First up is the deck repair that needed to be done after the storm came through and bounced a pine tree off it.
That's the Culprit Tree in the background.... Grrrrrrr!
It is more than fair to say that Daniel did the lion's share of the work on this. But, I want to point out, only after I had helped with the measurements for the spacing of the vertical railings. He may be a very smart engineer, and he may have grown up with stupid feet and inches (metric is so much more user-friendly), but it was YOURS TRULY who helped him figure it out. I must say, though, that I was very surprised I managed it! I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to the whole maths thing.
Looks good, doesn't it? It still needs some little feet under the bottom rail to stop it from sagging, but all in all I'd say it was a job well done.
And here's the nifty bit. We had heard from our neighbours that the previous owners had issues with snowfall in the winter being heavy enough to wipe out the railings. Huh, we wondered, how can we take care of that?
Here's how we'll take care of that:
Good old bolts and wing nuts. We'll be able to remove each section of railing before the snow gets too bad (probably just before we come home for our visit), and store them under the cabin for winter. Pretty good solution, I think. Now we just have to replace another four or five sections.
Lest you think I was sitting on my bum while all this was happening, I'd like to mention that I was clearing brush. With nothing more than secateurs and a shovel. I managed to get from this:
To this, while Daniel was working on the deck:
I think it had actually all been cleared at one time. There are carefully placed rocks about the edges, and it's reasonably level. I managed to cut enough brush to fill the trailer, which Daniel took to the town dump on one of our visits.
That pile of wood resulted from Daniel's chainsaw revenge against the Culprit Tree:
I also cleared up the after-storm debris, and I found some very amazing fungus while I was at it:
Next up was the side railing of the deck, which had been split from the impact of the tree. I'm not sure it was occupational safety approved, but here's how Daniel kept it jacked up while he was working:
And so... next up was the eaves painting. We would rather not have to find yet another insurance company, so we got to work on covering the bare eaves with paint.
This is what we started with:
And this is what we thought we would do:
But given that it would need two coats (on top of the undercoat), and that it would mean a considerable amount of Daniel's time spent painting (at heights that I'm too terrified to deal with):
We opted for this:
It looks pretty good, given what we had to work with, and it only needed one coat. But what a bugger of a job. That paint had better last until I'm in my grave, is all I can say!
I'll use the red paint to redo the screen doors. Hopefully it will make it look like a cheerful, welcoming cabin. Hopefully it will keep the insurance company happy, too. There are still three sides to go, but that will have to wait until next time.
Or maybe the time after. Daniel's Dad is coming for a visit over this weekend, so although we'll be at the cabin, I think I can guarantee no repairs or maintenance will be done.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, that's a hummingbird feeder hanging there. You fill it with a sugar solution, and all things being equal you'll have wee winged visitors. They're actually pretty grumpy, territorial things hummingbirds, but they're amazing, too. The first time I saw one, I honestly thought I was looking at an insect. I still can't quite believe they're actual whole birds.
So we've made some progress. And I think we're pretty close to finding a name for the place, too. I'll let you know when we've got it sorted.
