White Wood

It’s been a tough couple of weeks here. A number of things kind of hit us at once along with my sweetie getting a knee replacement and now going through the very unfun recuperation process. All of the wood in the kitchen that I liked also got covered with paint.

Mark assembling a panel with pocket screws for stain sampling.

Jesse installing some chair rail.

Kitchen drawers ready for painting.

The now obligatory conservatory sunset shot. I’ll have to get an early morning foggy sunrise one of these days.

Mark and Jesse. If you could choose your relatives then these guys would be at the top of the list.

Sergey staining the bench in the mudroom.

Grooming the nordic ski trails by our house. The side they’re doing here is for skate skiing, snow shoeing and hiking. It’s groomed flat with slight ripples using a portion of the groomer called a tenderizer that grinds up the snow and softens it a bit. On the back of the Tidtech Groomer you can see the track setters for classic skiing. On the way back on the other side of the trail they’ll lower those so that after the tenderizer they will set tracks for classic skiing. There are two pair of tracks with people generally skiing in the right pair though when it’s not busy I can ski on the left next to my sweetie. Nordic skiing is one of my favorite winter activities so I’m very thankful for how well they care for the trails.

Panelling in the living room is looking good. The portion to the right will be painted white.

A beautiful late winter day.

Here you can see ice houses (or fish houses) scattered around the lake.

One option for the brick floor in the vino and veggies room under the front stoop.

Another option.

The raw wood is very close to matching the floor. They’ll stain the walls just a very slight bit to match.

Mark installed hidden outlets in the frieze. These will have an electrical outlet and a pair of DMX connectors in them for Christmas lighting.

Closeup of one of the beams. The bottom is one solid piece that’s been shaped.

Keeping the porch warm so that the guys from Topo can finish grouting the brick so that Pedro can finish the columns so…  Lots of dependencies on a project like this.

The scullery is blue while the hallway is white.

We received our two paintings from Ali Stayer and they looked wonderful. Unfortunately UPS damaged both of them. It was disappointing to us but I imagine must be nearly devastating for Ali. To put so much of yourself in to creating something like this and then have it damaged.

All of the wood in the kitchen is now painted primer white.

The portion on the right has been stained while the left and the trim around the opening to the dining room has not. The stain only very slightly darkens the wood and also reduces some of the pinkishness of it. The frieze above the dining entry seems much darker than the rest of the room. Thanks to Scott @ Hirshfields, Scott @ Cityscape Painting, Marita, Krysta, Bob and Mark for their efforts in getting this great result. We’re looking forward to many gatherings of friends and family in here and especially a packed room of people opening presents on Christmas Eve.

From the middle of the lake.

Marty from Blueline Landscaping is installing new Rip Rap along our neighbor’s shoreline. For lakes like ours it’s convenient to be able to drive across the ice to dump the rock and bring equipment in such as his small backhoe. Rip Rap is often done during winter for this reason. On larger lakes like Minnetonka they use a barge with a backhoe on it to haul the rock and do the work. Ben Andreski from Coldstone Shorelines will be doing ours soon.