Archives August 2019

We finally have the dock in the water, which is nice even though it took until mid August. In the chaos of getting the boat lift and boat moved over to the Bayview Boat Club, along with the persistent high waters on our part of Lake Wisconsin, I think that Deano Docks forgot about our dock. It wasn’t a major problem since I was working on repairing and replacing the stairs.

Getting the dock in the water coincides with getting the stairs finished and stained, which look really good with the dock!

This weekend I finished the lake house stair project for the summer. I first stained the new concrete with a concrete stain, and after that I sprayed semi-transparent redwood stain on all of the new wood.

The end result looks really good!

As always, the view from the stairs is beautiful.

This weekend, aside from spending time on the boat and watching my beloved Arsenal win their first match of the season at Newcastle, I poured new concrete footings for some of the lake house stair railing, along with pouring concrete to repair stairs that had eroded.

To pour the footings, I had to build some pretty wacky looking molds using treated plywood to prevent the concrete mix from spilling out before it dried due to the slope of the hill.

After carrying 1000 pounds of concrete down the hill and doing all of the work in crazy humidity, the boat and party cove felt especially refreshing!

This past weekend, I completed the final wood construction components of the stair repair and replacement for this summer. I finished the last section of railing that needed to be replaced, and replaced the last set of stair planks that needed to be replaced.

It’s been hot, sweaty work this summer, and I’m kind of glad it’s done, but it’s been a fun project to essentially finish what I started two summers ago.

There are two parts of this project left, the first of which is pouring additional concrete to reinforce railing and replace cracked concrete on some of the stairways. This weekend, I build concrete molds that can go around the railing posts where it’s not practical to auger deep enough into the ground for underground post footings.

This coming weekend, I’ll pour concrete, and then after that all that’s left is staining the new wood!

In preparation for the new hardwood flooring installation at the beginning of September, I met with my designer and we measured out furniture placement to make sure that all of the designs on paper translated well in the actual house. We also moved furniture around in one of the living rooms to get a sense of how the space will feel, even if the actual pieces of furniture are not correct.

In addition to the furniture placement, I’ve started ordering the actual furniture that will be in these rooms from Dwellings in Madison.

Finally, I ordered custom rugs from Nonn’s in Middleton for the two main living rooms, along with samples for the dining room and sun room with the hope of ordering final rugs next week. The two living room rugs should be done by the time the flooring is installed, so things are continuing to progress towards this redesign project being fully complete by the end of the year.

This past week, I finally got around to replacing the last appliance in the kitchen at the Verona house. I had long stuck with the original range, since it wasn’t particularly ugly and wasn’t white like all of the other appliances that had been replaced.

However, I wanted to go with something more modern that fit the look of the rest of our appliances. I think the range top I picked turned out really well, and I got a phenomenal deal on it by buying it during a Fourth of July sale.