Improving the ugly cupboard - Electrical panel art project - part 3

This last weekend marked the final stage of the Great Electrical Panel Obfuscation Project of 2012 (or GEPOPO 2012).

Before we left the house, I tried to scuff up the front surface of the sign by dragging it face-first down the drive (yes, really). It didn't make much difference though. Curse you, Benjamin Moore and your amazing paint adhesion!

Satisfied that I had tried everything in my arsenal to distress it, I carefully wrapped it up in a tarp, taped it, and even tied it with twine before the captain put it on the roof rack to transport it to the cottage. Not because I wanted to protect it from dings and scrapes, but more because I didn't want to have to wash off a sheen of bug guts when we got there.

Getting it into the boat was fun. It's not exactly tiny, and just moments before I had managed to put out my back, so, ya. Fun.

Crossing to the cottage was even more fun. The winds on the lake were whipping, and the giant panel made an excellent sail. Fun x 2.

Once at the cottage, and with the help of able-bodied Handy Dad and with me spectating from my chair, they set to work removing the pathetic excuse for a cupboard that was making a very poor attempt at hiding the electrical panel.

As expected, it was expertly assembled, with left-over pine tongue-and-groove panelling tacked onto left-over wall panelling (The stuff with the trees printed on it) to form the doors. The outer case was a box made of scrap wood. The triangular hole at the top of the cupboard, created by the too-short wall panelling, was cleverly hidden by a piece of wood that was held in place by the phone wire protruding from the wall.

I am very serious.

This is Handy Dad contemplating the phone wire, which he later coiled up and hid from view within the wall.

With the ugly cabinet down and the hardware removed (3 or 4 types of screw drivers and a pry-bar needed to remove the bits that were hammered in), they added the hinge and fastener hardware to the big sign and hung it up on the wall.

When it's closed, you'd never know there was an electrical panel behind it, and there's no telephone wire poking out into the room anymore, either.

It adds a fun block of colour to a very drab corner, and most importantly, covers up that ugly electrical panel in a much more attractive way.

And it really didn't cost much, so years down the road, when I get sick of it and want something new, I can just haul it down and paint it with something different. Neat!

Here's one more photo taken during the day with my expensive camera and slightly-less-orange lighting (darned cell-phone camera)

I FOUND THE SHEETS!

Remember the Lost Sheets? I found them!

Well, alright, the truth will out. The Captain found them when they were closing up the bunky.

I was starting to think that I had imagined buying them but here they are!

HOORAY! I'M NOT INSANE!

...about sheets, at least.

They had been left in a non-descript black garbage bag in the bunky since they went missing. Probably earlier because I didn't even remember having them at the time they were discovered lost.

Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The lake was angry, the cottage was cold, and I managed to put my back out loading the boat.

Hurrah...

Not the greatest start to a Thanksgiving long weekend that's going to be spent closing up the cottage!

The lake was very rough as we crossed to the island. The winds were 35 km/h from the southwest with gusts up to 48, which is the perfect recipe for white caps and extremely choppy water on the lake. I though the captain was going to swamp us on the approach to the dock when he had to reverse and the waves came crashing over the transom at the back of the boat (as opposed to the transom at the front of the boat? Nicely redundant, miss.)

Excitement!

We also had our first immersion test of our Baja bags (we transport our clothes back and forth in Baja bags to keep everything dry.) when the wee lad let one slip off the dock. Whoops! Fortunately, everything inside stayed reasonably dry. The topmost item had a few wet spots on it, but I don't know how much of that was from the outside of the bag as I opened it, vs actual leakage.

The captain bravely ventured into the poo hole once we unloaded the boat, hoping that, after a month away, it wouldn't be too horrendously disgusting, and he might be able to empty it a bit before the winter. He said "it still wasn't pleasant", but for the first time since we took possession of the damned thing, it was dry in the bottom and the compost was compost-y. Could it be that we've finally, through trial-and-error and no thanks at all to the unsupportive heels at Envirolet, figured out the right setup to make the poo-hole work?!?! *thud* <--- that's me figuratively falling off my chair in shock (if I literally fell off my chair right now, I think I'd be stuck on the floor until the captain returned. "help! I've fallen and I can't get up")

We've managed (through judicious application of baseboard heaters, space heaters, and garlic bread in the oven) to get the uninsulated cottage up to an almost cosy 19 degrees overnight. The temperature outside was 2 degrees, so I was glad for the heaters. You know it's cool inside when the kids camp out in front of the space heater.

