Archives June 30, 2019

After a second consecutive year of terrible weather and flooding on the Wisconsin River during the month of June, I made a somewhat drastic decision: I bought a slip at the Bayview Boat Club in Tipperary Bay on Lake Wisconsin, which is a much more stable part of the lake. I’m maintaining by dock at the lake house and will likely buy a jet ski and/or kayaks to keep at the house, while keeping the boat at a location that will make it usable from May until September. It also has the benefit of being right next to the tiki bar at the Moose!

It was a pretty quick process to get the slip, which is located here:

Now I’m just waiting on Deano Docks to do the install, which (after a significant bribe on my part) is allegedly going to do before the weekend.

Here’s to a great July, August, and September of boating!

After months of planning, the remodeling of the main level of the Verona house is finally about to begin. First, all of the walls will be repainted during the first week of July. We’re going with a very light taupe color combined with accent walls in light brown and a light blue green, depending on the room. Here is the Paint Chart by room:

Before the painting started, I had to do some prep work to move various pieces of furniture, including the fish tank and the TV stand enclosure.

In addition to painting, I also ordered 62 boxes of hardwood flooring along with subflooring, quarter rounds, and other accessories required for installation. I was able to negotiate Home Depot down to right around $12,500 including installation, which should happen the first week of August.

It will look amazing when everything is done!

This past weekend, I truly started the stair reconstruction project. Most of the beginning of the project was demolition: removing bad railing that needed to be replaced, angle grinding pieces of metal sticking up out of the ground, and ripping out rotting boards.

After that, I had to fix the posts on the final staircase, which had fallen over the winter and was hanging on for dear life. I used a bottle jack to lift the stairs back into position, and then screwed in temporary 4×4 beams to hold it in place while I attached the real treated 4×4 posts.

It is now stable, and can support the dock when it is finally installed by Deano. From there, I moved onto the landing above the stairs, which had badly rotted. I used treated 2x4s to build a stable structure that would support the floor boards, which will go in next week.

Next week, during the four day Fourth of July Weekend, I’m going to finish removing the sand and dirt that had fallen onto the stairs, and finish installing the new floor boards.

For now, I’m off to Las Vegas for a fun vacation weekend!