Finished for the 2004 season
The Cottage on The Island -- a work in progress
-- built by Jason Avis and Steve Winter with help from
friends
(including Paula Greenlee, Erin Woodsome, Read Rich, and
Don and Avery Meyers )
Many thanks to all.
More help needed next summer if
you are free -- or at least cheap ;-)
(click on any picture to enlarge it -- then use the back button to return)
Finished for the 2004 season
The story and more pictures:
The COTTAGE is on the
Island (web page password = "woodiok7"). Click here
for visitor information. Click here
for pictures of a shed that was built Fall 2003. The cottage
site is 350' from the shore and 80' up. There is only a foot path and no
dock at the island ... everything comes from my house piece by piece ... so
perhaps 60% of the effort is just getting building material to the site. I
bought a "lumber boat" to get stuff to the island:
The Lumber Boat with its diminutive Captain, Sam, at the
rail
(P.S. note the name of the boat ... it is customary in Maine to
name boats after women ... the wise only use the names of mothers and daughters
since wives and girlfiends come and go ;-) but not everyone is wise so
repainting or x-ing out is often necessary).
Read, Jason and Lots of Lumber -- loading up at my house
for the trip to the island
The lumber boat will take 1.5 tons of lumber down river at 40 MPH
(and perhaps 40 gallons per hour).
Thankfully I got some help from friends with the tons!! Also thankfully I
hired Jason, the son of a friend of mine, to help with the construction.
We were a good team and got as much done as we could within the constraints of
weather -- and the month interruption caused by installation of a sewer system
at my house. The building effort was difficult because the site is on top
of a rib of rock that falls off steeply -- so big tall posts were needed and we
were swinging from staging 12' up to get them and the joists in place. In
addition to all the lumber, we carried 60 bags of concrete (80 lbs each -- total
= 4800 lb) to the site to make the footings
But then I think the effort is worthwhile since the site has a 270 degree view
with great sunrises / sunsets and everything in between. Click
here to see the view from the deck only if you have a FAST internet connection
pic= 665 KB.
So for this season we finished the base and the front deck. Next
summer the cottage will hopefully be built -- so if you have some free
time and want to help ...
Footnote: the spruce 2x6 tongue and groove lumber that is used for the floor and sheathing came from Russia. It was cut near Leningrad, milled in Lithuania, shipped to Northern Maine, delivered to me on the coast ... both cheaper and better quality than I could buy at the local lumber yard. The New World economy has some interesting quirks ... (Yes, I know I am now responsible for the cutting of all the old growth forests in Russia ... but it was a deal ...)
Jake wondering if it will collapse
The Russian Spruce floor is on -- Jason approves!
Putting in the Joists -- Jason still enthused
Starting on the base
The high-line that brought most of the materials up (note load
of lumber enroute)
OOPS!
For those of you that focus perhaps too intently on
the job at hand ... take a close look at the wood beam that goes through the 2
pieces of staging a little to the right of center in the picture. And
LEARN from my mistake ... I had to cut the steel staging to get it off from
around the beam ... I wasn't going to cut the beam. All I can say in my
defense was that getting the last beam in was a very difficult move that
required all our concentration ... unfortunately my field of view was too
small -- I was looking only at the ends, not the middle. It is (almost)
unbelievable how blind one can be at times. Sigh..
View from the knob (you can scroll to the right for the full picture):
View from the harbor (you can scroll to the right for the full picture):
