Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

June 8, 2011

Ottertail Update.

Greetings loyal fans of Ottertail Country!! Busy, busy, busy we have been. As you know, our move was connected to Tim and Dawn's return to Wisconsin. What we did not anticipate was the time frame we were to face. Peg and I decided to re-do the kitchen in the a-frame before we moved in, so I started in tearing out the existing cupboards and related items. Soon after starting that, we discovered that we needed to be out of the homestead and into the a-frame in about four weeks....



One of the early tasks was the removal of the field stone planter in the living room, as it was against the kitchen half wall that was to be removed.  After an hour or so with hammer and chisel, it was apparent that I would have to call in some heavier artillery.




I borrowed a heavy-duty hammer drill from work and started in.  A couple of evenings later and the planter was in a heap on the garage approach.  Man, those stones were solidly mortared in place!





Next came the removal of the built-in-place cupboards and counter tops.  Notice the close proximity of the sink to the angled beam which ended up right behind your head when you were at the sink.  We thought we needed to move the sink to the right for head clearance.





I tore into the north kitchen wall, pondered the wiring, beams, etc, and started mapping out where the new cabinets would be located.





Another look at the north end.




A look into the kitchen from the south, with only the studs of the half wall remaining.  The ironwork piece on top of that wall was rather heavy and awkward to move, but I got it down and out the door without mishap.





Same view, only lower, showing the footprint of where the stone planter was.





O.K., all three walls are bare, ready for wiring, plumbing, and drywalling.





Wires, outlets, junction boxes, and a bunch of strategically placed 2x4's to nail the drywall onto.





There's the north wall mostly ready for taping and filling nail head holes.  I only put the drywall on areas that would be exposed after the cabinets are in, so it looks a little weird at this point.





The living room was filled with cabinets waiting for a home.  With the base cabinets all in place and a temporary counter top put in with a sink in it, we were ready to make a concerted effort to clear out the homestead house, shed, and garage and get the place cleaned up for the new occupants.  The limited time we had ended up a little shorter than we thought, as we ran into a clogged drain issue at the homestead.  I spent some extra hours there dealing with that, but that may be a different post......



I gotta go, Carlo

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

good jog ugh!!!! cannot wait to see the end results - mag

Anonymous said...

That's a lot of work you have been putting into the new place - and it is looking good! I'm excited to see the finished product :-)

Kristi

Anonymous said...

It'll be worth it all when you are done... you'll have a unique and beautiful home! Hope you have a party or something when you're done... wanna see it!
Barb : )

Anonymous said...

Well, we finished the firewood today... split and stacked... so soon we'll be on to something else interesting... maybe back working on the remodeling in the kitchen. :) we'll see.
Thanks for leaving a message when you look at the blog. I think that it's encouraging to see that people are "keeping in touch" by replying. That is almost as important as the blog itself..
I'm looking forward to seeing what the next blog will be too.
life is good.
ps