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Although it seems like it’s taking forever, we are making progress on the cabin.  We are almost done siding it.  We just have a little bit more to do on the front and then we’ll have completed the siding.  We still need to put cedar on the peak over the deck and finish up a little bit more Hardiplank siding to the right of the sliding door, but that’s it.  I don’t think that will take more than a couple hours once we get back to it.  Unfortunately, we ran out of materials last time so we couldn’t finish it.  After the siding, we’ll be wrapping up a bit more plumbing and will call for an inspection on that.  Wiring is about 50% completed and we are going to pay someone to come out and install a furnace.  We’d love to install the heat pump right away too, but I think we’ll be waiting on that until later.  (We’ll have it ready for a heat pump, but won’t get that done right away).  Katie, Emma and I went up to the cabin on Saturday and spent the day with Judy, Scott and all the kids.  Emma always has such a great time playing with her cousins so it was nice to get them all together.  Mom, Katie, Emma and I spent the night Saturday night and then we came home on Sunday afternoon while Aunt Jean came up and spent the night on Sunday with Mom.  As you can see by the picture, it was kind of cold out there.  There was about an inch of snow that fell Saturday morning, although it melted pretty quickly once the rain started really coming down.

A few of us drove over to Dave and Cathy’s new place.  It’s on the other side of the lake and is a really nice lakefront lot.  Their property is almost level with the lake and there is a nice bit of grass and a nice dock.  They just purchased it and are putting in new carpet and repainting the inside.  Apparently they don’t like a nice soft pink on the walls….. :) Anyway, the place looks great and I can tell they are really excited to have gotten it.  We hope to drive over there every now and then to visit.

The time between blog posts seems to have grown a bit.  Life has been pretty hectic around here.  Work is fairly intense these days and there have been so many things to do around the house, cabin etc that we just barely get settled each night and it’s already time for bed.  (We do have a bit of a reputation for going to bed kind of early).

Anyway, Katie is enjoying her job and Emma is doing well in school.  I think we are just about out of the cold and flu season, at least we hope we are.  It’s been a real eye opener for us to see how many colds and viruses float around in the daycare environment.  Emma’s doctor calls daycare a petri dish.  Besides all the colds, Emma has been getting a lot from daycare.  She seems to be doing well playing with the other kids and we are hoping that she is learning to be a bit more assertive.

We continue to make progress on our cabin.  The cabin is just about completely sided.  We just have a little bit more to do on the front and then that will be complete.  Plumbing is about 80% complete and we’ll be shooting to get a plumbing inspection in March.  Wiring is about 60% complete.  We have gotten one bid so far for a furnace.  We are leaning towards putting a furnace in so that we can eventually add a heat pump, but that’s still a bit up in the air.

We are all doing a little better each day after dad’s passing away.  Some days are harder than others and I know mom has had some tough days.  I am working hard to get construction started on her house so that she can get back in there, but even the best case scenario puts the completion 4-5 months away.  The good news is that the house will be freshly painted inside and out and have new carpeting, a new roof, updated bathrooms and a brand new garage and shop.  Dad would have been in heaven with a brand new shop like that.  It is looking like mom will probably move back in there, although the details aren’t all worked out yet.

Well, I can’t exactly say that things are going back to normal around here, but I can say we are slowly moving forward.  Some days are rougher than others and I’m sure that many of the days are far rougher for mom.  She is at Jessica’s and we expect that she will be for at least a few months.  Many different options are being considered for what to do once the house is fixed up.

And speaking of mom’s house.  We are slowly working through that as well.  I’ve been meeting with contractors and the insurance company to get estimates for repairs etc.  It would be nice if they could magically just hand you a bid, but those bids actually take a fair amount of work.  Then, once I receive a bid, I have to review it for gaps.  As an example, the first bids we received were missing the furnace for the shop, most of the electrical work, the glass doors that dad had in his shop, the drop ceiling, and on and on.  This isn’t a huge deal because all of it would have to be addressed once construction started but I’d rather have as much as possible covered in the original bids.

There are some items that we probably won’t have rebuilt.  For example, the glass doors in the shop, while kind of neat, aren’t really all that practical and that money could be better spent on an upgrade in the house. (commercial electric glass doors aren’t cheap to replace)  The insurance company pays the amount of money that is required to put the house back to it’s original shape.  They don’t care how you use the money.  We could take the check for repairs and just keep it and sell the house in it’s current condition.  If we were to do that, the insurance company would actually be at less risk because they wouldn’t have to worry about additional damage that is discovered during demolition.  Obviously we aren’t going to do that.  We plan on awarding the job to a contractor in the next week or so and then we should start to see progress.