Cabin Maintenance & Repairs

I'm sure you have heard the question "if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"   Well, if a cabin isn't used in 10 months does it still need maintenance?  Trust me, it does and big time.

A tree branch fell on our electric line coming into the cabin a couple months ago and ripped the wiring from the cabin.  Our neighbor Bob noticed it and called the power company to reconnect the line to the cabin.  It used to be they were responsible for the connection to the power meter but that seems to have changed the last couple years.    The repair man made a temporary fix of one screw holding the line to the cabin and that was it.

SIL Jack is great with handling electric work and came up to fix the wiring properly.  He fastened the wire back in place using better screws and did a great job.  Thanks a million Jack, it was a big help.

Gerry has been wanting to paint the cabin for the past 4-5 years and something always comes up to stop us from doing so.  Our dau Barbara & son Larry Jr. sort of volunteered to come to the cabin for 3-4 days of work to help with the painting.  Larry Jr came first and we (mostly Jr.)  caulked around the windows, fixed some loose boards, removed rotted boards, etc.  That part took a lot longer that I expected and he was leaving in a couple days so it was imperative that we start painting the cabin so he could paint the high points.  My knees don't do very well climbing and standing on ladders.

It took 3-4 four trips to Home Depot and Lowes to gather all the paint, brushes, deck wash soap, lumber, etc needed to finish the job.  It cost more for the other materials than it did for the paint.

We had three long days working painting and repairing and it wore Gerry and me to a frazzle.  We both decided we weren't interested in painting houses for a living.   Larry Jr left on Thursday and grandson Grant stayed behind.  We will take Grant home in early August when we go down there for a wedding shower.

I will include some pictures of the finished product later after Barbara comes up and helps finish the job.  Still a lot of trim painting left along with a ceiling to be put on the screened in porch.    She will drive up in her Chevy Avalanche and we can use it to haul the panelings needed for the porch job.

Then we have to start on clearing some dead trees near the cabin along with removing the mountain Laurel near the cabin.  I want to clear back 25ft or so from the cabin in case of a fire up here.  The storage shed also needs painting and sprucing up.

Now you know why we love to be on the road and not have to spend so much time working on the cabin.  Our rounds of routine doctors appointments started on Monday and that will fill up a lot of time.  Hitch itch is starting to set in already.

That was our last couple weeks, how were yours?