They stole my maple tree

The monkey crew has decided they need a tree house at the new Old House.

Borrowing tools and snagging some nails,

with a little encouragement from Uncle Bobby

about just starting without asking Dave,

they began construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Labor Day in Curtis

 

 

When I was a kid Labor Day weekend used to mean Croatian Day at Kennywood Park.

 

Now that I live in Curtis, it means, Art on the Lake.

 

Trinity is a huge fan of Art on the Lake.  It's as if she's in her element.

She goes around the park looking at all the art vendors.  Making her plan for her purchases.

She made a few great choices.  Hand-painted glasses, several pairs of beautiful earrings, local honey complete with a honeycomb chunk. 

 

 

Trinity and I each bought one of these copper flowers for our house plants.

Hunter purchased a copper spider with web for his new room.

 



 

I bought this fantastic new necklace for myself cause I need it for an upcoming occasion.

 

 

 

On Monday, we walked the Portage Creek Bridges Walk.

Trinity really really wanted to walk the Mackinac Bridge which is a local event every Labor Day.

But it's five miles, not to mention 50,000 people who walk with you.

I told her if she made this walk without complaint we would do it next Labor Day.

Here's the start of the walk, middle of "downtown" Curtis at Kim's Tally Ho.

 

 

 

Bridge #1 right in town, right by our first home in Curtis, Cabin #2 at Gordon's Resort

 

Bridge #2, just up from road a bit from our current home.

 

 

They made it all the way to Bridge #3.  We stopped by and saw Tony and made our donation to the fireworks council.

 

 

The long haul, back up for a little treat that was waiting for us.

 

 

Coffee and spice muffins compliments of Chamberlin's Ole Forest Inn.

 

Momma Cat was happier about the Complimentary Cocktail  :)

In between Summer craziness, there's a house that needs renovating.

Lack of time during summertime craziness has stricken this house renovation project.

We celebrated the Fourth of July in Curtis on July 1st.

The very day after a family wedding, we helped the Manistique Lions cook 650 chickens.

 

 

 

We're Petries.....we cook chickens.

 

 

 

If you're in the know, you know.  Otherwise, you're like "say what"

 

 

Infamous Petrie Chicken.

In between chicken cooking, kids being out of school, camping in the yard due to the abnormal high temperatures, visits from family and friends, busy times for RM Petrie Builders, kids being out of school, grass cutting, and did I mention, the kids being out of school, summer has seemed to pass us by.

Our house, has found itself at the bottom of the list.

We have managed to do a little porch sitting every now and again.

Bits of progress has been made.

In my opinion, David and Brady have out done themselves on the porch.

Aaron did a little painting, and it's starting to look finished on the outside.

If I could have dreamed a porch, this would have been it.

I painted "Andy's Shed"

We are keeping this little 'entry' original exterior.

1909

A.G.S.

Since we found a postcard addressed to Andrew G. Strom

We assume these initials are his.  Hence the name "Andy's Shed"

The second floor's electrical is finally upgraded, so drywall could start to be hung.

Trinity's room is drywalled.

Her room has a closet already, it's actually the only room with a real closet.

Brady has Hunter's closet framed in, and his ceiling is drywalled.

Dave will also need a closet framed, as will our room.

Our room is still is discussion as far as layout goes.

But hopefully it will come along soon.

While I am pleased with the entire house, the porch is still my favorite.

Really, what more could I want.

The last two week's progress

Details take more time.

While it seemed like the boys made huge progress while they were doing the roof and the siding. 

Their latest detail work while not as dramatic to passerbys.

It's all important to me just the same.

My back deck railing.  Made completely by hand out of cedar cut from David's family's deer camp right here in Curtis.  It is a beautiful meaningful touch.  He's hoping to top the railing 'posts' with these little copper toppers I found in one of my many books I have been looking through since December.  If he pulls it off, he is a metal genius in my eyes  ;)

My porch is really looking clean and fantastic.

We are going with a Cedar colored darkish stain for the floor boards.

The pillars will be Bright White just like the originals.

I am secretly in love with my window trim.

Until today when I came home from work and saw these two pillars trimmed.

He only did two in case I didn't approve.

I told him it was perfect.  Just like the picture I showed him from my book.

I think it's officially grown on me, because I love this picture.

Trinity picked out the roof color combo.

David wanted the Copper roof.  Trinity chose the color that would look the best with the copper.

She is the 'eye' of the family.

In case you didn't know.  I adore him.

It's beautiful when this boy smiles.

Some before and afters.

It's kind of hard to see the progress when you see it everyday, until you do a little comparison.

The back of the house - before

My beautiful house.

Andrew's shed as we call it, will hopefully be painted this weekend.

The front before.  Overgrown bushes gone.  Broken down porch, gone.

Leaky roof, gone.  Neglected siding, gone.

Holy Moly.

My David wanted the porch roof to be copper.

I'm still on the fence.

But I think it's growning on me.



Siding a Go-Go

Despite my boys working on "other folks" jobs.

Siding is going up with vengeance.

All the windows have been installed.

David spent a week getting our window trim just right.

He tried three different window trim schemes, 'God Bless Him' as they say.

Finally I was satisfied.

No wonder I love him so much.

I love the trim on the windows.

He hand made it all out of steel.

Over our Memorial Day weekend trip to Gaylord, we picked two different paint samples to test.

Behr paint.....new khaki & jungle khaki. One more yellow, the other more green.

After two days of looking, we both agreed.

We hate them both!

We need a more grayish, more sandstone color, but dark enough for the white trim to really pop.

I didn't think a paint color would be this hard.

But there are lots of surprises in this adventure.

We did finally pick an exterior door design.

So, while we were away, we also bought two exterior doors for the front of the house.

While the door design has been chosen, we are still in discussion on the door color.

Color choices...... our varying tastes could cause problems.

Other news....the two bathrooms on the second floor now have plumbing 'main lines' run to them.

Our Master Bathroom has also lost it's current walls,

making room for a slightly bigger Master Bathroom.

While it's not ideal for a Master Bathroom, we should be able to step out of each other's way.

Which is huge improvement to only being able to have one person at a time in the Master Bath.

On the positive end of things......

Now that the big cedar tree is cut down, the view from my bedroom is alright.

I'm a pretty lucky girl to have such a boy.

A boy who does all he can to make me happy.



A lovely yard

So even in the midst of construction, our yard is lovely.

While it needs a little care, such as the pruning of apple trees that have run amok.



I have found new maple trees to adore.

I have a gigantic lilac bush.

And a pair of new neighbors.

Sunday we did a little porch sitting.

While we sat, we had a total of 4 visitors in two hours.

We wondered if it was a sign of things to come.

Visitors that is ~ we are both pretty social critters.

While you can't tell from the picture.  I can see portions of South Manistique Lake from my porch.

This will probably be my favorite spot.