth 2 long garden hoses in the process . . . anybody want to play "where are the hoses in the pictures"? All in all, a very expensive beach item, but necessary. Major kudos goes to Gary for managing the "not so warm and fuzzy" communication between our neighbor and our contractor. Its been quite an adventure.

Keep your fingers crossed though that when they are done, our deck will still be level!!!!

Camping Out in Fairwinds . . .

Someday, down the road, the girls will wonder, "What was it like camping out in our beach cabin?" Well girls, here is a little tour of cabin camping summer of 2011.

The girls had no beds, so they managed to move around A LOT. We often found them in odd, strange places . . . generally near walls.

The living room decor was quite "rustic". All through the summer, each piece of furniture moved to every room in the cabin for various uses. However, at the end of each weekend, the furniture was ALWAYs returned to the "potential" layout.

The "kitchen" consisted of 2 coolers, a much needed electric grill, and a coffee maker that really only brewed hot water. All utensils and plates were stored in a "grocery bag".

The view from the sink is still fabulous and I have figured out that if you brew hot water and then add some left over to the cold dish water, you actually might get a decent temperature for greasy dishes. I also would recommend my reheat waffles and pancakes method, makes mornings so much easier.

This week I am tackling the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers. Its been a BIG learning process, but I think the results will be amazing!!!

Construction Update . . .

Warning here comes the typical house renovation diatribe . . . in every project there comes a time when, one or both individuals, becomes fed up with the delays and the oopsy events that are a normal part of renovation. We hit that about 3 weeks ago!! Maybe it was the whole contractor-money tango or the fact that summer is quickly fading that spurred the "holy moly, why are we doing this?" Luckily, there are 2 of us and eventually we were able to talk ourselves back to reality . . .

Or maybe the view helped us back?

Anyways, the siding is almost 100% complete, the windows are all installed, and the house is only awaiting trim and painting. A few of the more noteworthy "oopsy events" were:

(1) Our contractor accidentally cut off the outside grounding wire.

(2) The nails used around the windows and doors have already started to rust - so "countersink and caulk" came to the rescue.

(3) The downstairs door fell off - meaning, it literally fell off!!

(4) The contractor forgot to make a kitchen vent in the siding - this did turn into a blessing

(5) When going to paint the outside doors, after much prep work, we found the paint had gone bad

Despite all of these setbacks, we are still "Thumbs up" right now about buttoning the place up before fall hits.

Looking way better Fairwinds! In fact, I think the neighbors are even more excited than we are! Still to come garage prep work 101.