Putting us to work!

So far all the heavy labor at the lake has been primarily our builder and sub-contractors but yesterday Dan and I had to do some heavy lifting! We are acting as the general contractors and so have the responsibility of keeping the site clean so the subs can do their work. Up until now we've taken bags of garbage home each weekend, but that was about it. The landscaping is going to be done this week so yesterday our job was the clear out the logs from all the trees that were cut down and move them to an area where they were out of the way. We also cleaned up all the scrap wood around the site and started burning it in our fire pit. It was a warm day and it took us quite a few hours to clean everything up. It is amazing how tiring heavy labor can be! I get out and run for exercise as often as I can but I don't do a lot of lifting and those trees were pretty heavy. We both felt a sense of accomplishment though afterwards and are glad we are participating in the building process!

Last weekend I didn't expand on my day of little accidents, but now that Dan had a day just like it yesterday I thought I would explain. So, last Saturday when Roger and Monica were out with us to celebrate birthdays I slipped off my sandal and one of the bushes that we had cut down a few weekends ago still had a 2 inch piece sticking out of the ground and I cut my foot on it. It was rather sore all day, and especially in the water. Then we started putting together the hammock and I tried it out first, and as you could probably guess it fell and so did I. It would have been ok except a big rock was right there and I smacked the back of my head on it when I fell! We did get the hammock up properly which was good so I could rest my head :) On the way home we had gathered some garbage to bring home and stopped for a restroom break and Dan wanted to throw some of it away while we were there. It was in the backseat with me so I moved, Dan grabbed it and turned to shut the door...... on my toes! That night I was laying in bed with a sore foot, head and a blood blister on my toe :)

This weekend was Dan's turn! We were taking some of the 6 foot logs and carrying them over by the fire pit and when setting them down, Dan apparently set them on top of a wasps nest!! About 10 wasps found their intruder immediately and attached themselves to Dan's face and legs. I turned around and he was running all of the yard yelping and I could see the wasps holding on for dear life - they didn't let go! Dan finally got them all off but we counted about 9 stings :( That was definitely worse then all three of my injuries last weekend!

Here are some updated pictures of the cabin. This week they will finish the last dormer, do the retaining wall, wrap the house and possibly shingle. They just need some good weather and it should go really quickly. We also need to pick out the bath tubs and showers so the plumbing rough-in on the main level can happen. We went shopping today for a bit before I was ready to be done, and Dan (who is much more detailed about this stuff) decided to stop at a few more places by himself to do some research. Good job Dan! I would have just picked the first ones we saw at Menard's, but I know you'll find the best ones after all your research.

Our bedroom window all framed and the roof sheeted!The east wall framed and sheeted (The top "box" window is actually an octogan window shape)
Living room window - just needs the dormer framed and its done
Dan is standing on the middle level.. we are having 2 retaining walls - one for the driveway up above and the one he is standing on to get down to the patio level
The roof and east wall is framed!
View from the lake
A view of the wood piles we organized! (they look way bigger in person :)

We'll be out again next Saturday and will provide another update then. Have a good week!