Archives September 2018

Now that it’s fall and winter will be here sooner than we think, there are many minor tasks to complete at both the main house and the lake house before winter. Here is a list of tasks I’ve been working on:

• Re-Stain Deck Floor
• Fertilize Yard
• Hot Tub Water and Chemicals
• Guest House Water Pressure
• Lake House Propane Underground Line
• Fill Dirt Under Paving by Deck
• Grass Seed
• Finish Lake House Stair Repair
• Clean Gutters

My goal is to finish everything by mid-October, when the weather will start to get a little bit less consistent.

As fall rolls in, the boat lift, dock, and boat have all been taken out of the water. Lake Wisconsin itself is being prepared for winter, as the bouys have been removed (which spells the end of large boats safely boating on the lake and river). I am prepping the pontoon for winter storage; it will still need to be winterized by Skipper Bud’s and also needs its top repaired, which was damaged in the June floods.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve assembled the IKEA wardrobes and removed the old closet hardware. All that is left is hanging the TV and replacing the chair in the sitting area, and removing some old things that will no longer have a place in the new closet.

Here are the fully assembled wardrobes, including the shoe racks and sliding drawers:

When I built the stairs at the lake house last summer, I left the last two original flights of stairs in place, since they were in pretty good shape. This summer, a couple of boards at the landings of each flight had started to rot, and needed to be replaced. This past weekend, I did that, cutting treated boards down to size and installing them.

The rain and flooding throughout Wisconsin has continued, and this weekend the Wisconsin River will rise even higher, to record flooding that hasn’t been seen before this time of year.

Unfortunately, this probably means the end of the season for the boat lift and dock, which have to come out of the water and will likely stay out until spring.

We’ll still be able to get the boat in the water a few more times over the course of September, assuming warm and dry weather returns. The good news from all of this is that all of the countermeasures I had installed (security cameras, water level monitoring, et al) worked like a charm to alert me to the rising water. Last week when the Wisconsin River first flooded, I was able to monitor the situation from Dallas and have my dock and boat guys at Deano Dock and Lift get the boat off the lift so that nothing was in danger.

While the weather has certainly not been ideal, at least no significant damage to the boat, lift, or dock was sustained.

Over Labor Day Weekend, my wife and I took advantage of some less than ideal weather to drive to the IKEA in Oak Creek, just south of Milwaukee.

We took a trailer, and filled it with 12 Pax Wardrobe Frames and various shelves and accessories.

I managed to get the whole wardrobe package for the closet for around $1700, which is the beauty of IKEA.

After hauling everything back to Verona, I had to carry all 2,000 pounds of furniture up the stairs and to the closet.

Now I have to assemble everything. I’ve built one, and will build the rest over the next two weeks.