We had to tape all around the sliding door to keep the gusts of wind outside from coming inside.

Thus far, my gimpy back remains very painful (twisting, sitting, standing, walking, all yield winces of sharp pain). I have, however, made considerable headway on two crocheted hats. (there's not much else to do when you're confined to a chair all day long). Did I mention my butt was flat? Because it is.

Currently, the wee princess is keeping me company, knitting on the couch while I crochet, while we wait for the lad and the captain to return from the lad's hockey game back in town today.

The lake is quiet, the colours of the leaves are beautiful, and the cottage is peaceful. Today there is a lot to be thankful for. Except for back pain and flat butts. I'm not super thankful for that.

Electrical panel art project, part deux

I was able to eke out some more time this past weekend to work on the new cover for the electrical panel. When last you saw it, it was a plywood panel nailed onto a frame. During the week I filled in the nail holes with wood filler and sanded. And then...

I got the base-coat of white painted on.

Then I added a coat of Piedmont Grey. If you're keen, you'll recall that's the same colour we've been using on the cabinets around the cottage.

What's that!? AUGH! the wood panelling bubbled from the moisture in the paint! It's ok, right? It's supposed to look distressed and worn, right!?

In hindsight, I probably could've skipped this coat, because it doesn't show much through the top layer of paint, which is...

... Polar Jade. This is the darkest colour in the striped fabric in the living room, and also the colour of the piping I put around the pillows that I made not too long ago.

After meticulously painting the final coat on and letting it dry, I grabbed a coarse-grit sandpaper and scuffed the heck out of it. That pained me. Kind of a lot.

I'm not super happy with the distressing either. I doesn't look as "worn" as the inspiration panel. I think I need to beat it up more. Maybe drag it face-down along the driveway?

I noticed something else at this point. Does this not remind you of a "green" chalkboard from school? That was not the look I was going for!!!! *bites nails* Too late to turn back now.

I broke out my handy-dandy enlarger projector and traced the small image I wanted onto the panel.

And then I started to fill it in with white paint. this photo is after the first coat of white on the letters.

It's taking me a bit longer than I had expected to build this, but the price is right. As a ballpark effort estimate, I figure I've spent:

1-hr putting together the frame and panel
30 minutes on each coat of paint (1.5 hr)
30 minutes - maybe less - to trace the words
30 minutes on each pass of the letters  with white paint (2 so far).

Total effort: About 4 hours, but it's been a work in progress for nearly two weeks as I wait for paint to dry, etc.

I'll post another shot when we get it mounted so you can see how it looks in situ.

---

*disclaimer: I would like to add that I had no intention of completely duplicating the inspiration panel. I had spent several hours in photo shop fiddling with various fonts, but at the end of the day, I just love that dang cursive font so much I HAD to use it. Don't do what i do.

Hallowe'en wreath

This one has nothing to do with the cottage, but it's a build/project that the princess and I undertook after a little binge at Michael's so I figured I'd share.

I went in to the store because white satin ribbon was 50% off (needed for dance skirts) and came out with all the fixin's for a Hallowe'en wreath. *face palm*. At least I remembered to buy the white satin ribbon. All of the supplies were on sale, so I justify my actions that way.

I think we spent $14 altogether on supplies (include tax).

Here is the wreath that the wee princess and I slapped together on Sunday afternoon with a hot-melt glue gun.















It used:

• a grapevine wreath ($2.99)
• 4 sparkly sprays (2 black, 2 orange) ($1.18 ea)
• 1.5" black sheer ribbon ($2.99)
• A glitter skull ($1.18)
• A glitter jack-o-lantern ($1.74)
• Styrofoam eyeballs ($.85 for 4).

