1st Floor Decking

Nicole and I completed the first floor decking on Thursday. We took a much needed day off on Friday. The 1st floor decking is spruce 2" thick. The flooring is just awesome. This wood will be our actual floor boards. This job was difficult as we had to stagger the 10' sections and attach via tongue & groove with a cool tool called a "Bow Wrench.." The boards are very heavy and it was tough on our knees. To say the least we slep well Wed, Thur and Fri.

Box Beams and basement floor completed

The box beams (22 of them, 11 first floor, 11 second floor) were built by Pat & Jerry. Mom is a hammering machine. Look out, she now has a new weapon. Mom & Jerry were with us for the first three weeks here in Maine and their help and support was greatly appreciated. We were sorry to see them go but their contribution is "boxed & beamed forever." Mom & Jerry thank you so much!

Sills, Moose and Earthquakes

The last 24-hours have been exciting. First, on Thursday night we saw our first moose. He was strolling down the road. It was very cool to see.

Friday morning at approximately 6:50AM EST there was an extremely loud "boom" noise which woke us immdiately. Then suddenly the entire townhouse started to shake. The entire episode lasted maybe 5 seconds. We thought it was the construction crew in the condo complex working on the sewer system. We figured the A.R. Whitten boys were "dynamiting" a piece of ledge or something. We found out later in the afternoon that it was a quake, 3.9 on the rictor scale, 1 mile SW of Bar Harbor. We are about 1o nautical miles to Bar Harbor.

The sill plates were set on Thur/Fri. We got the sills bolted down and they are now as we say, "square, level, and straight."

Radiant Tubing & Wood Delivered

The radiant tubing for our basement floor was installed this morning. Around 3:00 PM the wood showed up. Aka "Boomer" drove 8 hours from New Hampshire to get us the wood. Boomer is an Internet star in the making. To continue to show support for Boomer we have uploaded his picture to the world wide web.

There is a lot of wood and this is just the first load. There is a second load that includes our doors, windows and roof. Most of the wood is from Europe.

Foundation Insulation, Drainage and Rock Wall

Insulation and drainage placed. Rock wall on both sides of the foundation is placed as a retaining wall for the fill. The black stuff is tar that we placed on the outside of the foundation. The steel pins leave little holes when you pry them off, so you need to fill the hole on the outside of the foundation with tar.

Yeah...Matt loves Rock Walls, thumbs up here!

The wood is delivered on Wednesday...Yeapeee......

New Sea Kayak

Nicole got an open sea kayak the other day to make short trips in the cove and out to West Bay. Matt just happened to get the first run out. Sir Charles looks on with his new Old Town Canoe canine life vest.

A little R&R

We placed our hammock at the bottom of the bluff. Matt ventures into the water for the first time off EEL rock.

Your not a true Mainer until you have a lobster license plate and have gone to a church bean supper. Mom, Matt, Nicole and Jerry enjoying.

Foundation Walls Installed and Poured

The foundation walls were installed on Monday and poured on Tuesday.

Clearing the bluff to the water

We spent the last few days clearing the bluff for accessing the water. The drop off is fairly steep and we have cleared out many dead and small trees. Maine shorefront zoning laws allow you to cut down trees that are 4" in diameter or smaller within 75' of the shore. Any trees that are wider than 4" and within the 75' of shoreline cannot be touched.

Oh....Nicole got herself a "alligator" chainsaw and gas generator from Home Depot. I had to slow her down before she cut down the entire state of Maine. She just loves her litttle Alligator chainsaw.

Nicole & Sir Charles at EEL rock.

Nicole & Charles enjoying the high tide and EEL rock.