Weatherwize Archives - The Bait Shop Cabin Project

What a week last week as the Weatherwize crew was on-site to begin removing the old stain and finish from the full pine logs. Remember, these logs are over 100 years old and solid pine. Nate and crew blasted them with some glass media to get them down to the original wood and then they treated some of the problem areas with their borate solution to prevent future rot.

Burning some of the wood, wood shavings, and other items in the foreground with the sun peering through the “Twin Pines.”

Stripping the Logs

So, at this point, the cabin is naked without any finish on the original logs or the new cedar siding.

The cabin stripped of all original stain/color back down to bare logs with the new Andersen windows installed (and moving toward the green, not white windows as well)

They also stained the soffits and fascia board with “Mission Brown” stain which matches the historical and original stain.

View of the back of the cabin with the stripped pine logs on left and the new white cedar siding on right with the stained fascia and soffit trim. Still awaiting the gable end vents to finish things off.

Siding the Garage

Meanwhile, Bob and crew were busy siding the garage with new LP Smartside lap siding and shakes, installing new garage windows, and installing new soffit venting and aluminum fascia trim on the garage.

Garage getting some new LP Smartside, aluminum fasica trim, new continuous aluminum soffit venting and fresh insulated casement windows. All other trim around the door and garage door and windows is also LP Smartside as well.

Installing the Windows

They also began removing the windows from the original cabin, adjusting the openings (which requires a chainsaw and some log “adjustments” and installing the new Andersen Woodwright windows.

Out with the old windows and ready to get framing for the new windows to go in.

Bob, Dan, and Matt also framed in the new basement entry door which went from a piece of plywood door, to a real insulated door. The logs in that area were in really good shape, for not having seen air or light for many years while under the deck(s).

Cleaning out the Attic and Crawl Space

I was also busy in the attic (ugh) getting rid of the last of the cellulose insulation which is now complete!

I also began attacking the crawl space under the fireplace room, which was filled with over 3 feet of wood shavings above the ground. Not a fun place to be for someone over 6 feet, but need to clean it out so we can get plastic down and treat the logs under the floor boards with similar borate and other preservatives.

Why would someone just think, “What should I do with these wood shavings? I know, let me fill the crawl space with them…” Well, that is what happened with them being 3 feet deep in some spots. Sucking them right out to the fire pit area. The logs underneath are in good shape.

I also need to use caution as the ceiling for the root cellar is actually UNDER these as well and is made of logs, so I need to tread lightly to not fall through.

Old ductwork piping on top of, yes, 3 feet of wood shavings which basically fill the entire front half of the crawl space. Time to get out the insulation vac contraption for another round!

This week (August 3), we await the new gable vents to arrive from American Vent and Louver who was able to get the exact match of the Andersen Window Forest Green color for them. Once we receive those, we can frame them into the upper openings and get the log siding completed for the Weatherwize crew to return to begin their final prep, cleaning, staining, and sealing.

What a week it has been up here at the cabin. As I hunkered down to “work from cabin”, the crew has been super busy and things are really beginning to take shape in a visible way. Here are some highlights:

Completed the shingles on the majority of the roof. Just waiting on the new entryway to be completed to wrap up the remainder.

Shingles on porch side of the cabin all completed after the overhead electrical service was buried and overhead feeder pole was removed from the roof.

WE Energies worked on removing the overhead electrical service and burying it underground. Was a bit disconcerting to see a guy with a chainsaw beginning to drop the power pole about 25 feet from where I was sitting and watching. I was hopeful this wasn’t his first rodeo and the pole would fall where he wanted it to go (it did).

A bit of a tip. WE Energies likes it when you bury the feeder line as that means (in theory), less outages, less trees to trim, etc. If your run is 100 feet or less from the main line to your house, you are gold and there isn’t a charge. There is a charge per foot after the 100 feet. But, the charge is less if you tell them you want to “upgrade” your service to the next amperage level. Only downside is that your new pedestal (which you have to buy) is more expensive. But, that cost is offset by the savings. Had we kept the 200A service, our price to bury would have been around $2300. By moving to 320A service, our price to bury was less than $1500 and should we need more power for the future sawmill, heated swimming pool, and indoor, air conditioned tennis courts, we will have it available to us.

WE Energies chopping down the power pole which was used for the overhead power coming into the cabin.

Completed shingles on the garage roof and trimmed out the remainder of the windows (on the log sided part of the cabin)

Began applying the white cedar half log siding from Northern Log Supply (highly recommend them…”For all your log and timber needs, call Daryl at Northern Log Supply”). The crew also began building the new covered entryway.

White Cedar half logs going on. White cedar is great for taking stain better than red cedar and has better rot resistance. These will be pressure washed to remove the mill glaze, dried, and then will get two coats of Sashco stain and Sashco semi-gloss clear coat.

Logs going onto the back side of the cabin along with the beginnings of the new covered entryway. That will receive some full log columns and cross bar and some Trex decking. Footings were poured for the columns when the stone wall footings were poured.

Nate Demers (Weatherwize), our “log guy” will be onsite with his crew beginning July 27, for three weeks to begin the log blasting, cleaning, staining, sealing, and chinking process. He dropped off the “blast” trailer which is what they will use when they media blast the existing full logs to remove all of the old stain and get them down to bare wood to begin their process.

The Blast Trailer now onsite to begin blasting the logs to remove the finish in a few weeks.

And our cool finds of the week were from a group of avid can and bottle collectors who were onsite to check out the landscape for old cans and bottles. Being a resort from the 1920s, they found some cool cans and bottles such as a 1930 Miller High Life “Girl in the Moon” can and a 1930s PBR can as well. The coolest find was buried in the hill behind the garage which were the remnants of the old wooden row boats that the resort made available to its guests. To my surprise, the side of the boat was reasonably intact and still had a DNR registration sticker (expiring in 1972) with Bernard Otterpohl’s name on it. He was the father of Willie, Sam, and the other 8 kids who lived in this very cabin while running the Otterpohl Resort.

Remnants of the wooden boats that were made available to resort guests. The registration numbers are somewhat visible.

Original DNR Registration Certificate from the wooden boat. Typo in the last name as should have been Otterpohl.

On tap for next week:

Finish the entryway over the side entrance area
Finish the roofing on the new entryway
Keep on siding
Await the arrival of our cool and new Duragroove interior pine T&G paneling. More on why we chose this and where it will be installed in a future post.
Get everything prepped and ready for the log crew to be onsite soon!

Tag: Weatherwize

The Cabin is Naked!- August 3 Update

What a Week!!

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