The eyeballs were actually 4 in a package, but since we only used three, I've been leaving the fourth one in various spots around the house to surprise people.

SURPRISE!

Electrical panel art project

Howdy readers! (or mom, since she's probably the only one still reading [waving at mom!])

I got started on the electrical panel art project. Yep. ART project. I'm going to make a giant wall-hanging (I dare not call it a "painting" for fear of being pretentious) to cover the electrical panel, instead of the mui ugly cabinet that's there now. It'll be hinged on the left side to allow it to swing open like a giant door.

Here's my inspiration ($125 USD on Etsy):

Because the space I want to cover is about 4'x4', I'm going to change the dimensions slightly, and I'll use different colours since red just doesn't go.

The supply list (all picked up at the Big-Box DEPOT of Building and HOME supplies):

(disclaimer, I can't find my receipt, so I can't give you exact prices)

• 4'x4' sheet of birch plywood (~$10) ← it's handy because it comes already cut to that size! It's not handy because it's hard to transport home; just ask the kids who rode home with it balanced on top of their heads.
• 1x2x8 finger-jointed pine (2x~$3.00=$6.00)
• utility hinges (~$1.00 = 1.00)
• corner braces (~$2.00 for 4)
• friction catch (~$2.00)
• paint (2 tester cans @ $7.50ea =$15.00)
• nails/hammer or SuperAwesomeAirNailer♥
• square 
• tape measure/pencil
• saw
• wood filler
• sand paper

Total cost:  about $36 bucks?


Fortunately I didn't need to resize my sheet of plywood, but if it had been necessary I would've asked the nice wood-cutting dude at the store to cut it for me. He cut the 1x2's in half so I could fit them into the car since I needed two boards that were 48" and two that were 46.5". (I cut the two 46.5" boards on the chop saw at home).




So on to the build. I worked a little bass-ackwards, and rather than building a frame and attaching the plywood to it, I tacked the 1x2's on their edges to the plywood and then connected them to each other. Menh. It worked.
(please don't look at the disaster in my garage. Thank you.)

This step is probably overkill, since with a big sheet of plywood I can't see it sagging much, but I reinforced the corners with some corner braces.  Rhombus art = bad.

This is my new best friend. I used an old-school screwdriver to install one corner brace (4 screws) and my wrist was dying. WIMP. Never again. Cordless Screwdriver for the win!









And this is where I left off.

Next steps:
Apply wood filler to the edges of the plywood and sand (must find wood filler. Did we leave it at the cottage? Methinks yes) and prime it for painting. Painting is the fun part. I might rope the kidlets into helping.

I'm remiss I'm remiss I'M REMISSSSSSS

OK. I've totally let the blog slide lately. Can you forgive me?

I can assure you my reasons are good. First and foremost there are a limited number of hours in a day and when my Real Job™ takes all of them, there's little time left for family, showering, and luxuries like cottage blogs.

Selfish, I know.

Let's just say that August was a disgusting write-off and I have the tendonitis in my mousing elbow to prove it. Owwie.

BUT. Have no fear. I have some schemes in the works that I hope to share with you to. I've got a couple of projects planned.

1. I intend to build my own floating shelves to add to the Princess's dance studio to house all of her trophies because she's the most AWESOME daughter ever (next to me, naturally). 
2. Secondly, I don't know if you remember the electrical panel at the cottage. It's hidden behind questionably fabricated doors in a chunky UGMO cabinet. I intend to make it... better. [squints eyes and rubs hands together schemishly].

I hope to make some headway on that one this weekend, now that we're into our fall schedule of single days at the cottage on weekends (shakes an angry fist at Dance) which means I'm home on Saturday to get stuff done.

In short: Sorry, and Stay Tuned!

Salutations

Greetings from the lodge! Posts will be infrequent as we kick back and enjoy the fruits of all of our hard work.

More to follow when we return to the land of wi-fi.

