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.