March 13, 2008

We started Thursday off with a visit from Garry and Bernie. These are people that Debbie recommended for doing some work around the cabin. We are hiring them to shore up the body of the house. It was to our surprise and amazement (and shock), that the house is supported by a single 4 x 4 – which is held up by 2 house jacks, which are standing on a couple of cinder blocks on a crack floor – which is not tied into the foundation of the building. With this being said, these guys are going to take care of that and make sure the entire house – to the ends – are supported by 3 – 2 x 10’s – It should be done by our next visit at the end of the month. This alone will be a huge cabin improvement!!!
In the last 2 weeks, the squirrels were at it, devouring everything in sight. They knocked the feeders from the hangers, chewed the wood from a squirrel feeder and devoured a tubular bird seed holder. Even though they were destructive, Carlo refilled their food supply. He secured the feeders to the holders with plastic ties. I’ll bet they won’t let that stop them! The birds did start coming around. There were many different types, including a woodpecker and some small beautifully colored ones – that flew in pairs. Funny about these photos is that the squirrel is in the bird feeder and the bird is in the squirrel feeder. Must be a Wisconsin thing!

We decided to work on some plumbing. We bought new filters for the whole house housing and the hot water housing. What a difference this made. Let’s try to figure out why there were metal filters in a plastic housing that dispenses well water…..hmmmm. This explains the brown water. The new filters made a significant difference. Then we did a water test and it passed with flying

colors!!! This water sample is straight from the sink!

Time to change the kitchen faucet. - the one that was on there was leaking and the dripping was terrible not to mention annoying. This simple chore turned into an additional trip to the store because things weren’t right before we started. Surprised? Don’t be! After washers and fittings and tightening…we were good to go.

Time to change the shower head. Okay, this is sort of funny. The head that was on the shower sucked. Some time ago, we bought a new one. Can’t find it.

Then we bought a rain shower head. Too big for the shower. Here’s another surprise, not really – the plumbing for the shower was wrong. It was too long for the shower which is why the rain shower head is now in Rick’s bathroom – at his house! The shower head we are installing is shower head number 3 and it is a hand held. We think it will help for cleaning the shower. Here’s another surprise, it doesn’t fit. It has to do with the pipe coming out of the wall. So Carlo replaced the piping with some copper stuff he bought and needs to weld. Looks great, but now the handle of the shower head hits the wall and doesn’t spray down. We take our dinner break to head off to Tamarack. As always, great dinner! But on the way home, we hit Wal-Mart for shower head number 4. This one fits greats, works great and even has 2 settings! Yeah!!!! As for number 3 – does anyone need a hand held shower head???