light up the night

This is really just a photo post showing you the before and after of our outdoor lighting. We bought a Portfolio brand lighting kit from Lowe’s about six months ago and have been dragging our feet to put it in because we thought it was going to be a lot of work. We couldn’t have been more wrong!

The kit came with a 200 watt transformer (not pictured in the link because I can’t find it) and four spotlights. We added about ten pathway lights and are thrilled with the results! The wiring is very easy – just press the wire into the light base and two copper pins make the connections for you. Since Janeé is an electrical whiz, she was also able to splice some additional wire in to give us more coverage. The transformer box has a light-sensing eye so it turns on automatically at dusk. Easy!

 

day and night view of lights from the parking area

Day and night shot of the outdoor lights from the fire pit area

Reinforcing and lifting the cabin

The cabin was built in the 1960’s with undersized beams and joists.  Overtime, this of course causes problems.  If I was more diligent with my blog I would have provided a much better story – we’ll just sum it at this:  The cabin was sagging and one of the piers had sunk several inches.  T.L. Davenport Builders (my heroes) lifted the cabin and reinforced structure.  The result is an unleveled sliding door inside and much more sturdy cabin!

The new wall was “untied” from the roof prior to lifting the cabin.

The left main beam was brought as close to level as possible and reinforced on each side.

New supports

The cabin was raising nearly four inches on this pier. The supporting girders were also replaced.

NEW DECK!! NEW DECK!! We have a new deck!!

Is was exciting to finally see the stone fireplace!

Sorry for all the yelling but we’re pretty darn excited.  With the help of T.L. Davenport Builders, the cabin is sporting a brand spanking I can’t believe how pretty, safe, and sturdy deck!

Those who were willing to brave the cabin the past 12 months knew the deck rules – no more than three people at one time and don’t stand on the bright orange x’s.

A few things we learned during the process:

• It’s cold in April when you’re laying on the ground
• It’s awfully nice to sit in a chair and watch someone else do the work
• T.L. Davenport Builders are AWESOME
• Removing the deck roof completely changed the view from inside the cabin
• Get a permit
• Friends come more often and stay longer when your deck is nice

Still to come:

• Finishing the railing
• Installing the portage zip line to the stream

BEFORE

AFTER

Demolition

Demolition

Railing down and view is still beautiful

Demolition

I think it takes two men to put a nail like this in

Is was exciting to finally see the stone fireplace!

Shout out to Delta Lumber for braving the trail!

Stage I

Stage I of the deck build

Starting stage II of the deck build

From below – check out the awesome new water tank

Making progress!

The new deck crowd.

Admit it – you thought, “Hey, that’s pretty neat.”

Ahhhh….

Water tank upgrade

The cabin water makes its way to a 55 gallon blue storage tank via gravity from a spring-fed cistern at an average rate of 100 gallons/hour.  The lopsided tank was insulated with a large piece of carpeting and covered by some fancy blue styrofoam.

With easier access under the structure during deck demolition, we took the opportunity to get tanked.

A quick trip to Tractor Supply for a 135 gallon leg tank I’d had my eye on for the past six months and I was ready to roll.

After some excavation, I set up a sturdy foundation for the tank to rest on.  There is nearly one foot of gravel under each of the timber steps.

Everyone got dirty, even Toby then yellow lab!

The new tank has a rather ugly overflow pipe that will thankfully be hidden by the new deck.  We are looking forward to building a water feature for the overflow to play on.

Existing water tank

Gettin’ dirty

 

Tank foundation

 

Just how much is four tons of gravel?

We’ve done a ton to the cabin this spring, and we owe you a few back posts to tell you about the new deck and the foundation repair project. This morning, we had four tons of gravel delivered to make our parking space easier to navigate. (The muddy hill arrangement was getting just a bit tiresome.)

After a phone consultation with Leroy, we got A2 stones from The Mill in Whiteford, MD for just under $20/ton plus a small delivery fee. I wasn’t sure how much volume four tons of rock would be, and it firms out it wasn’t quite as much as I thought. The delivery filled our 20 x 8′ parking space pretty nicely with a few bucketfuls left for muddy ruts in the road. Definitely not enough for the fire pit that we thought we might also get out of this delivery.

Here’s the stone selection at The Mill:

After all the work of raking and shoveling was done, Stanley celebrated with an iced Irish coffee.