Happy cat

Last year we pretty well decided we were done taking the cat to the cottage with us. He's getting up there in years (21 at the time we made the decision, 22 now) and he really hated the hour-long trip in the car. Hated it so much he'd invariably poop or barf on the way. The kids would freak out because his carrier was always buckled between them in the back seat and they'd be stuck smelling it, but we got pretty efficient at changing the pad in his carrier, cleaning up the cat, and getting back on the road.

Because of his dislike of car rides, we'd been leaving him behind at home on weekend trips and only bring him with us when we'd stay for a week or longer.

This plan had to change this year. He has started to suffer seizures in his old age. We couldn't, in good conscience, leave him alone in that condition; who knows what we'd return home to?! So, we packed him up in his carrier for a weekend trip and set out for the cottage.

He mewled and he howled as he was miserable. The kids were flipping out over every little movement he made, convinced he was depositing "presents" in his cage for them.
In desperation, I let him out of his carrier as held him on my lap.
And he sat there happily for the whole trip!!

What?!?

We've now made 4 trips this way and he's been as good as gold. He fidgets a little bit, but mostly he's a happy cat. I know this isn't the safest way to transport him, but he never leaves my lap, and he's content. At the ripe old age of 22, I think he has earned that much.

Spook Island

For years we have heard rumours about a sand bar at the lake, known to locals as "North Beach".  Visitors can drive their boat up, beach it on the sand bar, and spend the day in the water swimming, visiting, and generally having a lovely time.

I don't know if this is the same sand bar, but we've found the one on the east shore of Spook Island. For maybe 10-15 meters out from shore, the water is only about 1-2 feet deep (there I go, mixing my units of measurement again.) It's nice and sandy, no weeds, and the water is warm because it's so shallow.

Because we arrived aboard the cousins' verybigboat, we anchored a short way out from the sand bar and swam in for a visit.

Some of us did suicide jumps off the boat.

Not me, though.

The little boys splashed and played

and tackled each other.

The big boys circled some local girls like wolves

and wormed their way into some "beach" volleyball.

I've read that there are issues with the island cottagers not taking too kindly to trespassers (can't say as I blame them). I've also read that there are issues with broken glass and water snakes in the water (otherwise they'd be land snakes, I guess?), but we saw neither. Probably just as well. I think I'd need a change of swimsuit if a water snake came sidling up to me.

I'm happy that we found the sand bar, though. Now we have a "destination"!

Green Heron

We've found a new critter on the lake this year.

We first noticed him when we were sitting on the porch and he landed on the branch of the birch tree right in front of us. At first, I thought it was a duck because of its size ("What's a duck doing in a tree!?"), but as it flew away we could see it was no duck.

It was only a fleeting glimpse, but we got the Ontario Bird Book out and decided it was either a Bittern or a Green Heron. I didn't even know they made Herons in green!

This weekend when the kids were out on the water and I had my camera on the dock, he flew by again, and I was able to get a better picture. It's definitely a Green Heron.



I love discovering new wildlife at the lodge!

Well, unless it's floating.

Cousins

Do you remember my cousin, her family, and their piddly boat from last year? (memory refresher)


Well, they came back! Even after the horrendous poo-hole Stink Off of 2011, they still took the chance and decided to come back.

And they brought their new boat. It's a wee little thing. (holy cow is it ever nice).

They were kind enough to drag all of us over to the sand bar at Spook Island (more on that later) for an afternoon of fun and sun. The boat ride was soooooo smooth, even though the lake was a little choppy. I could definitely get used to cruising like that.

Here are a few photos of our boat next to their boat. 

To say that their boat dwarfs our boat is a little bit of an understatement.

I have boat envy.

Happy Birthday, Derrek!

The cousins were up visiting this weekend. Before the clock runs out on 7-22, I need to get this Happy Birthday post up, complete with a photo of the banner made for him by his adoring chatterbox cousin, the Princess.

HappyBir thda yDer rek!!!!

(I made it pink and girlie, just the way you like it. Please note: I'm playing some Justin Bieber [beiber? beeber!] in the background right now, just for you)

Boys are weird

 Like I said.

Weird.