The Joys of Home Ownership Part 4 - Restoration

When last we talked, I reported that the structural repairs to our family cottage Wiser Times were complete and that we were heading to the last phase of this marathon - building the deck. I wasn't totally correct about that. What I should have said was that repairs were nearly complete, and that we were close to getting a deck built. And that most of our issues had been resolved.

I forgot for a moment that most things in life that involve tools and contractors and improvement are never really done. They just get further down the path of nearly and close and most. And only stop when it's time to move on to the next thing. So it was with this 3x project (with x being our original cost estimate). Accordingly, this post will bring us to when we stopped on our deck project.

While I covered events in previous posts mostly in time-sequence order, I won't try to do that here. As multi-faceted projects near completion, I've found that the various components (in this case deck reconstruction, wall repair, floor repair, new window installation, etc.) tend to get attention simultaneously. This is because they all touch and affect each other in some way. Accordingly, our builder Dave sort of spread his efforts around during this final phase of the work.

He performed outside work on good weather days. Inside work on rainy days. Tasks like drywall taping and painting were integrated with wall restoration and carpeting, to allow for needed settling and drying times. You get the idea. So I've organized this post by geography, starting with our old friend the sun porch bedroom.

To refresh your memory, here is a shot of the sun porch bedroom after structural work but before restoration.

Here we have the wall restored and the windows trimmed.

The carpet being measured and prepped.

And fully installed. Note the inspector patrolling in the second shot.

And finally, the furniture returned. And in some areas upgraded. Note the new zebra blinds over the bed.

The fully restored luggage and storage area.

And the deck walkout with lake view. Very popular with our regular guests.

The sun porch bedroom back in operation, let's move on to the bay window. Again, here are a couple of shots after reconstruction before restoration. Yes, there's another inspector shown in the second shot. It seems they are everywhere. Even from out of town.

Here are the more attractive shots with the window trim and painting complete and the new laminate installed in the window seat.

From here we move to the exterior of our little piece of paradise. Starting with the eave and roof repair. First a little history about our roof.

About 10 years ago there was a tremendous wind and hail storm in the Greenbush area. It caused damage to a lot of shingle roofs including ours. But, because of a fast-talking and enterprising roofing company, we were able to get our roof replaced with no out-of-pocket expenses.

In retrospect, we unwittingly may have been co-conspirators in an insurance scam (this was before we had discovered our builder Dave). The insurance inspector did verify the roof contractor's assessment of our damage. I noticed then that the contractor and the inspector sort of had a family resemblance. Cousins maybe. But before my suspicions had a chance to mature the contractor offered to forego our deductible. We jumped on the deal.

Shockingly, we've had roof issues since. The most concerning one was a leak that seemed to be coming through the eave above the area of our large doorwall to the deck. So we had the original roofer send out a team to try to fix it. They dutifully removed the shingles from that part of the roof, found some bad wood (water damaged), replaced it, and replaced the shingles.

Unfortunately, we subsequently learned that the repair attempted by the old roofing company didn't quite do the trick. On hard rain days we've detected a bit of dripping just above the doorwall. So we have another adventure upcoming on that front. Watch for it sometime this summer.

Possible roof issues notwithstanding, we moved forward with the exterior restoration. As a tune up Dave completed most of the siding for the south wall.

 

His tool box warmed up, Dave was finally able to give form to the new deck. If you recall from the last post, the foundation of this new fun space was several large beams set in concrete footings.

Then came the joists. Many. As well as a few posts that would eventually morph into bench and railing supports.

Then the deck floor. We opted for cedar for the exposed portions of the deck, treated lumber for the infrastructure.

From here it went fairly smoothly and quickly. Dave finished the siding, the eaves, some electrical work (new outlets and spotlights), front steps and built-in benches at both ends. Here's a shot of me adding the final touch - our treasured cottage sign crafted for us by one of our Tennessee relations.

And the finished product, decked out with - well - deck furnishings. Here's the shutter table area with it's new bench and railing

The north end bench, known as the "wet suit" area.

The new glass table and chairs, and Grandma LeRoy's refurbed glider (an "heirloom" imported from the former family cottage in Ontario, and re-birthed one more time for a new job).

And put it all together. Note the two levels, each end of the deck now matching the level of its respective entrance from the house. A major safety improvement from the old deck which had a step down to navigate at the family room entrance, a frequent hazard during extended happy hours.

Well there you have it. Only took four posts to get this baby built (and 3x's if you recall my earlier reference). But it was all worth it. Looking forward to sharing this comfortable new space with family and friends for many years to come (we'll see how that goes, I mutter from my virus bunker).

Hope everyone is keeping safe. We retirees especially - we need to live to loaf another day.

Grosse Pointe Charles